Do you feel like we’ve been here before?
I didn’t look forward to Groundhog Day this year. I used to enjoy the yearly reminder of the movie by that same name, with Bill Murray’s comedic turn as a time-looping weatherman. This year feels different – we’ve already had enough déjà vu this semester, with yet another call to move online at short notice and no recognition of the additional workload this abrupt transition causes. I hear many instructors asking, when can they look to the future instead of trying to catch up with the present? After almost 2 years of the pandemic, instructors are feeling exhausted.
At the same time, management keeps asking you to do more with few supports. Many post-secondary institutions, including SAIT, depend on their employees to do far more than what is in their contract; in essence, to be altruistic to their employer. You are asked to develop multiple teaching modes with no off-load for the additional prep. You are asked to flex your schedules to cover more sections or longer work-days. You are asked to keep pushing through “for the students” and things will return to normal. The reality, though, is while Covid brought these issues to light, these issues are not emergent nor are they temporary.
This isn’t healthy or sustainable. Never forget – your employer is not your friend – the relationship is always transactional, with the employer acting to maximize what they can get from the employee. After 2 years of always “pushing through”, if you are no longer feeling generous towards your employer, that is a totally rational reaction. You are not selfish for adopting a businesslike attitude toward your employer. You are not wrong to question extra duties, positions, and assignments that are outside of your contract. SAIT’s lack of staffing, equipment, or space is a systemic problem that should not be fixed by the free labour of you and your fellow instructors. You are allowed to say “no”, to take care of yourself, so that you can continue to take care of your students.
SAFA will support you if you feel that you’ve been asked to work outside our current Collective Agreement – contact me at [email protected] if you have concerns.
In solidarity,