Abstract

This study aimed to analyze teaching work’s temporality aspects in their relationship with health. Qualitative research was conducted with the participation of ten professors from a public university. Six meetings called “Worker’s Health workshops” were held, a research methodology that gathers workers and researchers to discuss topics related to work and health. The material was analyzed through the content analysis technique, in the thematic modality. The main themes were identified from the transcribed materials of the workshops’ dialogues, namely: working time intensification and extension, teacher’s health, working time and sleep deprivation, and health advocacy strategies and solutions. We noted that health advocacy strategies are located in individuals and the workgroup, through cooperation and social time. The theme of an intensive and extensive combination of working time associated with insecure work conditions was identified. We concluded that teaching work time is underpinned by rules and social values under the historical determination of new managerial standards within the public university.

Key words
Teachers; Universities; Worker’s Health

Introduction

At the end of the twentieth century, precisely in the 1990s, a comprehensive State reform that established a new model for the organization of public universities started in Brazil. At the structural level, it was a new cycle of capital movement that required higher productivity and flexibility from workers to adapt to new work organization and management forms. This new work morphology, in which technological and informational changes stand out, characterizes science as a productive force and generator of innovation, under a pragmatic and instrumental rationale, originating from market rules and values¹1 Maués OC, Sousa MB. Precarização do trabalho docente da educação superior e os impactos na formação. Em Aberto 2016; 29(97):73-85.

2 Mancebo D, Silva Júnior JR, Schugurensky D. A educação superior no Brasil diante da mundialização do capital. Educação em Revista 2016; 32(4):205-225.^-33 Antunes R. Os sentidos do trabalho: ensaio sobre a afirmação e a negação do trabalho. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2009.. This scenario is legitimized by the State’s austerity policy, which created legal mechanisms to privatize, outsource, and restrict spending on public education, deepening the work insecurity scenario in universities. Thus, under the prism of the establishment of a “managerial” State, public universities were subjected to an economic logic of control and restriction⁴4 Santana MA, Druck MG. Tercerização e degradação do trabalho nas universidades brasileiras. Margem esquerda. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2015.. We are facing an international trend that places education as a market activity⁵5 Motta VC, Leher R. Trabalho docente no contexto do retrocesso do retrocesso. RevTrab Política Soc 2017; 2(3):243-258..

Changes suffered by public universities, derived from the State reform, defined education as a sector of services not exclusive to the State, which meant that education ceased to be conceived as a right and started to be considered a service that can be private or privatized. The university’s organizational vision was emphasized within this political scope, that is, a new institutional form of academic, public management, controlled by management contracts and evaluated by productivity rates. This scenario contributed to the deepening of a central problem, namely, the change imposed on teaching work⁶6 Chaui M. A universidade pública sob nova perspectiva. Rev Bras Educ 2003; 24:5-15..

Several laws and decrees were approved within the institutional framework of the universities: The National Higher Education Assessment System (SINAES) was created in 2004, and the Support Program for Federal University Restructuring and Expansion Plans (REUNI) was established in 2007, just to mention two relevant public policies that influenced the organization of teaching work. REUNI establishes the numerical growth of Brazilian universities and the opening of new vacancies for students, without the equivalent creation of vacancies for professors and sufficient input of resources. This set of reforms contributed to the pronounced deterioration of university infrastructure conditions⁷7 Léda DB, Mancebo D. REUNI: heteronomia, precarização da universidade e do trabalho docente. Educ Realidade 2009; 34(1):49-64..

Regarding the teaching work process, changes were introduced in the activities routine. Different assignments such as the preparation of papers, books, student guidance, participation in examining boards, research and bench activities, classroom work in undergraduate and graduate courses, the requirement for administrative activities, among others, produce work intensification and prolongation⁸8 Maues O. A reconfiguração do trabalho docente na educação superior. Educ Rev 2010;1(n. esp.):141-160.. Indeed, professors have been experiencing profound changes in university working time, configuring new relationships in the academic culture. The pressure exerted to increase the amount of work within the 40-hour day has materialized from the idea that teachers should be “more productive”⁹9 Bosi AP. Precarização do trabalho docente nas instituições de ensino superior do Brasil nesses últimos 25 anos. Educ Soc 2007; 28(101):1503-1523.. Without a doubt, productivity affects intellectual autonomy, causing loss of control over one’s work and the subsumption of intellectual work and the production of knowledge in the logic of capital.

