You always know when an organisation has already decided to change something – when it announces a staff ‘consultation’. It sounds democratic, of course: ‘look at us – we are consulting our staff – aren’t we kind’. As business lecturers in FBSS will tell you, though, the meaning of the word consultation has been seriously watered down in recent times by a whole host of organisations in business, banking, retail and now – depressingly – the HE sector.
Its got to the point where it has become meaningless, a mere mask to cover real decisions that have already been made. The loss of the KU Nursery underlined this. The recent rolling out of a so-called 46-day consultation on a proposed ‘redesign’ of professional and support services across KU can only mean one thing: more job cuts and further service decline.
Professional and support services have already been chopped right down to the bone in previous ‘redesigns’, which saw a collapse in morale and the departure of really experienced and dedicated staff. Now here we go again – to shave off another £2.6m from KU’s grossly mismanaged budgets.
Here’s some quick first suggestions for the latest ‘consultation’ – the VC should return his recent pay-rise; he should stop making ultra-bland videos which nobody watches; all SLT members should have a pay freeze; no more money should be wasted on regular SLT away-days (with overnight accommodation) at their fave hotel in Great Windsor Park; an immediate freeze on trips by SLT members to Kong Kong and elsewhere should be implemented; no more subsidies to the bottomless pit of the Rose; no more slap-up meals for the Board of Governors at top eating spots; no more dosh put aside to buy up houses in Pen Road. Just these modest proposals should save a huge sum.
Do staff have their own suggestions? Post them here, or send ’em direct to Spiersey. Go on – make his day.
Muckraker
Interesting ideas for savings now coming through: one big complaint from staff is KU’s obsession with spending tens of thousands on outside consultants. One source in IT support services reckons huge sums were squandered on the review of learning platforms (going from Studyspace to Canvas etc in the end cost a packet). Another in KSA claims eye-watering sums were wasted on a review by the Knowledge Partnership initiated by Simon ‘Moron’ Worthless. Another points to hugely wasteful use of outside consultants in FBSS. Outside consultants have also apparently been used recently to review KU’s research centres. Anybody got any other examples?