Thursday, November 27, 2003
Beard Count
Male Workforce: c 30%
Female: unresolved
Male Workforce: c 30%
Female: unresolved
Working the ESRC Way. Old Skool Lunacy
I work for the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), which gives out money for Social Science Research in British Universities. It is bastion of long forgotten work practices phased out by Margaret Thatcher, ones which brought economic decline and the end of empire to Britain.
The first practice is doing everything on paper. There are big files on everybody's desks, which have to be endlessly checked & photocopied. This makes sure the details get lost easily.
5 people are involved in processing an application. Each stage is carefully demarcated so the process takes a week instead of one person doing one application in 30 minutes.
Then there is the Staff Grading System: Band 5,4,3,2,1. Each band has carefully defined duties. The rules stop any reasonably intelligent person from using they're initiative & finishing off something.
The flexi-time system encourages people to hoard work, stay longer each day, then take 2 days off a month. The result is an average working day in the office looks like the period between Christmas & New Year.
Unusual Research Applications #1
Children's perceptions of dog behaviour
An academic wishes to study if children know if they are going to be bitten by a dog.
Amount asked for : £20 981
The academic states the proposal is entirely original.
Unusual Research Applications #2
Seafarers' Commercial Sexual Encounters: Risk Behaviour & Fractured Identities
In the words of the researcher
“A study of the social processes ordering commercial sexual encounters between
seafarers and prostitutes in Brazil and Argentina. Using ethnographic data, depth
interviews, commercial sex worker diaries, email follow-up, and email focus groups,
the investigation will focus on anomie, identity and sexual risk behaviour.”
Amount asked for: £185 065
I work for the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), which gives out money for Social Science Research in British Universities. It is bastion of long forgotten work practices phased out by Margaret Thatcher, ones which brought economic decline and the end of empire to Britain.
The first practice is doing everything on paper. There are big files on everybody's desks, which have to be endlessly checked & photocopied. This makes sure the details get lost easily.
5 people are involved in processing an application. Each stage is carefully demarcated so the process takes a week instead of one person doing one application in 30 minutes.
Then there is the Staff Grading System: Band 5,4,3,2,1. Each band has carefully defined duties. The rules stop any reasonably intelligent person from using they're initiative & finishing off something.
The flexi-time system encourages people to hoard work, stay longer each day, then take 2 days off a month. The result is an average working day in the office looks like the period between Christmas & New Year.
Unusual Research Applications #1
Children's perceptions of dog behaviour
An academic wishes to study if children know if they are going to be bitten by a dog.
Amount asked for : £20 981
The academic states the proposal is entirely original.
Unusual Research Applications #2
Seafarers' Commercial Sexual Encounters: Risk Behaviour & Fractured Identities
In the words of the researcher
“A study of the social processes ordering commercial sexual encounters between
seafarers and prostitutes in Brazil and Argentina. Using ethnographic data, depth
interviews, commercial sex worker diaries, email follow-up, and email focus groups,
the investigation will focus on anomie, identity and sexual risk behaviour.”
Amount asked for: £185 065
