‘We’ve got to work out how to protect Lin and Veronica,’ she said. ‘They work so hard. They’re so good at what they do. We can’t lose them.’
‘Agreed.’
‘Unfortunately, though,’ the suit went on, ‘in order to protect the faculty’s financial future, it will be necessary to also streamline our number of permanent staff.’
We tightened our grip on each other’s hands simultaneously. Sadie’s engagement ring had twisted around backwards, and the stone dug into the flesh of my palm.
They changed the slide to a website screenshot,Renewniversitywritten at the top in script they’d probably paid a graphic designer a casual academic’s semester wages to design. ‘At the conclusion ofthis meeting, you will be sent a link to the Renewniversity Phase Three website,’ the suit announced.
‘If your name appears in the revised org chart, then your position is not in scope for Phase Three,’ the other suit said. ‘If your name does not appear, however, then it means a position at your level has been eliminated. You will be required to reapply for your role and at the end of the semester, the applicant not selected will be transitioned out.’
‘It’s a spill and fill,’ Sadie breathed. ‘It’s the fucking academic Hunger Games!’
The only response I could make was to squeeze her fingers even tighter.
The outcry in the room was audible again. The suit held up a hand. ‘I’m sure you all have many questions, but rest assured these are answered in the FAQ section of the Renewniversity Phase Three website.’
‘Fuck the rest of this meeting,’ Sadie said, grabbing her laptop off the table, closing the Zoom, and opening her email.
I got up and got my laptop too. Sitting cross-legged beside each other, we both frantically refreshed our email until the message with the link appeared. ‘Here, here, here, I’ve got it,’ I said, opening the website.
The server is busy,came the error response.
It took ten agonising minutes of repeated refreshing before the website finally opened on Sadie’s screen. She hit ctrl-F and typedliterary s, which took us to a side-by-side of the current departmental org chart and the revised one.
On the current one, there were two Level B positions at the bottom of the chart.Lecturer: Dr Sadie Shaw. Lecturer: Dr Jonah Fisher.
But I knew, without even looking – deep in the pit of my stomach, in my bones, in every fibre of my being – what the revised org chart said.
‘No,’ Sadie said, a sob in her voice. ‘No.’
Just one position. One little Level B square on the chart, under all those Cs and Ds and Es.Lecturer: by application.
She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, digging her fingers into her hairline. ‘This can’t be happening.’
I set my laptop aside and put my arms around her. She set hers aside too and wound her arms around my neck, burying her face in my shoulder. There was a lump in my throat the size of a melon as I stroked her hair.
Sadie pulled back suddenly. ‘Oh fuck, Jonah, the reuse policy,’ she said, eyes wide and wild. ‘That’s why they got us to write all the lectures! And do them all together!’
It took me a moment to join the dots. ‘Christ,’ I groaned.
The reuse policy meant that the university was not allowed to pay a casual academic to give a lecture in one semester, and then reuse it in further semesters without paying them.
The fifty-two lectures Sadie and I had written in our first semester of employment, though – and the further fifty-two we were in the process of writing for our second semester – as well as all the materials we’d prepared for my Shakespeare unit and her shelved popular fiction unit: all of those were prepared bypermanentstaff members, and were thus owned by the university, who could reuse them with impunity for as long as they wanted.
‘That’s why they let us get away with partner hire, even though all they can talk about is how broke the faculty is.’ Sadie’s face was a mask of pure horror. ‘So they could bleed us both dry for a year – and then cut one of us loose, leaving the other one to give those lectures over and over again.’
Part of me wanted to push back.I don’t know if their intent was that diabolical. Vargas wouldn’t have masterminded that, surely.
The intent didn’t matter, though. Someone – Petrovski, probably – had concocted this scheme at some point, and the impact was what counted.
‘I can’t believe this is happening, Jonah.’
Tears were starting to stream down Sadie’s face, her shoulders shaking. ‘After everything – I can’t believe they’re pitting us against each other again.’
‘Shhh, shhh, shhh.’
I pulled her to me. ‘It’s okay,’ I said into her hair. ‘It’s okay, my darling.’
