Here are some issues you may wish to consider when developing and updating your own unit’s workload standard. This is a starting point only, not a comprehensive list, but it does include ideas from workload standards around the world.
GENERAL WORKLOAD ISSUES
- Changing labour market
- Changing demographics
- More female participation in workforce
- Need for disability accommodation
- Increase in life expectancy of parents of working individuals
- Increase in number of working single parents
- Increase in number of dual earners in household
- Mounting workloads
- Increased hours of work
- Downsizing
- Demise of adequate collective bargaining
- Contractual hours versus actual hours worked
- Workload allocation – fair and equitable?
- Workload allocation – who is doing the equity work? visible minorities? women?
- Workload regulation
- Taking work home
- Taking breaks
- Stress
- Ill-health
- Errors and workplace safety
Relationship and communication between employer/supervisor/manager and employee
- Leadership
- Mentoring
- Regulated workload
- Equitably allocated workload
- Participation in workload allocation
- More staff
- Greater openness
- Control over job content
- Risk to employer: resources versus decreased motivation, increase in ill-health and errors
UNIVERSITY WORKLOAD ISSUES
Traditional university work environment based on: flexible contractual framework, professional autonomy, academic freedom
University environment changing: increase in student numbers, downsizing (“efficiency gains”), increase in pressure for external accountability.
Academic work environment changing: increase in work intensity as well as amount of work, research being pushed to weekends and evening, longer working hours assigned.
Aims:
- to maintain and enhance quality of work
- to preserve flexibility of contractual framework
- to preserve professional values of academic staff
- to prevent unfair and unreasonable work requirements
- to preserve opportunities for professional development
- to provide work/life balance
Entitlements:
- reasonable workload
- fair distribution of work
- socially acceptable working hours
- sufficient and supported leave time
- reasonable scheduling of duties and meetings
- ability to challenge, without prejudice, unfair distribution of work
- openness of workload management procedures
- regular monitoring of departmental workloads.
- Workload standard that is a meaningful guide (rather than an absolute measure)
- Balance between performance review and reasonableness of workload
Factors determining workloads:
- research
- professional and community services
- post-graduate supervision
- Leave alleviation
- delivery of subject at differing levels (undergraduate, graduate, doctoral)
- delivery of subjects by differing modes (studio, seminar, lab, lecture)
- degree of difficulty in preparation and/or delivery
- size of classes
- amount of student consultation required
- marking load
- TA availability and assignment
- coordination with other staff involved
- amount of support/additional workload involved
- number of part-time students
- newness of course or new to individual faculty member
- number of different subjects to be taught
- spread of teaching across time-frames
- non-traditional modes of delivery
- coordination of course or subject area
- administrative (committee) responsibilities in department and university
- opportunities to develop teaching expertise and other work skills
- development of new curriculum
- involvement in course, program or subject reviews
- the relevance of merit and how it affects working conditions
- number and level of administrative support staff
- level and experience of faculty
- reduced loads for new faculty
- the (in)effectiveness of teaching evaluations and their manner of use
- cross campus teaching
We hope this is helpful. Please contact QUFA if you have any comments or concerns.
Subcommittee on Workload
QUFA PACC
(Political Action and Communication Committee)