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I am a wheelchair user. I currently work in an old building with limited accessibility. This happens with old buildings and we have mitigated it's impact as much as we can. I am changing roles (not strictly voluntary, but needs must) i will be working in a much more modern building (built within the last ten years) and there are almost as many physical barriers for wheelchair users! This is not acceptable. I was talking to a fellow wheelchair user who works in a lab, newly refurbished and renovated there are corridors and doorways that they find to be inaccessible.

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I have worked here for nearly 20 years as a technician. I've been in research with the responsibility of training junior members of staff as well as final year students doing a research project in the labs and PhD students. For the past 10 years I've been involved as technical support/demonstrator for undergrads, working with academics and providing a point of consistency for our students.  I got to know how best to support particular students and what problems they were likely to have,  as well as being able to anticipate the questions and difficulties each practical session would create for the group as a whole.

Students would often contact me directly regarding any problems they had and where possible I would arrange catch up lab sessions to help them.  All of this was with the knowledge of the academic team who were more than happy for myself and other technical colleagues to do this as it freed them up for other duties.  We have lost approximately half of our team since January 2019, there is now no time for me to spend with students.  The classes are now run my academics who are often teaching outside of their specialism, supported by PhD student demonstrators.  For many of the academics and demonstrators it is a question of get in and get out ASAP with as little engagement as possible.  Not all of them, but enough for the students to notice.  Our students are unhappy with how this arrangement works which is reflected in our student satisfaction scores.

During lockdown when we were unable to deliver lab sessions, the technical team produced online sessions, some of the sessions we filmed ourselves performing the practical as per the student’s protocol, others we generated data for them to use.  The film editing was usually completed at the weekend using my partners work computer as it has suitable software and my work computer does not.  I didn’t object to doing this as the students deserved the best we could give them.

During term I would go home tired and happy, knowing I’d done a good job that was appreciated by staff and colleagues.  I now dislike my job intensely, I don’t want to be here, and I find it difficult to have any enthusiasm to do anything, and the quality of my work is suffering because of it

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is this truly anonymous?

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Lest we forget - and the reason why this padlet of testimonies exists... 

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Lest we forget - and the reason why this padlet of testimonies exists... 

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a key staff concern is this video right here: senior figures in our midst choosing to be deaf to our suffering and struggles. This is not how any employer describing themselves as 'compassionate' should be. Talk, listen and learn please. Genuinely "work together" with those who run the university day and night -- the staff.

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Occupy Leeds Uni - Our VC couldn't give a Ziff about her staff and students. She is so disconnected

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Student Support officers are on our knees at the moment with the workload. Meanwhile photos keep popping up of senior managers having a laugh doing quiz events and Lego. TONE DEAF.

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I think the university should give all staff a cash bonus up to the same percentage of their current wage to match the same pay rise it gave the Vice Chancellor. They have obviously decided that percentage rise is what a staff member should be given and feel comfortable with the percentage so I don't understand why they would be offering some other staff members far less than that? And others, nothing at all. If the argument is that they are concerned about people on lower grades then how did that thinking work when they give a stonking pay rise to the person paid the most here? Or do they think that us minions should just be quiet, have our wages pushed further and further down, want us to pose for photos while a ribbon gets cut on a new multi million building almost yearly, have a vice chancellor deliberately ignore unison members until students filmed and exposed what was behind the mask and then all of a sudden show a damascene worry about people's hardship. Pay everyone fairly. Give everyone the same as you gave the VC. Seems a pretty unfair future for some - though clearly not all.

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I absolutely agree. It's assumed that everyone on a grade 7 or above must be comfortably off, but if one is e.g. a lone parent, that's absolutely not the case. I was heavily involved in revolutionising some institution-wide processes at the beginning of Covid (not universally popular, but necessary), and never received any recognition at all. It is demoralising.

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Very true - the VC was hungry for a pay rise: she got hers

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Very true - the VC was hungry for a pay rise: she got hers

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Very true. Someone on a £300,000 salary still felt she was due a generous pay rise — and she got one, just like that! Must be a tight struggle managing on a six figure salary in this day and age. Never forget the difference in treatment between the actual staff running the place, and those who slip in and slope off again, taking large profits away with them.

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The university has shown us time and time again that we don't matter. Everything they do and say is just lip service and spin to make the institution look good. There's no real and just action.

We get real-terms paycut after paycut every year, and we're offered mindfulness sessions and yoga (who can afford time off of work to attend them when our workloads are so unmanageable? And who can concentrate when we know what we're going back to?).

Mindfulness won't pay our bills, now. Promises to look at the reward structure at some point in the future won't pay our bills, now.

All I see is passive aggressive emails about strike action and divisive offers that exclude some members of staff. And by the way, it's offensive to assume that G7 and above don't need or deserve the money. After all, the VC apparently does and she's on 6 figures!

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Here's hoping that the current strike action makes the University realise (as other less rich universities did) that there needs to be a fairer future for all and not just some. It took a sledgehammer to get the University to even bother mentioning unison members in the first place. It now needs to show that it's not just about making a fairer immediate for some but that it is committed to a fairer FUTURE for ALL. And that means no more deliberate hiding behind 'nationally agreed' pulling down of every staff members wages. If they have chosen to be part of that national agreement to reduce all staff wages for 12 years then they should be helping all staff now and not just some. But vouchers are only the start. Fair pay for all rather than unfair pay cuts are what is needed.

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Why is it that managers are not being recognised for their work during WFH, we have worked tirelessly to support our teams, trying to engender a team spirit and constantly having to react to last minute demands for ourselves and our team. Now we find out that everyone up to and including a Grade 6 will receive a one-off £650 payment/vouchers and a future one off payment. This is absolutely disgraceful, do we not need to use electricity and gas when we become a manager, you expect us to use your laptops, iPads and our mobile ‘phones for your work but give us no recognition for this. Many of us have reached the top of our grade so receive a pathetic cost of living rise (if we get it) once a year. I have never felt an disheartened and worthless as a manager, how can I motivate my team when I have absolutely no motivation myself.

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And now to be told that the one-off cost of living payment will only be paid to up to and including Grade 6, so all of the misery of being constantly cold during WFH because we couldn’t afford to put the heating on and using our own electricity to charge our laptops, iPads and personal mobile ‘phones which we can’t work without, and gas to do the University of Leeds work - absolutely outraged at this announcement.  I certainly won’t be doing anything over and beyond for my beloved employer who obviously truly supports and recognises the role of a manager during lockdown.  Constant team building, trying to maintain morale and make sure everything is running as smoothly as possible to ensure that our students are supported and processed.  Who cares about an extra 1.5 days holiday, pay us what we deserve.

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And now to be told that the one-off cost of living payment will only be paid to up to and including Grade 6, so all of the misery of being constantly cold during WFH because we couldn’t afford to put the heating on and using our own electricity to charge our laptops, iPads and personal mobile ‘phones which we can’t work without, and gas to do the University of Leeds work - absolutely outraged at this announcement.  I certainly won’t be doing anything over and beyond for my beloved employer who obviously truly supports and recognises the role of a manager during lockdown.  Constant team building, trying to maintain morale and make sure everything is running as smoothly as possible to ensure that our students are supported and processed.  Who cares about an extra 1.5 days holiday, pay us what we deserve.

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Laughter and 'is it really that terrible?'
A very very last minute bung of £650 in retail vouchers - or less if you'd like tax deductible cash.
Two years of pushing until senior management even deigned to listen.

Why? Ask yourselves.

A one off guaranteed £500. That's just going to cover my electric bill, my gas bill, and part of the NHS dental charge I'm paying out this month alone. Then that's it. Gone. No improved stability for my future at all.

Or maybe it'll go some way to buying a new home computer - which I desperately need if I'm to continue to do the university's work for them at home.

See you at the pickets.

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Having never done enough to earn a reward (despite doing things like elements of grade 7 work for many years at grade 6, taking on management responsibilities, spending many extra hours to get a job done), I don’t have a clue as to what ‘rewards’ are available via the online portal. The UoL offer to stop the pending Unison strike action is inadequate and doesn’t solve members’ issues in terms of eating or heating.

Even if the portal offers supermarket vouchers, these will not include Aldi or Lidl, so staff would need to either pay over the odds for food at other supermarkets or lose out by paying tax and NI to receive a cash equivalent.

It doesn’t resolve the immediate crisis, let alone the longer term one.

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Can I offer you a nice voucher in this trying time? 

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Can I offer you a nice voucher in this trying time? 

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Interesting to see the Uni adapting It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia plot points in their strike negotiations...

