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You think the construction industry is illegal. Wait till you hear about academia!! :) This is the life today for zero-hours, at-will employment in the univers

You think the construction industry is illegal. Wait till you hear about academia!! :) This is the life today for zero-hours, at-will employment in the university sector. As a visiting professor I've had universities ask me to deliver a semester course a year in advance, and call the week before to say they're not running it. At the very minimum a 12 week course takes 40 hours of preparation even if you're just refreshing the notes and practicals from last time. I've had Russell group universities not pay me for two years. They've flat out "lost" my invoices, three times! Two major league universities tried to stiff me out of over £2000 and had to be threatened with legal action. One London uni asked me to prepare a DSP course, then instead of hiring me to deliver it plagiarised my slides, took my name off them and got a junior lecturer to deliver the course instead. The last university I worked at were so careless with my payments that my accountant advised me to "extricate immediately" because there so many "anomalies" she couldn't keep track of them all. Universities are absolute f*king gangsters.

Cheer2171 3y ago
US academia has its problems, but UK academia is a whole different nightmare.
- iinnPP 3y ago
  Canada would like a word. When 35% of a test is easily verified as incorrect and nobody is willing to fix it. Rain days.... Too cold days(-5°c)...
londons_explore 3y ago
Universities, unlike building firms, have actual assets and are unlikely to claim bankruptcy. That means you could easily take the above issues to small claims court as long as you had them in writing (and remember, even a agreement to pay you via email usually suffices - no formal documents or signatures required)
- ebiester 3y ago
  ...and then your career in academia is over, regardless of the official rules of retribution. Which, based on all of the bad experiences, might be a blessing in disguise for adjuncts (UK or otherwise!)
  - nonrandomstring 3y ago
    No, it's not like that. I write excoriating pieces in the Times Higher, completely damning the UK university system as "unfit for teaching and leaning" [0], and they still call me and ask "can you just cover this class?". Amusing as that desperation is, in a way it's more terrifying how the machinery of blind capitalism works. The system isn't capable of sentiment like that. They don't care what I say. It's just business. They're not there keeping a score of 'friends' and 'enemies'. Universities run on people like me who are of the "academic mindset", who can and will do things like teaching because we love it as a vocation even though the salary is a quarter or fifth of what is on offer privately. In the end, the only solution is to say no, even when you'd really like to do it. It's a weird modern tragedy. [0] https://cybershow.uk/blog/posts/cyber-education/ https://cybershow.uk/blog/posts/cyber-education/
    - robertlagrant 3y ago
      > Universities run on people like me who are of the "academic mindset", who can and will do things like teaching because we love it as a vocation even though the salary is a quarter or fifth of what is on offer privately. Everything runs like this. Jobs people want will pay less than jobs people don't want.
      - alan-hn 3y ago
        Does that mean everyone wants to be a waiter and nobody wants to be a CEO?
        tristor 3y ago
        > Does that mean everyone wants to be a waiter and nobody wants to be a CEO? Unironically, yes. Most people don't have enough exposure to actually understand what the job of a CEO is. I have had that exposure, and I don't ever want to be the CEO of any sizeable company. Once you become CEO, work/life balance utterly ceases to exist, because you are the person imbued as the corporation, meaning you are literally always working, always on call, always stuck with the most difficult or intractable decisions where maybe all the options are wrong, and no matter your choice everyone will hate you. It's a terrible job that people only do because it pays so well. I am not the CEO but I'm much higher up the food chain today than I was when I started. I often reminisce fondly about my time working phone tech support, because I could work my queue and walk out without having to give any thought to anything that occurred that day. That's not the reality of being in any sort of management role, and the higher up you go the less that matches reality.

Cheer2171 3y ago

US academia has its problems, but UK academia is a whole different nightmare.

iinnPP 3y ago
Canada would like a word. When 35% of a test is easily verified as incorrect and nobody is willing to fix it. Rain days.... Too cold days(-5°c)...

londons_explore 3y ago

Universities, unlike building firms, have actual assets and are unlikely to claim bankruptcy. That means you could easily take the above issues to small claims court as long as you had them in writing (and remember, even a agreement to pay you via email usually suffices - no formal documents or signatures required)

ebiester 3y ago
...and then your career in academia is over, regardless of the official rules of retribution. Which, based on all of the bad experiences, might be a blessing in disguise for adjuncts (UK or otherwise!)
- nonrandomstring 3y ago
  No, it's not like that. I write excoriating pieces in the Times Higher, completely damning the UK university system as "unfit for teaching and leaning" [0], and they still call me and ask "can you just cover this class?". Amusing as that desperation is, in a way it's more terrifying how the machinery of blind capitalism works. The system isn't capable of sentiment like that. They don't care what I say. It's just business. They're not there keeping a score of 'friends' and 'enemies'. Universities run on people like me who are of the "academic mindset", who can and will do things like teaching because we love it as a vocation even though the salary is a quarter or fifth of what is on offer privately. In the end, the only solution is to say no, even when you'd really like to do it. It's a weird modern tragedy. [0] https://cybershow.uk/blog/posts/cyber-education/ https://cybershow.uk/blog/posts/cyber-education/
  - robertlagrant 3y ago
    > Universities run on people like me who are of the "academic mindset", who can and will do things like teaching because we love it as a vocation even though the salary is a quarter or fifth of what is on offer privately. Everything runs like this. Jobs people want will pay less than jobs people don't want.
    - alan-hn 3y ago
      Does that mean everyone wants to be a waiter and nobody wants to be a CEO?
      - tristor 3y ago
        > Does that mean everyone wants to be a waiter and nobody wants to be a CEO? Unironically, yes. Most people don't have enough exposure to actually understand what the job of a CEO is. I have had that exposure, and I don't ever want to be the CEO of any sizeable company. Once you become CEO, work/life balance utterly ceases to exist, because you are the person imbued as the corporation, meaning you are literally always working, always on call, always stuck with the most difficult or intractable decisions where maybe all the options are wrong, and no matter your choice everyone will hate you. It's a terrible job that people only do because it pays so well. I am not the CEO but I'm much higher up the food chain today than I was when I started. I often reminisce fondly about my time working phone tech support, because I could work my queue and walk out without having to give any thought to anything that occurred that day. That's not the reality of being in any sort of management role, and the higher up you go the less that matches reality.