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Other Histories are Available! (Contested History & Workload) - WB 10th Sept 2021
69 Plays3 years ago
Welcome to Watching Brief. As the name implies, each week Marc (Mr Soup) & Andy Brockman of the Pipeline (Where history is tomorrow's news) cast an eye over news stories, topical media and entertainment and discuss and debate what they find.
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/archaeosoup
***
0:00 Introduction
01:12 Chester Uni Reprieve
03:49 A Difficult Balance!
25:25 UCU Workload Report
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Link of the Week
https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/
https://www.yac-uk.org/news/join-us-at-wales-online-yac
***
Links:
Hong Kong Police Raid Tiananmen Massacre Museum:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/09/hong-kong-police-raid-tiananmen-massacre-museum
Statue of Confederate commander Robert E. Lee Removed in Virginia Capital:
Science Museum to Remove Climate Placard from Shell-Sponsored Show:
Call to preserve Afghan Cultural Heritage and Protect Workers:
https://www.dw.com/en/call-to-preserve-afghan-cultural-heritage-and-protect-workers/a-58957313
Norway Police Seize nearly 100 artifacts reportedly missing from Iraq:
Newcastle University Staff Claim Workloads Unmanageable:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-58474726
Workload Report Newcastle University UCU:
https://ncl.web.ucu.org.uk/files/2021/09/Newcastle-UCU-Workload-report-Aug2021.pdf
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Archaeosoup Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network.
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Soupcast, coming to you from Archaeosoup Towers. By popular demand, we're taking selected videos from the Archaeosoup back catalogue and bringing them to you as convenient podcasts. As the name implies, with Archaeosoup you get a bit of everything thrown into the pot. Archaeology, discussion, humour and debate. You can find out more at archaeosoup.com.
Weekly Watching Brief: 6th Sept 2021 with Andy Brockman
00:00:28
Speaker
So sit back, relax and enjoy our hearty helping of Archaeosoup.
Chester University Staffing News
00:00:38
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the watching brief for the week of the 6th of September 2021. I am joined as ever by probably a slightly muggy Mr Andy Brockman. Good morning Andy. Good morning yeah here in southeast London it's muggy and damp it's drizzling outside um it's yeah it's just um it's not particularly exciting.
00:01:06
Speaker
It's quite warm here. I think we're about to get a storm. Hence, I have a fan right next to my head. So if there's any residual noise at home, folks, apologies for that. But I cannot sit here. Otherwise, I'm afraid this morning. It's very...
00:01:22
Speaker
and we apologise in advance if you disappear in a big blue flash as you're struck by lightning. Precisely, yes. Regardless though, whether I'm struck by lightning or not, our watching brief continues. Our ongoing mission to examine the archaeological news of the week and present it here for you for your delectation, delight and discussion below.
00:01:41
Speaker
Initially though, before we dive into this watch, we have a quick update from Chester University where there has been an ongoing review process underway as to staffing and therefore aspects of academic provision and it seems to be tentatively good news Andy.
00:02:00
Speaker
It is good news. It's undoubtedly good news in the moment because along this week, the university vice chancellor, who is called Professor Eunice Simmons, emailed staff to say that a dispute that had been running really for most of this year, which was the into potential compulsory redundancies across several departments, including archaeology. The university has now concluded its process and its dispute with the University College Union.
00:02:28
Speaker
And there are going to be no compulsory redundancies this year. So all the jobs in all the departments, apart from anyone who wishes to take voluntary severance, are safe. That's good. But presumably, though, that's this year.
00:02:49
Speaker
Is there any implications to what might happen next year perhaps? That is the problem. I've seen an email that Professor Simmons sent and in that email she talks about a number of issues that remain outstanding and in particular
00:03:10
Speaker
that there are a number of departments where student numbers, the university claims, don't merit the staffing levels that they currently have or going forward and that there will be, they want to enhance department and viability by looking at
00:03:32
Speaker
how to enhance student recruitment. And she talks about repositioning subjects to ensure their chance of viability in future years. So the axe is still hovering there, the sword of Damocles. It's still secure for the moment, but the thread maybe is getting a little bit thinner.
