Introduction

In his account of the neoliberal business school, Fleming (2019) paints a picture of staff despair and depression, which is familiar to many working within an academic setting and might resonate with those who work in other organizations. Starting with a story of a staff ‘Away Day’, he describes a talk by the Dean:

consisting of corporate buzzword phrases: ‘significant stretch targets’; ‘get our friends in the tent’; ‘the aha effect’; ‘global mindset’; ‘clean up the box we live in’; ‘big buckets you then sharpen’ … A bewildered colleague beside me leant in and whispered, ‘these Away Days are so bloody depressing’. I nodded in agreement, mirroring the forlorn faces around me … This was followed by a team building exercise involving African drumming. As we banged away on our cheap djembes in embarrassment, the Dean was nowhere to be seen. Exhausted, tyrannised by office email and under pressure to meet performance targets, the Away Day felt like some kind of cruel joke. (Fleming, 2019: 1305)

For those working within this setting over the past 20 years, the account Fleming provides is a familiar one, with or without the drumming – the employment of a ‘fun at work’ initiative, an acting workshop or similar. I have found myself returning to his account because it resonates very powerfully with some of my own experiences.