Your article entitled ‘BU yet to make cuts announced in fall’ seems to present a positive spin on the announcement made last September that up to 450 jobs could be cut from faculty and staff positions (Jan. 21, pg. 1). While the cuts may not have been made, a hiring freeze has cut back on the Boston University workforce to the point where one person is now attempting to perform the work of what formerly were two jobs when one of those positions has been vacated.
In my own case, my co-worker left his job in September, and I have been struggling as a faculty secretary to do the work of two people for over four months, only to realize that it is, of course, an impossibility. My workload has almost doubled at no additional compensation to me, or cost to the university. I am not able to give the same quality of job performance I once took pride in doing, and I rarely am able to take lunch breaks (even though I still am required to record taking them on my time sheets) or even my allowed morning and afternoon breaks but instead must work through them to ‘keep afloat.’ My ability to function even reasonably seems to have been jeopardized. The stress and subsequent mounting tension and aggravation of what once was a job I enjoyed has now made it one I am becoming frustrated with, making me wonder whether even my work ethic, which has earned me top evaluations over the 24 years I have worked with BU, may be slipping.
I have found myself taking work home, when possible, simply to get it done; I have had to cut back on job responsibilities, simply because there is no time (overtime work is forbidden) to complete the tasks I once performed. The professors I work for find themselves having to do things that their secretaries once did.
Even students are ultimately affected by such halving of staff work positions. I am at the point of feeling the need to tell the professors for whom I work that I no longer will be able to do certain aspects of the job I once performed. My job seems no longer to be one I enjoy or in which I once took pride. Instead it has become a pressure position that can not benefit me, the people for whom and with whom I work or the university. And I must wonder how many other university staff members have found themselves in this same situation, even though the university can claim it has made no cuts in job positions.
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