The Third Way and all that jazz

The "Third Way" is finally now giving out the fruits of the hard work of Tony Blair.

Gordon Brown is not preoccupied with the alarming raise of debts in which university workers find themselves, alongside a very uncertain future about their work and pensions. It is not difficult in UK to be hired in the HE sector, just as long as you keep your belief in a particular ideology to yourself and you don't ask too many questions. Or perhaps it would be better if you would show a keen interest in the student as a consumer.

The same applies for the dismissal. You can be fired very easily. The procedures for doing so allow it and the UCU has no intention to put their nose in such a bramble. Dismissal has become as such a word which apparently is used much more fluently within the working class and mastered by university senior management. Such a word which time ago triggered feelings of oppression.

More common causes for dismissal in HE are related to performance issues or disciplinary actions. However, many other words like discrimination, unfair, bullying, mobbing, harrassment are frequently joined to the dismissal itself, to the point that the amount of cases is adding to the variety. The possibilities for the employer to get rid of a university worker are becoming more of a choice of a legal technicality than a real need.

People get dismissed or, as some personnel departments prefer to say, "are terminated" (very sick word) for a reason that is perhaps less expensive and more defensible in court by the employer.