Moreover, Luz¹⁰10 Luz MT. Prometeu acorrentado: análise sociológica da categoria produtividade e as condições atuais da vida acadêmica. Physis 2005; 15(1):39-57. asserts that there is a lack of knowledge about the teaching work process, which presupposes its own pace of operation, elaboration, advances, and pauses during the development of activities. In turn, these teachers are aware of the need to meet the institutional requirements in force regarding compliance with the “productivity” norms, and strive to perform their tasks to exhaustion, sacrificing rest, leisure and vacations in favor of work, which has consequences for health.

It is worth considering that teaching work is not only objective data characterized by the administrative duration of the teacher’s work hours or years¹¹11 Tardif M, Raymond D. Saberes, tempo e aprendizagem do trabalho no magistério. Educ Soc 2000; 21(73):209-244.. It is also subjective data, in the sense that it contributes powerfully to shaping the worker’s identity. In this line of interpretation, the point referring to experience at work is highlighted, which leads us to the perspective of understanding that working time is a continuous and growing process of acquiring knowledge intrinsic to the activity itself, requiring specific collective health studies since it has a protective effect on the health of workers¹²12 Laurell AC, Noriega M. Processo de produção e saúde: trabalho e desgaste operário. São Paulo: Hucitec; 1989.. The assertion that social time nowadays is time tinged with rules and values imposed culturally by the logic of capital seems to be correct.

Notes on work’s social temporality under capitalism

In the pages of “The Capital”, Marx¹³13 Marx K. O Capital: crítica da economia política, Livro I. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2013. discusses the greatness of the working hours and distinguishes two essential concepts in the analysis of working time: “the necessary work and the extra work”¹³13 Marx K. O Capital: crítica da economia política, Livro I. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2013.(p.306). Marx¹³13 Marx K. O Capital: crítica da economia política, Livro I. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2013. defines necessary work as the part of the day when the worker necessarily has to work for his material survival and “self-preservation”, for his reproduction as a workforce. However, in concrete terms, this part of the work is only a fraction of the real working hours, since the total grandeur of working hours varies with the extent or duration of extra work or overwork, which concerns the unpaid hours worked. Thus, the value produced beyond what is necessary for the reproduction of the labor force is an added value. Capitalist production is essentially the production of extra work and, consequently, added value, leading to the intensification and extension of the working day, which produces debilitation, wear, and exhaustion, and can lead workers to premature death¹³13 Marx K. O Capital: crítica da economia política, Livro I. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2013..

Marx¹³13 Marx K. O Capital: crítica da economia política, Livro I. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2013. formulated important theoretical parameters about the “work intensification”¹³13 Marx K. O Capital: crítica da economia política, Livro I. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2013.(p.481). This thinker believes that the increased speed and pace of work raises the work’s intensity. Capital is interested in the fact that workers “can produce more with a greater expenditure of work at the same time”¹³13 Marx K. O Capital: crítica da economia política, Livro I. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2013.(p.482). This means reducing the porosity of breaks or rest, which imposes a higher expenditure of work and pressure on the workforce. It is also essential to consider that extending the time of the working day also is labor intensification. Thus, the extended post-formal working hours (such as “overtime”) alongside the increased pace in regular working hours doubly predetermines work’s intensification.

We should remember that the late 19^th to early 20^th century period witnessed the dissemination of the factory work ideology as the dominant model for working time organization and control, not only in industrial settings but also in schools, hospitals, among other social institutions. Indeed, time started to be managed by the (scientific) organization of work to control workers, through the so-called Taylorist/Fordist production standard, with substantial repercussions on the subjectivity and constitutive values of the working class. In this standard, time is reduced, and the work pace increased, intensifying the worker’s oppression and submission to ensure the regular production and continuing added value extraction. However, social time does not flow uniformly and is subject to discontinuities under the action of man¹⁴14 Decca E. O nascimento das fábricas. São Paulo: Brasiliense; 1995..

