Email HR about the vacancy for a junior journalist to be filled in May; decide on the page layout of the print version of Observant and send it to the designer; call colleague CF about the conference in Groningen next month; proofread the English column (no notes); discuss all sorts of things with colleague WD; read an article about the latest Vici grant recipient; and so on and so forth.
It’s 10.15 a.m. on Tuesday, the day is still young, but my to-do list isn’t shrinking fast enough. Colleague CF asks me to read her article on the UM Summer Camp; journalist MT emails me to suggest an article on a condition typically affecting professional cyclists (narrowing of the arteries restricting blood flow to the legs). I want to write out an interview from yesterday afternoon, and I still have to finish reading a report for an interview scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9.00 a.m.
Paying for it
Meanwhile, I try to come up with something to write here. This takes priority, as the translator is expecting it today. I usually have an idea by Monday afternoon; I let it simmer for a while, get up with it on Tuesday morning, turn it over in my mind while cycling to work, and then it just flows onto the page. But yesterday our editorial meeting ran over, I had all kinds of things to do afterwards, and now I’m paying for it.
I repeat
High workload – that’s what this editorial is about. Why? Well, the Sustainable Employability Monitor – a survey among UM staff on workload, among other things – was published a few weeks ago. The main conclusion was that workload at UM has not, I repeat, not diminished in the past four years, despite various interventions.
Waves
High workload is a difficult problem to solve, as we know also at Observant. I’m definitely not the only one battling a long to-do list. We all are. If things get out of hand, which comes and goes in waves, we hit the brakes. Do we really need to publish that article this week? No. Can we skip that meeting? Yes. Do we really have to attend that other meeting? No. And, another important one: can you clear your schedule for a day to rest and recharge? Sometimes.
Experts
The University Council will discuss the issue this week. We will be there. We’ll also ask two UM experts for their thoughts on the monitor’s findings. Ironically, writing an article on the Sustainable Employability Monitor (which was already discussed by a committee of the university council before Carnaval) has been on my to-do list for weeks. I keep having to postpone it; other things keep coming up. Now, if that’s not a sign of high workload…