If you work in higher education, what do you do and is it enjoyable? is

[Bewareoftherabbits]

If you work in higher education, what do you do and is it enjoyable? I ask because I have worked in university administration roles for 4 years and am feeling so worn out and frazzled all the time, the work load is unmanageable. I don't know if my university is standard and whether I should seek employment outside of higher education

Thank you

I am in Careers and have been for a long time. We have always had mad Autumns and then rest of year was manageable with Summer particularly quiet. However, last 3-4 years seems to be really busy most of the time- perhaps less people for same work?!

@Keepempeeled

Ah interesting thanks for the insight. Careers does seem very busy but you're probably right, fewer staff, all being stretched thinner!...

Our work load is manageable but terrible managed. There's is no discernable disciplinary process, people get away with absolute murder and most the managers are wishy washy at best. So even small amounts of work become headaches because it is all so poorly organised. I moved here out of private business and even three years on I wonder why on earth I'm here and how scandalous the situation is.

I work in university admin. It’s a nightmare - too many students and programmes, not enough staff. Completely unmanageable workload and high levels of staff off sick with stress. Has steadily got worse ever since the government turned higher education into a business with cuts upon cuts

@InPatagonia

Oh I'm sorry you've experienced the same, it's ridiculous isn't it. I'm worked to the bone every day and people are constantly off sick here as well. Including me soon probably. I don't want to do it anymore but also have no experience really of another industry.

You are right, universities are like businesses now. In many ways it's great for students but it is to the total detriment of staff because at my university they do everything they can to retain students with hundreds of complex and changeable and inconsistent processes....oh dear!

@Keladrythesaviour

That's a really good point, if things were better managed or communicated it would save so much time and effort. Was the private sector considerably better? I guess that's my problem, I don't know if universities are especially likely to overwork staff. I guess I'm scared to leave and find out. Thanks for replying

I worked in a different sector in private business so can't give a direct comparison. All I know is people get away with things (especially time keeping and sickness) that would have resulted in dismissal in my old work place and yet here they rarely do more than shrug their shoulders and says everyone is at it. The apathy kills me.
However I like the holiday allowance, I never stay past my allotted time and the maternity cover is good...
But when I think how efficiently things could be run ... Oh it makes my blood boil. But also I don't think staff welfare is dealt with appropriately, lots of stuff getting swept under the carpet which would definitely have been an investigation at my previous work place.

My partner is a senior lecturer and so over worked it's unreal. He often pulls all nighters just to get through all his admin/marking, it's mental x

You are right, universities are like businesses now. In many ways it's great for students but it is to the total detriment of staff because at my university they do everything they can to retain students with hundreds of complex and changeable and inconsistent processes....oh dear!

Oh god this so many times over. Convoluted regs and processes all over the place. Students expect the earth because they’re paying so much money and they want everything yesterday and everyone in the background is paddling furiously trying to stay afloat.

I work in Uni admin, it has got noticeably worse over the last 3 years. Not enough staff, too much work and no sign of it getting better. My current line manager has been off for 5 months on full pay, and no one brought in to cover. I love the two weeks off over Chrismas though!!

Oh, and awful pay...

I'm a lecturer. Our workloads are awful but admin staff are woefully underpaid and yes .. utterly tedious and time wasting processes are not helpful. The worst thing is the email mountain. Most of our admin depts seem to run on email. It's terrible.

I use teams messages or phone s much as possible and avoid emailing if I can.

@AllBellyandBoobs

Oh the pay! Don't get me started on that. There are benefits that's very true and I always try to count my blessings. But yes I'm relieved I've not imagined it's got worse, I thought I was just becoming incompetent but there are simply not enough people.

5 months is a very long to time to have no cover!! Have there been attempts to replace them?

What do you do?

I enjoy my job, but the upper powers will insist on getting and squeezing every last penny. This means more students, more courses, and staff cuts.

I work with a lovely bunch of people, but we are spread so so thin.

People are leaving, off with stress and everyone else has to pick up the slack. Which leads to more stress, more staff leaving and more stress.

People are doing their best, but it's so so stressful.

@Mumteedum

That's very interesting, and yes I agree phone or teams is much quicker. Much easier to convey a point that way and it doesn't get quite as buried in the email mountain haha

The lecturers I know have far too much work and then some of their workload trickles down to the administrative staff and so forth so forth. It is all a bit messy. At my place it used to be a culture where academics and administration staff seemed to be on opposite sides, there was a lot of misunderstanding on both sides...but fortunately that at least has changed in the last few years, we all understand that we have too much work to do.

@Bewareoftherabbits nope, not a mention of it. Just keep covering the work and hoping they'll come back!

@UthredofBattenberg

I'm a course administrator for a stem based undergraduate programme, covering about 1200 students, have been for a few years now. How about you?

Yeah it's a vicious cycle isn't it, I worry about staff who seem stressed in case they leave or go off sick because I know it will then be worse for our team.

You are right I have also found most people to be lovely and very understanding of other people's job roles. Generally it is the students who are less understanding and often very unhelpful but that's a different story

It is hard to not be disillusioned!

Thanks for your insight

I have worked for quite a few years in uni admin. It has got much, much worse in recent years. Change all the time but no actual progress, a really nasty gossipy culture. And there’s no stopping work at 5pm, even relatively junior staff work crazy hours to get work done in time, because processes and systems can’t get fixed (either because there’s no time or money to fix them).

And I think it’s even worse on the academic side.

@AllBellyandBoobs

What a surprise! Great username btw.

@Vaselike

What a shame, not a great introduction for junior staff particular if the culture is toxic. Yes the expectation to overwork is rampant, some seem to frown upon those who only do 9-5, which includes me because it was that or I didn't turn up again on Monday

I think you're right in that the resources to fix what's broken...and time is usually why.

I guess starting this thread I wanted to see if my department/university was unique as I'm considering applying to another establishment but don't want to be stuck in the same situation.

Relatable.
Yep, I work at a uni.

I work at a uni, not admin or academic but more professional services. I have to say on the whole my uni is amazing with staff welfare and couldn't fault the support during covid19. We are short staffed and unable to get the support we need, even though with the work my team does, the more people we have the more money we save! Doesn't make sense. Having worked in other public sector organisations its definitely not the worst.

I have worked in a university (but not in the UK) for the past 15 years, working in various departments. Workload for people of the same grade varies hugely across the university, from crazy busy to hardly anything to do. I have seen people messing with their clocks (clocking others, clocking and going back out, not clocking for long lunches) and nothing gets done, which is demoralising.

Another admin/prof services here, and for many years. Used to love it. Now stressed, over-worked and getting sick of it. I love my colleagues and that’s why I’ve stayed (plus knowing it’s pretty much crap at all the other HEIs) but when I’ve finally reached my limit here, I’ll be attempting to find something different I think. Shame though.

I work in professional services as a kind of PA to the directors PA. It's a pretty laid back job really, there are definitely busier periods throughout the year, but I work in a great team and it is manageable. There is no real career progression though in my department so I have vaguely been looking at other professional service/academic support jobs at my university and I've been shocked about how much each role I've looked at is meant to cover- as in some of them, two people would struggle to do the work required.

We get very generous holidays, 27 days plus bank holidays plus at least a week over Easter and about 10 days at Christmas, the pay for my job is pretty good for what I do and it is (as far as I know!) pretty secure so I can't complain too much. I kind of fell into this job after finishing my PhD 5 years ago as I needed something flexible and family friendly, but I do think it might be time for me to move on.