Thus, at the end of the 1960s, workers’ resistance reached its epicenter through the movement of critical questioning to the social control of production, raising the issue of limits between working time and leisure time. This scenario gained notoriety in the explosion of the worker-mass, “hegemonic portion of the proletariat that operated in the concentrated universe of the productive space”³3 Antunes R. Os sentidos do trabalho: ensaio sobre a afirmação e a negação do trabalho. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2009.(p.42).

From the mid-1970s onwards, the capital was put on the offensive, that is, against lower working hours. Since then, the dominant and universal trend has been to combine increased productivity and intensified work with an extended working day, an extremely harmful merger for the health of workers¹⁵15 Pina JA, Stotz EN. Intensificação do trabalho e saúde do trabalhador: uma abordagem teórica. Rev Bras Saude Ocup 2014; 39(130):150-160..

The transformations in the world of work with the advent of Toyotism that infused the flexible nature of working hours are noteworthy in the history of contemporary capitalism. Basso¹⁶16 Basso P. Tempos modernos, jornadas antigas: vidas de trabalho no início do século XXI. São Paulo: Unicamp; 2018. argues that there is a universal trend of deteriorating working and living conditions for the mass of salaried workers through the establishment of old working days in modern times. In this sense, it ensures that the neoliberal prescription is characterized by labor relationships increasingly based on insecurity, in forging forms and methods of pressure at work, making the boundaries between working time and global life time insecure, allowing gathering old and new risks to workers’ health. Along the same line of understanding, Alves¹⁷17 Alves G. Dimensões da precarização do trabalho: ensaios de sociologia do trabalho. Bauru: Canal 6; 2013. assures that it was precisely through the Toyota method that the new social morphology of capitalism took place, producing the corrosion of the human person through “reduced life”¹⁷17 Alves G. Dimensões da precarização do trabalho: ensaios de sociologia do trabalho. Bauru: Canal 6; 2013.(p.124), that is, through the working time’s invasion of a leisure life time. The essential feature of global capitalism is the structural insecurity of work and the illness of subjectivity, a scenario of suffering and degradation of workers’ health in which the manipulation of emotional capacities is emphasized. A similar finding is mentioned by Dal Rosso¹⁸18 Dal Rosso S. Mais trabalho! a intensificação do labor na sociedade contemporânea. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2008. when stating that, under capitalism, the Toyotist method may be the one that most mobilizes intelligence and emotional engagement in work activity with control of workers’ autonomy and freedom. This same author argues that contemporary work has different characteristics from other times and focuses on service activities, which requires analyzing the work from the perspective of workers¹⁸18 Dal Rosso S. Mais trabalho! a intensificação do labor na sociedade contemporânea. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2008..

Given the above, this study aimed to analyze aspects of the temporality of teaching work in a public university, its relationship with health, from the experience of teachers.

Methodology

This study is part of ongoing research in the field of occupational health, which started in 2013 through the establishment of an interdisciplinary and multicenter research group consisting of researchers and university professors. The main proposal of the research group consisted of the development of pedagogical technologies for the production of knowledge and participatory intervention on the health and work of public university teachers. Three research tools were developed, a quantitative (epidemiological survey) and two qualitative: “health handbooks and work”¹⁹19 Souza KR, Fernandez VS, Teixeira LR, Larentis AL, Mendonça ALO, Felix EG, Santos MBM, Rodrigues AMS, Moura M, Simões-Barbosa RH, Barros WO, Almeida MG. Cadernetas de saúde e trabalho: diários de professores de universidade pública. Cad Saude Publica 2018; 34(3):1-11. and “worker’s health workshops”²⁰20 Souza KR, Rodrigues AMS, Santos MBM, Simões-Barbosa RH, Fernandez VS, Mendonça ALO. Oficinas em saúde do trabalhador: ação educativa e produção dialógica de conhecimento acerca das relações entre trabalho docente e saúde em universidade pública. Rev Bras Saude Ocup [online]. No prelo; 2019.. This study shows the results and discussion exclusively from the “worker’s health workshops”, which are conceived as:

We understand that this type of research enables the construction of knowledge production group practice from a perspective that combines pedagogical interaction and social action. It is realized from a gradual process that requires a certain amount of time for the emergence of interaction and active participation between subjects²³23 Silva AA, Souza KR. Educação, pesquisa participante e saúde: as ideias de Carlos Rodrigues Brandão. Trab Educ Saude 2014; 12(3):519-539.. This process also allows the understanding and discussion of the living reality, because action, answers, and new questions arise through reflection, leading to the critical growth of all involved²¹21 Freire P. Pedagogia do oprimido. 63ª ed. Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo: Paz e Terra; 2017.^,2424 Brandão CR, Streck DR. Pesquisa participante. A partilha do saber. São Paulo: Ideias e Letras; 2006..

