Recent UCU stress and bullying surveys

Stephen Court

UCU senior research officer

NIACE & UCU conference

1 February 2011

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HSE approach

• Health and Safety Executive management standards ‘define the characteristics, or culture, of an organisation where the risks from work-related stress are being effectively managed and controlled’

• The Management Standards cover six key areas of work design that, if not properly managed, are associated with poor health and well-being, lower productivity and increased sickness absence.

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HSE approach

• http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/index.htm

• ‘The first stage in dealing with any problem is to accept that there is a problem that needs to be addressed’

• ‘ensure a clear understanding of the Management Standards approach’

• Record, monitor, review

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HSE Indicator Tool

• HSE Management Standards Indicator Tool

• 35 items within seven stressor subscales (we sub-divided ‘support’)

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HSE stressors

• Demands include issues like workload, pace of work and working hours.

• Control measures levels of autonomy over working methods, pacing and timing.

• Peer Support encompasses the degree of help and respect received from colleagues, whereas

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HSE stressors

• Managerial Support reflects supportive behaviours from line managers and the organisation itself, such as feedback and encouragement.

• Relationships assesses levels of conflict within the workplace including bullying behaviour and harassment.

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HSE stressors

• Role examines levels of role clarity and the extent to which the employee believes that her or his work fits into the overall aims of the organisation.

• Change reflects how well organisational changes are managed and communicated within the organisation.

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UCU survey

• Online survey April-May 2008

• 61,000 members contacted by email; 14,000 respondents

• 3,190 were employed or principally employed in FE

• 9,740 were in HE

• 60 were in prison education

• 1,280 did not identify sector8

Demands

• “I have to work very intensively”

• 1=low well-being; 5=high well-being

• Further education 1.93 (low)

• Higher education 1.97

• Prison education 1.98

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Demands

• “I am pressured to work long hours”

• Further education 2.69

• Higher education 2.73

• Prison education 3.21 (high)

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Demands

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Demands: Factors which make a significant

contribution to stress or frustration • In order not to disadvantage my students, I work

close to double the hours I am paid for (FE lecturer)

• I work in a prison education department for a college and trying to reconcile the demands of the prison regime and the college/LSC contractual expectations is very difficult (PE manager

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Control

• “My working time can be flexible”

• Further education 2.64

• Higher education 3.79

• Prison education 1.76 (low)

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Control

• “I can decide when to take a break”

• Further education 3.13

• Higher education 4.09 (high)

• Prison education 2.00

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Control

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Control: Factors which make a significant contribution

to stress or frustration • I am most stressed by the lack of opportunity or

flexibility to innovate in my teaching (FE lecturer)• ... our manager has no idea on how to approach

members of staff and is taking taking over the running of their respective areas, we do not feel that the courses that we are to run are ours, no ownership at all (PE teacher)

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Managerial support

• “I can talk to my line manager about something that has upset or annoyed me about work”

• Further education 3.31 (high)

• Higher education 3.27

• Prison education 3.16

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Managerial support

• “I am supported through emotionally demanding work”

• Further education 2.61

• Higher education 2.67

• Prison education 2.28 (low)

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Managerial support

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Managerial support: Factors which make a significant contribution to stress or frustration

• Shouting at staff in the presence of other members of staff and students is not professional and causes stress (FE lecturer)

• Line Manager [in college] is very demanding and does not understand the concepts of education in HMPs (PE manager)

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Peer support

• “If work gets difficult, my colleagues will help me”

• Further education 3.41

• Higher education 3.21

• Prison education 3.07 (low)

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Peer support

• “I get help and support I need from colleagues”

• Further education 3.70 (high)

• Higher education 3.50

• Prison education 3.45

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Peer support

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Peer support: Factors which make a significant contribution to stress or frustration

• I work in a department with extremely fractured and dysfunctional relationships between staff members. This is dispiriting to be around, and it often interferes with the progress of my own work (FE lecturer)

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Relationships

• “I am subject to bullying at work”

• HE: Never 51% Sometimes 17% Always 2%

• Further education 4.09• Higher education 4.19 (high)• Prison education 3.68

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Relationships

• “There is friction or anger between colleagues”

• Further education 3.07

• Higher education 2.98

• Prison education 2.34 (low)

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Relationships

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Relationships: Factors which make a significant contribution to stress or frustration

