6 minute read
Tired of unpaid overtime
70 percent work overtime
– only a few get paid
Stress caused by all the new systems, digitalization, administration, grants and being constantly available to students.
No wonder the paid working hours are insufficient for the country's university lecturers. But now, we have had enough of unpaid overtime, demands a new report from Sulf.
Two lecturers at the University of Gothenburg point out that it is basically a nationwide problem that should be addressed.
THE REPORT, Nu får det vara nog – om det gränslösa, obetalda arbetet i akademin is based on the pandemic and how the country's university lecturers had to throw their course planning in the bin and deliver a new form of online teaching overnight. The results show that almost 70 percent of the lecturers worked more than their regular working hours and that the vast majority (77 percent) were not paid for it.
Mats Persson, a lecturer at the Department of Law, says that although he was very tired during the pandemic, it was a state of emergency where as a citizen, you must contribute in whatever way you can.
– Obviously, it is good that people are saying that they have had enough now, but we should have been saying that a long time ago. The major problem is that for a long time, we have gradually been asked to take on new duties, small things that are difficult to say no to. Ladok 3 is the latest example, where the reporting has passed from the administration to the lecturers. This does not mean that the administrative staff are sitting idle, they are suffering from the same problem. We have to start discussing what we should use our resources for because we are heading in the wrong direction, says Mats Persson who estimates that he works between 50 and 60 hours a week.
KRISTINA ALSTAM, a lecturer at the Department of Social Work, also points out how increased administrative reporting requirements in line with increased digitalization have been foisted onto lecturers. – Teaching platforms, Ladok, plagiarism checks, booking rooms, personnel administration, research applications, individual study plans – everything is done in a different digital system for which you are responsible as a lecturer.
The email is also part of the digital problem, which she describes as a complete and utter black hole that occupies a large part of one's working day. – There is an expectation of accessibility from, above all, the students. It is easier to resort to email and ask the lecturer than to look in the learning platform where the information is available. There is also a collegial norm of trying to answer relatively quickly, as you do not want to have to let a colleague wait for an answer.
MATS PERSSON also testifies to the fact that the attitude of the students has changed. – A minority, but still a sufficiently large number, want some form of individual treatment. And the answers to 90 percent of their questions can be found
KRISTINA ALSTAM
in the course guide. This is a clear example of the question: what should we use our resources for? University management should clarify that students have an obligation to find out the information for themselves, and that lecturers should not have to answer such questions.
HE DOES NOT want to say that the students are worse than before, in general he thinks that they are more diligent and better at doing what they have been instructed to do. – But the next step is the very essence of what university studies should be about: How do we deal with a problem for which we do not have a solution? In this respect, they often have a difficult time. They prefer a manual.
There are also a lot of students, perhaps too many? – Even though you have a productivity deduction, a majority of the higher education institutions produce too many students, which means that you do not receive compensation for all of them. And it is clear that this will affect someone, first and foremost the lecturers, says Kristina Alstam. – We must also take care of students who need special support, for which we are not allocated extra time. There are a number of different aspects that affect the role of the lecturer.
The reduction in the basic grants and the distribution of research funds via external grants, for which you apply in competition with others, are well-documented problems. According to Sulf's report, parliament and the government need to ensure that the higher education institutions are allocated sufficient funds so that researchers and lecturers are not “forced to work far more than their regular hours.”
KRISTINA ALSTAM – IN ORDER TO BE allocated funds, well-thought-out applications are required, and it is really difficult to find the time required to do this. You often have to do it on Sunday evenings and at weekends. We are an academic institution, and we should and want to conduct research, which benefits the teaching, but the prevailing conditions for applying for funding, in a reasonable manner, are in short supply, says Kristina Alstam.
Mats Persson says that he cannot assess which is the better way of making Swedish research more internationally competitive – to distribute research funds as
basic grants or to have researchers apply for funds in competition with others. But as we have now chosen the latter, which shifts a significant part of the research resources to administrative activities, then you should have documentation that shows that your thesis is correct? At a seminar on Sulf's report, he asked that very question.
– THE ANSWER I got was that there is nothing to indicate that, in fact quite the opposite. So again, what do we want to use our resources for? What do we want researchers to do?
As a member of staff, it is easy to direct your frustration upwards at management, but the problems are basically of a much greater structural nature, says Kristina Alstam. – The management team cannot swoop in with billowing capes and fix this, it is ultimately about the fact that since the 1990s a lot of funds have disappeared from basic education. And they need to be restored. You can tweak the machinery and correct small system errors, but this is essentially a nationwide issue that we need to highlight.
“IT IS THE BEST JOB in the world. The problem is that it's in hell.” The quote is an answer to the question: “Why do we complain so much when we are doing what we love?” Mats Persson, thinks that this anecdote that he heard from a colleague, albeit being somewhat exaggerated, really gets to the heart of the problem. – It explains why all employee surveys, despite all the complaints, show that people still enjoy their jobs. Basically, we love to teach and do research. The problem is that we have to do so many other things.
Text: Lars Nicklason Photo: Johan Wingborg Mats Persson loves his job but has too much to do.
Basically, we love to teach and do research.
MATS PERSSON
FACTS
We have had enough – about the limitless, unpaid work in aca-
demia 89 percent of the members who answered the survey (a total of 4,099) worked full time in 2020. 68 percent of them worked more than their regular working hours. Every fourth person worked ten hours or more per week over and above their regular working hours.
The main reasons for extra work: transitioning to online lecturing (70 percent), lecturing (63 percent) and administration (58 percent). 70 percent of women stated that they worked more than their regular working hours, compared with 63 percent of men. This could be due to the fact that women more frequently take greater responsibility for lecturing duties while men carry out research to a greater extent. 77 percent did not receive any reimbursement at all for their additional work. Only 5 percent of those surveyed were paid.
