Hello, fellow APSA members!

A few updates for you as we prepare to turn our clocks ahead for the last time!

APSA Surrey Social

Please come out to the March 18 Surrey Social – I will be there along with other board members and would love to meet you and talk more. This is my first social as President.

Voluntary Retirement Program and Workforce Planning

Members who opted into the Voluntary Retirement Program have now wrapped up their journeys at SFU, and we thank these 47 fellow professionals for their commendable, long-term service! This has meant a lot of change all at once, and we appreciate all those involved who supported retiring members, whether through celebratory retirement parties, retirement and financial planning, and supporting the end of their careers at SFU.

Related to this, the workforce planning activities that have happened at the most senior level (Deans, etc.) are being reviewed by SFU leadership, and more news should flow back to those faculty/division leaders in the next few weeks.

Bargaining Update

The Salary, Benefits and Policy Committee continues to work on behalf of members and will meet again this Monday, March 9, with 2 more dates slated for later this month.

Bullying & Harassment and Human Rights

We are delighted to hear news of the Bullying and Harassment/Human Rights Policy offices adding to their staff, so that there will be the opportunity for centralized intake through their case manager and the addition of an educational role. Stay tuned for more information on that.

Retirements, Hiring Freeze, and Workload

APSA does want to keep hearing from you when issues arise – please keep bringing your issues to us to ensure your issues are addressed where you feel vulnerable and/or not heard. 

There are 2 pieces to this puzzle to note again: 

1) Your mental and physical health matter. Do overtime if you can and if you want, but not at the expense of your health. Organizational Health is offering mental health training (called “The Working Mind”) to equip individuals to better support themselves, support others, and contribute to healthier SFU environments. Please take advantage of upcoming sessions for leaders and for staff: The Working Mind - People Strategies - Simon Fraser University.

We have inquired at senior levels and heard that at a “meta” level, there is nothing above usual in terms of volume of requests related to medical leave, etc., going to Organizational Health & Well-being, and we want to help ensure it stays that way. To that end, we have requested data from SFU to confirm what we've heard.

2) If you are approved to do overtime, make sure you are paid for it or have the option to be paid for it if you don’t want to take the time in lieu. While it’s one thing to be financially mindful to support the university, the true impact of position reductions will not be evident to top leaders until overtime costs increase or until work deadlines are pushed out longer than desired. You can’t burn the candle at both ends! 

Give yourself the permission not to “over-function” and “over-compensate” to get all of the work done that your area used to. We recognize that some very deep wells of knowledge have been lost with the voluntary retirements and layoffs, aside from the loss of many FTEs of workload. 

We are in a time of change and transition, so now is the opportunity to see where the limits are and to speak up when they are reached so that real change can happen.

Take good care for now, folks!

Christopher