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Superb to be hearing that the University is wanting to support staff on lower grades during this time of hardship. Looking forward to receiving the email from the VC on Friday afternoon to tell staff of her personal support, that the University will be paying us 1000 vouchers between now and December and that when they said it wasn't previously within thier gift they were just having the bants. I'll totally understand why the concern wasn't able to manifest itself previously when unison repeatedly asked for the support over the last 2 years or when staff were striking the previous two times. I'll assume the ink was just drying on the finer details of thier concern and that's why it took so long.

In the meantime, I'll continue to strike and vote to strike until there is recognition that every one of my colleagues at every grade have had thier wages reduced every single year without fail for the last 12 years while the University have remained silent  - as staff lost thousands and the University and the sector sits on riches.  That we were worth zero in the pandemic and an insulting 1.7 a year later as a thank you.

I'm sure they wouldn't just be finding vouchers simply to keep us silent on demanding fairer pay for all and not just those at the top getting MASSIVE pay rises.

I'll keep an eye on the emails...

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A fairer future for all…..but only if they can pay for it with vouchers

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Hmmmmm. Now let me see. What would I rather have? An equivalent percentage pay rise to that the VC just got (over 10%) or shopping vouchers worth around 3% and which won't pay my gas and electricity?

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Hmmmmm. Now let me see. What would I rather have? An equivalent percentage pay rise to that the VC just got (over 10%) or shopping vouchers worth around 3% and which won't pay my gas and electricity?

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University of York recognises that staff have experienced a difficult two years with extra leave AND an extra £500 

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University of York recognises that staff have experienced a difficult two years with extra leave AND an extra £500 

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Recognising staff contribution over two challenging years

In his email of 9 June, the VC thanked colleagues for their tremendous efforts in recent years, from our response to the pandemic to our recent outstanding Research Excellence Framework (REF) results. In recognition of this hard work and commitment, all staff will receive an extra day of annual leave in next year's allowance (pro-rata equivalent for staff who work part-time). In addition, all employees will receive a one-off £500 payment.

Additional annual leave day for 2022-23

All staff who are employed by the University or YCL will receive this one-off additional leave entitlement. Full-time employees will receive one extra day and it will be pro-rated for part-time staff. For colleagues joining during the leave year, the entitlement will be pro-rated.

For colleagues whose leave year starts on 1 October, you will have the additional leave added to your entitlement for the 2022-23 leave year. For those whose leave year starts in January, you will have your additional leave added to your 2023 entitlement.

The annual leave calculator has been updated to reflect the additional leave day.

All departments will be using the new leave management system from 1 October 2022. We will share details of how the additional leave will be added to entitlements in the system over the summer.

One-off payment

All staff who are employed by the University or YCL as at 1 June 2022 will be entitled to the one-off £500 payment.

This payment will be made in July 2022 through payroll and will be subject to Tax and NI deductions.

We have compiled a Question and Answer document to address any queries you may have about the payment.

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Additional leave day and exceptional payment for staff

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Recognising staff contribution over two challenging years In his email of 9 June, the VC thanked colleagues for their tremendous efforts in recent years, from our response to the pandemic to our recent outstanding Research Excellence Framework (REF) results.

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There was a 14% pay rise for Simone Buitendijk?! Have I got that right? 

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There was a 14% pay rise for Simone Buitendijk?! Have I got that right? 

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There was a 14% pay rise for Simone Buitendijk?! have I got that right? Awarded an extra £42,000?

Now that’s a concern.

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Outrageous to be expected to work from home during lockdown with no cold weather payments, no pay rises to speak of for years and this year 3% whilst inflation sits at 9% only to hear that our VC has accepted a 42k pay rise.

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thanks, and on the reply ‘caught in quicksand’ and the expectations to additionally cover for other colleagues in their absence …

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thanks, and on the reply ‘caught in quicksand’ and the expectations to additionally cover for other colleagues in their absence …

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Yes - I feel this. While yes, I’ve been happy to help colleagues and pick up some of their work while they’re away - or more controversially while HR delay replacing staff for months who’ve moved on - in the spirit of goodwill and kindness, our own jobs are now so crammed with duties that we’re already working at near full human capacity or over-capacity already: the extra time it takes to also do someone else’s work simply isn’t there any more. We’re stretched tight as it is. So the taking on of even more is now a great stressor, I find. There simply isn’t the capacity in our own roles to do it, because there’s little relaxation time or wiggle-room between our own tasks. Hence increased staff burn out. Please take care of yourself and do what you need to do to look after Number One. If there isn’t capacity or time to get all tasks done then that’s the University’s staffing policy problem, not ours! We are their greatest asset: they scar us and burn us out at their peril. The good student experience and precious ‘University ratings’ will soon decline and it will happen under _their_ name.

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This year my rent is going up by £45 a month and i've just been contacted by my energy provider to say my gas/electric will be going up by £90 a month. My yearly increment nowhere near covers this. Every year I get more experienced, my workload increases and I give the University more and more, but every year I work here I get poorer. It's getting to the point where I can't afford to keep working here. Saving to buy a house has been near impossible and starting a family, or affording to get married feels out of the question completely. I've seen friends progress further in their lives by working significantly less and in less stressful jobs. I feel like i've been left behind and as though choosing to have a career at the University has set me back so far. I wish i'd known at the start how undervalued I would be, I would have made different choices to secure myself a better future. I used to feel motivated by helping and supporting students, but now I just feel as though it's cost me so much, does anyone else feel this way?

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There’s one faculty that has had to go through cost savings exercises more than once, at one point shedding 30% of staff. It was supposed t o be a short term measure, basically working on skeleton office staff.

10+ years later, still working with minimal staff and held up as a good example by the UoL and the practice rolled out elsewhere.

Workloads continue to increase and there’s no slack at all in terms of cover illness, annual leave, maternity leave, etc. staff move on but replacement roles are not advertised until it’s far too late for a hand-over period.

Then instead of employing several staff at grades 3-5 to get through the work, they employ extra staff at grades 7-8, sometimes with primary responsibility being to monitor shared email addresses to farm work out to the team. And sometimes they get that job because of pure and simple nepotism

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To the person who had flagged up that staff sickness is now considered the norm. I feel that massively. Indeed I find myself now in the quicksand of ill health and stress and likely needing to go off on long term sick myself now - something I never thought would happen.

What I think is now considered more the norm is that the remaining staff will just pick up the slack and carry the load - 'work together to get through this' 'work with us as a community' ie - give even more and rely on good will.

The sector decided our good will in the pandemic was worth 0% and that our good will for the last 12 years has been worth our wages being deliberately reduced by thousands against inflation.

Within days of Clearing last year the University found MILLIONS to bribe students with to defer their places. A coiled spring leaping into action to mitigate a crisis.

Unison members who are largely the support staff find themselves on their knees and and haven't even had the courtesy of even an email to start addressing the concerns of striking staff let alone feeling the effects of similar millions being found to help them.

The sector valued my good will at 0%. It therefore will get 0% good will. I have stopped carrying the weight on my shoulders.

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In my school I need both hands to count the number of people who have been off work for months with work-related stress in the last four and a half years. It’s my concern that this is now considered normal. ‘To be expected’ given the pressures and lack of sufficient staff. It’s not normal, it’s sick and unhealthy. Students - please know we are working our hardest for you, but there is a lot of rough water for us behind the scenes which you simply never see. We put a brave face on and hide what is happening to us.

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#Isitreallythatterrible ? @leedsucu

“On this padlet, please share posts or audio recordings of your experiences of working at Leeds so Level 13 won’t need to ask the question again!

If you click on the '+' on the bottom right of the page, you will get options to type, record or draw something to add to the padlet.”

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In what way is this fair? Please explain and talk with unions NOW

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In what way is this fair? Please explain and talk with unions NOW

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In what way are pay rises consistently dancing around 1% - 3% for years and years fair? In what way is a pay offer of 3% ‘fair’ in a country where inflation has now gone above 9%?! And how on EARTH is it fair that a zero % pay rise was the offer to us all during Covid year? When the Vice Chancellor was awarded a £42,000 pay rise herself?? THAT’S TWICE MY ANNUAL SALARY. There is absolutely no wonder Buitendijk can’t fathom why people might be unhappy and financially struggling, is there?,  when her own pay has been RAISED overnight by what I would earn in two full years! Now that’s kushti, isn’t it? Bring on the highly select bonuses for the most select few. It’s the most corporate greed and a sad indictment of Higher Education and Leeds. That it’s come to this that it now models itself on all the greedy capitalist governments of this world, taking advantage of burnt out, unstably contracted, stressed workers while the money-hoarding over-lookers laugh in our faces. Disgusting. And as far away from ‘fair and compassionate’ as it gets! That’s the truth of it.

