The results from WPA are available
The reports from the recent WPA have just become available. In this year's APV, there were questions about both the mental and the physical work environment. The response rate for AGRO was 88% percent, while for the whole of Aarhus University it was 75%, which must be described as a very large support, thank you for that.
A great deal of work now awaits to process the results and identify areas for action where obvious problems need to be addressed. This work will take place at all levels of AU from the university management to the local working environment and collaboration committees.
At the last WPA in 2019, work continued in particular with abusive behavior. Unfortunately, this work has been somewhat hindered by COVID and consequent homework. Leaders and members of LAMU and LSU were offered mainly online courses/workshops on how to handle situations where colleagues have been exposed to violations.
Now I do not want to anticipate all the discussions and the work that will take place in the coming time in LSU/LAMU, but simply state that unfortunately there are still some who have been subjected to 'Gross, offensive or condescending indictment', some have been subjected to bullying in the workplace or have been subjected to 'Threats of violence or threatening behavior'. In the end, it is probably only 1% (i.e., 2 people) who answer in the affirmative, but it still surprises and worries me that the above takes place at AU at all. For the above questions, we are roughly on the same level as AU as a whole. On the other hand, it is noticeable that 4% at AGRO have experienced 'Unwanted sexual attention', which is somewhat above AU as a whole (1%), and twice as high as at the last WPA.
Another point that catches the attention is that approx. 20% of employees experience stress to a level that makes them uncomfortable. It is a very high number when talking about stress that makes one uncomfortable.
For the physical working environment, only 2% answered that they disagree that they have a generally good working environment, which must be described as a satisfactory result. Unfortunately, approx. 10% of the employees at AGRO have problems with the indoor climate and have answered that they disagree that the indoor climate is satisfactory.