Censorship and Historical Memory: Hong Kong vs. Virginia
00:03:57
Speaker
At least, though, no talk of vanity courses.
00:04:01
Speaker
Obviously we'll come to that for our Muppet segment this month. Yeah, the viewer, that was a trailer to the Muppet of the Month. It is a good one. It is a good one.
00:04:16
Speaker
Anyway before we get there we need to talk about a few stories that we bundled together this week that have a common theme of the live environment that's represented by museums, historic studies, the presentation of the past and I suppose even the public discussion of the past or even specifically I suppose a national story and how
00:04:44
Speaker
it's inescapably difficult. It can be very difficult at times to be an archaeologist, a historian, a curator, an educator in this sort of environment. And particularly when you're trying to balance what we termed when we were writing the agenda for this week's watching brief, what we termed the difference between, I suppose, consent and censorship
00:05:10
Speaker
the difference between a sort of a process of understanding and in some cases recontextualizing the past versus genuinely trying to hide the past and deny that it ever happened. And this conversation, these thoughts were kicked off in particular by a new story that we were linking to from The Guardian this week with the headline, Hong Kong Police Raid Tiananmen Massacre Museum.
00:05:39
Speaker
Hong Kong authorities have raided the city's Tiananmen Massacre Museum a day after arresting four members of a civil society group that ran it. The raid is the latest act by the police in a sweeping crackdown on dissident
00:05:54
Speaker
civil society groups that do not toe the pro-Beijing line and came on the same day 12 activists pleaded guilty over banned Tiananmen vigils that were held last year. The June the 4th Museum which has for two years displayed information and historical items related to the massacre of student protesters in Beijing on the 4th of June 1989
00:06:19
Speaker
is run by the Hong Kong Alliance in support of patriotic democratic movements in China, which has been accused of foreign collusion under a new, well, under a national security law that's been newly applied to them. So this is an instance where history, relatively recent history, because it's politically so
00:06:42
Speaker
sensitive, especially for the government in charge, the regime in charge, that is actually being hidden. There's actually a photo here of exhibition information panels and foam board displays being packed into the back of a truck to be taken to places unknown, perhaps even actually actively to be destroyed.
00:07:03
Speaker
And I suppose just in terms of this conversation, this balances rather interestingly with another story from this week. On the 8th of September, Reuters news agency reported that a statue of Confederate commander Robert E. Lee was removed from its base in Richmond, Virginia's capital.
00:07:23
Speaker
Early on Wednesday, after a year-long legal battle over a monument, there has been the focus of protests over racial injustice. As onlookers watched crews secured the 21ft 6.4m front statue of the US Civil War leader to a crane that hoisted it off its 40ft 12.2m granite pedestal and placed it on the ground.
00:07:45
Speaker
The statue has been taken into storage pending a review as to where it may be sort of, as they would say in this country, explained elsewhere, maybe put on some sort of public display with an exploration of its particular history.
00:08:03
Speaker
in another place. And this is the difference, isn't it? We have, on the one hand, Hong Kong actively censoring a civil understanding of a crucial part of activist history versus a process that's undergone a year-long legal battle, and this is the result of it. And crucially, the statue, Robert E Lee, is not going to be taken to somewhere where we don't know where it is. We know where it's going.
00:08:30
Speaker
and it's likely to be on display in some other capacity in the near future. Where do you think some of these balances and these sort of nuances come into play when it comes to the role of talking about the past and being honest about it as archaeologists and historians? I suppose part of the problem is the fact I can't imagine trying to tell
00:08:56
Speaker
an honest story about the past in a regime like China's? That I think is the problem. I think for any of us who work in heritage, in archaeology, in creating narratives about the past and communicating narratives about the past.
00:09:21
Speaker
We have to be aware of the political context within which we work, the political and social and cultural context within which we work. It's why archaeological stories, archaeological narratives, cultural narratives are being reworked all the time. It's what historians do.
