ASEs within the EECS/DS departments conducted a survey of approximately 10% of undergraduate and graduate academic student employees in EECS/DS. Here’s what we found.
- 55% reported being overworked.
- 38% of all respondents reported being overworked by 2 or more hours per week
- 13% of all respondents reported being overworked by 5 or more hours per week
- The average overworked ASE works 30% over their appointed hours.
- In total, overwork is equal to approximately 15.85% of appointed hours.
- The net surplus of worked hours over appointed hours is equal to 10.68% of appointed hours.
- TA overwork is worth some $1.5 million per academic year.
Terminology
Some people work more than their appointed workload; we refer to this as “overwork.” Others work less; this is “underwork.”
When talking about the total amount of overwork across a group of people, things get a little tricky. For example, if Alice and Bob are both 20-hour UGSIs, but Alice works 30 hours and Bob works 10 hours, the net amount of surplus work done between Alice and Bob is 0. But the fact that Bob is underworked does not mean that Alice is not overworked. We would still consider the total amount of overwork in this scenario to be 10 hours/week.
Data
All data for this report is available in a spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet:
- “Average overwork” refers to the average number of overworked hours per ASE, either weighting each ASE equally or weighting by the number of hours. In the above scenario with Alice and Bob, the average overwork is 5 hours, or 25%.
- “Average surplus” refers to the average difference of worked hours over appointed hours per ASE. That is, overwork and underwork “cancel out.” In the above example, the average surplus is 0 hours.
By position
Readers
As only 6 readers responded to our survey, our results are limited. Our results show that readers on average work 6.94% ± 4.28% less than their appointed workloads—although some readers did report being overworked.
Tutors
- 62.5% of tutors report being overworked.
- 45.83% of all tutors report being overworked by 2+ hours per week.
- 4.17% of all tutors report being overworked by 5+ hours per week.
- The average overworked tutor works 27.08% over their appointment.
- We estimate that 4,247 tutor-hours of overwork will occur in Spring 2023, equivalent to 31 8-hour tutor positions. (This is 16.9% of appointed hours.)
- We estimate that the net surplus of worked tutor hours over appointed hours will be 3,986 this semester, equivalent to 29 8-hour tutor positions. (This is 15.89% of appointed hours.)
TAs
- 54.39% of TAs report being overworked.
- 40.35% of all TAs report being overworked by 2+ hours per week.
- 17.54% of all TAs report being overworked by 5+ hours per week.
- The average overworked TA works 31.32% over their appointment.
- We estimate that 16,851 TA-hours of overwork will occur in Spring 2023, equivalent to 49 20-hour TAs or 123 8-hour TAs. (This is 16.20% of appointed hours.)
- We estimate that the net surplus of worked TA hours over appointed hours will be 10,937 this semester, equivalent to 32 20-hour TAs or 80 8-hour TAs. (This is 10.51% of appointed hours.)
Monetary value of overwork
We estimate that there will be 10,937 overworked TA hours this semester. The value of that overwork (at the standard TA rate) is $385,109.38. Additionally, since our survey found that 38.46% of 8-hour TAs work 10+ hours per week, we estimate that 99 8-hour TAs should, in fact, be classified as 10+-hour TAs and receive 100% tuition remission. The value of the remissions that these misclassified TAs are not receiving is $383,130.00. This is just for TAs in spring 2023.