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Leeds is a haven for incompetent, bullying management. The hierarchy is built upon elitism, sycophancy, nepotism and self-interest. It is one big greasy pole - where hard work is for ‘losers’ - to quote a ‘senior’ professor: “commitment to teaching is ‘career suicide’ and I would advise against it!”

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Colleagues in Ssp have been going on sick leave with stress over the last 5 years or so. Increasing disparities in work load, bullying and undermining of colleagues by management reportedly at fault. Whilst action plans are drawn up with UCU, occupational health and management they are not put into practice by management who continue to destroy morale with abandon.

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University lawyers possibly think it IS THAT BAD

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University lawyers possibly think it IS THAT BAD

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First hand account of colleague who challenged her rejection of a job application (for a post she was already performing competently) on grounds of discrimination. At 11th hour university decided to offer her a job presumably for fear of losing at tribunal. She was then reportedly asked to sign a NON DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT. Not that bad? Ask your lawyers Simone.

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In Ssp we have witnessed hod publicly silencing and disrespecting female staff many times. Staff have collectively identified a problem with this in the dept via a culture survey. This was obscurely reported in a staff culture survey but nothing has been done to address.

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First hand accounts of a recruitment process in Ssp where the hod preferred candidate was sifted out. This led to hod instructing recruiting staff to rescind offers and interview again. Amazing really.

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In Ssp a number of staff were approached by Hod for informal chats about the possibility of shifting them onto t and s contracts. All junior staff. No interest in training, mentorship or development. Just so happens that those staff approached also signed a letter in support of other colleagues that were unfairly deprived of further employment in the dept. Incidentally those staff were subsequently offered jobs after UCU intervention.

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Hod giving preferential treatment to his own PhD students. For example employing one such student on grade 7 before getting PhD whilst rejecting existing (fully qualified) staff applications for jobs they were already doing competently. One stood to be deported on a visa issue, the other due to go on maternity leave. Ssp leading the way again. Not.

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I know of colleagues that have been shouted at by the head of school in Ssp for disclosing that faculty research big wigs were due to attend school meeting. Apparently this would have allowed time for staff to prepare questions about the unfairness of research time allocation and ref gaming amongst senior management.

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In my role I’ve repeatedly been treated with contempt, with the majority of these occasions being at the hands of academics. I in no way want to say this is the case of all academics, but more often than not I’ve been belittled by them. As have my co-workers. I can’t count the number of times myself and other admin colleagues have been reduced to tears by these people. This wasn’t just in my professional career at the university, but my time as a student as well. I’ve been told it’s not my role to question certain things or to do as I’m told because I’m just admin. We need to stop this cycle now.
When the public think of the university 90% of them will forget that for the university to work smoothly there are support and admin staff working tirelessly with little to no credit and abysmal pay. The University needs to recognise these staff members for their enormous contributions and not just academics.

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No, you're not alone, you have summed up exactly how I felt in a previous job. I was made to feel as though struggling with the job was my fault, that I was too stupid, or too lazy, or too something-else to get it. We do not have the right training, support or adequate staff to deal with it. Many areas are in complete disarray and support staff are left to pick up the pieces. Please remember this is not your fault and you deserve better.

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I’ve worked at Leeds for nearly 25 years. I was once a confident, high-achieving, articulate scholar with a growing international reputation, a winner of grants and teaching awards. But gradually that zest for discovery, innovation and outreach has been ground down by discrimination, bullying, gaslighting and victimisation, to the extent that I’m pretty much broken, can’t see any purpose in carrying on, and regularly think about how to end the pain permanently.

Any of us can be suddenly struck down by a disability at any moment. I am one of those unlucky ones who has experienced it and its debilitating effects on work and life in general. “At least the University will have my back”, I thought. “An employer of its size will have plenty of support for employees experiencing life-changing disability.” How wrong and naive I was.

From the get-go my Line Manager’s approach was to find fault, to highlight what I was no longer able to do and how inconvenient and disruptive that was, instead of exploring how the barriers preventing me working to the best of my abilities could be removed or minimised. Appeals to HR for help led to a doubling down of this discriminatory behaviour, but this time with HR support and encouragement.

Referrals to Occupational Health were used as threats, but then OH’s recommendations were ignored. Requests for reasonable accommodations were viewed as challenges to authority.

“We can’t do that: it’s not how we do things here.”

“That is precisely why I require it as an accommodation for me individually so that I can do my job!” 🤦‍♀️

And on and on and on…. Complaints were met with threats and baseless allegations of misconduct, followed by lengthy delays in “investigating” me to cause me maximum distress. Colleagues were poisoned against me (I have proof!), and a regime of victimisation was pursued simply because I had dared to ask for help following a very serious health ‘event’.

I made the mistake of revealing the mental health consequences of all this, leading to an onslaught of intimidation, being overwhelmed by contradictory and confusing responses and guidance, and further victimisation.

My advice to anyone considering applying for a job at Leeds:

1. Ensure you are white, male, heterosexual, and able-bodied;
2. Don’t work here if there is a possibility of you becoming ill or disabled at some point during your life;
3. For heaven’s sake don’t reveal any hint of mental illness: they will destroy you like a pack of hyenas surrounding a dying gazelle, and the Vice Chancellor will cackle with laughter whilst looking on.
4. If in doubt, STAY AWAY.

How has it come to this…?

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I'd throw bricks through the Laidlaw windows ...

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I'd throw bricks through the Laidlaw windows ...

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... but the place is already falling apart as-is.

The building sums things up nicely though: disposable architecture; cut-corners that  endanger staff and students; endless finger pointing.

No-one prepared to fix it, and now a blight on the reputation of the University on open days.

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I was bullied by a senior colleague who, in effect, locked me out of my teaching and research. I raised the behaviour with management under the 'Dignity and Mutual Respect' policy. Three years later I'm still waiting for the response that I should have received within 10 days.

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I was bullied by a senior colleague who, in effect, locked me out of my teaching and research. I raised the behaviour with management under the 'Dignity and Mutual Respect' policy. Three years later I'm still waiting for the response that I should have received within 10 days.

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in my last job at the uni, my colleague left and i did the work of two people (while being paid the salary of one person, of course) for 6 months while the school took its time finding a replacement.

in my current job, i'm providing admin support to another school (unpaid, of course) as their administrator is off with stress - i'm happy to help though, it seems only fair as they helped out in my school when i was off with stress in 2020.

the rate of support staff turnover is incredible. the frequency with which support staff are off with stress is incredible. every day i dread waking up and logging in to my emails. i dread commuting to sit in the office all day, i dread working from home and being alone with my work worries.

it makes me feel silly sometimes, because on paper my job isn't 'difficult', and yet i'm struggling so much with it. i feel like i'm constantly fighting fires - my work is at once extremely boring and extremely fraught and stressful. do any other support staff members feel like this?

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Every month, we hear of more experienced staff leaving IT. These are staff who typically have 10 or 20+ year's experience at Leeds. Some go to our competitor institutions. Some just go elsewhere. We have been losing experienced IT staff since the last "restructure". It has taken it's toll and a lot of valuable knowledge has been lost.

We used to have local IT staff who would fix problems. Then the restructure came. Faculties and schools lost their IT staff. This was despite us being told that the restructure was not about abolishing faculty IT. When clearly it was. It's difficult to regain trust in management after they say one thing and do the opposite. And telling people to put the past behind them just won't wash. You need to regain that trust and learn from past mistakes. Not tell people to forget those mistakes.

If IT staff are replaced now, typically the people coming in will have little or no previous experience in higher education. Almost certainly they will have no experience in supporting research in higher education. More services are being outsourced and management only ever put a positive spin on this. Yet any reasonable person knows there are positives and negatives to everything in life. Are we supposed to ignore all the negatives?

There is now a move to have some dedicated IT teams for the faculties. But they will still be controlled centrally. And unlike what we had before, there is no push to have the IT staff qualified in the particular subject area. You can be certain that they won't have the years of experience which the previous teams had. Those days are gone.

Management will never go completely back to the way it was. Although that worked amazingly well on a small budget. To go back and restore the service would be admitting that management got it completely wrong.

We've had some poor management decisions in the past. The University doesn't have a requirement that IT managers have previous experience in higher education. And that's a mistake. Too often new managers arrive and apply ideas which worked in the commercial world. Then are surprised it doesn't work here. Experienced staff have told me they don't feel listened to, which is perhaps one reason why so many leave.

We now have a centralised IT service which is distant from the academic departments, where the teaching and research takes place. You hear IT talking about "the business" and "customers". Yet the University is a charity not a business. With staff and students. It's the language and thinking of the commercial world, which doesn't fit in an academic institution.

