Walmartisation of academia

[energyresearch]

This post published in 'Hightower lowdown' about the "Walmartisation" of the aspiring academic made for a rather depressing read. Has the state of American academia already spread to other parts of the world? Would unionisation help, or is it merely a minor delay to the inevitable?

Maybe I should abandon the increasingly unrealistic dream...

For

Comments

[trundle]

As much as I agree that the devaluing academic labor is one of the most significant challenges facing higher education today*, this article comes off as pretty insulting to the "stereotypical minimum-wage worker[s] with little education, experience, or credentials" whom it implies might deserve conditions like these. The author's moral outrage that a highly-educated person has to work a second job is laughable in an economic environment where it is all too common to be working three or four jobs and still require public assistance to feed a family. Management is capping hours to avoid giving benefits? My stars! Somehow I suspect this author wasn't quite so vocal when universities began subcontracting service and custodial positions decades ago for precisely the same reasons

[nzraya]

I think the article actually does quite a good job of saying that these conditions are ALSO bad when Wal-Mart or McDonald's impose them. The difference is that we already know how shitty Wal-Mart and McD's are as employers, whereas a lot of people (including the faculty and management/administration at colleges that rely on adjuncts) still think of colleges and universities as somehow nobler -- they're "non-profits," after all! And their mission is to spread knowledge and enlightenment, not sell cheap crap

[agentdanger]

Another difference is that students pay thousands and thousands of dollars for their college educations, often sinking deep into debt themselves. It may surprise them that many of the people teaching them get paid next to nothing.

The stereotype of professors as comfortable old hippies who enjoy total job security and excellent salaries for doing next to nothing just really needs to be smashed.

[gobsmacked]

On the other hand, this sort of story doesn't help the image of entitlement -
Oregon law professor loses it over proposal to donate faculty raises to students

[nzraya]

There will always be occasional assholes in any line of work. (In fact, recent experience on our condo board suggests that 10% of any group of humans = either total assholes or batshit crazy.) The trick is not to let the most obnoxious trees obscure the shape of the whole forest....

[gobsmacked]

This gentleman has the dubious distinction of making both lawyers and academics look bad in one fell swoop. Kudos to him.

[nzraya]

Srsly.

Yeah, a college education ain't no Big Mac / cheapass pair of pants made by orphans in a Chinese sweatshop.

Ah, I f%^&ing hate everything.

[trundle]

Yeah, a college education ain't no Big Mac / cheapass pair of pants made by orphans in a Chinese sweatshop.

...

So this? This is what I'm talking about.

[nzraya]

??

My point above was that Wal*Mart gets away with charging as little as they do because they rely on ACTUAL SLAVE LABOUR (in other countries), as well as extremely abusive and exploitative labour conditions within the U.S. If that's the race to the bottom you think academics should be trying to win, then...... ooookay.

Alternatively, perhaps we should be questioning those labour practices and trying to stop them.

[trundle]

I'm unclear where you're getting the idea that anyone in this thread is endorsing the current employment practices in academia (or, indeed, suggesting that we devalue academic labor even further).

[nzraya]

I'm not getting that idea, but I am getting the idea that you for some reason think academics deserve to be punished for aspiring to better working conditions, or for pointing out that -- while NO ONE deserves to be exploited -- there is an additional element of WTFery that arise when the exploitation is OF highly (and expensively) trained professionals, who supply an extremely expensive and sought-after product, BY institutions who claim to be nobly-intentioned nonprofits.

[trundle]

you for some reason think academics deserve to be punished for aspiring to better working conditions

What on earth are you reading? I haven't been cross-posting comments from my secret BDSM blog again, have I?

[nzraya]

Also, my point (in agreement with the comment I was replying to) was that Wal*Mart in fact charges very little. That is, the consumer gets a direct benefit from Wal-Mart's and McDonald's exploitative labor practices. That's obviously not the case in higher ed. I'm not saying "we academics do something so much more valuable than making jeans or burgers," I'm saying "we academics do something much more EXPENSIVE than making jeans or burgers." So the provider gets screwed AND the consumer gets screwed. So....yay?

[trundle]

Well, as long as people are getting cheap burgers out of the deal*, I think we can all swallow** our outrage on that front, then.

--
*Of course, this isn't actually true. Both Wal*Mart and McDonald's could afford significant wage increases without hiking prices at all. Nor are skilled laborers in fields with highly-valued commodities (iPhone and Foxconn, anyone?) generally better off. But I guess we can ignore that for a few minutes if it helps us ease our conscience because we think we're getting a good price!

**Pun intended.

[nzraya]

Apple is a pretty good analogy, actually.

[brittdreams]

The McDonald's thing is actually much more complicated that the Wal*Mart thing because of corporate vs. franchisee things. Having had an inside view of McDonald's operations from the franchisee's perspective, I can honestly say that there are some (many) that couldn't afford a significant wage increase because their (franchisee's) profit margins are much slimmer than people realize. Now if corporate lowered the slice they took, the rent they charged, etc., that would help franchisees since they're the ones paying wages. Anyway, I know this is a side point but it's one I find myself making because McD's corporate money is not the same as the wealth of whomever owns the McD's near you.