Hmm, an understandable defence after my curmudgeonly swipes. I'll take these points
in turn, but before I do, let's take a moment to appreciate the nature of this reply
to my email. No willingness to engage in any of these concerns, only to defend the
institution. That is quite telling. Ok, to take the points in turn...
1) You suggest I'm missing the point because your staff have different nationalities.
That's a nice try but it's really a distraction from my point, which was the wording
"native or near-native", which creates unneccesary insecurities in potential
candidates and invites discrimination (not by you, but quite possibly from others in
the interviewing process, and anyway more broadly in the sector). If you actually
meant "The person appointed has to be able to express themself with a high degree of
accuracy in both speech and writing", why not simply say that? Again, over on the
BAAL list they have a rule against your wording, precisely for this reason.
2) I'm genuinely struggling to believe you have hired people into *full-time
permanent* positions who have not yet completed their viva. More likely into fixed
term posts and then later permanent posts. If you actually have done that, great! I'd
love to hear more about that. I guess it's confidential so we'll never quite hear the
answer to that. About the numbers of applicants, I recently heard from someone
fielding applications for a very similar post at a less prestigious UK university,
which received over 100 applications. I sympathise with the job ahead of you.
3) "we are emphatically not asking candidates to have existing experience with the
range of tasks you list". Oh dear, now things get really sticky. The person spec for
the post does indeed explicitly mention every one of these. Slightly tiresome to
quote them all but you threw down the gauntlet so here goes:
"Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience > Applicants are expected to:
- Have a developing profile of research excellence, evidenced by a record of
high-quality peer-reviewed research publications..." [this is top-tier research]
- Have a record of actively seeking to obtain external research funding or a clearly
articulated plan to apply for external research funding in the next two years [hmm ok
maybe not gaining funding, but obviously that would help]
- Have some experience of delivering high-quality research-led teaching ... using
innovative teaching methods and learning technologies [innovative teaching]
- Have experience in or a clearly articulated commitment to providing effective
support to students [pastoral support]
And then the other criteria in the person spec relate to my final point "admin
duties, etc. etc". So to claim you are "emphatically not asking candidates to have
existing experience with the range of tasks you list" is, to put it charitably, a
little misleading. To put it less charitably, please, if you're going to accuse me of
not reading something, maybe read it yourself? Pity this listserv doesn't support the
eyeroll emoji.
Lastly, I'm glad you personally don't work an 80-hour week; really, that's to be
celebrated. I honestly hope you encourage colleagues to keep a good work-life
balance. I genuinely struggle to imagine how they would, given all these tasks,
especially for a new hire, but if you are here and now committing to ensuring that
all your staff never feel the need to work beyond normal healthy working hours, that
is only to be celebrated. However, it's a tiny bit ironic that you should be implying
that is the case on the very day that a strike begins over precisely these issues of
working conditions, at 54 UK universities, including Manchester.
But.... I really tried to emphasise that I wasn't jabbing at this specific job ad or
university or department, that my irritation was more general. That is really the
point I'm trying to make here, that job ads and person specs can be better.
Lastly, in my previous email I welcomed private responses in confidence, and I have
heard from some early career folk, potential candidates perhaps, who thanked me
sincerely for voicing concerns and frustrations which they had, but which they felt
too structurally intimidated to voice, even among friends. So, again, if we could
only be a bit less defensive and a bit more considerate about the way we treat early
career people - in hiring and when they are employed - surely that would make for a
more productive and peaceful work environment.
Dave
From: Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2021 07:45:43 +0000
Subject: Lecturer in English Language U of Manchester
Dear Dave (if I may),
As the OP, I feel at least indirectly addressed by your little rant below.
Let me start by saying that before you write this type of post, which may have the
unfortunate consequence of discouraging at least some otherwise suitable candidates
from applying, you might have the decency to research the department that's
advertising the post.
As it happens, every single one of the accusations you make misses the mark.
First, yes, we're asking for someone with "native or near-native" mastery of English.
And we don't feel in any way bad about that. The person appointed has to be able to
express themself with a high degree of accuracy in both speech and writing. Where you
go wrong is in assuming this "really" means we'll only appoint native speakers. Had
you taken the trouble to research the department, you'd have noticed that current
staff in English Language originate from Belgium, Poland, Germany, and Spain. The
person whose post is being replaced is Dutch.
Secondly, you suggest that we're being "cynical" in opening up the post to candidates
who are close to completing their PhDs, because you assume that we wouldn't "really"
consider such applicants. There's nothing at all cynical about this, as our
department in fact has a history of very successful hires of just this type. I can
assure you that we are not trying to get hundreds of applications for the sheer sake
of it. Why would we? Such numbers are not made public, and would do nothing to
enhance our reputation. We actually have to read and assess every single application
received, you know, and we are not looking to create unnecessary work for ourselves.
What we do want to is get the best possible person for the job.
Thirdly, we are emphatically not asking candidates to have existing experience with
the range of tasks you list ("top-tier research, gaining funding, innovative
teaching, pastoral support, admin duties, etc. etc"), as you'd know if you'd bothered
to read the advert carefully. These are activities that the person appointed will be
expected to engage in. Indeed, they are the kinds of activity that staff at
research-intensive universities such as ours are quite standardly expected to engage
in. What we want is evidence that candidates have a genuine potential to perform
these tasks successfully once in post. We're fully cognizant that many excellent
candidates will not have pre-existing experience doing all of these things, and we
are prepared to help the appointee develop to the point where they can do them.
