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[Office holder/uk]

According to

http://www.thes.co.uk/current_edition/story.aspx?story_id=2029737

there is a mounting pressure on academics in the UK to "get real" and see that "Space costs a lot of money.", from which administrators derive the idea to go to open-plan offices. I am actually not sure if that conclusion is necessary - how about making offices smaller ? It could also be that it's more about controlling people more because academics are suspected of loafing around once they shut their office door (this seems to be the reasoning in industry for putting people (even researchers) in shared offices, since there money shouldn't be as much of an issue, considerung that salaries are considerably higher).

What is your opinion/experience/outlook on this ?

[%sig%]

[ExPat in UK]

but where will I nap?

seriously it's more of a question 'where will I give tutorials'

[science expat]

Isn't it all in the post '92s? I certainly haven't seen any indication of this type of sh*t in my place and don't think folks would stand for it...

[Tani]

I got the impression it was happening in places where staff spend most of their time teaching and so administrators figure when they're not in the classroom they might as well be in some kind of staffroom. I mean, there are weeks when they don't actively use EVERY SINGLE BOOK on their shelves and so clearly they're not doing any real work (did you see the bit about the "dust test"?)

[glaswegian babe]

Loved the 'dust test'!  What next? Teaching in hallways?  It's extraordinary to me that anyone could even consider this - but it does demonstrate the amazing gap between those who manage and those who are in academic posts.  I don't know anyone who LIKES open plan offices - whatever their work is.  But anyone who thinks this is appropriate for academic staff simply doesn't know what it is that academic staff do!

[science expat]

Your post is spot on. This is what's killing us at my institution; we're being "governed" by folks who don't have a notion about what the job entails.

My biggest problem these days is travel expenses; the underlying theme from finance seems to be that every conference we attend is a junket and hence we should be delighted for being reimbursed! And of course they would never believe that we spend 10 hours per day in talks, followed by work over drinks, dinner, etc...

It's bad enough that sometimes I think of leaving. And if someone took away my office I'd quit immediately!

[ExPat in UK]

I've always wanted to put in for overtime when I'm at a conference.

Haven't done it yet.... but they are long long long days.

[Tani]

At my institution we are supposed to fill in quarterly time sheets (for FEC purposes) - but nobody has any idea what a "normal" workload is, least of all our so-called managers who are actually looking at this stuff. The categories bear so little resemblance to the way academic tasks actually break down that there's no way on earth they're going to get anything useful from it. I mean, how do you allocate the 10 hours you spend at the conference? (And can you claim those 10 hours back from another category?) Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[s]

I have the same: conference days are the busiest days of the year; breakfast meetings, and networking till late at night.


I'm quite serious about this: If my university would introduce an open office, I would look for another job. Farewell productivity