Concerning the development of the workshops, six two-hour meetings were held at the premises of the Institute of a Federal Higher Education Institution (IFES) located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, from 2015 to 2018, in two distinct methodological phases. The first consisted of four meetings held between the years 2015 and 2016, designated as “thematic workshops”, which mainly aim to collect “generating themes”²¹21 Freire P. Pedagogia do oprimido. 63ª ed. Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo: Paz e Terra; 2017. that can be understood as primary registration units for dialogue, and the qualitative analysis of the content of the discussions. In this approach, the themes arise spontaneously, and there is no prescribed roadmap of questions. We postulate that access to research data is through dialogue, where the identification of generating themes²¹21 Freire P. Pedagogia do oprimido. 63ª ed. Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo: Paz e Terra; 2017. is based on its content. The second phase of the workshops, called “consensual validation”, consisted of two meetings held during the second semester of 2018, whose central concern was the critical dialogue regarding those topics raised in the first phase, that is, the themes most relevant topics discussed during the thematic workshops were debated, among which the theme of teaching work temporality stood out. Oddone et al.²²22 Oddone I, Marri G, Gloria S, Briante G, Chiatella M, Re A. Ambiente de trabalho: a luta dos trabalhadores pela saúde. São Paulo: Hucitec; 1986. believe that the consensual validation process occurs by confronting spontaneous observations and the criticisms of each subject involved regarding the work. It refers to the collective judgment, when group members exchange ideas and experiences, favoring specific themes and making the process of knowledge production with more significant reflection potential for action¹⁹19 Souza KR, Fernandez VS, Teixeira LR, Larentis AL, Mendonça ALO, Felix EG, Santos MBM, Rodrigues AMS, Moura M, Simões-Barbosa RH, Barros WO, Almeida MG. Cadernetas de saúde e trabalho: diários de professores de universidade pública. Cad Saude Publica 2018; 34(3):1-11..

As for the profile of the study subjects, ten male and female teachers, aged 30-50 years participated, all with a stable 40-hour weekly workload and a Ph.D. They have 5-10 years’ work experience in undergraduate and graduate programs, and all have been teachers for over 10 years. Teachers requested the study to be conducted at the Institute. The selection criterion was belonging to the same homogeneous workgroup, respecting the assumption present in the field of worker’s health²²22 Oddone I, Marri G, Gloria S, Briante G, Chiatella M, Re A. Ambiente de trabalho: a luta dos trabalhadores pela saúde. São Paulo: Hucitec; 1986. and those who agreed to participate in the study. The inclusion criterion was to be an active teacher and belong to the same IFES Institute. The exclusion criterion was being a teacher on a removal status due to leave or vacation.

The material was analyzed using the content analysis technique in the thematic modality. The data analysis process comprised the steps used to operationalize content analysis: pre-analysis, material exploration, and treatment and interpretation of the results²⁵25 Minayo, MCS. O desafio do conhecimento: pesquisa qualitativa em saúde. 13ª ed. São Paulo: Hucitec; 2013.. Thematic groups were identified from the materials transcribed from the workshops’ dialogues, and established through the classification of excerpts from the dialogues by criteria of similarity and frequency and relevance concerning the objective of the study, enabling the identification of the main themes, namely, working time intensification and extension, teacher’s health; working time and sleep deprivation, health advocacy solutions and strategies.

Regarding the presentation of results, the initials OT (Thematic Workshops) and VC (Consensus Validation Workshops) were agreed to designate, respectively, the meetings held in the first and second phases of the study. For the characterization of the subjects’ reports, the letter P (Teacher) was used, followed by a number measured from the listening sequence of the meeting transcripts.

The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Sérgio Arouca National School of Public Health, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, and the co-participating Institution.

