I was in a meeting yesterday and one of the administrators was complaining about not being able to find enough people to teach certain classes because everyone was too overloaded.
I asked what I thought was a simple question, “When does this become enough of an issue that we have to hire more people?” and everyone in the meeting laughed at me. Then they assumed I meant hiring more admins (b/c that's the only thing they are conditioned to even want I guess?) when what I really meant was hiring more professors because we truly are expected to do too much. I work basically nonstop and I'm not even getting paid enough to be able to afford a house.
What's sad is that everyone in the room was sympathetic to my point but they've been around long enough to know that the answer of the institution is always going to be to put more work on the backs of the people there (who are already overworked and underpaid except for top admins and everyone knows it). Like how can we keep going on on like this? Killing ourselves for institutions that don't give a shit about our well being? I don't get it.