Two years ago agreements made under the Collective Labour Agreement forcefully nudged universities into looking explicitly at their employees' work pressure and into coming up with concrete plans for lightening that work pressure. This remit landed initially on the desk of Karin Wels, who at the time had just started in her new role as policy advisor for vitality and sustainable staff deployability. And she recognized right at the outset: “There's no uniform, ready-made solution to this problem.”

This is relevant because, as Wels puts it, the biggest problem is not so much that people have too little time for their tasks. “What people mainly find difficult is coping with changes, with collaborating, with their own responsibility versus that of their manager, with confronting issues head on.” And in this, she says, image sometimes plays a role: “It is not easy to say that you are too busy, especially among academics. Many directors and deans are contactable and available almost day and night, and they are not alone in this, but consequently this is almost becoming the new norm.”

'Leadership', 'Communication and culture' and (more of a more preventive nature) 'Vitality and sustainable deployability': these were the three themes within which the working group set out to make recommendations. Similarly, the recommendations ultimately adopted in the plan are divided into three categories: 'Organization and support', 'Research' and 'Education'.

The full implementation plan'Workload in from TU/e practice' can be read (by employees and students) on TU/e intranet. 

At the administrative level various measures have already been taken in recent years in order to tackle the increasing work pressure, says Wels - such as intake limits on some programs, the release of funds to support doctoral candidates paid for by primary funding and the increased use of student assistants. But as others including the unions say, reports Wels: “Someone who is on the verge of a burn-out is not going to be cheered by numerical solutions. That's not how you solve the work pressure.”

She continues, “As a rule, people at TU/e don't mind working hard, on the contrary. The sense of engagement is extremely strong. But what they are chiefly missing, it often turns out, is their labors being noticed and appreciated. As a boss, make sure you notice it, mention it. Go ahead and say that your employee can compensate for overtime worked. And if, conversely, people are troubled by having to do extra work, make sure you create a climate in which they can raise this for discussion. It might seem rather soft to write something like this into a policy plan, but it is certainly necessary.”

With the appointment of ambassadors like these and with other developments, Wels hopes to find a support base among the directors and heads of department at TU/e, which would hopefully lead to local actions and changes. “There comes a time when everything has been said and you've talked in circles often enough. So now we are putting the ball back in the community's court and have also asked  that the working group be discharged of its duties. Working pressure isn't something you solve with an action plan, but that plan could easily provide the impetus and support needed to make something a serious topic of discussion.”

"Anyone can succumb to work pressure; it doesn't mean you're weak”

Working hard, if necessary until we are about to drop. According to TU/e professor Kees Storm (Applied Physics) this is lodged deep in the university's DNA, “simply because all of us pursue this business with an immense passion”. And so, in his view, work pressure is not a problem that can be solved top-down with extra resources and people - it requires an explicit culture change that everyone, in all echelons of TU/e, must work towards. “Anyone can succumb to work pressure; it doesn't mean you're weak. It's a real problem.”

Storm knows how academics think. The typically older, established scientists who say they recognize and understand the problem of work pressure, “but who themselves happily work eighty hours a week. Some have built an outstanding academic career in this way, and see hard work as being the only way - after all, armies of Americans and Chinese stand ready to overtake you on all sides. But not everyone can manage working weeks like these; many people are on the verge of collapse and are being crushed by the system.”

But the real key - “and greatest challenge” - lies, he believes, in an unequivocal culture change - although at an institution like a university, which is usually slow to change, this will take a great deal of time, the professor realizes. Above all, he believes, it's a question of awareness, of realization. For example, awareness of what message you are sending as an organization that likes to talk about ambition and excellence, certainly in times of growth and increasing work pressure.

But also awareness of what message you are sending as a manager within that organization to the people around you, including your sometimes implicit expectations. “I see a lot of amateurism in leadership, with the best of intentions, I'll grant you that. For example, giving people as much free rein as they want, setting the sky as the limit. ‘Jump as high as you can and a thousand flowers will bloom.’ In that respect we could be a little more friendly and, especially, more caring.”

By instinct

Many managers among the academic staff, says Storm, have gained their position thanks to their scientific achievements, have evolved from doing research, without management training, “It's something I've personally struggled with a great deal. I work a lot by instinct but I also talk frequently with colleagues like Remco Tuinier, people who come from industry. And of course there are all kinds of training courses from which you can take away some useful tools.”

A very simple tool Storm personally uses is Gmail, “because it enables me to time my mails more easily. Sometimes I send another couple of mails from home in the evening, then I've got them off my plate, but they are delivered to the recipients only the next morning. As a manager you should set a good example in this respect.”

He also argues, following his own example, for a work pressure  ambassador in each department. “In my annual interview with our dean, early last year, I expressed my view that work pressure wasn't being tackled visibly enough in our department.” Laughing: “No good deed goes unpunished - in response to which he asked me to put together a working group of people from every corner and level of the department.”

And with this, says Storm “stories started to be shared. We made an inventory of the pinch points, and what people felt would be necessary to reduce the pain they inflict. We took this to the board.” In part childishly simple “open goals” to make the completion of procedures that bit more supple or to spread the work load that bit better, “but if you don't shoot for the open goal, you've missed an opportunity.”

And, he realizes, this may equally well apply to some of the recommendations in the recently delivered action plan. “Much of this involves simply taking a better look at one another, and applying common sense to how we take up each other's time. And while this plan is not the one and only solution to this problem, it does provide a more formal way of ‘bringing the subject to people's attention’ and getting the discussion ball rolling.”

While formally the matter does not lie at the door of the Executive Board (going forward it is up to the various departments of the university to implement the plan), personally Storm is still hoping for “a statement from the top. Because although a culture change can come about bottom-up, that way takes longer. So I hope that the Executive Board will make some pronouncements about these recommendations and encourage the organization to set to work with them in a particular way. Because if the action plan is not adopted, nothing will change.”

Likewise Executive Board member Nicole Ummelen points out that the plan that has been presented is already an implementation plan, and that it is now up to the separate entities within the university to flesh it out to reflect their own situation, “with the help of HR”.

In view of this, Ummelen does not feel it is appropriate for her to say which of the plan's recommendations are the most relevant and applicable, or which should be implemented first and which would be the best to apply: “That will likely differ from entity to entity”. But she does say it is “very pleasing and important that some colleagues have already put themselves forward for the role of ambassador.”

According to administrators, the plan is at any rate a good and necessary step towards reducing work pressure and offers “excellent suggestions and starting points, some of which have come from within the university itself,” says Ummelen. And, she says, initial experiences are positive, “although it is too soon to draw conclusions about its impact.”