Member Spotlight - Erin Harrington.

Erin Harrington is a Senior Lecturer in the English Programme and a Program Co-ordinator of Cultural Studies at the University of Canterbury, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha.

What do you love about your work as an academic at University of Canterbury?

I love the challenge, variety and flexibility. It’s really stimulating and dynamic and given the high trust model we have there’s much more freedom here than in many workplaces (although that can come at a cost!). It’s also really creative. My work allows me to teach, design courses, follow my interests, write, talk, collaborate with people here and internationally. I do a lot of work in the arts in the wider community. I love working with students and supporting new researchers, and I really appreciate my colleagues.

What are the challenges?

The job is very demanding – like 87 smaller jobs stacked together in a trenchcoat. Workload is high, and things can be extremely stressful. It can be hard (and sometimes I think not actually possible) to balance everything we’re supposed to be doing. We’re caught in the middle of lots of competing priorities, some of which change rapidly. Teaching (which is often the best part of the job) has also changed considerably in a very short time, and I don’t think for the better. There is a frequent sense (which also comes through in funding and policy) that our work and research in the arts is seen as irrelevant.

Why are you a member of your union?

I believe really strongly that collective action and advocacy can improve work conditions, and outcomes, for everyone. There are lots of reasons for this in a workplace as big and diverse as ours, but one important one for teaching and research staff is that academia in general, in NZ and overseas, is built on the labour of vulnerable and low-paid workers: tutors, teaching and lab assistants, early career researchers, fixed-term academics, sessional teachers.

This is an industry with poor access to permanent employment, and high rates of precarity, especially if you sit within a marginalised group. There is a tacit expectation that you’ll do things for passion, or for the good of the team, because otherwise access to work and career pathways goes away. Even when work is available, some of the conditions would really shock people outside of the university system, such as repeated use of fixed term agreements, unworkable contracts (such as those requiring you to do considerable unpaid labour ahead of starting to work, or that have unreasonably low hours attached to tasks), low support and professional development, and vague expectations and boundaries. A lot of these issues are invisible.

Permanent academic staff face other challenges too. I don’t think universities should run on goodwill, and I think collective bargaining and union support can help move the needle. I am very thankful that the TEU has helped me in the past navigate some of these issues, and I want to support others in the same boat.