You will hear IT managers telling you that that the university is now investing money in IT. Again, it's emphasising the positives and ignoring the negatives. There have been years of cost cutting and knowledgeable staff continue to leave. If we start now to reverse the mistakes and reverse the changes, we can get back to where we were. It's going to take perhaps 10 or 15 years, but we can do it. The key to this is not the spending of money, although this is important. The key is to reverse the mistakes and start now. Part of this must be to retain staff and recruit experienced staff from higher education. Part of this must be to reverse the outsourcing and provide specialist support to the academic departments. Unfortunately, I don't see this happening anytime soon.

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I've done everything they told me I should. I contributed five articles graded at 3-4* and an ICS to REF2021. I love teaching and research. I took on leadership roles and I set up new structures to promote equitable access to resources and support for colleagues who are minoritised. I don't want to be self-promoting, but my colleagues told me they found my approach inspirational, and for many they felt happy, enthusiastic and able to engage in research for the first time in years.

Then a new HoS and Dean of Faculty started in position. Within one month of the new HoS starting, they publicly humiliated me in a meeting, mocked my EDI work, deliberately and knowingly infringed my disability accommodations before unilaterally declaring that someone on grade 10 and in a leadership position should not have disability accommodations, and called me a 'burden' on my colleagues for requesting accommodations in the first place. They claimed that their actions were supported by the Dean of Faculty, who has not denied this despite my asking, and who until recently refused to meet with me about this. In the end, a combination of this treatment of me and my receiving multiple calls each week from colleagues in tears because of racist, sexist and ablist bullying from the HoS and one other member of the leadership team, I quit my leadership role and needed long-term sick leave to recover. When I disclosed that I was being bullied, the only response was that I was made to apologise to my HoS for hurting her feelings by making my disclosure. HR and the Dean of Faculty are aware of all of this, and yet not one single thing has been done to stop the HoS from behaving in this way - indeed, the Dean has instead publicly supported everything they have done.

I am seeking other jobs - the utter contempt the University clearly has towards us, and the fact that they think we are so very stupid as to be fooled by their pretty words about EDI, make this an utterly intolerable place to work. I am distraught to be in a position in which I am actively being prevented from working with and supporting my colleagues and students. There is so much potential among us, and instead of building and celebrating it the University seems determined to grind us all down.

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I’m interested in a staff food bank being established 

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I’m interested in a staff food bank being established 

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Someone in here mentions the idea of having a food bank for staff on campus- the possibility of it being run centrally by LUU ie. the Student’s Union. That’s actually a great idea and there are strong food bank teams in Leeds city who can advise on setting one up when LUU look at doing it. I’d use it - however it was monitored, and I’m not ashamed to disclose the poverty I’m experiencing. Please do it, people! 👍🏻👍🏻 the LUU is a perfect fairly central hub for everyone.

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I am so sorry to read all of these comments and see how much hurt and distress my colleagues are in. I want to be very clear that I do not think the below is a magic solution for these difficulties but I wanted to ensure I shared information about support services available in case it did help even one person.

The first thing I would say is that if anyone hasn't joined a union it is something to think about and you can raise the specific issues you are having at work with them and get advice. Information about the three recognised unions can be found here on the HR website

https://hr.leeds.ac.uk/info/11/joining_the_university/80/joining_the_university__things_you_need_to_know/2

Acas also gives employees and employers free, impartial advice on workplace rights, rules and best practice.
https://www.acas.org.uk/

Mental Health Support

I know some people will feel conflicted about using University services right now but in case it helps there is
Staff Counselling and Occupational Health https://wsh.leeds.ac.uk/staff-counselling

Remploy can provide mental health support https://www.remploy.co.uk/about-us/current-programmes/access-work-mental-health-support-service/

Free Listening Services

Call 116 123 to talk to Samaritans, or email: jo@samaritans.org for a reply within 24 hours
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

Text "SHOUT" to 85258 to contact the
Shout Crisis Line https://giveusashout.org/

Debt / Money Advice

Money Buddies
https://moneybuddies.org.uk/
Citizens Advice
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/

If you are experiencing a crisis you can call the NHS Crisis Team on 0300 3001 485, or the NHS Helpline on 111. If you feel unable to keep yourself safe, you should call 999.
https://www.leedsccg.nhs.uk/news/new-mental-health-helpline-launched-for-leeds-residents/

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Shout 85258 is the UK's first 24/7 text service for anyone in crisis. Get free, confidential mental health support anytime, anywhere. Text 'SHOUT' to 85258.

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Unfortunately there are cases such as yours happening. It is difficult when members of a team close ranks, especially when a complaint has been justified. There’s also instances where if you don’t get on with someone, the rest of the team can ostracise you in fear of upsetting the apple cart or damaging their own chances. It really can be ‘who you know’. It’s not fair. How many times has someone known who will get a job before it is even advertised? It’s not always on merit.

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After a departmental merger, I got a new manager. The bullying started when I tried to report racist remarks and behaviour by another member of staff. I hadn't realised that my new manager and the staff member had been personal friends for two decades. The complaint about racist behaviour in a meeting came to nothing because the small number of other staff present claimed they had not seen or heard anything. Unlike me, (the new person), they obviously knew about the friendship and thought keeping quiet was the best bet. Or perhaps they didn't want to get involved.

Then the bullying started and I did everything right. I reported it to HR, they investigated and the manager stopped bullying. Then after a few months, the bullying started again. I reported it again, the bullying stopped and then restarted a few months later. That would be the pattern for many years.  I involved senior management and HR outside the department. But they would always look at each incident in isolation. No one seemed to want to look at the whole record of bullying. And as time went on, that in itself became an issue. Anyone who looked at the whole bullying record would have to answer why this hadn't been looked at sooner? It was safer for them just to ignore the past and deal with each incident in isolation.

Senior managers in the department supported the bully. The bully had worked there for many years and during that time, he had got the reputation of being a "fixer". When management had a problem, he would fix it. Make it go away. This sometimes involved circumventing university policies and procedures, and that was the problem. The bully knew when senior managers had been complicit in not following the rules. And senior managers knew that he knew.

Senior managers knew that if anything happened to the bully, many of them could find themselves in hot water. What if the bully decided to speak out about what he knew? So they had no choice. They had to support him.

And I suppose the bully saw me, an individual who would report racism, as just another problem that needed to be fixed. All of this ended when the bully took early retirement. After that, I tried to get the whole thing investigated but no one wanted to know. It was all in the past and we needed to "move forward".

What worries me is that there is nothing to stop this situation from happening again. Senior managers don't always follow the rules. They might call it being pragmatic, or use some other phrase to justify it. But they know that they are doing something wrong. And they don't do it in isolation. So there will always be other people who know what's going on. My advice to senior managers is always be 100% clean. If you're not, you will probably find yourself having to defend and support individuals who otherwise you would prefer not to.

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Simone Buitendijk
Laughing, carefree and well fed
While staff use food banks.

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There was a staff member troubled

Moved on as pay concerns bubbled

New role was less hard

So stress levels halved

And wage pretty much doubled

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Thank you so much to the brave students who are speaking out for staff.

I love my job but I can't stay if I can't afford to live, have a family, or have any hopes of retirement.

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We lose support staff every six months because there is no chance of progression within their roles in our school. It makes it really hard to give the students the support they need and takes time to get the new staff up to speed in our school. Support staff are the backbone of the university, the current pay and progression processes are just not fit for purpose.

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Anyone here not dependant on charity shops, second-hand Facebook pages and yellow stickered food? Or are we all just crabs in the same miserable barrel?

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In the last few months, two colleagues have left purely for pay & progression reasons. Another incredibly talented and skilled colleague who has been working well above her paygrade doing amazing work is looking at a different role, a fourth who has only been here 1 year but already making change and 'breaking down silos' is considering a better paid job in tech come January. They say the best ones always are the first to leave... Maybe I should start looking as well.

We talk about the academics and UCU when we discuss pay and 'talent', but maybe it's time to remember support staff also deserve fair pay and are equally skilled. The library has been equally guilty of not paying fair wages (perhaps more so than the university at large) and not offering any real career progression, even to the staff they say they want to retain... Here's to hoping all those new senior managers will actually commit to those shiny new ideals, although after witnessing a certain VC with lofty promises fall from grace, I am not hopeful.

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The current 3% pay rise offer = about £12 extra a week for me

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The current 3% pay rise offer = about £12 extra a week for me

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I’m shocked to see our leader saying “is it really that terrible?” about my pay conditions. OK I’m on one of the lowest salaries- a 3% pay rise is going to = £12 extra a week for me after tax deductions & NI. £12. …. my bus fares for commuting to & from work have already just gone up by £5 a week!

So that’s £7 extra a week left. To meet rising food costs, not to mention my electric &. gas bills which will be up by two thirds every month. Inflation now 10% too! Yes - in my opinion that really is *terrible* when I work so hard. It’s a slap in the face. I was a key worker throughout Covid - helping students here face to face almost every week when we werent fully locked down. Yes - It’s that terrible.

