Teachers = Robots

"I AM NOT A ROBOT!"  

Gadgets give teachers no rest

By Stephen Wilson

 

 

Work can relentlessly and remorselessly pursue teachers!   

Every day of their lives can be rudely interrupted by the beep or buzz from a message sent by their boss to their I phone, smartphone or computer. This unwanted intrusion by employers into the free time of employees has increased rather than decreased following the pandemic.  Employers increasingly refuse to let teachers take a rest from their work even during their free time. However, new legislation is currently being passed in Europe to forbid such intervention such as in Portugal and Belgium following the legal precedent shown by France, in August 2016 where employers can be fined for sending such messages to workers during their free time. Second City Teachers explored this persistent problem.

 

"Every Sunday I get an SMS or message sent by my boss from the institute demanding that I do this or that work task. She asks, 'Have you put the mark of this student in the register or have you recorded those exam results? Those calls ruin my day off. I never get any peace from them ...' complains just one of the many Russian English teachers that work at the the Institute of Power and Energy in Moscow. 

The Russian English who can't be named also told me,

"Whenever I see my colleagues they look exhausted and stressed out by all this pressure. We were told at a staff meeting that there was a long waiting list for people who were seeking our jobs and that we could easily be replaced if we were not happy. To make things worse we were told by the head of the English department that in the future, all the teachers will be expected to have a doctorate. But many of the teachers despite having a diploma in linguistics and a masters don't have a P.H.D.

"All the teachers are expected to write numerous articles for academic journals and often end up having to pay for the publication of them unless the institute covers the cost which is rare." 

Such a trend where teachers are constantly asked to upgrade their qualifications, pay for extra courses, and write articles for academic journals seems to be an increasing trend in Moscow. Not only are teachers having to deal with employers invading their free time but are also being expected to become fully fledged academics. Teachers feel threatened by 'academic imperialism'. At the Plekhanov Institute of Economics a former teacher informed me that teachers experience similar problems. Natasha, a former teacher at the institute stated, 

"The employers have no sense of a teacher's life work balance. What incentive is there for a teacher to study at an institute when the pay is so low, the hours long, inflexible and they are expected to finish a doctorate without any real support or grants for them to complete it? I also heard that teachers aged 60-65 had their working hours cut in half." 

The notion that there is a waiting list of teachers applying to take jobs at those institutes is highly questionable especially when the pay is so low. It could well be a standard scare tactic to intimidate teachers. In fact, the institute could face a shortage of teachers because many of the teachers we spoke to told us they dreamed of leaving their posts as working conditions have become 'intolerable.' The teachers are rendered further vulnerable by the fact they lack a union to protect them. Many are scared of the possible repercussions of joining them.

 

The situation where some demanding employers bombard their employees with emails was boosted by the rise in all kinds of new gadgets such as smart phones, 

iPhones and portable mobile phones. It now feels you carry your work around everywhere in your mobile phone. The pandemic also gave a further boost to Online teaching, resulting in workers become 'appendages to their machines.' Instead of Satanic mills you have Evil Email that never ends. Now the line between work and home has become increasingly blurred. So many teachers feel they have to be available at all times. They are made to feel guilty about relaxing on a Sunday. Every day is meant to be Monday! But answering all those calls and messages not only leads to stress, but in some cases burn out.

 

The good news is that several countries in Europe have passed laws allowing workers to disconnect. A legal precedent was set by France in August 2016, where a law was passed forbidding employers from sending email after working hours and especially on their days off. In February 2022, Belgium passed a law allowing civil servants to switch off work e-mails, texts and phone calls outside working hours without fear of reprisals. The legislation came into effect to protect 65,000 public sector employees from being permanently on call. However, the problem with those new laws is that don't cover private enterprises or companies that employ a small number of employees. It is also one thing to pass a law, another to enforce it. The European Union, in principle, defends the right of workers to disconnect from their work beyond working hours. Portugal has also passed work life balance legislation where employers  in companies of ten or more workers face fines for contacting their staff outside working hours. But what about companies who employ less than ten members of staff?

 

Such legislation would be welcomed by teachers at the institutes and so many other hard done employees. Under article 37 of the Russian Constitution of the Russian Federation forced labor is forbidden and everyone has the right to rest. But this seems more an expression of principle and pious wish than a secure and protected right.  Many Russians would undoubtedly welcome similar laws based on recent European legislation. As one P.R. manager Marina told me, 'We are not robots."

Nicoli Schmidst, a Job Commissioner agrees. He states, "The right to disconnect is something recognizable because we are not robots." Some proverb goes, 'There is no rest for the wicked.' The proverb gets it wrong. It should say 'There is no rest from the wicked.'