back in a bad news meeting

There we go again! The university is in dire straits, and the VC called an all staff meeting to let us know just how bad it was. I already mentioned it in October, but things have gotten more specific since then. Last year they already launched a voluntary severance scheme, but that hasn't quite solved the university’s problems. It seems to already have managed to convince some 60 people to voluntarily leave. But they think 200 more job losses are needed. And that is a lot!

I suppose I have never seen the university in a good nick. I've been here since 2014, and I have been blogging since at least 2016 that things weren't looking great. And in the middle of lockdown we had the biggest crisis, when my job, and that of several of my closest colleagues, was directly on the line. That was the first time there was a threat of forced redundancies in our school. And things haven't quite been the same since.

All seats taken

We had the all staff meeting in the biggest lecture room in the university, and there were plenty of people standing, or sitting on the stairs. The various members of the executive board gave other blunt presentations, and then they opened the floor for questions. And several of these managed to crowbar out some of the details about the situation. And some were just hanging in the air as warnings. 

An example of a crowbar question was that there had been mention of 200 job losses; was that including the people that had already taken voluntary redundancy? But no, that was on top of that. That had not been communicated like that. There was some intake of breath. 

An example of Cassandra question was asked a bloke from IT services saying he was taking the voluntary redundancy, but was wondering how on Earth the rest of the team would cope in this world in which digital technology and cyber security showed no signs of becoming less important. He mentioned an exercise in  protection from ransomware that has recently been performed. You can cut the IT team, but might that be a false economy?

Our school is doing well, but so was it the previous time, and there was still a threat of forced redundancies. So we're not counting on this passing us by. Yes we have just recruited six people; that doesn't mean they're not going to boot some of the oldies out. The six posts were advertise not long after we lost two people to the previous round of voluntary redundancy. And both of these were biologists. So all bets are off!

I suppose we'll have to see how this situation pans out. Stay tuned! But it has clearly already affected the mood in the School…