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I’ve worked for the University for over 25 years with no acknowledgement of length of service. Over the last 15-20 years it has become exceptionally difficult to gain any kind of promotion or reward for going above and beyond. In many instances people have been told to look for another job if they want a pay rise. Once you get to grade 7 your contracted hours are a nominal 37.5 per week (or whatever is needed to get the job done). In reality that means many staff having to work in excess of 50 hours per week for their standard salary.

There can be bullying if you don’t work any extra hours, irrespective of your grade.

I know of people who have had requests for reasonable adjustments to help with chronic health issues turned down - even requests to not be forced to work more than their contacted hrs per week!

I know of someone who changed department because of bullying, and who was told to be careful of making powerful enemies. They left without any well wishes from senior management,despite several years of service.

There are comments about staff retention and attracting good job applicants.

Many people are leaving the UoL because salaries in industry are far superior. An example is that the average annual salary for a Business Analyst is £43K (plus incentives such as bonuses and share options), but the UoL salary is a flat £34-40K.

Many staff have worked from home since the pandemic and can’t even claim costs of stationery, let alone the cost of buying a printer and expensive ink. Yet the UoL supposedly received a refund of circa £1million from one utility company alone.

For the last 10 years the only pay increase that I’ve had has been the 0%, 0.5% or 1% which has barely met increased public transport  travel costs.  With the return to campus, I honestly don’t know how I’m going to afford the commuting costs given how much cost of living has increased. There is also no consistent approach from the UoL in terms of hybrid working - the responsibility is being pushed onto local managers to make those decisions (even if you are immune compromised).  Some managers are more understanding than others, and in many instances, if you don’t get on with your manager then there’s no point in even asking.

Staff certainly don’t feel like the University’s “most valuable assets” and haven’t done for a long time.

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You do realise all those whimsical blog posts are ghost written? Like her podcasts with the essayists are written by her researcher.

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solidarity to everyone who is struggling. I don’t know what to say. There are some horrible experiences being shared here. Please know that I hear you and support you too. I’m a Grade 4 and had to have time off last year because of stress and workloads. Losing your team’s staff and then feeling pressured to do their job too or bits of it because the university are cutting back on support staff. It was the Staff Counselling team who talked with me and helped me recover. I bet they hear similar stories a lot. I feel better now and the Union I’m in feels supportive to me. I will continue to take strike action until I hear from the university and VC about exactly why fair pay rises are so impossible Not heard anything yet.

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The secrets are already out. We know about the firings

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The secrets are already out. We know about the firings

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The secrets the VC wants to hold onto are already well known amongst university staff. The instant dismissals of those who dissent to a VC’s inconsiderate hard line approach. People have been told to up and clear their desks and go - just like that.

Whimsical blogs about fairness and collegiality and respect are just that — empty whimsy words. Gets paid what is it? over three hundred thousand pounds to write deceptive ‘Blog Pieces’ which in no way tally with your own actions. Actions which we see in plain sight. These blogs don’t tally with a senior management member who wont’t deign to even speak with the legitimate representatives of all Uni staff - the Unions. Refusing to learn and listen doesn’t seem very ‘educationalist’ to me. The refusal to do so is ugly and uncaring. And a terrible example to all of our brilliant hard working students too.

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‘Cognitive dissonance’ blamed for academics’ mental health woes

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‘Cognitive dissonance’ blamed for academics’ mental health woes

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“Values that an academic might seek…to uphold in one’s work – such as a commitment to reason, objectivity, public responsibility and the pursuit of knowledge – are routinely compromised, thwarted, trivialised or dismissed,” says the paper in the journal Social Alternatives. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/cognitive-dissonance-blamed-academics-mental-health-woes

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Academics’ mental health has been undermined by the “cognitive dissonance” experienced when researchers dedicated to open inquiry find themselves working for closed institutions, Australian scholars have argued.

A new article blames academia’s rising mental health toll on universities’ refusal to allow staff to apply principles of academic inquiry to their own institutions.

“Values that an academic might seek…to uphold in one’s work – such as a commitment to reason, objectivity, public responsibility and the pursuit of knowledge – are routinely compromised, thwarted, trivialised or dismissed,” says the paper in the journal Social Alternatives.

“The very tools of critique and analysis that academics use to understand the world around them are simply not able to be applied in any meaningful way to their own employment circumstances.”

Academics are at the forefront of a Covid-induced mental health crisis, with many burnt out from their efforts to shift their work online. A UK survey last year found that the well-being of university staff was considerably lower than population norms.

But the paper says that the problem predates Covid and has been amplified by universities’ failure to permit scrutiny of their administrative decisions. It cites Monash University’s refusal to provide “rigorous enrolment data or financial modelling” to justify its abolition of internationally regarded musicology and theatre courses, and the removal of most of their teaching staff.

These “voluntary separations”, blamed on Covid cost pressures, occurred just months before the university registered an operating surplus of over A$250 million (£141 million).

Another example is Murdoch University’s litigation against governing council member Gerd Schröder-Turk, who went public with concerns over its international education practices.

And when leaked documents appeared to show that the University of Western Australia had predetermined the results of redundancy consultations, the university responded by reporting the “theft of confidential information” to police.

Lead author Peter Tregear blamed such tactics for the “prevalence of mental injury” in an occupation where “the pursuit of truth” was fundamental. “Facts matter; data matters; evidence matters,” said Professor Tregear, director of Little Hall in Melbourne and former head of the Australian National University School of Music. “That’s clearly going to come crashing into a brand-focused management style concerned instead with spin and image – where you’re expected to fall into line rather than speak truth to power.

“Your day-to-day workplace becomes anathema to your vocational calling. Your brain tries to rationalise the irreconcilable. These things become not just professional crises, but personal ones as well.”

The paper says that universities have adopted a “sector-wide culture of financial obfuscation”, while reported staffing figures beggar belief. “Academics are specifically…trained to question blanket assumptions and fallacious arguments,” it says. “Working under a false promise of a meaningful process of consultation, or misleading justifications for wholesale change, can be especially jarring.”

It says that university administrators “compound” academics’ distress by referring them to well-being or resilience programmes – implying that the shortcomings lie with the worker rather than the workplace. Change management programmes claim “a presumptive legitimacy and reasonableness” that brook no dissent.

“There is an a priori assumption that not only the change itself is necessary, but the way it is to be implemented is appropriate,” the paper says. “Change management processes arguably both generate and take advantage of staff distress to achieve their industrial goals.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com

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‘Cognitive dissonance’ blamed for academics’ mental health woes

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Battling for truth in opaque organisations? It’s enough to blow your mind, researchers say

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The university signed a declaration, committing to stopping the use of NDAs, in February 2022.

How many NDAs have actually been 'offered', or in fact implemented, since then?

If any staff get offered an NDA, you can see the university's 'commitment' here:

https://www.leeds.ac.uk/news-press-statements/news/article/5009/statement

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University of Leeds statement: Use of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)

Following recent publicity about the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements in Higher Education, the University wishes to make clear that it adopts a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment, abuse and misconduct. No one should be silenced when raising complaints about such issues.

We actively address harassment and sexual misconduct through prevention and, when such cases do occur, we take every step to ensure those affected can report allegations and receive the assistance and help they need, so they feel safe and supported.

To this end, we can confirm that we do not use NDAs in relation to cases of sexual harassment, abuse or misconduct, nor would we ever do so in the future.

More generally, the University has a number of policies to help protect and support our entire community in relation to this area, including:

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University of Leeds statement: Use of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) Following recent publicity about the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements in Higher Education, the University wishes to make clear that it adopts a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment, abuse and misconduct. No one should be silenced when raising complaints about such issues.

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With everything that has happened in recent weeks, I have never been more been more invested in strike action.

I have also not seen such an encouraging collective understanding across UCU, Unison, and the student body in recent memory.

My only hope is that, should this coming strike action be ignored by higher management, that further action is scheduled for the September induction period.

I imagine that might be harder to ignore.

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"I'm powerless to do anything about it, pay is a national issue"

But you're not powerless to be a vocal opponent of the impact of 12 years of deliberate decimation of HE wages

You're not powerless to send staff an email to say "I see you and I stand with you"

You are not powerless to offer your staff a bonus to help them with the costs of working from home when the sector told them their monumental efforts in the pandemic were worth zero.

You aren't powerless to maybe hold back on the laughter and try to have some empathy and restraint.

You aren't powerless to perhaps refuse a five figure pay rise at a time of incredible hardship if only as an easily affordable, symbolic gesture of leadership in a time when people are struggling to eat.

Those were all choices. Choices that staff sat and watched you make.