00:09:40
Speaker
you know, we take the evidence, we recontextualize it sometimes, we discover new nuances, we discover new documents, new information. It's a constant debate with ourselves and then with the publics that we try and communicate with. But I think there's a
00:09:58
Speaker
a huge difference though between and reconsidering the past is a perfectly normal natural thing. It's what has happened as long as people have been discussing their pasts. I think what these two stories highlight however is what you've just explained really that there is a huge difference between a consensual legal process that's done in the open
00:10:22
Speaker
and involves debating a contested past which people will disagree on and will continue to disagree on. And across the Christian they are free to disagree on it. And are free to disagree on absolutely and lawyers are free to go to court and to try and argue one case or the other. And a government which is trying to effectively rewrite
00:10:48
Speaker
the past by removing part of that past which uncontestedly happened. There is no question that the Tiananmen Square protests happened, that many hundreds of people were
00:11:04
Speaker
killed in Tiananmen Square by the Chinese People's Liberation Army operating on behalf of the Chinese government at the time. And the Chinese government of today doesn't want that discussed to the extent that, you know, before we started this recording, I googled Tiananmen Square massacre to check a couple of things. I couldn't do that if we were in China. No, the great firewall of China is it's called blocks.
00:11:29
Speaker
Tiananmen Square as a search term. So we're dealing with
00:11:40
Speaker
debate about contested past happening in the open with effectively censorship. And so, you know, and you might, for example, say, well, you know, it's about removing statues and also, you know, that's an ancillary argument. The basis here is that we're dealing with
00:12:04
Speaker
a broadly speaking open and democratic process as opposed to a piece of censorship in the interest of a government which doesn't want to have anybody arguing with its version of history. Yeah exactly, a state-sanctioned censorship and or mandated censorship and I suppose what's at the core here is whether or not
00:12:24
Speaker
And this is where it does relate to the role of an archaeologist or historian or curator or an educator is whether or not these policies and these alterations have an effect on our ability to do the stuff of history. And that is namely the ability to explain and explore how and why it is we are where we are today.
Controversy: Science Museum's Shell Sponsorship
00:12:46
Speaker
and often this in a slightly more nationalistic narrative it's why we are who we are today, in a slightly broader narrative it's got other elements to it, but if pieces are being taken away and actively erased, expunged from the record, then it means that history can't actually be honestly told. Now there's a third sort of
00:13:12
Speaker
nuance here and that is when museums are used because they are these live spaces where national and local and personal, interpersonal stories are told and reframed. There's the possibility for a museum to become a space where, well I don't know, would you call it sort of active discussion?
00:13:38
Speaker
you know, formal negotiation in terms of the context and the meaning of these sorts of spaces. Yeah, well, what has happened here is that during the course of a demonstration by students involved in the UK Student Climate Network, which is an environmental lobby group,
00:14:03
Speaker
The curators from the Science Museum did what they do, and curators from many museums. The Museum of London does this as well. They try and update their collections all the time by collecting contemporary material which falls within their remit. And on this occasion, the curators asked some of the demonstrators, could we have your placards at the end of the demonstration? One in particular is a placard of the earth as a melting ice cream cone with a slogan, keep it cool.
00:14:34
Speaker
And the student owners of those particular placards said, yes, you know, going into the Science Museum, the National Collection of Sciences, that is a public good thing.
00:14:50
Speaker
Then what happened is that the placards were included in the new show called Our Future Planet, which is sponsored by the Shell Petrochemical Corporation, which is heavily criticized for its involvement in fossil fuels and its continued promotion of fossil fuels as opponents see it.
00:15:10
Speaker
particularly in the view of the climate emergency. And we discussed the UN report on climate change a few weeks ago. And the students who created the original placards went to the Science Museum and said, wait a minute, we gave these to your collection. We didn't want them put into an exhibition which is sponsored by an organization which we
00:15:35
Speaker
believe is deeply damaging and essentially they seem to be saying that by having that material appearing in that exhibition they appear to be condoning what they will call greenwash by shell. Well the UK Student Climate Network were quoted as saying we question why the Science Museum felt it was appropriate
00:15:57
Speaker
to display placards from these protests in an exhibition sponsored by Shell. One of the corporations that the climate strikes were fighting against. So yeah, that's exactly what's at the heart of that. Absolutely. And this comes against the background of two things. One is that the director of the Science Museum, Sareem Blatchford, is reported to still be actively seeking funding from fossil fuel companies.
