In February, 2022, I started a new job as an Educational Developer in the Centre for Learning and Program Excellence at Red River College Polytechnical. This came after 18 often tortuous months of searching for a job. That’s an unfamiliar experience for many of my colleagues so I tweeted this 🧵 to share what it was like and what they could do to help their friends and colleagues with precarious employment.
For the past 18 months, I’ve been through something many of you haven’t, thankfully. Let me tell you about finding a job in #HigherEd. It’s exhausting. Dehumanizing. And the anxiety? Imagine this, if you can:
— Peter Newbury (@polarisdotca) March 5, 2022
For the past 18 months, my INBOX had fewer than 5 new messages. At *every* moment of *every* day, I knew *exactly* how many messages were unread because the next time the badge on my phone’s email flicked from 2 to 3 or 3 to 4, it could be the email that changed my life.
— Peter Newbury (@polarisdotca) March 5, 2022
Imagine: every time you tap the email icon on your phone, you might read the email that changes your life. But, of course, hundreds and thousands of times, it wasn’t. Just another mundane message. High to low to high to low, again and again, every waking moment.
— Peter Newbury (@polarisdotca) March 5, 2022
Once in a long while, you receive an email about a job, which starts an anxious, but at this stage welcome, sequence of interviews and responses. Those of you with jobs know what that’s like.
— Peter Newbury (@polarisdotca) March 5, 2022
The worst email is no email at all. That’s a story for another🧵though.
— Peter Newbury (@polarisdotca) March 5, 2022
I’m thrilled to have found a job that I enjoy. And relieved that I can glance at my phone again without every email notification dangling success and then snatching it away.
— Peter Newbury (@polarisdotca) March 5, 2022
I’m not telling you all this for sympathy. If you have the even slightest thought of replying with, “I’m sorry this happened to you, Peter”, thanks but please do this instead:
— Peter Newbury (@polarisdotca) March 5, 2022
Tweet or email one of your precarious colleagues, like a sessional or adjunct searching for their next contract or an early-career educational developer or instructional designer hoping to join a Centre for Teaching.
— Peter Newbury (@polarisdotca) March 5, 2022
Offer to read their Teaching Statement, review their CV, or proof-read their cover letter. Tell them about institutions where you have friends and that you’ll make a connection so they can get the inside scoop when applying there.
— Peter Newbury (@polarisdotca) March 5, 2022
Most importantly, tell them you understand the different kind of anxiety they’re feeling. That you’re there to listen if they need to despair or rant or just🤬swear 🤬about 🤬a 🤬lost 🤬opportunity. Remind them they’re still valued, still valuable, still human. Thx. /fin
— Peter Newbury (@polarisdotca) March 5, 2022
I’m so grateful for the RTs, like, and especially the replies. Despite what you often hear about Twitter, my community there has always been a source of warmth and reassurance.