UWS Reviews

There is a general feeling of disconnectedness and disengagement among employees. Morale has simply never been lower and many people are looking for jobs elsewhere, myself included. Some are leaving without a new job to go to, it is getting 'that' bad. Systems are old-fashioned and disjointed, making simple processes needlessly complex. Money is poured into systems and that end up redundant, or that are of no real quality. Staff are left no choice but to seek work-arounds to complete what should be straight-forward tasks. This, combined with already unreasonable workloads is creating a culture of people who are fed-up and burnt out. When people flag mental wellbeing or stress as an issue because of this, they are signposted to a wellbeing app or meditation workshops. Treat the problems, not the symptoms. There are too many senior managers that stay locked in their corridor making it feel very 'them' and 'us' despite them saying they are doing more to be visible - they are not. As a result, senior management have minimal insight into the real issues faced by staff because they do not see first hand what staff are dealing with. Instead, they make decisions based on what they 'think' will fix the problems - it is like putting a plaster on a bullet-hole. Staff have minimal say over decisions that impact their role and their ability to perform well, and in the off chance staff are involved in decision making, it can often take months, if not years to make trivial decisions due to the number of layers of approval needed. Wages are also lower in comparison with other local universities. It is often the case that you have one person carrying the weight of what should be multiple roles, making the pay feel even more unfair. Finally, I would say that if you are looking for a role in which you can genuinely progress and will be rewarded for hard work, I suggest you look elsewhere. Promotions do not exist. Re-grading does not happen. Hard work is rarely acknowledged unless your face fits the bill, or unless you are 'in' with those in charge.

The senior leadership team is consumed by a need to revolutionise every aspect of teaching, learning and the student experience. This would be commendable if the changes were effectively managed, clearly communicated and well thought through but sadly they are not. Staff are overworked at the best of times and the poorly thought through changes keep coming. Many have lost faith in senior leadership, one person in particular. Staff seem extremely demotivated and this has led to unprofessional and unacceptable behaviour which goes completely unchecked. Managers do not want to deal with the behaviour because the issues are extremely deep rooted