00:16:24
Speaker
Now, this is an area that has got other organizations into trouble. British museums have problems with sponsorship of fossil fuel companies. But more particularly,
00:16:36
Speaker
in terms of the Science Museum, two months ago in July, Channel 4 News reported that in coming up with its sponsorship deal with Shell, the Science Museum had signed what is sometimes termed a gagging clause, which, in quotes, prevented the Science Museum from quote, damaging the goodwill or reputation, end quote, of Shell. Now, I think any independent
00:17:06
Speaker
observer of these things, any journalist, any historian actually worth their salt, any archaeologist worth their salt, to actually sign up in advance not to criticise something is a form of censorship.
00:17:27
Speaker
and is not acceptable particularly in an academic you know an institution like a museum which is meant to be a place to explore and learn. And arguably this is this is precisely
00:17:41
Speaker
This is precisely why having adequate budgets is a good idea for museums. It means that they're not vulnerable to these sorts of requests from people who are essentially subsidizing and filling in gaps when it comes to putting on exhibitions in museum spaces. I suppose one could be slightly cynical and say well that's precisely why budgets are kept small so that museums etc might be more amenable to messaging and this kind of thing.
00:18:11
Speaker
But that's a very complex, nuanced conversation that's required there. But nonetheless, it does raise this question, and it raises a very important, recurring, echoing point, I think, in our conversations in Watching Brief, as to the nature of what we do. And that is to say it is, by its very nature, a
00:18:32
Speaker
often a fairly difficult and politically laden topic.
Afghan Cultural Heritage at Risk
00:18:36
Speaker
We're looking at the past of human beings and politics is nothing other really than presenting people with a story that gets them excited so that they vote for you and that story often revolves around ideas of our past and therefore a vision of our future as well, often based upon ideas of our past.
00:18:58
Speaker
And so, just to bring this section to a close, this brings us to something that's come out of the DW, the German news agency, where in their arts section, they have a headline here, Call to Preserve Afghan Cultural Heritage and Protect Workers. Now, I do believe that they're not the first to make this sort of call, or to highlight this call, rather, sorry, in the past few weeks.
00:19:27
Speaker
But it does highlight the necessary consideration of the importance of this sort of problem in so much as there's been a tendency in the past few weeks I've seen on Twitter in particular myself for colleagues and friends even to
00:19:46
Speaker
dare I say pontificate about the need to not be too loud about our concerns about archaeological heritage and museums etc. We need to think more mostly about the people involved in complex and this is true.
00:20:03
Speaker
What we see when we look more closely is that museums, cultural heritage, because they are live issues and for example actually this morning there are unconfirmed reports from the Bamiyan Cultural Museum of
00:20:17
Speaker
of artifacts being looted and or destroyed, computers being damaged as well and taken away. That is unconfirmed, though we will have to try and confirm that. It's clear that, for example, the Taliban are not unaware of the power of this material, and also of the people who have been working with this material over the past couple of decades.
00:20:40
Speaker
So in this instance, employees of museums and archaeological sites also need protection, says the news story, in the wake of Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The biggest concern, obviously, is the people. And we said on watching grief before you protect. We talked about it the other day. The other week when we were talking about Tigray, you protect the past by protecting the people.
00:21:02
Speaker
And there is an issue again, this ties in with our earlier discussion about Tiananmen and Confederate statues in the United States and so on, in that here we are dealing with a government that when it was last in power
00:21:20
Speaker
chose, for ideological and religiously reasons, it would appear to do two things. One was to turn a blind eye to looting and trafficking of art objects and artifacts and antiquities to the outside world and particularly into Western art markets.
00:21:42
Speaker
But at the same time as a cultural and political statement, it was destroying elements of Afghanistan's culture that didn't, in its view, tie into its worldview of what Afghanistan is and should be.
00:22:03
Speaker
The most famous instance is the blowing up of the Bamiyan Buddhas. Incredibly beautiful, significant examples of the influence of Buddhist culture in Afghanistan, which were deliberately blown up and have been the subject of a lot of debate and attempts at restoration. And you talked about the Bamiyan Museum earlier.
