Newcastle University staff claim workloads unmanageable

Unions say workloads were made worse by the pandemic as staff delivered online teaching

Staff at a university say they are facing an "unmanageable" workload with women suffering the most.

A report released by the University and College Union (UCU) branch at Newcastle university found the pandemic had deepened existing problems.

The survey of 429 people was carried out between February and April.

The university said it was bolstering services to help employees' mental health and wellbeing and urged anyone who was struggling to "seek help".

The poll found 78% of staff overall found their workload unmanageable at least half of the time and that people were working 20% longer than their expected hours.

More than half of women said their workload had been unmanageable most or all of the time.

Comments to the survey included complaints such as "home-schooling and working is shattering my physical and mental health", people were "feeling completely overwhelmed", and one person said they "cry most days now".

'Don't have resources'

Sarah Campbell, history lecturer and UCU branch equality officer, said workloads had been made worse by the pandemic as staff tried to cope with the demands of delivering online teaching.

She added: "We just don't have the resources for anyone to be on sick leave. We don't have any new staff coming in to help with the extra workload.

"Everybody is at 100% workload or more, if someone goes off we have no way to deal with that. And people will be off this term, with stress and with Covid.

"Students are going to be disappointed. They are being promised in-person teaching, a campus life that is as close to normal as possible, but the university isn't giving us the resources."

Newcastle University said anyone who was struggling should "seek help"

The UCU has also called for a "radical and bold" recovery plan for the university to address the impact of the pandemic on its staff.

Dr Campbell added: "At the moment it seems that they [the university] are more concerned with university rankings, and staff wellbeing may well be the collateral damage of the pandemic."

A Newcastle University spokesperson said: "We have worked hard to support colleagues in their work-life balance over the past 18 months and we would urge anyone who is struggling to seek help.

"Juggling the demands of work with home-schooling, self-isolation and government restrictions has challenged many of us. Several colleagues have returned to or been working on the frontline supporting our NHS and we are acutely aware of the impact this has had. Throughout we have tried to be flexible and support colleagues.

"As well as bolstering our existing support services, we have also introduced an app to support mental wellbeing."