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Research Staff representation on Strategy Committee

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Research Staff representation on Strategy Committee

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In 2023, the research staff representative to Strategy Committee finished their term of office and the position was removed by some opaque process. Certainly, research staff were not consulted. The decision to remove this representation should be reviewed.

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Information on decisions being made at top management level should be discussed and disseminated with relevant Informatics departments.

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For many PS staff to progress to a higher grade they have to leave the school. Creating career pathways with training and mentoring within the school for these roles could help with staff retention.

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Research Professional article about the devastating impact of a change policy (open to all UoE staff). Refers mainly to UKRI but also '“We are seeing widespread cuts to universities, redundancies, and remaining staff having to take on additional work they may not be trained, supported, allocated time or paid for…If these issues of workload, change and overburdening of staff are declared, but [are a] seemingly unanticipated and as yet unsolved problem for UKRI, what hope is there for the rest of UK academia?" We experience the knock-on effects of UKRI staffing and staff/expertise retention problems, on top of our own problems.

https://www.researchprofessional.com/0/rr/news/uk/research-councils/2024/9/UKRI-chief-executive-admits-workloads--impacting-staff-.html

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If someone says they have an open door policy and to welcome input or comment from anyone (across the school or in a part of it), they should be equally welcoming to all.

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It seems that after a certain number of comments made, the padlet insists on assigning you a name (which you can change) and avatar. This reduces anonymity as it identifies comments from the same person.

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It would be useful to have some suggestions of what some of us could stop doing. Mine is that time would be saved if people would accept answers (from the people responsible for an area or topic) and not require them to go to several other sources - often outside the School - to 'double check' because it's not the answer hoped for. It's also quite damaging to morale. Assume competence until proven otherwise, don't assume their boss knows more because they probably don't.

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Addressing the workload issue is absolutely vital to solving most of the other issues: we don't even have time to listen to each other, so how can we start changing the culture? But a lot of workload is created by ourselves: colleagues need to start recognising that they might be creating pressure on their peers and reports. Sometimes a simple recognition that people might not have time to help, or that they failed to complete something cause they've been bogged down with some bureaucratic nightmares (or trying to do a seemingly simple task on P&M which took weeks), can change how people feel. We need more of that in Informatics, rather than an expectation that all our priorities are also priorities for everyone around us.

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"It’s really important with things like promotions, which I think in the school are open and fair and genuinely merit based."

It is the College that decides on promotions not the school.  The information that they base their decisions on is from the school, this depends on your line manager and the management above them as for being clear and that everyone is treated the same this is nonsense.

All support staff are equal but some are more equal than others.

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It just depends on who your line manager is and how they look at the JD’s and you are left not knowing how much they know about regreading.   When you are told, “I do not think this works as I have tried and it did not work”  you are not filled with confidence that progress is going to be made.

Trying to get around this with the very scant information given by HR (School, Collage and University) is almost impossible, so you are once again in the hands of your line manager.  Even if there is information online you can access you need to do this in your own time as workload does not allow for this

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As we are invited to this platform for comments from the School, it’s inappropriate for the admin to delete/adjust the comments; we’re hired by the School and are well educated. It’s freedom of speech, or not?

Some comments are difficult to read, but they’re good nevertheless.

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Re: "cleanliness of bathrooms" --> stop putting spare toilet roll on feminine hygiene bins

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Re: "cleanliness of bathrooms" --> stop putting spare toilet roll on feminine hygiene bins

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The feminine hygiene bins are used as shelves for spare toilet roll.

This is unsanitary for everyone as bodily fluids like blood go in that bin, then touches the toilet roll.

This is unwelcoming for people who need to use those bins (such as many women), since it makes them less accessible.

When someone needs to use the hygiene bin, toilet rolls fall on the floor which is also unsanitary.

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Include regular PGR spotlights of PhD students (with consent) and their work in things like the Informatics Newsletter, social media posts, etc.

Not just those which won an award or for special events like International Women's Day

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The consultation report acknowledges that increases in bureaucracy and administrative tasks are a significant contributor to workload challenges, with participants spending significant time dealing with forms and procedures. Yet there are no recommendations that address this major issue. Why not?

How about something like requiring every item of bureaucracy, especially all new proposals, to be justified in cost/benefit terms?

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re making yourself familiar with university policies ....

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re making yourself familiar with university policies ....

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Although training and signposting and other consciousness raising activities are certainly worthwhile, these recommendations ignore the fact that many people already know about these things and are still afraid to report bullying and harassment.

And they are right to be afraid. Everyone can see that the University's SMT allows bullying to continue in plain sight. The clear lesson: senior leaders are exempt from consequences of bullying, and may in fact be rewarded for bullying. Everyone can see this, and we can figure out for ourselves that this culture of bullying filters down.

I'm afraid unless that there is sea change in the culture of the University's SMT, there will be no change in the culture of bullying and fear that palpably rules this institution for many of us.

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Have systems that actually work. Reduce dependency on bad University systems, and increase useful software provision. Ensure targeted software has proper linux support, and proper cross-browser support.

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Address the perception (reality?) that people who are bad/negligent at admin duties get away with doing less and that there are minimal negative consequences for this.

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Extend our student support system for taught students to include research students.

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Provide summaries of a variety of either real (anonymised) or hypothetical case studies, to facilitate early identification/self-realisation.

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Develop a clear approach to communicating vital issues 

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Develop a clear approach to communicating vital issues 

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Define vital issues for various segments of staff and students

Communicate governance and decision-making (what decisions should people know about?)

Use appropriate platforms (you can name preferred platforms and channels in comments)

Reduce irritating and unnecessary emails (give examples in comments)

Explore reasons for communication overload

Improve management and use of mailing lists

Introduce calendar of School events and meetings

SharePoint Hub: display relevant information in an easy-to-find way

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Make sure office etiquette charter is read and understood by all.

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Embed more inclusive social activities in the Graduate School, and regularly promote them, especially including female students.

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Organise career events

Clearly communicate resources for career development, and promote regularly

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Try a mentoring system for PhD students.

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Develop/improve the code of conduct for staff and students, and make them more explicitly aware of it, for example by signing it.

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Create single web page with

ways to raise incidents, with flowcharts

explanation of what happens with disclosures

all available resources for support

encouragement

linked in with University's Research Culture plan and Concordats

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Mandate training for everyone, all staff and all students, on identity-based harrassment, including micro-aggressions, exclusion, and gender discrimination. Make sure training is useful, practical, and focused.

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Keep academic workload and allocations model robust, accurate, and transparent

Regular monitoring and adapting of workload through informal conversations with managers

Train leaders and line managers in developing workload allocation models and processes

Continue to promote mechanisms to communicate issues and feedback, and if needed negotiate compromises

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Simplify and prioritise our processes

Prevent double work and needless communication

Make clear who does what

Cut down on meetings and/or duration of meetings

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Start separate Staff Awards explicitly for Research Staff.

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Increase awareness of existing resources

Encourage all staff to take advantage of them

Make sure line managers support their team members' career development

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Trial forward-looking modes of communication

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Trial forward-looking modes of communication

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With the view to adopt, trial open-source computational democracy communication tools that seek consensus. Trial in smaller projects such as the curriculum review.

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Polis has been used all over the world by governments, academics, independent media and citizens, and is completely open source.