This series critically explores the self-awareness, training and the mental well being of professionals. In this episode. In this episode Spyros and I discuss HE culture, staff mental well being and the impact of covid.

2.20: I start of the show by asking Spryos, in his experience, how emotionally literate he believes education settings are when it comes to adversity and trauma.

2.30: Spyros begins with discussing the difficulties of being able to detect early warning signs of breakdown and mental well being. Whilst his organisation is exceptional in what it does there is a lack of care and compassion. He compares this to other experiences within the HE sector spanning his career. Spyros talks about the modern university being a caring place but this means different things to different people. For example, at management level, generating policies that demonstrate a duty of care is considered enough.

4.50: Spyros continues with the impact of spending cuts across HE and in a university that champions mental well being, some processes could’ve been handled in a different way, for example with listening to employees instead of taking a top down approach, a listening and caring environment would’ve been possible. Though a top down approach provides policies to monitor mental well being it’s a tick box exercise that diminishes the mental well being of the majority of staff.

5.48: I ask Spyros in what way has it done this and he responds by giving an example of management putting staff through voluntary and compulsory redundancies in a non caring way. He believes this could have been avoided if management level had taken on board the alternative proposals that were put forward. These proposals included a change in governance, schemes and awards.

7.24: I point out although structural changes and funding cuts have been widespread, there have been well being programs available to employees. The downside to these however, is that they are externally accessible and many ‘overworked’ employees would not have the time to access them. Spyros continues with this being the difference between individual activation and cultural awareness. The whole edifice goes through a restructure and the employees are impacted. How then, can this be addressed because the individual activation route isn’t a good model.

9.28: I follow this up by asking Spyros if he believes adversity and trauma contribute to professionals overextending themselves through unpaid labour and if so, how might the educational system exploit this.

9.46: Spyros responds by starting with a personal account, stating how this can hinder parts of his life that could be enjoyed and with having job satisfaction. He differentiates between personal adversities and adversity in the workplace and discusses the major impact on mental well being during the pandemic. One of the challenges for HE culture during this time was moving teaching online and how we were operating. Spyros continues to discuss this and points out, in a fully marketised context, the need for keeping students engaged during this time was key for maintaining student numbers.

11.32: Spyros then discusses how this was problematic for the students themselves and how student satisfaction, being at the fore front of how institutions operate, can result in institutions being penalised if those levels drop; so there was enormous pressure on teaching staff. This is a period that Spyros refers to as compounded trauma.

13.57: We break this down further and discuss what is meant by professionals overextending themselves and how this differs to unpaid labour.

20.07: I end this show with reflecting on the difference between being trauma aware and trauma informed. This highlights what we understand and how we can move forward more effectively.

Through learning and understanding, we create new knowledge and that knowledge can help with designing training programs for professional development.