Results and discussion

Working time intensification and extension

The increased work demand and pressure to meet productivity goals will reconfigure teaching work in higher education that transcends the physical and temporal boundaries of the university and becomes present on weekends, holidays, and breaks of the academic year:

The university professor’s work activities are characterized by bringing together “lots of assignments” and “products”, as well as the requirement for qualification, constant updating, and demand for quality teaching. The work demand does not end in the classroom; it requires constant dedication to scientific production, participation in projects, among other “thousand things”. From the teaching viewpoint, these multiple occupations generate “preoccupation”, feelings of restlessness, anxiety, and stress, which contrasts with the need for focus and concentration specific to their work process. The combination of poor working conditions and work overload contributes to the intensification and extension of the teacher’s working hours, configuring a new working temporality with possible consequences for the health of these workers. Harvey²⁶26 Harvey D. Os limites do capital. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2013. calls attention to the social manipulation of the temporality of work as a fundamental feature of capitalism. Under the rationale of productivity, the author alleges that work is not measured by a real day’s work, but by the number of products.

Moreover, the participants observed that poor working conditions at the university generate increased working hours:

The dialogues show that when it is not possible to perform tasks in the university environment, the tendency is to take home what has not “been accomplished” within the regular working hours. The lack of conditions translates into the idea of precariousness under several aspects, such as deteriorated building infrastructure, shortage of equipment and material, lack of support from the administrative sector, an inadequate work environment with the absence of individual workstations, among others. The combination of such elements suggests substantial impacts on health in its physical, emotional, and cognitive aspects²⁷27 Dal Rosso S. Jornada de trabalho: duração e intensidade. Cien Cultura 2006; 58(4):31-34..

Teacher’s health

Based on the theoretical contribution of the field of workers’ health, it is stated that the analysis of health must be based on the study of the context in which work takes place. In this sense, it was mentioned that feelings of frustration, demand, guilt, and depression emerge in the face of non-ideal work conditions:

During the workshops, teachers highlighted a chain of organizational impediments, which is in contradiction with the effective engagement at work. Studies evidenced by Activity Ergonomics in Brazil, such as those by Jackson Filho²⁸28 Jackson Filho JM. Engajamento no trabalho, impedimentos organizacionais e adoecer: a contribuição da Ergonomia da Atividade no setor público brasileiro. Rev Bras Saude Ocup 2015; 40(131):98-108., show that these constraints put workers’ health at risk. Dialogues that outlined feelings of discouragement, frustration and guilt experienced in collective terms were heard. In this line of interpretation, it is worth mentioning that both in the national and international literature, references to mental health in this professional category stand out, and diseases such as stress, a permanent state of fatigue, depression, and even suicide⁹9 Bosi AP. Precarização do trabalho docente nas instituições de ensino superior do Brasil nesses últimos 25 anos. Educ Soc 2007; 28(101):1503-1523.^,2929 Souza KR, Mendonça ALO, Rodrigues AMS, Felix EG, Teixeira LR, Santos MBM, Moura M. A nova organização do trabalho na universidade pública: consequências coletivas da precarização na saúde dos docentes. Cien Saude Colet 2017; 22(11):3667-3676.

30 Caran VCS, Freitas FCT, Alves LA, Pedrão LJ, Robazzi MLC. Riscos ocupacionais psicossociais e sua repercussão na saúde de docentes universitários. Rev Enferm UERJ 2011; 19(2):255-261.

31 Ge C, Yang X, Fan Y, Kamara AH, Zhang X, Fu J, Wang L. Quality of life among Chinese college teachers: a cross-sectional survey. Public Health 2011; 125(5):308-310.^-3232 Lima MFEM, Lima-Filho DO. Condições de trabalho e saúde do/a professor/a universitário/a. Cien Cognição 2009; 14(3):62-82. are mentioned.

