Losing job ‘demoralising’

University jobs review slammed

THE University of Otago went ahead like a ‘‘steamroller’’ causing stress and confusion during its jobs review, according to a support services staff member who lost the job she held for more than a decade.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said when her job was disestablished, the new position went to someone who held it temporarily.

She successfully applied for another job at the university, but said she was ‘‘disgusted’’ by the way the review had gone and it had caused her a lot of stress.

This year alone the university paid more than $6 million in redundancy payments.

Since the support services review began in late 2015, 166 people have taken voluntary redundancy, and another 13 were made redundant.

‘‘We thought we were going to be prioritised above external people going for the jobs,’’ the worker said.

‘‘That didn’t happen.’’

She thought the job which went to the temporary staff member was identical to her old one, and before she left she had to teach her replacement the ropes.

Discovering she had lost her job was ‘‘demoralising’’.

‘‘If they’d been some real, believable intention [to consult] then people wouldn’t have been so disheartened and so destroyed.’’

In November, Prof Kevin Clements and Prof Mark Henaghan expressed unhappiness about the review after being approached by the Otago Daily Times.

Prof Clements said after the publication of an opinion piece he wrote along with the Rev Dr Peter Matheson he received more than 80 messages from staff, some of whom said they were on antidepressants because of the situation.

University human resources director Kevin Seales said the university could not comment on individual situations. Recruitment was meritbased.

In some cases, roles were advertised internally first, and in all cases staff could apply for roles that interested them.

Support available included career advice sessions, redundancy information sessions, EAP support, and ‘‘flexible and adaptable thinking’’ workshops.

Consultation ran between 2015 and 2017 and took place in two phases, involving hundreds of workshops and more than 800 staff submissions.

Last month, university chief operating officer Stephen Willis noted the changes to support services were the most significant in the university’s history.