Here's the link to the arbitration award. Financially we got a reasonable settlement. From the workload we got exactly what we expected -- another "equivalent to Teplitski" award which now sets up a task force to study the issues.
In addition,(besides the $$$ and the fact that the annual increases will be effective on September 1 of each year and not "staged in" as 1% at Sept. 1.5% in Jan. etc. as per the last contract), there is a new step added to the contract effective next September. I can hardly wait to hear our "formal" management's response, given that we heard that if we got the kind of financial settlement we had asked for that there would be a number of people in the support staff out of a job. I will check with my "sources" to see what I can find out, but, as I have previously posted, I am sure that this was just an ill-thought-out angry comment kited out by management as a way to drive a wedge between faculty and support staff (which was a massive failure, by the way, as all it did was make the support staff more recognisant than ever of the lack of management sensitivity to ALL employee concerns). In addition we all got one more hour for out-of-class contact with students: our college already had a local agreement for this, and it is badly needed given the additional demands on our out-of-class time over the last several years thanks to email and so on.
I will be interested to hear the comments of other faculty on the results.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Thursday, June 22, 2006
WMG Was Fine
I have no idea why I had to go to the WMG. Before the meeting started the main issue was conceded, and within 5 minutes so was the secondary issue. I got the feeling that I was only there to resolve an issue between the folks on the management side. Were they feuding over internal politics and needed someone to test it out? Was one of them simply intransigent?
From my perspective it was simply a total waste of time. I could have been doing other things. It's not as though either issue was a $$$ factor for the college as I had room in my workload assignment anyway. So much of this is farcical. I should not have had to refer this to the WMG anyway.
Technically I am on holidays, but as usual there is not enough time allotted to do what needs to be done re curriculum/course development. The technology demands are significant by themselves, but when you also have new editions of texts and new topics and standard updates and also have three less weeks than usual to do the work .... well everyone can figure that one out. I probably should just leave the courses incomplete. I just can't do that. For example ... only today did I get the updated teaching materials for one of my courses from the text publisher. But I was supposed to have finished all the course updates yesterday. Hmmmmm. Grrrrrrrrr. Such is life. But these are the kinds of things that our management fails to take into consideration.
From my perspective it was simply a total waste of time. I could have been doing other things. It's not as though either issue was a $$$ factor for the college as I had room in my workload assignment anyway. So much of this is farcical. I should not have had to refer this to the WMG anyway.
Technically I am on holidays, but as usual there is not enough time allotted to do what needs to be done re curriculum/course development. The technology demands are significant by themselves, but when you also have new editions of texts and new topics and standard updates and also have three less weeks than usual to do the work .... well everyone can figure that one out. I probably should just leave the courses incomplete. I just can't do that. For example ... only today did I get the updated teaching materials for one of my courses from the text publisher. But I was supposed to have finished all the course updates yesterday. Hmmmmm. Grrrrrrrrr. Such is life. But these are the kinds of things that our management fails to take into consideration.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Not a good month
So this has not been a good month ... for a number of (irrelevant to most folks) reasons, and the compexities of that, together with personal stuff, has made this a poor month. In addition to the regular stuff, tomorrow I go to the Workload Monitoring Group ... on principle. I will go there after a meeting with my Program Advisory Committee ... a group of industry advisors who are, fortunately, a lot more understanding of the educational needs of students and the role of teachers than many of the administrators in my college.
Re the WMG I am going because I don't know how I can honestly sign a contractual agreement when nobody can tell me what it is that I am expected to do. No job description, no list of duties, no list of responsibilities, no idea of what is expected ... but just "sign on the dotted line" ... ok sure!
I admit ... I have never been thrilled with my contract nor the fact that it is a province-wide agreement. I have never felt particularly comfortable with it. BUT ... since I understand that province-wide contracts have to cover a wide variety of situations, that's what I live with, and that is what is required by my conditions of employment. So I know I have to live within the confines of that contract. That is my responsibility.
But when I have to sign off personally on my individual situation based on the workload provisions in that contract, I want to know what it is that I am expected to do. When I sign any legal document, I want and I expect to know what my responsibilities are relative to that contract. I did not ask for this, but I am by law obligated to it. Is it too much to expect that, if I am asked to sign a contract for my services, I should know what work it is that I have contracted for? But I have been told that it does not matter, I should just sign it anyway? Would you agree to doing a job without knowing what duties and resposibiloities that job entailed? But that is what I am being asked to do.