Worth mentioning are mental health-related factors, as well as musculoskeletal and vocal disorders³³33 Silva EP. Adoecimento e sofrimento de professores universitários: dimensões afetivas e ético-políticas. Psicol Teor Prat 2015; 17(1):61-71.^,3434 Alves LA, Robazzi MLC, Marziale MHP, Felippe ACN, Romano CC. Alterações da saúde e a voz do professor, uma questão de saúde do trabalhador. Rev Latino-Am Enfermagem 2009; 17(4):566-572.. In the workshops, teachers relate this last point (vocal health) due to the overexertion of speech in the classroom, since most of the working day is usually carried out in poor working conditions due to the budgetary constraints of public universities, in inappropriate physical environments, without acoustics, and an excessive number of students. Alves et al.³⁴34 Alves LA, Robazzi MLC, Marziale MHP, Felippe ACN, Romano CC. Alterações da saúde e a voz do professor, uma questão de saúde do trabalhador. Rev Latino-Am Enfermagem 2009; 17(4):566-572. argues that vocal changes often lead to situations of removal and incapacity for the performance of teaching functions:

Furthermore, the study by Santana³⁵35 Santana OA. Docentes de pós-graduação: grupo de risco de doenças cardiovasculares. Acta Scientiarum Education 2011; 33(2):219-226. points out that there are essential cases of coronary heart disease and strokes (hemorrhagic and ischemic), which may be associated with the high number of tasks, pressure for intense scientific production, and prolonged working hours. Other issues that are also related to the emergence of these conditions are the lack of a balanced diet, regular physical activities, and absence of medical visits, justified by the lack of time due to work overload.

Working time and sleep deprivation

The organization of working time for university professors shows other aspects of the concept of “24-hour society”, by which an increasing number of people are faced with the demand for work during non-day hours and weekends³⁶36 Moreno CRC, Fischer FM, Rotenberg L. A saúde do trabalhador na sociedade 24 horas. São Paulo Perspect 2003; 17(1):34-46.. It was verified through the dialogues in the workshops that the teachers experience a situation of excessive demands at work. It is a set of requests that, from the perspective of the teachers, must be complied with even if they exceed the regular working hours. Therefore, many teachers work more than the number of weekly hours provided by law, and do so at night, leaving aside the family and the necessary rest for the working hours of the next day³⁷37 Decor NS, Araujo TM, Reis EJF Porto LA, Carvalho FM, Silva MO, Andrade JM. Condições de trabalho e saúde dos professores da rede particular de ensino de Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, Brasil. Cad Saude Publica 2004; 20(1):187-196.^,3838 Nagai M, Tsuchiya KJ, Toulopoulou T, Takei N. Poor mental health associated with job dissatisfaction among school teachers in Japan. J Occup Health 2007; 49(6):515-522., as reported below:

In a study conducted by Rotenberg and Carlos³⁹39 Rotenberg L, Carlos RSL. How social acceleration affects the work practices of academics: A study in Brazil. German Journal of Human. Resource Management 2018; 32(3-4):257-270., noteworthy is the idea of accelerating work among university professors. The findings show that teachers feel in constant professional debt, leading them to work after the regular working hours, and this behavior leads them to have an irregular sleep-wake cycle, which is accompanied by partial sleep deprivation, resulting in adverse consequences for health and work performance⁴⁰40 Souza JC, Galina SD, Almeida JCF, Sousa IC, Azevedo CVM. Work schedule influence on sleep habits in elementary and high school teachers according to chronotype. Estud Psicol 2014; 19(3):157-238.:

It is understood that “sleep deprivation”, an expression mentioned and shared in the workshops, is a clear reference to teaching work intensification, considering that the time outside the working hours should be mostly dedicated to relieving tensions, rest and recovery from accumulated fatigue. Moreover, some people have reported that the lack of time affects family ties and personal relationships.

Ambiguities of teaching work and health advocacy

It is evident through the dialogues in the workshops that teachers develop different health advocacy strategies, and this type of mechanism is a way to alleviate suffering in the face of aspects related to work situations and conditions, especially concerning mental health³⁹39 Rotenberg L, Carlos RSL. How social acceleration affects the work practices of academics: A study in Brazil. German Journal of Human. Resource Management 2018; 32(3-4):257-270.. These health protection strategies allow transforming and changing the perception of workers vis-à-vis reality, especially those that can cause suffering; these would be responses to the “subjective relationship with pathogenic pressures”. The workers of “passive victims put themselves in the position of active agents of a challenge, a provocative attitude or a minimization before pathogenic pressure”⁴¹41 Dejours C, Abdoucheli E, Jayet C. Psicodinâmica do trabalho: contribuições da escola dejouriana à análise da relação prazer, sofrimento e trabalho. 1ª ed. 8ª reimpressão. São Paulo: Atlas; 2007. (p.128), as evidenced in the dialogue below:

