{"id":167991,"date":"2024-05-16T11:31:19","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T09:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=167991"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:20","slug":"labour-authority-universities-not-in-control-of-overtime-bullying-and-misbehaviour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2024\/05\/16\/labour-authority-universities-not-in-control-of-overtime-bullying-and-misbehaviour\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour Authority: universities not in control of overtime, bullying and misbehaviour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stress, overtime and misbehaviour are still common to academia. Universities aren\u2019t doing enough about these problems, says the Netherlands Labour Authority. Most of them haven\u2019t even looked into the matter properly.<\/p>\n

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Over nine thousand researchers and teachers at the Dutch universities completed a questionnaire by the Labour Authority. The results show<\/a> that two in five have been bullied in the past two years.<\/p>\n

Discrimination (34 percent) and academic-related undesirable behaviour (32 percent) are very common. Even more respondents saw others falling victim to these things. Aggression and violence (12 percent) and sexual harassment (11 percent) aren\u2019t uncommon either.<\/p>\n

Overtime, stress<\/h2>

Respondents say they work an average of six hours of overtime per week. Full professors in particular often carry on in the evenings and weekends. Their average amount of overtime exceeds ten hours.<\/p>\n

Three quarters has experienced stress \u201cmore than a few times per year\u201d. This applies to over 80 percent of assistant professors and 60 percent of full professors, who experience the least stress of all.<\/p>\n

The authority doesn\u2019t mention their names, but three universities haven\u2019t even acknowledged that \u2018psychosocial workload\u2019 is a risk. This means they\u2019re not complying with legal requirements, the authority states. Nine out of fourteen universities haven\u2019t completed a detailed investigation.<\/p>\n

Soft as butter<\/h2>

Nonetheless, notes the authority, there are all kinds of \u201cdialogue platforms, action groups, learning platforms, task forces, working groups, expert groups, steering groups, committees and reflection groups\u201d, but these are apparently not effective. Some respondents say there\u2019s false security: it seems like the universities are doing something, but in practice it doesn\u2019t amount to much. The processes are \u201csoft as butter\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Labour Authority asked the universities in 2020 to make plans to combat excessive work pressure and undesirable behaviour. The current assessment of whether the universities actually did anything shows this has been \u201cmarginal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Voluntary<\/h2>

Universities do take measures, \u201cbut employees have limited knowledge of these and use them to a limited extent\u201d, says the report. Also worth noting: \u201cParticipation in programs against undesirable behaviour is still almost always voluntary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most universities don\u2019t measure whether their approach is successful either. And they tend not to address the causes, but the incident itself. There is room for improvement, thinks the authority, which recommends taking systematic stock of the underlying causes of working pressure and undesirable behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\t

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