Finally, I hate to disappoint you, but we do not work 80 hrs/wk. As a Full Professor
in the department with a reasonably successful career trajectory so far, I certainly
never have, and I don't expect to start anytime soon.
In sum, it's you, and not us, who are being cynical (and not a little grumpy). And
since - as you rightly point out - you have no skin in the game, you really should
have refrained.
With warmest Holiday wishes and good cheer,
Maj-Britt
______________________________________________
Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen
Professor, MAE
Dept of Linguistics and English Language
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
United Kingdom
Academic
profile<https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/researchers/majbritt-hansen(2e13101e-bf1a-4493-8558-6e82fe042409).html>
Recent Special Issue: "The Role of Pragmatics in Cyclic Language
Change<https://benjamins.com/catalog/jhp.21.2>" (Ed. M.-B. Mosegaard Hansen) Journal
of Historical Pragmatics 21:2. (2020)
________________________________
From: Variationist List <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of VAR-L automatic digest
system <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 01 December 2021 00:00
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: VAR-L Digest - 29 Nov 2021 to 30 Nov 2021 (#2021-90)
On 30/11/2021 09:52, Dave Sayers wrote:
> Sigh..... as I age I feel increasingly jaded and grumpy about these sorts of ads. Can
> we have an honest discussion on this list about recruitment in UK academia?
>
> Some of my grumbles are kinda specific to our discipline; top of the list would be
> the requirement for "native or near-native" English speakers. Seriously? Are we still
> doing that? In sociolinguistics? I think you'd get short shrift advertising this job
> over on the BAAL mailing list; they have a rule against specifying native speakers in
> job ads, precisely because it sets up discrimination
> (https://www.baal.org.uk/baalmail/ - scroll down to 'Types of message to be
> avoided'). Magnanimously adding "near-native" hardly seems to counter that.
>
> Other issues are more general. It honestly seems cynical to encourage applicants who
> are near the end of their PhD. Those people will ruin their Christmas polishing an
> application for what? Let's face it, this job will get well over 100 applications,
> quite possibly hundreds, including from people above Lecturer grade facing redundancy
> or other degraded conditions. UK academia is in turmoil. Of course a full-time
> permanent gig will be over-subscribed. It feels like nearly-PhDs are being invited
> just on the off-chance that one of them is truly exceptional; that is to say, it
> helps the recruiter by giving them more choice. Countless others will apply for
> nothing. It just seems disingenuous and mean. At least the ad specifies that the
> successful candidate will tick all the many many boxes, so hopefully some will
> conclude they won't make the cut, but we all know that desparate times call for
> desparate measures, and many will apply anyway. Maybe if we're going to invite
> nearly-PhDs, in the same breath we should somehow add that it's kinda unlikely?
> (There are exceptions from time to time, I know, but disproportionate to the number
> of disappointments and wasted time.)
>
> There are other, better rehearsed grumbles about needing experience in more or less
> everything in order to get what is basically an entry-level job. And then, if you are
> the lucky pick, a really bulging portfolio of doing pretty much everything in the job
> itself: top-tier research, gaining funding, innovative teaching, pastoral support,
> admin duties, etc. etc. There's a fascinating promise of 'flexible working' as well.
> Does that mean you can work whichever 80 hours a week you like? That's true of all
> academic work in the UK I know, just..... sad.
>
> I don't honestly think any of these grumbles are directed specifically to this
> recruiter. These things come up again and again. So I'm not wagging a finger in any
> particular direction, just hoping maybe we could talk over some of these issues, in
> the interests of at least a bit more openness and honesty in recruitment.
>
> I should say I'm fairly free to make these comments as I've no skin in the game here
> (I left a full-time permanent post in UK academia for better conditions elsewhere),
> so please don't let me lull any junior folk into a sense of security. Negative
> comments may be held against you by others; it happens. If you want, you can send
> your thoughts privately to me and I'll collate them and send anonymously on to the list.
>
> All the best,
> Dave
>
> P.S. I'll be back in a few days to turn this frown upside down with my Christmas poem
> as usual, along with some new seasonal linguistic fun....!
>
> __________________
> Dr. Dave Sayers, ORCID no. 0000-0003-1124-7132
> Senior Lecturer & Docent, Dept Language & Communication Studies, U. Jyväskylä,
> Finland | www.jyu.fi
> Chair, EU COST Action CA19102 'Language in the Human-Machine Era' | www.lithme.eu
> Founder & Moderator, TeachLing | https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/teachling
> [log in to unmask] | https://jyu.academia.edu/DaveSayers
>
>>
>> Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:38:02 +0000
>> From: Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Lecturer in English Language U of Manchester
>>
>> The Dept of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Manchester is
>> looking for a Lecturer in English Language with expertise in qualitative approaches
>> to sociolinguistics.
>> Job specs below. Please disseminate widely!
>> https://www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/displayjob.aspx?jobid=21341
>>
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>> Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen
>> Professor, MAE
>> Dept of Linguistics & English Language
>> School of Arts, Languages & Cultures
>> The University of Manchester
>> Oxford Road
>> Manchester M13 9PL
>>
>> Academic
>> profile<https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/Maj-Britt.MosegaardHansen.html>
>>
>>
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>>
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