00:22:29
Speaker
Whether we'll see that again, I mean, the developed article you quoted, it basically is an interview with a German archaeologist called Lyta Franka. And she is asked a number of questions in the course of the article.
00:22:52
Speaker
And she was asked that,
00:23:01
Speaker
Do you believe the Taliban's assurance is that they'll respect cultural treasures in the future? There's been a lot of talk of a Taliban 2.0, but this isn't the Taliban that took power in the 1990s. They're much more savvy, they're much more aware of their public image, and they want to and need to engage with the outside world because they need development money apart from anything else, and they need the Afghan government's assets unfrozen.
00:23:29
Speaker
Dr. Flanker says, I can't assess that at the moment. I hope it's true. But there's a certain skepticism based on past experiences, and they go beyond the destruction of the Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley. After all, one hears that they have already been attacked in Bamiyan, including on the depots. It would be nice if promises to protect archaeological sites and to prohibit robbery excavations will be kept. That will be seen in the near future.
00:23:53
Speaker
I think all we can do is two things here. One is to be aware and for the border authorities to be aware, for our auction houses to be aware of the distinct possibility that the next months and years we'll see an increase in unprovenanced Afghanistan
00:24:17
Speaker
antiquities and objects appearing in western antiquities markets. Well actually this week there was a story in Norway where a lot of artifacts that were I think looted from Iraq were recovered by police there so yeah it's a sad
00:24:42
Speaker
Excuse me, sorry. It's a sad echo. It's a sad ripple that follows on from these. Yeah. But I think that the other thing I'll say is perhaps more importantly, even than the objects, there are people still in Afghanistan who worked for international bodies and with
00:25:04
Speaker
international workers, their archaeological projects, museum projects and so on. Many of those people now may well feel now in, in personal danger because of their involvement with the outside world, with a subject that historically the Taliban doesn't have any time for and in fact actively opposes, you know, the the cultural, the study of the cultural nuances and richness of the country. They're going way beyond its Islamic
00:25:34
Speaker
culture, you know, which is rich in itself. But, you know, the Buddhist influence, the Greek influence through, you know, the port of the Empire of Alexander and then the Empire, the Empire of Persia and so on, you know, Afghanistan is this incredible historical cultural crossroads in Asia.
University Workload Crisis
00:25:54
Speaker
So with all of these factors,
00:25:56
Speaker
working in such live historical and political environments, whether it's with regimes who don't want you to tell the full story, whether it's negotiating with the public as to how the story might be better told, whether it's working in contested or even conflict zones and trying to manage the human story that's still being written in many cases through those conflicts.
00:26:23
Speaker
It's little wonder that so many archaeologists, historians and others are feeling the pressure at the moment and this is before we come to a story that was published three days ago based upon research by the UCU, University College Union.
00:26:44
Speaker
from work done at Newcastle University where they surveyed 429 people between February and April in 2021 and came to the conclusion that university staff are facing an unmanageable workload with women who are suffering it seems the most.
00:27:04
Speaker
The poll found 78% of staff overall had described their workload as unmanageable at least half the time, and that people were working 20% longer than their expected hours. And it should be said that this isn't because of the pandemic, it's simply been made worse by the pandemic, hasn't it, Andy?
00:27:23
Speaker
That's right. I think one of the striking things in the report and I do urge again, our viewers to look it up and to read it. We'll be linked below, so they'll have the link to this and the new story below. Absolutely. It's actually quite a sobering account of what it's like or the perception of the sample of what it's like to work in
00:27:49
Speaker
UK higher education at the moment. As you say, it's not just referring to the impact of the pandemic. Obviously, that is key. It talks about, for example, the difficulty that people have had working from home in balancing their teaching duties with, for example, childcare and homeschooling.
00:28:11
Speaker
And then also having to enact so-called blended learning regimes as well. So having something that's at times face-to-face, at times digital. That's right. And it talks to the structural issues too. Like, for example, the allegation that management has flip-flopped between wanting to go from an entirely online learning regime to the kind of blended regime that you've just referred to and any variation in between.
