University of Edinburgh to monitor staff location

Staff should subvert the system by lying about their whereabouts. How will the admin know, and then it simply gives the appearance of compliance without actually complying.

Edinburgh university academics should clearly retaliate by making management the subject of a large ESRC-funded, multi-year research programme looking at the effects of neoliberalism/predatory capitalism in higher education

I think it is a very positive scheme. To show my whole hearted participation when it is rolled out in my own institution, I will phone my line manager every night I am working late on research (start and end times), every morning when I am up very early to set up complex class practicals or experiments, and, of course, every weekend and holiday when I'm working instead of spending time with my family. If I don't get my line manager, I'll call their line manager. And as soon as I get to 40 hours in any given week, I'll stop working. More seriously, no one I know in University does the work they are paid for. A tiny number do less. The vast majority do far more. Attempts to regulate working hours, on tasks such as research which are not time defined, are not just pointless: they are counter productive.

How fascinating. The Orwellian Animal Farm where all staff are equal but some more equal than others. What I’m left wondering is what on earth is there to hide? For your employer to know where you are is pretty much standard across all jobs. It is perhaps time for academics to wake up a bit to the reality of working for an organisation, and to be reminded that they do not work for themselves.