Teachers seek balance with the situations that cause suffering in their work routine through pleasure-triggering attitudes. Pleasure and suffering are subjective experiences from the perspective of the work’s psychodynamics: each individual lives a situation differently. However, if several people experience the same situation, they can join their efforts to build a collective defensive strategy⁴¹41 Dejours C, Abdoucheli E, Jayet C. Psicodinâmica do trabalho: contribuições da escola dejouriana à análise da relação prazer, sofrimento e trabalho. 1ª ed. 8ª reimpressão. São Paulo: Atlas; 2007.. When observing the dialogue above, factors that generate pleasure are identified, such as, for example, committed students, and especially the good relationship and union between teachers, which are perceived as facilitators “feeding” the daily work of teachers positively. Faculty malaise can be mitigated by the use of suffering mediation strategies, which would be ways used by teachers vis-à-vis work demands, some compensation through pleasure experiences⁴¹41 Dejours C, Abdoucheli E, Jayet C. Psicodinâmica do trabalho: contribuições da escola dejouriana à análise da relação prazer, sofrimento e trabalho. 1ª ed. 8ª reimpressão. São Paulo: Atlas; 2007..

In the workshops, teachers validated forms of resistance to unfavorable work conditions, among them: the insistence on continuing research and training students; resisting adversity; being part of a group of collaborative and cohesive teachers; finding, in this case, affective and collective work support; breaks generated by social interaction, especially with the family; and the “passion” to keep on doing what one likes.

Nevertheless, we should bear in mind that workshops’ dialogues were marked by conflicting meanings, such as enthusiasm and sadness, passion, and displeasure. One could identify ambivalent visions concerning the subjective experience of work, interpreted by some participants as extreme and conflicting feelings, such as “we are either crazy, or we like what we do”.

Indeed, the arguments reported here were produced in a context of insecurity, intensification, and extended working time at universities. Thus, they assume a conflicting nature, since they preserve some normality, but do not realize real changes. These are styles of teaching resistance to be better understood and deepened in university work.

Final considerations

In historical terms, it appears that 152 years after Marx’s time, the working class still resists in the sense of consolidating the working hours in the universal civilizing frameworks of work. Therefore, the structural aspects identified here, which lead to the intensification and extension of the teaching workday, are old for capital and new in organizational configurations of work in public universities, causing new collective consequences for the health of their workers.

This new organization of working time in public universities is materialized, invariably, by the excessive procurement of products, transforming thoughts and ideas into commodities. Thus, although higher education professors are part of a qualified group and considered as a social elite, it can be seen that precariousness, intensification, and extension of the working hours take place under parameters of the work managerial organization. Reports of suffering and complaints referring to physical and mental health were observed during the workshops. Work overload and lack of time for rest and leisure was observed. As a result, workers reported sleep deprivation, constant fatigue, and lack of memory. The theme of the intensive and extensive combination of teaching work associated with poor working conditions was centrally identified.

According to Santos⁴²42 Santos M. A natureza do espaço: técnica e tempo, razão e emoção. São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo; 2006., “temporality” refers to the particular ways of using the time of each agent, class, or social group. The author affirms that these are practical ways of living and gain concreteness through their interpretation in real life in each place and space.

Additionally, it is worth noting that, currently, working time in the educational services sector is subject to a new organization and control forms. Dejours⁴³43 Dejours C. Trabalho e emancipação. Tradução de Franck Soudant. Brasília: Paralelo 15; 2012. states that all work organization leads to the theme of real work’s plurality, which raises the issues of the different ways of doing it through its functioning. It was noticed that the health advocacy strategies are located at the individual level and in the working group itself, with the valorization of cooperation, cohesion, and interactive time. Thus, it seems right to affirm the importance of generating changes on a collective basis, through resistance, in order to produce participatory policies and institutional interventions in universities, which includes the support of the teaching union organization. From this perspective, fighting against the invasive time of work implies fighting against life domination and control, reviving the true meaning of teaching work that should mean autonomy, creation, freedom, and human and social emancipation.

Acknowledgments

This work was carried out with the support of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, Brazil (CAPES), and with the support of funding from the 2013 “Inova ENSP/FIOCRUZ” Public Notice.

References

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