I am not a happy camper.
I have no idea what will transpire, but I am sanguine in any case. In the negative environment in which we are currently surviving, I will consider it all as part of life's rich pageant and I am very grateful that I still have the option of retiring shortly. I do not want to ... but I still have it as an option.
I wonder what will happen if/when all of us (and there are a lot of us) who have that option decide to take advantage of it? I suspect the college would be very happy (more cheap part-timers or new hires) but I really do wonder if management has a real understanding of the fact that they have no succession planning. Why do I care? Well, maybe I care for the students. Maybe I care for the success of the program in which I teach. Or maybe I care for the employers, who need skilled workers. (Or maybe I am just selfish and want to spend time developing my own skills and interests.)
It may well be that many students don't care either. Maybe they would be happy just to get a diploma and a decent GPA, regardless of whether they learn anything that is relevant and current.
I suspect that many students and administrators have no idea what nor why we as faculty care about outside of class activity on curriculum development etc.
How many times do you hear students (and others) suggest that if a teacher isn't delivering content in a classrooom that the teacher is not "working". How many times have you heard (as I overheard in a local watering hole last week) that teachers get 6 months' "paid holidays" simply because they teach only 6 months (which is our case is not at all accurate anyway, since most of us teach 9 months, and given our contract -- and 44 hours per week,by the way, works out to a lot more than 9 months on the standard 37 hour work week)?
But I rant ... I need to shut down for the night and see what tomorrow will bring. I have to get up at 6 to get to that PAC meeting ... yeah I do have an easy life when not teaching! :-)
Re the WMG I am going because I don't know how I can honestly sign a contractual agreement when nobody can tell me what it is that I am expected to do. No job description, no list of duties, no list of responsibilities, no idea of what is expected ... but just "sign on the dotted line" ... ok sure!
I admit ... I have never been thrilled with my contract nor the fact that it is a province-wide agreement. I have never felt particularly comfortable with it. BUT ... since I understand that province-wide contracts have to cover a wide variety of situations, that's what I live with, and that is what is required by my conditions of employment. So I know I have to live within the confines of that contract. That is my responsibility.
But when I have to sign off personally on my individual situation based on the workload provisions in that contract, I want to know what it is that I am expected to do. When I sign any legal document, I want and I expect to know what my responsibilities are relative to that contract. I did not ask for this, but I am by law obligated to it. Is it too much to expect that, if I am asked to sign a contract for my services, I should know what work it is that I have contracted for? But I have been told that it does not matter, I should just sign it anyway? Would you agree to doing a job without knowing what duties and resposibiloities that job entailed? But that is what I am being asked to do.
I am not a happy camper.
I have no idea what will transpire, but I am sanguine in any case. In the negative environment in which we are currently surviving, I will consider it all as part of life's rich pageant and I am very grateful that I still have the option of retiring shortly. I do not want to ... but I still have it as an option.
I wonder what will happen if/when all of us (and there are a lot of us) who have that option decide to take advantage of it? I suspect the college would be very happy (more cheap part-timers or new hires) but I really do wonder if management has a real understanding of the fact that they have no succession planning. Why do I care? Well, maybe I care for the students. Maybe I care for the success of the program in which I teach. Or maybe I care for the employers, who need skilled workers. (Or maybe I am just selfish and want to spend time developing my own skills and interests.)
It may well be that many students don't care either. Maybe they would be happy just to get a diploma and a decent GPA, regardless of whether they learn anything that is relevant and current.
I suspect that many students and administrators have no idea what nor why we as faculty care about outside of class activity on curriculum development etc.
How many times do you hear students (and others) suggest that if a teacher isn't delivering content in a classrooom that the teacher is not "working". How many times have you heard (as I overheard in a local watering hole last week) that teachers get 6 months' "paid holidays" simply because they teach only 6 months (which is our case is not at all accurate anyway, since most of us teach 9 months, and given our contract -- and 44 hours per week,by the way, works out to a lot more than 9 months on the standard 37 hour work week)?
But I rant ... I need to shut down for the night and see what tomorrow will bring. I have to get up at 6 to get to that PAC meeting ... yeah I do have an easy life when not teaching! :-)
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