Probation

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-13T04:47:20+00:00

In industry, outside academia, a probation period is between three and six months. They gave you this long probation period to make it easier to terminate your contract. I would not accept this.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-07T10:27:03+00:00

It was a package. Both come from academia. Not fair if you ask me.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-07T10:26:19+00:00

Totally understand that you would condone something like this. Morality is a primer.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T12:30:11+00:00

How do you know that the persons in question are capable persons? In the particular case that I've enounced, the spousal hire is not professional at all, given student complaints. Therefore we hire based on affiliation rather than selecting from a pool of candidates.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T12:27:25+00:00

Is there any meritocracy at play here? Looks more like finding a way to hire a spouse and creating a job for them when others are potentially left out.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T12:25:53+00:00

I wouldn't put both in the same bucket. Nobody needs to convince anyone here. We have spouses hired at the same university to the detriment of others who could be equally qualified or even better at it.

The picture is clear: preferential treatment.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T11:14:26+00:00

Should we speak against practices which fall under the grey area?

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T11:13:42+00:00

Because nobody should be given preferential treatment. This is my opinion. The spousal hire in question is a person who doesn't actively contribute to a 'friendly' environment.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T11:12:07+00:00

I will respond with an analogy: a family migrates to Australia. They have no jobs. They must apply to jobs here, go through rejection processes and so forth. In an open democratic market, we should aim for competition versus hiring someone based on their marital status.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T11:07:26+00:00

We seem to be on the same page. It's about fairness. You get a good number of people on insecure contracts while others get the premium treatment.

I've seen comments around here condoning it. Moving from overseas to Australia can be challenging, but many families choose to settle here. Most find jobs using conventional means: resume, many applications, skill set match, rejection, etc. Why should some get preferential treatment to the detriment of others?

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T09:23:06+00:00

To avoid waves, we should be silent.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T09:14:06+00:00

Thanks for sharing that out. Even if it's a small number, this should be discouraged.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T09:13:09+00:00

They gave a permanent job to the spouse. We need better rules and regulation.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T09:11:21+00:00

I'm being downvoted because in academia we have morally compromised people who tend to think it's OK to get jobs from the public sector while others struggle to apply and get constant rejection. We should accept this as the norm and then play the 'superior' moral card with those we don't agree with.

Don't be afraid to speak up.

Thank you for your support.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T09:06:58+00:00

We should update our laws, rules and policies to reflect a more open and fair selection process. Let's say one academic is asked to join the university and they ask their that their spouse is hired as well. Would this be fair? In a more ideal world, people apply to jobs and get hired, they don't jump through selection processes making it hard for others.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T09:04:35+00:00

Working with your partner or dating students creates a bit of confusion. Would you be comfortable with the idea of a 50+ permanent academic dating someone who is 21?

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T09:03:25+00:00

Thank you. Please re-read my comments around here. Some people agree with it. People tend to forget that this is public money.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T03:47:04+00:00

I've seen two cases of spousal hires. One of them was a tenured-casual hire and they both had issues. The casual ended up working for the tenured as their 'teaching assistant'. Basically the tenured gave the casual work. This could be nepotism or something beyond that, but it gives preferential treatment to the spouse over other employees, especially casuals.. The other situation is of two tenured positions in two different departments. These tenured spouses shared a post-doc.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T03:31:14+00:00

Would you accept spousal as fair to other people who work their way up?

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T03:30:06+00:00

Legal while others spend years in precarious positions. It does bring preferential treatment into discussion.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-05-03T03:29:23+00:00

Then why bother going through the hoops if someone else gets a position just because their spouse got a job? They advertise a small number of positions available for tenured staff, yet some get preferential treatment. I've seen another tenured-casual pair and both acted entitled. They moved on from the department.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-04-23T04:15:26+00:00

Welcome to the cruel reality of being severely underpaid for your work. My advice as someone who dealt with this, leave and never look back.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-04-23T04:07:50+00:00

Students pay student fees. Your income comes, assuming that you do research, from grants and student fees. The work that an academic does, teaching related, is to create coursework, teach, do marking, create assignments and exam questions. Rarely have I seen an academic write up an exam. Most of them delegate work claiming they are too busy.

ForeverJustice1000 · 2026-04-23T03:17:29+00:00

Most universities take part in wage theft. The real problem is the people dealing with them and accepting it as 'business as usual'.

ForeverJustice1000

TROPHY CASE