Moving almost all AUFA members to home offices during the COVID-19 pandemic has raised a number of issues for both long-term and new home-office workers. AUFA’s executive has tasked the Membership Engagement Committee (MEC) to identify and prioritize these issues.
MEC will be adopting a two-step process: an open-ended question (below) followed by a telephone survey.
At the bottom of this blog post is an open-ended textbox where we would like you to tell us about the challenges or issues that you are facing while working in your home office and what, if anything, AU could do to help you address these issues.
The challenges we've heard about so far include the following:
Equipment and ergonomics: Some AUFA members do not have functional and ergonomically appropriate home-office equipment. This is leading to discomfort and limiting working time.
Caregiving demands: The disruption of child- and elder-care arrangements is impeding some AUFA members’ ability to work full-time. President Fassina asserted last week that AU will no longer be able to accommodate caregiving that impedes work and HR is now identifying such staff members.
Scheduling demands: Some staff members are concerned about a lack of autonomy and flexibility in establishing a work schedule that accommodates additional demands.
Connectivity: Some AUFA members have limited or unreliable internet access at home.
Workload: COVID-related changes have resulted in significant and unsustainable workload increases.
Stress: Stress associated with the disruption of work and home routines as well as ill health and financial hardship has increased.
Cost: Many AUFA members are bearing additional costs associated with working from home. The set-up and monthly stipends outlined in the Teleworking policy are only available to academic staff who work from home.
Surveillance: Some staff members are concerned that AU is monitoring them while they work from home. This represents a lack of trust and an intrusion into their privacy.
MEC is interested in hearing the specific experiences of AUFA members with working from home. This will ensure that we fully understand the range of issues. Any information provided will be completely anonymous. Responses will be collected until April 9.
MEC will use the data gathered from the open-ended question to structure a telephone survey of 100 randomly AUFA members (25% of the membership). The survey will start the week of April 22. This survey will attempt to quantify (and thus help prioritize) these issues so that AUFA can recommend solutions.
Thank you for your assistance as we help AUFA members navigate this change in our working conditions.
Rhiannon Rutherford, Chair
AUFA Membership Engagement Committee