• Bullying is accepted as normal practice to talk about colleagues behind their backs, instead of discussing any problems one perceives directly (FE lecturer)

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Relationships: Factors which make a significant contribution to stress or frustration

• students in prison environment can have a bullying attitude to staff - especially females - and to other learners; having to watch they are not stealing things is stressful; the fact that they - and sometimes other staff - smoke throughout the workplace although this is not actually allowed; prison environment generally very physically unpleasant; no breaks except lunch (PE teacher)

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Role

• “I know how to go about getting my job done”

• Further education 4.02

• Higher education 4.08

• Prison education 4.22 (high)

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Role

• “I am clear about the goals and objectives for my department”

• Further education 3.49

• Higher education 3.37

• Prison education 3.28 (low)

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Role

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Role: Factors which make a significant contribution to stress or frustration

• Shifting goals and unclear expectations combined with heavy workload (FE lecturer)

• lack of communication between management and staff, causing insecurities with job roles and responsibilities. unsure of what is required (PE teacher)

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Change

• “I have sufficient opportunities to question managers about change at work”

• Further education 2.61

• Higher education 2.82 (high)

• Prison education 2.5034

Change

• “Staff are always consulted about change at work”

• Further education 2.14

• Higher education 2.32

• Prison education 1.96 (low)

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Change

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Change: Factors which make a significant contribution to stress or frustration

• We are currently undergoing the 3rd merger in 4 years. Another round of restructuring leading to insecurity and unclear direction from senior management (FE lecturer)

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Change: Factors which make a significant contribution to stress or frustration

• 2006 - complete change of students & therefore of courses delivered. [change] ... to new employer 2007 - Inspection from hell while line manager off sick 2008 - Restructuring so re-applying for our jobs The pace of change has, therefore, been much too fast, coupled with uncertainty & insecurity (PE teacher)

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“I find my job stressful”

'I find my job stressful' (2008 survey)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Stronglydisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

%

Further education Higher education Prison education

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What measures would you like to see taken to improve your working life?

• Further education

• improved communication with management

• to be able to work flexibly• a reduction in contact hours to enable

more time for planning, preparation, marking, research, paperwork, learner support

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What measures would you like to see taken to improve your working life?

• Prison education

• more involvement in decision-making

• improved working facilities

• decent break times

• internet access

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More UCU info

• Stress reports

• http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2382

• Health and safety resource centre4242

• http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2132

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UCU Negative behaviour at work survey 2008

• November 2008• Included the Negative Acts Questionnaire• 75% of respondents were involved in

teaching• 48% in FE• 44% in HE• 5% in adult education• 3% in prison education

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Definition

• Negative Acts Questionnaire • “We define bullying as: a situation where one or

several individuals persistently over a period of time perceive themselves to be on the receiving end of negative actions from one or several persons, in a situation where the target of bullying has difficulty in defending him or herself against these actions. We will not refer to a one-off incident as bullying.”

Experience of bullying

Respondents working in further education were more likely than those in higher education to experience workplace bullying.

41% of respondents in FE, and 34% in HE, reported having been bullied at work in the preceding six months.

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Long-term experience

52% of FE respondents, and 54% of HE respondents, reported having been bullied at work in the preceding five years.

73% of respondents in FE and 67% in HE reported seeing bullying at work within the preceding five years.

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Derogatory comments

• 23% of respondents in further education said that over the preceding six months, they had at least ‘now and then’ received derogatory, personal comments on student course-evaluation forms, compared with 26% of respondents in higher education.

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Website comments

• 2% of respondents in further education, and 5% in higher education, said that over the preceding six months, they were aware ‘now and then’ of personally derogatory comments about them on student websites.

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E-mail

• 3% of respondents in further education, and 13% in higher education, said that over the preceding six months they had received derogatory, offensive or bullying e-mail from students ‘now and then’.

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Violence

• 10% of respondents in further education (2% HE) said that over the preceding six months they had experienced violence or physical abuse ‘now and then’ and 2% said they had experienced violence or physical abuse monthly.

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Making a complaint

• Of those in further education who had experienced any form of bullying at work, 69% had not made an official complaint about it, and 31% had.

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Response to complaints

• Of those in further education who reported any form of bullying from individuals employed by their institution, only 26% said the response of their institution to their complaints was fairly or very good; 52% said the response was bad or very bad.

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