00:28:41
Speaker
which is only added to the workload because people have had to constantly reconfigure what they're doing. So it's not just the teaching time, it's the preparation time that we're talking about. I think people forget that. Perhaps sometimes when we're talking about higher education, it's not somebody producing
00:28:59
Speaker
delivering lectures that they've been delivering to the same module for year on year. It's having to reject that module and then reject the module again because of different distant social distancing rules being in place and so on. So it's a very complex moving image of an area which is putting people under additional stress. On top of the existing issues like for example
00:29:24
Speaker
working more hours than you're contracted for because you've taken on additional admin roles, for example, or you're having to prepare a new module, the stresses of for example, fixed term contracts or zero hours contracts mean academics don't know that they're going to be even be employment, you know, this time, next month, let alone this time next year. So make for a secure or healthy
00:29:52
Speaker
healthy mind as it were. And on top of that as well, I mean, just in my experience in working with, this isn't Newcastle, but some other departments, we've been working on projects that have taken nine months and they're still ongoing when actually really the ideal would have been a three month turnaround on some of this stuff. But it's because we've been having to deal with oh, suddenly,
00:30:13
Speaker
these 30 people have COVID or this person has to isolate or that, you know, it's been, it has been definitely made worse by the pandemic. Absolutely. I mean, there was a report that, and it's cited in the Newcastle report, there was a report that was done by the University of Durham.
00:30:31
Speaker
which reported just only just under half of the staff survey that 47% of the people surveyed reported their mental health as being poor. 55% described themselves as being emotionally exhausted.
00:31:00
Speaker
And as you say, it's not just the responsibility to universities and to students.
00:31:09
Speaker
the Newcastle report quotes, somebody is saying, you know, I can't shake the feeling that in trying to keep up with all the work demands, I've let down my child. And if I try to accept that we just do what you can approach my own stress and anxiety rockets to nearly nearly paralyzing levels, which I have to push through. Most days, I feel I'm just barely clinging on with my fingernails on the cliff face. I'm pretty starving and able to cope with tough times, lots of practice. But I cry most days now. Yeah.
00:31:37
Speaker
And I think, okay, there will be people out there, not necessarily our viewers, but there will be people out there who say, you know, snowflakes, just suck it up. The bus driver and the supermarket worker has had it just as tough, if not tougher. But I think, first of all, everybody deserves to be treated well. Nobody should be made to feel like that just by going to work.
00:32:03
Speaker
And I think whatever happens in other sectors, one thing that's been driven home to me in the last few months covering stories at Sheffield and at Worcester and at Chester is how actually university managements have taken actions which have laid additional stress and distress
00:32:31
Speaker
on their staff and on their students actually, because I think we mustn't forget students in this too and this is a report about the teaching staff. But university management have taken decisions which have laid these additional stresses on people at a time which is already unprecedentedly
00:32:51
Speaker
stressful. The world we're living in now is one that is disconcerting, discombobulating, sometimes even frightening, perhaps. And they've taken these actions in way and cause stress, which is entirely avoidable. In both the case at Sheffield,
00:33:13
Speaker
And particularly at Worcester, which I've been looking at most recently, the university appears to have made no preparation for supplying support, direct support to the people most affected by the decision to close courses, which is
00:33:31
Speaker
considering they have a legal responsibility under the Health and Safety Work Act to support their staff, including in areas of mental health. I just find it deeply sad that people can have so little consideration for those responsibilities. They're
00:33:58
Speaker
Well, absolutely. I mean, the one of the findings here, the executive summary and one of the summary points is that people working much longer than expected in terms of their hours per week and that working those longer hours up to 20 to 30% more than contracted has become the norm, not the exception.
00:34:20
Speaker
And this brings us on to, I suppose, a broader point, and that is that part of the response to this report in the past few days has been to see people saying, at the very least, that they recognize this. They go, yep, that's happening at my university, I feel like that. That's the way it certainly is, you know, wherever I work. And that's a slightly more extreme in terms of the response. We've actually seen people saying, and that's normal. That's just life. That's just, you know, what do you expect if you want to be an academic?
00:34:50
Speaker
And I suppose it reminded me unfortunately of some of the less helpful responses to, for example, the hashtag me too movement that we saw initially exploding on Twitter, where some people, particularly often established figures, figures who felt that they had been through various systems.
