Continuing Fall out - November 2009

Again this month we have continued to deal with constant disruption in our business. It seems that once a period of disruption occurs it rolls from one event to the next. At this stage we are in the hang on and lets try to ride this out phase. When we have students in a similar situation it can be excessively frustrating for them as they feel they cannot get a break and they are never getting their heads above water. I can total sympathise with this feeling of being overwhelmed.

One way we have been dealing this has been to set realistic goals and develop tasks list that enable us to see that we have achieved something within a set time. This sense of achievement is helping with the management of the stress levels we are experiencing.

Also I think our additional contingency planning has helped as well.his is where a couple of months ago I suggested that we have a decent and regular rainy day fund and a couple of our collective group laughed at the amount I was suggesting. It was startling to get a request from one of the cynics this month that when we get an opportunity as in when we get paid can we stash the amount you were suggesting when we get all the back bills paid. Knock me down with a bunch of feathers.

For our students I would suggest that they try and not live to the max on their student loans and bursaries but put a little amount away for their rainy day fund.We have to consider the big issues of what happens if you need transport to placement when your car breaks down. Can you handle the additional costs of trying to get into placement?

When the ride is getting rocky you can only do what you can only do and sometimes we need to be reminded that we are human rather than taking on superhuman tasks.

Trouble runs in threes - October 2009

It seems that trouble runs in threes. Back in July I got that dreaded Swine Flu lergy but the rest of the team were forced in isolation.

R&R were struck down, one week after each other at the end of September. R1 then returned back into the workplace far too early in my own opinion as she was still not fully recovered from the dreaded Oink oink. A result of her early return R1 was then knocked off her perch by a nasty super virus that the students have thoughtfully shared with her. Then being the lovely person she is, R1, shared the virus with me. The outcome of this situation was that I ended up with most of the month off with pleurisy and then bronchial pneumonia. There are two weeks there where I have no memory other than feeling absolutely rotten with a cough and playing Darth Vader. I think the doctor was tempted to send me to hospital but I would not go thanks to all the other illnesses that were running round the region at the time.

I think in away this situation was another reminder that although we have been talking about changing the cooperative teams work life balance initiatives we have been repeatedly sucked back into our old ways of working. We still have not resolved the administrative issues and we are only likely to resolve that when we get a better funding stream. We cannot get a better funding stream until the local Authorities actually start paying their bills which means we have to do some debt collection. The problem is we are in a Catch 22 situation we are going out to do the work but we all do not having the time to chase the bills.

Teaching wise this semester we have a number of dissertation students who we have been counselling to be proactive and work on developing the time and project management skills. For some students we provide the guidance but it returns to the classic situation we can lead a horse to water but you cannot force it to drink.

Action plan

• Finish the implementation of a DMS
• Get the billing requests uptodate
• To stay on top of the workload
• Review the work/life balance load of all staff members
• Schedule specific sessions for organisational tasks.

Preparing for a New Academic year - September 2009

It is preparation time again. This means yet again we are reviewing and attempting to complete as much of the teaching preparation done as early as possible. This initial preparation at the start of the semester is important as it helps in the management and organisation of teaching sessions. Students need to be reminded that they should be organised and they need to prepare before the start of the academic teaching sessions.

Initial organisation for us includes the development of teaching schedules. For students it is about working out what sessions they have on at specific times and what timetabling choices are the most appropriate for their needs. I remind students about work life balance and I feel that we need to remind ourselves about work / life balance as support workers it just as important for us to ensure that we are not over tired and able to focus on the sessional needs of our students.

Half the battle for us as support workers this months is the juggling the stage return of the various institutions we are working in due to the different teaching start dates. R&R have been back since the first week, I returned on the second week of the month and J was lucky last in the last week of the month. The different dates has not meant that we were madly rushing about but it was a looming overbearing feeling of impending doom.

The feelings of doom due to the organisational conflicts of the student have been compounded with the concerns we have had of the Student finance situation and what are the likely aspects to this has on our future outcomes. The financial situation and the current political discussion, clearly indicates that there is high chance in May next year we will have a new political party incharge of government policy. The real question is where will we be in 12 months or 18 months.

Action Plan

• development of centre schedule which contains all the teams schedule using the new dms.
• watch the current political discussions
• maintain current knowledge of the economy through the reading of the Financial times
• Remind students about work life balance and the development of effective schedules.