One of the reasons we are striking at BU is because of excessive workloads. We have a ‘workload planning model’ which is not fit for purpose – a spreadsheet which manages our teaching, research and practice, but currently does not take into account prep time for lectures and seminars and basic administration tasks like emails (believe me, we get a lot of those!).
Many staff members work evenings and weekends just to keep up with their workload. We are allocated an average of 15-20 minutes to mark an essay, which is great if that essay has no errors. Students spend a lot of time on their projects, which means that they deserve us to spend a decent amount of time reading, commenting and advising on them. In some cases this can take upwards of half an hour, so do we skim read and leave them with barely any feedback, or do we go above and beyond, meaning we are doing work that we are not getting paid for? Well, for the majority of us, as you can guess, it is the latter.
We also want to keep our lectures and seminars updated and relevant – this means amendments, additions, and in some case brand new content every semester, and our workloads don’t take that into account.
This has an impact on us in a myriad of ways. Pressure on our home lives, as we put prep and marking above spending time with our families. Tiredness, as we spend our weekends catching up on emails instead of relaxing and regrouping for the next week. Stress, as we struggle to meet the targets set for us on marking deadlines, meetings, training, all while balancing our teaching and research.
We are tired. We are low. By pushing us like this, the university is breaking us, both mentally and physically. For most of us, this job is a vocation, a labour of love, but it is being turned into a list of unobtainable targets.
We need a break. We need to be listened to. That is why we are striking.
StrikeBU 