Retroid Raving

I know what I meant to blog on when I opened the admin page...but I got sidetracked by the dread word "brand", and there we were, off on a tangent again.

I received an interesting missive today, from the Exec Director: HR.  There it was, "Private and Confidential" written all over it - and it was "Re: RFJ Review and Increase on Cost of Employment 2008".

Wow!  I thought, great!  Increase above RFJ!!  I ripped it open in the stairwell, too eager to wait till I got to my office.

Breathless, I skip-read down: "...current performance criteria...assessed against these criteria...recommendations considered and approved...", and my pulse quickened as we got to "After careful consideration, the Committee fully agreed...Dean and HoD were very supportive of your being recognized...", here it comes, I thought, here it comes..."...that you should therefore be remunerated at the "rate for job"".

I laughed aloud in the stairwell.  It echoed.  It had a hollow sound.

"Should you wish to receive more detailed feedback on this exercise...".

I folded it up and stuck it in my pocket.  All that, simply for status quo ante!  Ah, well, I thought as I went off to make my coffee, at least they're not paying me less - and they didn't use the word "brand" anywhere.

How we all love UCT!

To my dismay, I am seeing more and more references to "the UCT brand" coming up in official comuniques from Down The Hill - and even heard it in a committee meeting the other day.  Now while certain more fringe elements of our cosy community may think this is a new and daring concept - because it involves scarification with a hot iron with a cool design to add to their multitudinous piercings - others of us feel some unease at the increasing use of such ad-speak.

As in: "people come here because of the UCT brand"; "the UCT brand has enormous value, which could be used to the financial advantage of the institution through the mechanism of endorsement"...and so on.

This worries me a little because, in a very real sense, UCT is us - and are we taken into account in this branding?  Does Bremner-Down-The-Hill factor in to their branding discussions the fact that it is we academics and PASS staff who make this place - and not the advertising / branding consultants?  Will we suddenly have to dress more fittingly for UCT^TM, buy better-looking cars...and more seriously, suck it in around salary negotiation time, because "it is such a privilege to work here"?

When I hear the word "brand", I reach for my Kalashnikov^TM....