At this moment in time I am hoping for a re-think. For a miracle - for the forces of management to stop their meddling in people's lives and start considering their people. You know, those people, us, that they supposedly invest in, in order to get that plaque. The shield that has been carefully removed from the mezzanine level for safekeeping whilst our workplace becomes a building site.
Of course according to the latest rather vague plan under orders I might be deported off to another workplace come January. In management's version of consultation I have been offered either the job I do now in a different place or a job where I stay with my friends, my team, doing a job I have no desire for - and a hearing problem that makes it almost impossible to really do it well. I consider this offer further evidence that when it comes to consultation some levels of our organisation possess the man-management skills of Vlad the Cataloguer.
The culture of academia has long been considered more humanitarian than,for instance, industry and commerce but within its management framework there are still elements that view those ununionised days of toil and strife as the ideal world. Whilst the world of Trade downsizes, the planet Academia considers the merits of "cheaper, faster, better" and voluntary severance schemes. It pays lip-service to its slave labour, says thank you for building those pyramids with the payoff of Danish pastries and collages of melons but pay and reward is remarkably patchy. The workplace is placed under intolerable conditions. Floundering in a miasma of mahogany dust and accompanied by the rythym of decibel-rich diamond drilling we whinge and we work. Then the library staff cope. Its employees are willing to struggle but we would like to be able to use the experience we have accumulated. If I am separated from my team the University Library will still survive but the world will be less enjoyable particularly for me (and my friends I think). I don't suppose it really matters it just means that caring will become a little bit more difficult.
