Hello
Over the last few days two news stories have demonstrated starkly and tragically the horrendous cost of working in a toxic environment and of substandard leadership.
Wales online (link below) reported on the high workload which has impacted so many staff at Cardiff University, and which has resulted in tragic consequences. The report states that, ‘hundreds of university staff have signed an open letter to their Vice Chancellor and university authorities demanding action over workload following the suicide of a lecturer’.
This letter which has been signed by over 500 mostly academic staff at Cardiff University goes on to say ‘we are acutely aware there are many others at serious risk of physical and mental injury. Simply, our workloads are too high across the board.’
Cardiff UCU (University College Union) spokesperson Dr Andy Williams said: ‘We’ve published this open letter because Cardiff University has a major problem with staff workload and mental health. Its own staff survey shows that only half of all staff can do their jobs without regularly working unreasonable hours. The figures are even worse for staff who teach and do academic research, with only one in five not regularly doing unpaid overtime on weekends or in the evenings.
All this has a real strain on our health. Half of all UK academics suffer stress-related mental health problems. At Cardiff this has even been a factor in colleagues taking their own lives. But the university sticks its head in the sand. It points to inadequate workload models, and its counselling and “wellbeing” provision, but these are just inadequate sticking plasters. It’s time we stood up to this toxic working culture for our own sakes, for the sakes of our students and families and for the sakes of our universities, too.’
Cardiff University has been quoted as saying, ‘whilst we are aware of the open letter, to the best of our knowledge the university has yet to receive it formally. As soon as it is received a response will be sent. However, what we can say is that we recognise that workload and wellbeing are extremely important issues. That’s why in 2014 we introduced a new workload policy and subsequently a workload modelling framework in consultation with the Trade Unions.
This policy is designed to help the university in working towards a systematic approach to workload allocation and to identify those members of staff who may be working to excess and take appropriate action.
The university has also established the Workload Governance Group, whose role is to assess the over arching impact and operation of the workload policy and to ensure that as far as possible the policy is implemented consistently and fairly across the whole of the university’.
It would appear that this feeling of having an overpowering workload has gone on for quite some time, and whilst it’s highly unlikely that anyone within the University’s leadership team would have wanted such a situation to exist, far less continue, something appears to have gone wrong with the speed by which this untenable situation should have been addressed.
The other stark and tragic story (reported in the Independent (link below)) is about how a ‘ “toxic” feud between two rival camps at a troubled heart-surgery unit left staff feeling a high death rate was inevitable’. This, the Independent states is according to a leaked report.
The Independent’s article goes on to state that, ‘St George’s Hospital (London) heart unit was consumed by a “dark force” and patients were put at risk by a dysfunctional team of surgeons, an investigation concluded last month…the south London facility had a cardiac surgery death rate of 3.7 per cent – above the national 2 per cent average…the surgical team is viewed as dysfunctional both internally and externally.
Stronger leadership and “new blood” were called for, while the “defensive approach” the unit took to death rate data was criticised’.
Both of these stories are dreadful. People have lost their lives. It would appear that the University issues should have been dealt with a long time ago, so why weren’t they? There could, and may well be, a myriad of reasons why nothing was done quickly enough of course. However it does appear to be the case that there was not a strong enough leadership presence dealing with these issues. Sometimes things can’t be solved quickly or effectively enough by committees.
The St George’s hospital case would almost beggar belief, if you didn’t take into account the fact that sometimes people want the power and prestige that goes with certain positions, and that maintaining their power base and a sense of superiority can become more important than actually doing good.
I think that both of these tragic and disturbing stories illustrate how important it is to have good leaders within teams and organisations. The leader is there to create the opposite of a toxic environment! The leader is there to put themselves in harms way to prevent harm coming to others, if required.
That may take the form of expressing an unpopular opinion, of eschewing the safety of the tribe, the likely promotion, and perhaps even next month’s mortgage payment. Events at both the University and the Hospital do appear to have come about because, at least in part, the wrong people were in the wrong positions, demonstrating an inversion of what leadership should actually be about.
It is so important to recruit, develop, promote and monitor the people who are in positions of authority, and for all of us to remember that the environments within which we work are actually meant to be good places to be, and not something from the imagination of Hieronymus Bosch.
Best wishes
Mike
Wales online: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/500-lecturers-cardiff-university-sign-14946705.amp
The Independent:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/st-georges-hospital-london-heart-unit-patients-at-risk-surgeons-dark-force-a8476911.html%3famp