{"id":3001,"date":"2025-11-27T18:38:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3001"},"modified":"2025-11-27T18:50:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:50:19","slug":"fast-track-to-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3001","title":{"rendered":"Fast Track to Bankruptcy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"664\" src=\"https:\/\/21percent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/HR-1024x664.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3003\" style=\"width:598px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/21percent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/HR-1024x664.png 1024w, https:\/\/21percent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/HR-300x195.png 300w, https:\/\/21percent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/HR-768x498.png 768w, https:\/\/21percent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/HR-1536x996.png 1536w, https:\/\/21percent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/HR.png 1542w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>The infographic shows the number of staff employed in the Human Resources division in Cambridge University over time, together with simple parabolic fit to the data. We can see a very steep rise since 2021 that still is continuing apace (despite budget cuts for everyone else!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We highlight the contribution from poster Human Resource <a href=\"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2983#comment-3529\" title=\"here\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I think if management consultants took a look at how the university is run they\u2019d be in total despair. Our goals are supposed to be to helping scholars to maximise delivery on teaching, research, impact and grant income. Instead of resolving minor squabbles HR ignore then worsen them, then outsource cost on to other academics via committees and panels as well as lawyers and eventually health services once the whole circus takes staff to breakdown. Any company run like that would be set on a fast track to bankruptcy.&#8221; (Human Resource)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This is true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The HR Division is responsible for a substantial part of Cambridge University&#8217;s deficit. It&#8217;s not just the growth in HR personnel, it&#8217;s the concomitant increase in referrals to Occupational Health and Staff Counselling, the increased number of Freedom of Information and Data Subject Access Requests and the burgeoning number of legal cases. A huge amount of academic staff time is consumed by panels and appeals as the hyper-aggressive HR business partners go about their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is also an enormous cost in human distress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The HR division not fit for purpose. It needs to be re-organised if Cambridge University is ever to return to health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cambridge is not atypical. A large part of the collapse of Universities in the UK has been driven by the disproportionate rise in HR departments over the last 10 years. It&#8217;s unproductive social welfare for the middle classes and a huge burden on teaching, mentoring, development and research staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The infographic shows the number of staff employed in the Human Resources division in Cambridge University over time, together with simple parabolic fit to the data. We can see a very steep rise since 2021 that still is continuing apace (despite budget cuts for everyone else!) We highlight the contribution [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3001"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3006,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions\/3006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}