The videos taken by our incredible students knocked me sick in the pit of my stomach.  As a direct result of them I'm now opting to be powerless to go above and beyond. I'm opting to be powerless about making this place great. I'm opting to delete any emails from the uni, any newsletters, any calls to actions, any calls to dig deep and come together, powerless to try and add any value.

I'll do my bare minimum while I try to find another job, make sure my immediate colleagues are as well as can be given how unwell the University is making us and shall leave you with your powerless empire of dirt.

It really is that terrible here.

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Reading the stories on here is really hearbreaking. Some of those I have heard from friends, collegues and comrades. Some I have experienced first-hand. My story is a typical causualisation story, nothing remarkble, yet so outrageously common in the UoL. I was just told, for yet another time since I became "employed" 2 years ago (after teaching on hourly- paid contracts for a while during and after my Phd), that my fixed-term contract won't be renewed, but that I am free to apply, once again, for my position when it is advertised. This time I don't think I will re-apply, as I am becoming increasingly tired of and dissillusioned by this casualisation game- of the constant anxiety, stress and inabilty to make any plans for the future and having my life om hold year after year, including my abilty to start a family, which I am afraid is slipping away; of doing as much and similar work as many of my collegues but on at least one grade below; of the bitterness of feeling exploited and devalued, and basically stuck in a mire. Reading the posts on here has convinced me even more that it's time to go look for greener pastures, likely outside of this sector, which, due to the completly detached "leaders" like our own VC and the clique around her, who like to laugh at our expense and at our concerns from their ivory towers of priviledge, is going under- which is a tragedy, of course, as students and the staff that make universities tick, that make up the universities that are key to building a better future for all, deserve much much better. My lovely and supportive collegues, the UCU and Unison comrades on here and on the pickets, and the amazing students showing us inecredilbe and much needed moral support and solidarity this last week, are the few things that keep me from getting completely dissilioned and holding on to a sliver of hope that perhaps a different kind of University of Leeds is possible - but it is not the one envisioned by our VC despite the pricey PR and empty catch-words, but by the people on here, on the pickets, in the occupied buildings. Solidarity to all!

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Shame on Simone for ignoring the UNISON strikes

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Shame on Simone for ignoring the UNISON strikes

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It is outrageous that the VC responds to the UCU strikes but completely ignores UNISON. Shows that she doesn't think support staff are worth her attention. I hope the brave student occupiers have inspired more colleagues to join UNISON and strike on 20th - 24th June. If enough of us strike, we can shut the place down. Force buildings to close! Force her to acknowledge that without us there is no university!

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I’m really shocked by the number of NDAs being signed at Leeds. Surely a good employer would acknowledge its mistakes and learn from them, not gag people who have been wronged and sweep important problems under the carpet.

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Replying to 'I have forgone parenthood to work in HE'

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Replying to 'I have forgone parenthood to work in HE'

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Thank you for sharing <3 I really want to have children, but I'm currently delaying and delaying, worrying about having enough money. I don't earn enough to save for the future.

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Values - what happened to 'pay us fairly'?

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Values - what happened to 'pay us fairly'?

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Remember that "Big Leeds Conversation" whereby the VC tried to crowd-source a set of values for the university? Just a reminder that the highest-rated comment in the section on values was "Pay us fairly!".  For some reason this seems to have been ignored in the final word soup, along with most of the concerns that staff expressed.  How well would you say UEG are doing on the final 4 'values'?  Here's my take:
"1. Collaboration: We work together to achieve our goals and ambitions."
(0/10 - they refuse to talk to the campus trade unions who are the recognised staff representatives, or to students, or to anyone else who supports the unions)
"2. Compassion: We are caring and considerate in our words and actions."
(0/10 - see that video of the VC saying "it's not that terrible", and the decision to support below-inflation pay rises and huge pension cuts)
"3. Inclusivity: We are a community where everyone is welcome and belongs."
(0/10 - this is not real, it's diversity-washing - see many of the posts in this padlet)
4. Integrity: We are open and honest in our words and actions.
(0/10 - they've lied extensively about pensions, about what they can afford etc, and tried to pit students against staff)

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I think that's a really lovely idea, but right now all the buildings are locked in order to keep out all those students thieves.

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Reading these stories as a fellow colleague, is heartbreaking 😞 it’s so upsetting that people aren’t able to afford food. I know it is not a long term solution but maybe we could set up a uni of Leeds food bank to help people. Do you think the Student Union would let us set this up? I don’t have a lot but would donate £100 in food to start us off

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My colleague thought I was a grade higher than what I'm currently paid...

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My colleague thought I was a grade higher than what I'm currently paid...

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Perhaps as a consequence of this padlet, myself and a colleague engaged in a conversation about our work and pay this afternoon. They thought, on account of my experience and what I do, that I am paid a grade higher than I actually am. Our roles are the same role. They were shocked when I told them that only 1.5 years ago I had stagnated for 3 years in what was essentially the same role (pitched as a 'development' opportunity), at a grade lower - I had been told that I needed to gain the experience in that role specifically in order to apply for promotion, something which later turned out not to be true.

It was one of the most stressful and demoralising periods of my life. I went home from work each evening and cried in frustration. My mental health was in the gutter, to the point where my thoughts became so dark that I scared myself, thinking that was something that would never happen to me. But it did. So eroded was my sense of self worth. I had an SRDS review that was so traumatic that I couldn't speak without crumbling and the following year my colleague (and dear friend who has since left on account of the impact on her mental health) had to take me for a walk around the block to cry it out before I went in for round 2 of utter humiliation. This was an opportunity that was first billed as 12-18 months of development, investment in me, which turned into 3 years of hell, on a farcically (frankly criminally) expensive programme that provided zero opportunities and went nowhere - largely as a result of toxic leadership.

And yet today's perception was that the work I do now is a that of a grade higher than my post-promotion grade... Go figure!

Incidentally, our comparable role at other Russell Group institutions is paid at a grade higher. I have kept all the job adverts to prove it. Pity is I can't just up and leave to go to Nottingham or somewhere down south.

I could go into the private sector and earn at least £20k more for my skillset but like so many here, I believe in the value of higher education and the sharing of knowledge to ensure the experiences of the next generation are better than ours. We all want to move forward but stagnant wages and appalling attitudes from those paid enough to know and do better, hold us all back. Hell, they almost kill some of us.

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I've worked at five different universities in two countries and at Leeds twice. Leeds was without doubt the worst university culture I've encountered. I've waited over six months for pay on three occasions. I've had HR attempt to unilaterally change my contract. They also tried to put me in the People's Pension fund instead of USS, and attempted to withhold the backdated payments to USS while I was in the wrong fund. I've had to threaten them with legal action and eventually the withdrawal of my labour mid-module. I've had contracts changed at 24mnths to avoid making them permanent without any real change to the underlying work. I've had the courses I designed taken from me and given to cheaper, more junior staff, to teach.

I wish I could say these were merely management and HR problems but I've also had senior members of staff attempt to bully me, and along with the union, completely fail in supporting me to get paid after months of delay.

I wish I could say that things improved between the two spells in which I worked at Leeds, but unfortunately they've become worse.

I've never encountered anything like this while working at other universities.

My experiences at Leeds have occasionally been brilliant but no amount of collegial feeling or pedagogical satisfaction can make up for an institutional culture, amongst management, senior academics and support staff that insists you should know your place.

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... I just wanted to add that if I got student feedback like this, I don't think I'd be laughing that much.

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I’m being threatened with a 100% pay deduction at the moment, so I suppose I might as well take some time to write this. The people who run Universities have managed to take something I love (my subject, the teaching of it, genuinely having a positive effect on society) and make me spend each week just focusing on getting through to Friday. It’s tiring to care about this job but work for a VC who seemingly isn’t that bothered about it. It’s tiring to do my best for my students, but then have the management try and turn them against me (see what the Occupy Leeds students are being told about the pay deductions). It’s tiring to see my pension and pay taken away, and then be told that I’m being unreasonable, and that its the people implementing it who really care about Higher Education. They don’t. It's tiring to have real terms pay-cuts, and then go back to helping students who are telling me about how they want to commit suicide. Every weekend I talk to my partner about what other jobs I could do instead of this one. To see (several times) the VC say that she just doesn’t know why people are striking is simply bizarre. Whether she doesn’t care, or genuinely can’t understand (I imagine pay rises like hers may well have that effect), it doesn’t really matter anymore. To do so much more for our students, and for HE, than any senior management person, and then to be told that my time isn’t worth the money, and that I should be doing more, is tiring. I just worry all the time.

