Good collegiality underpins the effective, efficient and pleasant working environment of the School. It is the responsibility of each member of the School to act in a collegiate manner and foster a collegiate atmosphere in the School.
As a School, we expect that
- communication between colleagues is constructive, respectful and timely.
- colleagues will attend and engage in all meetings to which they are invited.
- requests for information or action are reasonable, have realistic deadlines and considerate of colleagues’ responsibilities and constraints.
- colleagues respond to requests for information or action within the requested timeline, or, where the deadline cannot be met, with prompt communication to that effect.
- decisions are robust, made through as transparent a process as possible, and communicated effectively and in a timely manner.
- colleagues will respect and implement collective decisions and accept that they may not always agree with them.
- colleagues will be flexible and give their time to work together on activities for the collective good.
- colleagues have an awareness of wider School and University issues, which go beyond their own interests.
- we will recognise the strengths and weaknesses of colleagues, drawing encouragement from the former and supporting the improvement of the latter
- we will share our knowledge and experience to support and encourage one another.
- good collegiality is acknowledged and poor collegiality is challenged.
- it is the responsibility of colleagues, mentors, committee chairs, teaching forum leads, research section heads, the senior leadership team and line managers to challenge habitual poor collegiality.
Examples
- communication between colleagues is constructive, respectful and timely.
- Speak to others as you would wish to be spoken to.
- Consider the most appropriate form of communication. Would a face-to-face conversation be better than an email?
- CCing colleagues in to emails should be for information only, where the recipient is not expected to respond. Avoid unnecessary CCing of colleagues.
- Re-read emails to make sure they are clear and not easily misinterpreted.
- Re-read difficult emails before sending. Question how they are coming across. (If you’re angry or upset about something, by all means write the response; however, delay sending it for a day, then re-read and provide a more measured and less combative response.)
- Try to avoid ‘shooting the messenger’.
- colleagues will attend and engage in all meetings to which they are invited.
- Make yourself available for meetings.
- Committee chairs should aim to schedule meetings to ensure maximum attendance.
- Contribute to meetings when you can. Voice your opinion and consider the contributions of others.
- Do not be silent in meetings and then criticise afterwards.
- If you are chairing a committee, be proactive in ensuring everyone has the opportunity to engage and voice their opinion.
- Committees should be organised with a focused agenda, leading to clear action plans.
- requests for information or action are reasonable, have realistic deadlines and considerate of colleagues’ responsibilities and constraints.
- Give people as much warning as possible. Don’t leave communications to the last minute. However, short deadlines are sometimes unavoidable, do your best to accommodate these requests.
- If you are requesting information or action, please make it as easy as possible for the person to respond (e.g. providing relevant attachments, links or email conversations)
- Give realistic deadlines to requests. e.g. Don’t email at 6 pm, expecting a response the next morning (there may be occasions when this is unavoidable, but it should not be the norm).
- Be aware of colleagues’ busy periods, e.g. start of term, assessment period, intense teaching period, major grant deadlines etc
- colleagues respond to requests for information or action within the requested timeline, or, where the deadline cannot be met, with prompt communication to that effect.
- Aim to respond to emails within 48 hrs of a request, even if this is to request more time to respond.
- Make effective use of automated out of office replies when you are unavailable.
- Failing to fulfil an unreasonable request or unrealistic timescale does not make you uncollegiate, it makes the person expecting you to do this uncollegiate. However, ignoring this request is uncollegiate.
- decisions are robust, made through as transparent a process as possible, and communicated effectively and in a timely manner.
- Write up and distribute the minutes of a meeting as soon as possible after a meeting. The timescale for this will be dependent on the committee and frequency of meetings. Don’t leave it until just before the next meeting.
- Minutes should include a list of actions, with assigned responsibilities and expected timescales.
- colleagues will respect and implement collective decisions and accept that they may not always agree with them.
- Changes in School operations, the curriculum, methods of assessment etc should be discussed during consultation, but then must be accepted and adopted after a decision has been made. Do not complain afterwards or inhibit any changes.
- colleagues will be flexible and give their time to work together on activities for the collective good.
- Be prepared to give your time and expertise to support and assist colleagues; this does not mean cover for someone that is not efficient or effective.
- Being a good colleague will frequently mean you will give your time for someone else. You should do this because it will help that colleague and, collectively, the School. However, you need to be realistic about how much time the task takes and whether it can be achieved within your workload.
- The School functions best when everyone is willing to devote a fraction of their time to support colleagues and contribute to tasks for the collective good. On occasion, you may not be able to offer your time, due to workload or other time commitments; if this is a frequent occurrence then you should talk to your line manager.
- colleagues have an awareness of wider School and University issues, which go beyond their own interests.
- Be aware that members of the School may have different priorities and/or capacities (eg support staff vs academic staff, teaching-focused vs research active staff, part-time vs full-time).
- Imagine walking in your colleagues’ shoes.
- we will recognise the strengths and weaknesses of each other, drawing encouragement from the former and supporting the improvement of the latter.
- We can learn from those that are successful in areas of research, teaching, admin and leadership.
- We should encourage those that struggle in aspects of their job. Even just asking how things are going is a good place to start.
- we will share our knowledge and experiences to support and encourage each other.
- In research, this could be helping with grant- or paper-writing, responding to reviewers’ comments, preparing for an interview panel…
- In teaching, this could be helping colleagues set good exam questions, developing a course, sharing useful learning resources…
- good collegiality is acknowledged and poor collegiality is challenged.
- Thank colleagues for their good collegiality; consider acknowledging this with their line manager.
- We can all sometimes fall short of being a good colleague. It is habitual poor collegiality that should be challenged.
- Reporting poor collegiality should not be a matter of naming and shaming. Bring it to the attention of that colleague first. If it persists and they are unwilling to change, you can bring it up with others (see point 12).
- it is the responsibility of colleagues, mentors, teaching forum leads, research section heads, the senior leadership team and line managers to challenge habitual poor collegiality.
- It is everyone’s responsibility to be a good colleague
- It is everyone’s responsibility to encourage each other to be a good colleague.