00:35:13
Speaker
more or less said what are you complaining about that is the way it is that's the way I had to do that you know and look at me now it didn't do me any harm and and you know we can't speak for those people as to whether or not they're in some form of denial but certainly they shouldn't be wishing a harmful and work environment on other people just because it has become normal. It's problematic in that sense.
00:35:38
Speaker
Yeah, look, that that kind of culture that you know, it was like that for me when I was your age, this is how I got to be, you know, where I am now, you know, you want to be here, you have to be there. Yeah. And that is a kind of culture that in areas like for example, medicine, and the treatment to junior doctors, they've been trying to get rid of that culture for the last couple of decades, they realize how damaging it actually is. So if
00:36:00
Speaker
If people in the heritage sector in higher education, in heritage and archaeology are coming across that kind of attitude, then boy, we've got a lot to learn because that's been recognised as damaging in other sectors for a long time.
00:36:18
Speaker
It's not easy to remedy. No. But at least the recognition is there that it's not the way that you, it doesn't create a healthy workforce. Literally, it doesn't create a healthy workforce. It certainly doesn't create a healthy relationship between different parts of that workforce. So I think, again, it's one of those areas where the pandemic has
00:36:44
Speaker
highlighted particular issues, particular problems. And the ramifications are going to take a long while to work through and work out. And hopefully, hopefully, hopefully they will work out and hopefully we'll be around to see them work out.
00:37:00
Speaker
uh in so much as um uh we're also this is also coming in the context of of as you've alluded to at Sheffield and Worcester unhelpful management practices that once again i would trail our Muppet of the Month we're going to be recording early next week um now i think uh um where
00:37:18
Speaker
you know, managers could be more helpful when it comes to reassuring their staff as to, frankly, even what they think of the work that they do. But anyway, they don't want to go too much into that. It is genuinely a high end Muffetry though, that will be highlighting. It's a classic. And something else I'd like to highlight right at the end of this week's watching brief,
00:37:39
Speaker
is our Patreon page. We have, or RKO Soup has a Patreon account where we've instigated a tier recently specifically for you guys to support our work on watching Brief. This weekly format, especially with the more investigative elements and interviewing people and preparing the proper questions and editing, has become
00:38:05
Speaker
I suppose not more intensive, but certainly we've become more aware of how regularly we work on this stuff. And in the context of mental health and valuing work, I suppose what I would invite you to do is just maybe consider supporting us on Patreon. You'd be very welcome in terms of that support. And the tier is called the leek and potato soup tier.
00:38:29
Speaker
I don't know who's leaking his potato. I'm happy to be. I'll happily receive the leaks. Okay, great. You can be leaked. I'll be potato. And also there's a bread but on the side we can both dive in and stay nice and warm. Anyway, regardless, do check out page one if you're interested, your support be very welcome. And yeah, and we are actually considering
00:38:53
Speaker
changes to to what we might offer in terms of patreon for watching brief but initially we just wanted to highlight this because the past few weeks haven't really felt like the time to talk about patreon have they and we haven't wanted to to say at the end of for example when we're interviewing people at Worcester University oh by the way we have a patreon it just didn't feel appropriate but
00:39:13
Speaker
But I think in the context of being tired and strung out in a stressful and difficult work environment sometimes, your support would be very welcome, folks. Please do consider it.
Supporting the Podcast Amidst Challenges
00:39:25
Speaker
I suppose that's it for this week's Watching Brief, Andy. I say look forward to next week's Muppet of the Month and who knows where we will be. There are a couple of stories brewing on the horizon that we can't even hint at them, can we, at the moment. There's stuff on the whiteboard that's behind you that we can't show either. So exciting news is a coming, I suppose.
00:39:54
Speaker
Did you have any sort of nose tapping hints at all? No. Excellent Grant. Well thank you for your time this morning Andy. Thank you guys for watching and listening at home and until next time do take care. Bye bye.
00:40:43
Speaker
This podcast episode has been produced by the Archaeology Podcast Network in collaboration with Archaeosoup Productions. Find out more podcasts at www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com
00:40:59
Speaker
This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.