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I have only recently joined the Leeds University. I am lucky to be on a short term but generous contract. But the University Management's behaviour towards its own staff has appalled and discouraged me. Which organisation threatens its staff with a 100% pay deduction for raising valid concerns, even before talking to them? Which organisation positions its own protesting students as thieves and burglars, and profiles them to be 'unfamiliar' (Ref: today's email from Dennis Hopper). I am infuriated and really rethinking my decision of joining this University. Why does the University management forget that its role is just to facilitate the exchange between the knowledge creators and knowledge seekers. That's it! They are worth nothing if these two parties are not present. If neither are happy, they are miserably failing at their jobs! Simone, Resign!

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I have worked in my department for 6 years, across various teaching and research roles (lengthiest contract -3 yrs). During this time, among other things, I have: been awarded a prestigious research grant; published a number of books, one of which was internally graded 4* for REF; led large UG modules and entire programmes; managed funded student internships; been an engaged member of various committees across research and teaching and have partaken in important strategic initiatives in both areas. More importantly, in this period, I have settled in Leeds (where I have lived for 11 years) with a very young family.

I will be made redundant at the end of October and I’m very frightened about what this entails, especially with the recent news about the potential energy price cap rise at the same time. I recently had my fourth end of contract meeting in five years. I would have liked to have been reassured by my HoD that they were looking at ways in which they could convert my position to a permanent contract in light of the ‘fairer futures’ commitment – but I was spoken about as if I was a stranger to them. In spite of doing everything that an early career academic is told they are supposed to do, and despite doing everything ever requested of me (even above my paygrade), I feel as if my presence has become a nuisance to them. I’ve had fellowship applications blocked with no reason provided, teaching ideas rebuffed, and just 1 SRDS meeting in the entire time I’ve been here.

My situation has become depressing (literally, I’m on antidepressants), humiliating and completely exhausting. I love my job but I find it increasingly hard to envisage a future in academia, which seems to be falling apart by the day. This was compounded by seeing the VC laughing cynically in response to the important questions of the occupiers – ‘fairer futures’ seems more and more an empty promise to me, especially given the qualifications vis-à-vis ECRS made in the recent article by Nick Plant. Your occupation is a beacon of hope in these dark times – thank you.

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The pay's terrible. We all know that. It hurts to see people doing the same job at other Universities (like the one down the road) being paid thousands of pounds a year more when we're struggling, not to mention the pay differential with the private sector. But on top of that we're expected to put up with higher workloads every year, a rigid hierarchy, and a more and more corporate culture. When I started here I thought there was a trade-off between a slightly lower rate of pay at the University but better working conditions than the private sector. That no longer seems to be the case (if it ever was), instead we've got an increasingly difficult environment while our pay has become irrationally decoupled from the market rates for our jobs.

In my department, IT, we've seen staff numbers plummet throughout the pandemic as staff who left weren't replaced. When we do try to hire we struggle, as the pay is so low. The service we offer obviously suffers, as does morale. Common topics of conversation here are what the latest thing to break is, doom-laden predictions about how things are going to get worse next week, and of course how people are hoping to get out of working here. Why would anyone want to stay here? Bad pay, non-existent training, no career progression, so many people you deal with angry at the long waits and creaking infrastructure... It can be a depressing place, this.

But I will say that seeing so many of my colleagues here and on the picket lines feeling the same, and seeing students willing to take action for and with us, makes me feel better about working here, and all of you are what makes me want to stick around. If there's hope of making this place into a genuinely good place to work and learn it's with us, and not with leadership who laugh at us

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I self-funded my PhD as a mature student. I worked a grade 2 job and was a member of Unison. I worked a student support job with on-call duties. I helped the most vulnerable students, while I was vulnerable, but I hid it. At one point, I had up to 5 jobs.
I never expected to have this wage. I know I deserve the pension, but if I could even just get a reasonable workload and do my job effectively... I don't even think about the future, I'm too busy surviving now.
I understand the embarrassment in one post about the initial jealousy about the wage. I see people with lower workloads and feel jealous initially. Then remind myself it isn't a race to the bottom. I shouldn't be jealous about a 110% workload.
We all do valuable work that isn't valued by upper management. Occupy Leeds has made me proud to be at University of Leeds again. Also proud to have everyone here as colleagues.

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We have been broken down for far too long. This momentum is gaining speed quickly. And the VC can't continue to purposely ignore us. We won't stop til we are treated with what we deserve Simone. So save your laughter. Get a grip and treat your employees with some damn respect.

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I have worked for over 10 years at the university of Leeds. When I started here I absolutely loved my job, even enjoyed working over and late because I was passionate. My school is fantastic, and my colleagues are some of my favourite people in the world. It was never ever perfect organisation - the lack of representation has always been somewhat embarrassing. However, I have seen a slow erosion of of everything that made it such a nice place to work. In retrospect I can see issues that emerged over time (chipping away at resource here and there) - but the pandemic, and ongoing treatment of staff, really has been a final straw. I feel like we are basic cogs in a money making machine.

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I left UoL after six years of working grade 2-3 jobs with minimal opportunities for progression. The people I worked with were amazing, so committed to their work and to supporting students and academics, despite the low pay, exploitative contracts and hoops we were forced to jump through to prove the value of our department to upper management, who constantly squeezed our budget and forced cuts. It makes me so sick and sad to see the way UoL management treats its staff and students when they are literally begging for support. Simon Buitendijk does not care about staff and students at the university, she cares about getting her hugely inflated pay cheque and maintaining the optics of being "a successful businesswoman". She's disgusting, out of touch, and an absolutely abysmal representation of what a successful woman should be frankly. Shove your lean-in feminism up your arse and resign.

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I've left Leeds now but when I was there I was a part-time lecturer (3 days week) with the exams officer role (0.75 days a week) who was also rated near the top of the department's research assessment return. I then had a significant amount of teaching in core modules. On the other hand, Profs who could barely put a research return together of any credibility just taught their module on the limb of the curriculum. A couple of key things in the workload model were not pro-rata: a grant income threshold that was ~40% of Professorial salary but well over 100% of my part-time salary and a research outputs measure of 9 papers in 3 years. I had 8 in 3 years, all of which were lead-authored and 4 of which were single authored so didn't meet the criterion. A full-time Prof had there name well down the author list on 9 and therefore got the workload model increment.

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This is true, until you reach the top of your band and there's nowhere to go. The Reward & Recognition scheme is entirely based upon the subjective whim of a manager. I once received a 'payment' for something trivial and yet the rest of my other, more taxing work went ignored. People need reliable income not Amazon vouchers.

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First speaking personally: In my >12 years as an academic at University of Leeds, I have constantly battled with an unmanageably high workload, which has caused me ongoing health problems, prevented me from pursuing any significant interests outside work, and seen me signed off work with stress more than once. And here's the thing: relatively speaking, I am one of the privileged ones. Many of my colleagues are in more precarious, more poorly-paid positions than me. If my own experience is a privileged one -- if what I've just described represents, relatively speaking, a good position to be in -- then this really does not reflect well on the work culture at University of Leeds, or on the management's ability to ensure the wellbeing of its staff.

Something needs to be done about this, Vice-Chancellor. Please read all of the posts that have been made on this page. Please listen to your colleagues instead of laughing at their concerns.

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You know nothing about working for this University, Simone.

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You know nothing about working for this University, Simone.

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I could see it when I started my studying here and now working part time here I feel it.

This university, the people at the top, and particularly Simone do not care one bit for the wellbeing, financial security, or personal prosperity of any student or staff member.

This university is incredibly rich. We all know it and we all see it. Yet our staff see longer hours each year. Bigger classes, more emotional workloads and real terms paycuts year on year on year. Not even our pensions are safe.

Simone, you know nothing about working hard for our students. You know nothing of not being able to afford food. You know nothing of the mental and emotional drain of caring for students mental health. You know nothing about how to care for the very people and students who's hard work that pays your disgustingly high salary. How dare you take a pay rise worth more than a lot of your staff earn in a year.

Actually Simone, thank you for laughing. Because you finally let slip how you have not-so-secretly felt about us all since you first got your cushy VC job. I'm sure you don't lose any sleep over the wellbeing of any of us.

I am ashamed to work for you and everyone else who spends their days making the lives of students and staff harder just so they can profit.

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i have been working on a fixed term contract for nearly a year. the uni was eager to get rid of me as soon as they could (despite my line manager fighting for me to stay till the end of my contract) because they no longer needed me and my employment means nothing to them, of course. no exit interview, no contact from HR, just tell us when you’re done and be on your way.

I don’t qualify for redeployment so have spent the last month of my time here panicking to make sure i don’t end up unemployed. i breathed a sigh of relief when i managed to secure a permanent contract in another area of the uni, but now i’m not so sure… maybe I should get out while I can

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There was a VC called Simone
Who dismissed in contemptuous tone
The concerns of her staff
Then proceeded to laugh
Oh how her true colours were shown!

