Academics also want to be able to work in the office at night
You’re just getting into the flow of working when you are asked to go home. International employees are wondering why they can’t keep working at night, at the Elinor Ostrom building, for instance.
When working on a paper in the Elinor Ostrom building at night, Assistant Professor of International Economics Ankush Asri sometimes loses track of time. ‘In those moments, I am so focused on the rhythm of the writing process that I forget what time it is,’ he says. ‘In those cases, I would rather work all night.’
Unfortunately for the New Delhi native, that is not an option: his writing rhythm has already been disturbed several times by doormen who have asked him to leave the building. The Elinor Ostrom building officially closes its doors at half past ten, but sometimes, employees are asked to go home several hours before closing time. The same applies to a few other buildings on campus. (see insert 2).
Online meetings
Assistant Professor Imtiaz Sifat also had to get used to the limited opening hours of his new workspace when he arrived in Nijmegen in 2021. ‘I enjoy working long days during certain periods; this allows me to spend more time with my family at other moments.’
New Vox
This story is part of the new Vox magazine, which is all about the night and can be found on campus from March 19th onwards. What are Nijmegen students up to while you’re having a lucid dream? Who’s staying behind, and do UFOs actually exist? You can read all about that in the new Vox.
Sifat, who thinks of himself as a morning person, used to start working at five in the morning when he lived in Malaysia. ‘By the time my colleagues arrived, I had already worked half a day’, he explains. By contrast, the Elinor Ostrom building does not open its doors until eight in the morning. ‘If I have a tough deadline ahead of me, I need to work the weekends as well. However, the building is also closed on weekends.’
Following his PhD at a public Malaysian University, Sifat worked at a private Malaysian university and the Malaysian branch of the Australian Monash University. Except for a few holidays, all three universities were open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day for its employees – but not for students. ‘The building was designed to have a separate entrance to our office, whereas students could only enter the library.’
Opening hours per building
A quick tour around the university buildings shows that they all have different opening hours. The Erasmus building closes at 19.00, the Maria Montessori building at 21.30, the Grotius building at 22.00 and the Elinor Ostrom building at 22.30. All four buildings are closed during the weekend. Yet, on weekends during exam periods, students can study at the library, whereas employees are offered workspace at the Grotius building.
During weekdays, the Huygens building closes at 21.30 and on the weekend at 18.00. Employees who wish to work after closing time can ask for permission to do so. With their employee card, they then have 24-hour access. This also applies to employees of the Donders Institute, HFML-FELIX and a small part of the Maria Montessori building.
Biorhythm
Political economist Frank Bohn, who is also a member of the works council, summarises all the universities he has worked at: Heidelberg, Princeton, Strathclyde (Glasgow), Dublin, Durham, and Essex. ‘In all these places, I was given 24/7 access with a key or keycard.’ Even in his native Germany. ‘Despite many people thinking that everything is very strictly regulated there.’
The same applies to the universities of Bologna and Konstanz, where the Indian Asri has worked before. ‘I actually don’t know any other academic institution where buildings are not always open’, he says.
Frank Bohn wonders why employees can’t figure out for themselves when they want to work. ‘Especially young researchers have a very irregular rhythm. Some scientists get their best ideas between ten in the evening and two in the morning, others wake up at five to start working. Not everyone has the luxury to also do this at home.’
Asri agrees: he doesn’t want to wake up his partner when he has to make a call with a colleague in India or the United States. The same goes for Sifat, who lives together with his wife and daughter. He has had to change his biorhythm because he doesn’t have a suitable workspace at home. ‘Nowadays, I wake up at seven. But to be honest, I miss my old rhythm.’
Executive Board: ‘No 24/7’
The Executive Board underlines that they understand the complaints of international employees. ‘But that doesn’t mean that all buildings need to be open 24/7’, says a university spokesperson. ‘We want to facilitate the work of our employees as well as possible and use our public means with responsibility, also by paying attention to safety and sustainability.’
The spokesperson explains that the opening hours of buildings depend on the use and functionality of the building. The Executive Board has received the question for longer opening hours before, among others from the Representative Council. ‘The longer opening hours of the UB nowadays are a result of that.’
Now and then, the Campus & Facilities division also gets requests from employees to let them work or study in the building after closing time. ‘When that happens, we look for alternatives. For instance, by directing them to another building on campus with longer opening hours.’
When someone works depends on the tasks and the job position, and this is coordinated with the manager, according to the spokesperson. ‘In addition, we are bound to the Working Hours Act and the collective labour agreement. Vitality and wellbeing are important, just like sufficient recovery and rest time.’
Work-life balance
Are international employees then not keen on the Dutch preference for a healthy work-life balance? ‘My personal experience is that people are quite paternalistic in the Netherlands’, says Bohn. ‘Of course, it is a good thing that the university wants to keep an eye on the well-being of its employees, but you don’t reach that goal by making people work at fixed hours.’
Bohn emphasizes that academics want to have the flexibility to work in their own offices whenever they feel inspired, without being ‘redirected to another building’. ‘It is not just paternalism; the response from the Executive Board also shows how little understanding the university leadership has for the needs of academics.’ Bohn also argues that closing buildings at night for sustainability reasons is not a solid argument. ‘I can control the heating in my office myself. Additionally, that is only a problem in winter.’
‘It is paternalistic to influence what decisions I can make for myself’
According to Asri, you can’t impose fixed working hours on your employees. ‘It is paternalistic to influence what decisions I can make for myself. I would rather have complete freedom of choice. I also don’t want to work from home, because that would cause my personal and work life to become intertwined.’
Sifat says he doesn’t think much about a healthy balance between work and leisure. ‘In periods with many projects, I sometimes work 70 to 80 hours per week. I know that it isn’t always healthy, but sometimes work just gets very busy. At those times, more flexibility in the opening hours of buildings would be very nice.’
