This coming from the Dean of the faculty I work in. Now in certain situations I would agree that it is possible for someone to have more work to do than others. But to use this as a blanket statement whenever someone brings up the insane workload or is unable to attend an online meeting relevant to only 8-10 out of 25 staff while some are having classes or are on their lunch break, just drives me up the wall.
This is just a short list of what i do beyond my role as an academician in my faculty
- Faculty writer & co-editor of newsletter – I write the Dean's forward for our every 2 monthly newsletter. I also write marketing articles for newspaper ads for the faculty. Even though the university has a Group Communication Dept & Enrollment Ctr. When i asked why can't the marketing dept of the university write these, the dean told me she doesnt trust them.
- I am part of the Customer Relations Management team for the faculty – i have to email and call or whatsapp potential students who are interested in the faculty programmes. This is on top of the Education Fairs/Open Days i'm involved occasionally, which I'm ok with.
- I used to run the faculty's Google Ad campaign during off peak season and use my own CC to pay for it. I'd get reimbursed but later on this was scrapped. Now the Enrollment centre is fully in charge but I still need to report to the Dean if the ads are showing up.
- I need to organise the entire faculty's student attachment to Hospitals/Community Pharmacies which involves applying to spots in hospitals, applying to the government, to the state health department, informing the university's finance department to prepare chequest for the external staff who will be mentoring the students, getting the appointment letters from HR, driving to the hospitals, government and state health department offices to submit the paperwork because my dean doesnt trust the postal system.
- Occassionally emcee talks or events for the faculty for free.
- Interim Head of Programme for a new diploma programme which includes preparing and sending documents to the higher education dept and thinking of marketing materials. I will only get paid for this after the programme begins.
- Assist in running clinical trials that companies pay the faculty to run – i've recently had to prepare some portfolios and contact insurance companies for quotations.
So really, I don't fucking care if you're busier.. and i'm glad I've resigned from this hellhole (with 3 months notice). This is how you make people HATE academia.