Overwork is rampant in academe.
Whether you are tenure-track, tenured, or some other kind of full-time (temporary or otherwise), the Tenured Radical has some of the best advice I’ve ever seen. It may seem harsh, but you are strongly advised to do everything she says.
Here are some snippets to tempt you:
Yeah, baby. The problem is, there is almost no one I know in academia who has a job description that would give them a reasonable sense of where a professor’s job begins and ends.
…
How can this year can be different? How can you create a plan of action that will make this year different? The answer is: Take charge. The answer is: Write your own job description, using these principles.
- Knowing your appropriate load allows you to know your overload.
- If you have a joint appointment, total the activities of each part of your appointment and divide them in half.
- If you are a visitor or a post-doc, do your job well and politely decline to do favors or spend time on anything institutional you have not been hired for.
- Limit the number of recommendations you agree to write, and be clear with students what they need to do for you.
- Do not volunteer, stupid.
- Underrepresented faculty in underrepresented fields have no obligation to extend themselves without end to under-served students.
- Your scholarship is part of your job
She elaborates on all of them. GO READ IT!
What she recommends is really really difficult to do. What is the first step you can take towards managing your workload better?
Related:
Just Say No, by Kerry Ann Rockquemore
Introducing That Selfish Bastard (Spoiler alert: it’s not you)
Edited Nov 13, 2015; 2 July 2018.
Ahhhh, the over worked academic. I find the issue varies by university and varies by discipline with humanities feeling much less “time” to do research than science & engineering with social scientists sitting somewhere in the middle. Not sure where the creative artists sit. And clinical researchers are off the charts trying to blanace billing driven clinics with teaching and research…those guys & girls eat while walking between patients.
One of the problems comes with a nominal 40/40/20 rule. Teaching is scheduled by your Chair. Service is scheduled by the Chair of your Committee (likely Committees). You have to be sure to schedule time for your own research or it won’t get done….who else can do it for you?
At the same time, faculty have a horrible ability to appreciate work life balance. I get e mails from faculty round the clock and on weekends – and yes, I once received an e mail from a faculty member on Christmas Day as he was in an airport…come on folks….you’re not THAT busy, it’s just that your job IS your life. It doesn’t have to be.
Make a break. Take a breath. It doesn’t all need to get done. Learn to make choices. Try doing double teaching one term leaving another term and the summer completely free for research.
David Phipps