Self-exploitation in academia

[atriskacademic]

Inspired partly by the thread on annual leave, but also by my colleague's current experiences (different department at the same university). Her department is currently going through a review. Proposal is to cut 1 FTE by August. Even worse, colleagues in the department (very small department!) were asked to decide amongst themselves how to do it.
Colleague now persona non grata amongst her colleagues as she seems to be the only one not agreeing to cut down to a smaller fraction. But why would you? My husband, who works in a different industry, is horrified by the fact that people even think about cutting their own hours (the workload won't disappear - they would certainly be doing the same work for a lower salary). Mind you, he is also horrified by the fact that the university wanted colleagues to decide amongst themselves how to achieve this.
Whatever happens, the department will never be the same as there is now a log of bad blood amongst colleagues.
No point in this post, just wanted your thoughts on this. Why are we so bloody self-exploitative?

The uni are on to a winner, aren't they? They can claim that no jobs were lost, pay no redundancy pay, and get work done for free!

This is exactly why I left. Shit like this.

I know one dept where this happened and it seemed to make everyone miserable. Have heard union is advising people not to consider this route, as it is such a minefield.
I’d imagine that, where there are financially comfortable close to retirement colleagues, anyone who can has already taken voluntary or early retirement. But the demands for more savings aren’t going to stop…

My colleague is actually the oldest in the department. However, due to recent-ish divorce, she is not in a position to take voluntary redundancy. Obviously, she is aware that she has to go if they move to compulsory, but she is not volunteering for it. I think that's why many of her colleagues are angry with her (most are younger and have young families).
But, bringing a small group of people in a position like this is just awful practice. Plus, yes, where does it end? Cut another fraction next year?
The same suggestion was flouted last year in my own school when my university had their big job cuts (my colleague's department was not affected then as they knew they'd go through review this year). Lots of voices on our 'Fight back' Whatsapp group making noises agreeing to go on lower fractions. I sent a PM to our former head of school who led the fight back to say that I'd not be agreeing to this, and luckily she didn't make a big fuss of it (and there were lots of people on Whatsapp staying silent on the issue, so I assume lots not agreeing). In my colleague's department, things were handled differently, which is awful given that they are such a small group of colleagues.

Yes that’s a totally destructive approach from the leadership. I can imagine it could be well intentioned but badly thought through. so hard to come back from, and really hard for your colleague. What a mess we’re all in.

I’m aware of this group approach happening in my institution as well. Even quizzing staff about their partner’s incomes…. Awful.

Your colleague has as much right as anyone else to keep her job.

What an outrageous management approach ...

Is it actually better for a manager to decide who goes or whose hours are reduced? I'm not seeing a pain-free way forward.

Allowing that the magic money tree died or never existed, what is the process other posters want instead to achieve the reduction of one FTE position?

Absolutely shocking 😮

What is the point of ucu?

I'd like the top heavy leadership of pvcs and VCS to lead by example. Ours is paid over £300k p.a.

What is the point of ucu?

To debate about Gaza and take away women's rights.

It should certainly not be up to the people affected to decide this amongst themselves. In this case, the Head of Department - who is herself affected - managed it very badly. But: she doesn't have HR experience and should never have been brought in the position to lead on this. Better to do this top-down. Then at least if you raise a grievance, it's not against the colleague you have worked with / published with for many years.