Registration of time and teaching in University Colleges in Denmark

Abstract

In 2013 the university colleges in Denmark were supposed to implement a new paradigm regarding working hours, and simultaneously a time registration system was introduced. I will explore the performative effects of the system and the implications on the employees’ working life, based on policy documents from 2013 and interviews with five employees and a manager, 10 years after the new system was introduced. I will analyze the time registration system as an object of time, shaping and being shaped by power struggles. It will turn out that there are at least 3 different principles according to which the employees register their time (1) actual time, 2) allocated time, or 3) 7,4). It also turns out that the power struggles are far from over but have moved from open collective negotiations to local and more or less secret power struggles, leaving the employees somewhat bewildered about how their work is measured. Are they supposed to do a certain number of tasks, be present a certain amount of time, or are they required to take on a responsibility, irrespective of the time and tasks it requires? The answer is that managers can shift between the three principles – and so can the employees. The employees use at least three different principles when registrating time: actual working hours, budgeted working hours, or 7.4 hours per day.