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Reading about the struggles colleagues are facing makes me more than sad – it makes me want to do something about it.

We need pay that rises with/above inflation and recognises the value of the work we do; we need reward structures not skewed towards self-promotion; we need to follow national guidelines in dealing with abuse of power by managers and supervisors; we need to tackle the award and pay gaps; we need to be more inclusive of working class academics, students and postgraduates; we need manageable workloads and proper levels of staffing; we need solidarity between members of Unite, Unison and UCU and a better understanding of the pressures we face.

We need a sense of community based on inclusion, not exclusion, equity not exploitation.

Senior management work in a bubble of excellent working conditions, self-congratulation and mutual regard so have little idea of what it’s like at the lower levels.  This padlet should be required reading for everyone.

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The University constantly ignores workloads

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The University constantly ignores workloads

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It is totally normalised at Leeds for staff to be workloaded well above 100%, year in and year out. 120%, 130% and 140% are commonplace. Then workload models are changed, re-weighting responsibilities to massage the figures downwards.

In some areas, the assumption for hourly paid colleagues is that marking an essay (that is, reading it, annotating the manuscript, writing the feedback, and grading) can be done in 20 minutes. For those not on hourly rates, a dissertation of 15000 words is assumed to take one hour.

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Sending so much love to everyone on here who has been struggling. There have been many times over the last couple of years where I have been so stressed about work that I've gone to sleep wishing I don't wake up. I thought that there was something wrong with me for work to be affecting me this much, as my life outside of work is great, but it seems as though I am not alone. Working here makes me miserable and I am trying to leave.

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VC claims Leeds will halve fixed term contracts, but....

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VC claims Leeds will halve fixed term contracts, but....

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Staff with less than 3 years employment = 1435
Staff with more than 3 years employment = 976

At the outset only 40% of staff on FTCs are eligible.

Furthermore Nick Plant concededs "that not everyone who is on a fixed-term contract will move across to an ongoing contract."

Worse still, they are ignoring staff on hourly paid contracts.

93 of our colleagues have been on fixed term contracts for over 15 years. It is a disgrace.

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re: Student support office Salary - £23,487-£27,116

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re: Student support office Salary - £23,487-£27,116

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You know, I'm ashamed to admit that my first thought was jealousy. I'm a grade below that, and I'm on a much lower salary than that. I posted about crying on my lunch break and this morning I cried very quietly at my desk so as not to disturb my colleagues. But that is how they grind us down: they make us see each other as the problem, not the bosses. Solidarity is all we have.

I think I was happier selling shoes, actually.

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I used to feel like I did a good job...now my job makes me wish I was dead.

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I used to feel like I did a good job...now my job makes me wish I was dead.

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I loved my job for the first several years I did it. Working with an amazing team in a collegial department, seeing the positive impact we were able to have on many students' experiences, problem-solving in ways that meant we actually *solved* issues and reached ideal outcomes. I don't get to solve problems any more - just deal with complaints when things go wrong because we are hamstrung by bureaucracy, new processes on which we have not been consulted, and an overload of additional work (with no additional resource offered to facilitate its completion).

I have tried as much as I can to change things, to get involved in making things better for my team and colleagues, to making positive changes for students, but at this point it feels like banging my head repeatedly against a brick wall. This job has made me think about killing myself so frequently in the last year, but actually the rest of my life is really good. I'm no longer willing to sacrifice all the good parts of my life on account of the (misguided) loyalty I have to the University of Leeds, so I'll be leaving as soon as possible. I may well take a substantial paycut to move into a different field, but I think it will be worth it if it stops me from wanting to stick my head in the oven every working day.

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Salary - £23,487-£27,116

The fact the university thinks this reflects what we do is insane.
No matter how many times we are referred to as ‘there just to signpost’ by the uni, it doesn’t make it true. Our role is wildly different to what the uni think it is. We don’t clock off mentally at 5pm with the things that are disclosed to us. We are often referred to as one of the most important teams to be back on campus as students need us. A website can signpost to support, that is far from what we do. The pay grade of this job is so out of touch with reality it is shocking.

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There is absolutely no incentive to work hard at the university. The reward and recognition scheme was postponed during covid. Promotions are basically none-existent and everyone gets the same meagre increment every year.

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Perpetually angry - this is an abusive relationship.  

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Perpetually angry - this is an abusive relationship.  

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I have started to struggle putting my thoughts and feelings into words because I feel like I am losing a little bit more of my mind every single day. It is exhausting to see staff and students being perpetually gaslighted, abused through overwork while being underpaid, and then to be told we shouldn't be angry.

People are getting sick from working here (including myself) and then feel guilty for having to take time off. Or, if they don't take time off, they have to medicate themselves to cope. Meanwhile, Simone acts like she has no idea why people are striking. She does not understand what is 'so terrible' about working somewhere that exploits its staff to the point that they do not have the time, energy, or funds, to have a life besides work.

Her pay rise was twice my annual salary. She sits there, laughing at the students who are currently occupying her office, looking happy, well-rested, while dodging the questions like a politician. Slouching in her chair with her coffee in hand. She seems carefree. You know why? Because she is. She does not care. Her blasé attitude to all of this is an insult to all the hard work all my colleagues both professional and academic have put in over the last few years.

I am sick of being tone-policed. I am sick of perpetually being on the verge of tears. I am sick of being told that our words go unheard and unacknowledged. I am sick of having to remain civil in an environment that is anything but. I am sick of us being abused then being told that we're just overreacting or making it up. I am sick of seeing my colleagues be threatened with no pay or loss of jobs if they stand up for themselves. I'm sick of being told that we obviously do not care about the students when they are the only reason we continue to grind. I am sick of seeing people become sick in myriad ways only for Simone to ask 'is it really so terrible'?

The only light I have experienced for a long time now is the support the students of Occupy Leeds are showing to us staff. It heartens me to see the solidarity.

I spent ten years in an abusive relationship. I know what it looks and feels like. This is worse.

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I have come across several disturbing examples of bullying and unfair treatment at Leeds Uni. Most of the cases are pretty shocking but will never see light of day because the victims have signed NDAs before they can get any form of compensation. In many cases the victims have now left, despite being talented and successful in their role.

I'd like to see senior management at Leeds take bullying far more seriously, and stop promoting the bullies into senior roles to push the 'problem' out of sight.

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There are more than 2000 staff on fixed-term or temporary contracts at Leeds uni according to data seen by UCU. 

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There are more than 2000 staff on fixed-term or temporary contracts at Leeds uni according to data seen by UCU. 

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Thank you so much to the students for organising this and pushing the fight forward. After years of fighting this fight, I've fallen and cannot carry the flag longer. Seeing what you are doing has been the first hope I have felt in a while.  In the past year, workloads and work stress got so bad that I was regularly waking up at night screaming "make it stop." I couldn't get out the door to work, I would collapse at the doorstep crying "I can't do it." The level of distress in not just colleagues but students is heartbreaking. I no longer have the emotional resources to support my students in their mental health and work stress issues and I hate that I cannot offer them the empathy they deserve. I've developed IBS; I've developed allergies to everyday personal hygiene products that make me come up immediately in blisters; I'm getting recurring infections that the doctor say normally only happen in immunocompromised people. Doctors say this is likely all due to stress. I took several months off for mental health at the urging of my doctor. They wanted me to take longer but I felt I had to return because otherwise the course I lead would be cancelled and I felt that the difficulty and lost money that causes my school might be held against me. I'm to the point where my sleep is so bad from the stress of the job that I lose one to two days per week where I can barley get out of bed. Every day is affected. Of course, it's my weekends I loose to poor health, it's exercise, it's buying food and cooking dinner, it's the social networks and supports that are compromised because if you fall behind with work you are trampled by it. This job, that I am world leading at, is killing me, fast. I think about suicide frequently. I physically collapse with panic and overwhelm at the constant messages of new tasks we must perform, new processes, new initiatives, new deadlines. I genuinely believe if I am not able to get out of this profession within a few years it will actually kill me.  It really is that bad.

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How can we recommend academia to future generations

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How can we recommend academia to future generations

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My pension is being cut so significantly, I feel like a fool for wanting to stay in the job I enjoy. I feel betrayed that Simone is laughing at these cuts, which will significantly alter my quality of life in retirement. Why doesn't she want to help her staff and students? We all want the University of Leeds to be better. How can I recommend academia as a career, when the quality of life is low, permanent jobs are scarce and the pension is being cut so dramatically.

Calculated using USS' pension modeller (http://uss-pension-model.com/), assuming Annual % change in pay (after CPI) = 2%, Increase in life expectancy / year = 0.5, Inflation assumptions: = 2.5%