Working hypotheses 1

There is a certain kind of infuriating manager you meet occasionally who is always complaining about staff who complain. Susan Bassnett's point about overworking lecturers who need to get a life ("Labouring under a misconception", October 5) may or may not be valid, but her apparent indifference to "more paperwork", "more directives" and "increasing numbers of hoops" to jump through is inexplicable. Sane people everywhere are complaining loudly and so they should.

No doubt staff at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust were also told to stop complaining about targets and get on with their jobs. The moral: whining may very well turn out to be justifiable anger forced through a very small hole.

Nick Haeffner, London Metropolitan University