US-based academics, if there’s been a recent uptick in “complaints” about academic jobs on your TL, know that that uptick is likely bc of national strikes of UK university workers over, in part, workload and precarity, so maybe pause and get informed before weighing in?

FWIW, based on REF alone, a 7-yr cyclical review of academics’ research “outputs” that reqs dept staff to review research out of their subfield that has already been peer reviewed by experts (yet it’s the internal scores that can lead to firing), the situation in the UK is worse.

To translate: that’s in effect a tenure-track process every 7 years for the rest of your career, in which peer review matters less than scores produced by nonexperts in your department, which can get you fired (technically, performance/capability managed out).

All while teaching the rough equivalent of a 3/4 or much higher, 7+ preps or more—there aren’t multiple sections of the same course running in the same semester or year—and much higher admin/bureaucracy.