Workload Watchers

This is not my comprehensive New Year’s Resolution post.  However, I had an idea today, that I think is going to be a crucial component of the resolutions that I’ll make for the coming year.

See, I’ve been in a pickle when it comes to the way that my workload is distributed.  And I’ve been scolded by a couple of authority figures that it’s not them – it’s me.  See, my problem is that I am not managing my workload effectively.  Now, I’ve got opinions about that perspective on my workload, but I’ve decided to stop worrying about my opinions and to take the criticism as a just one.  Perhaps I am, in fact, a bad, bad girl, and the buck when it comes to my workload does indeed stop with me.

So today, as I was proctoring a final, and after I’d realized that while I’d brought my knitting I’d forgotten my crucial second knitting needle and so couldn’t work on my current scarf project, I got to thinking about what my workload is supposed to be.  Now, at my teaching-oriented regional comprehensive uni, the party line is that in general, teaching is about 50 percent (though it might be slightly more), and then the rest is divided between research and service (either 25%/25%, or, more realistically 30%/20% in either direction, adjusted for if teaching turns out to be slightly more).

So I thought, let’s think about this in terms of hours per week. Let’s imagine that I’m working with a standard, full-time work-week, of 40 hours.  (I know, but bear with me.)  This would put me at 20/10/10 for teaching, research, and service, or, a more likely distribution for me, 20/12/8.

Except hold on a minute.  I teach 4 courses, so that means that I’ve got 12 hours in the classroom.  Add to that the fact that I schedule 4 office hours, or one hour per course, and this puts me at 18.  Now even if we assume that of those 4 office hours weekly I can use 2 of those for prep/grading (which is a foolish assumption, given the fact that students regularly make use of my office hours), that would only leave me with 2 additional hours per week for prep/grading.  (And I’m totally leaving out of this equation the fact that I’m supervising MA students or serving on committees for MA students.)  Even if I’m teaching repeat preps (I teach 4 preps per semester), I still need to do some prep for each class meeting, in the form of reading (or rereading) or updating assignments, designing new assignments, etc., and all of my courses are writing intensive.  Given those facts, I’m probably going to need some additional time for prep/grading beyond 4 hours (generously) per week.  So let’s bump up my teaching to 24 hours per week (which is still probably way below what I will actually do, but for the sake of argument, let’s say that I can do everything in 24 hours).  That puts teaching at 60%, which seems reasonable given my 4/4 load.

This then leaves me with 40%, or 16 hours, with which to work.  So let’s say that I keep research at 30%, which I think at this point in my career seems reasonable, given the fact that only research will allow me to get promoted to full professor.  That is 12 hours per week.  And that leaves me with 4 hours of service per week*, or 10%.

Once I broke it down this way (which, I’ll be honest, it’s the first time in my career that I’ve ever bothered to do this), I realized that I have never, ever, spent 12 hours per week on research (even when working 60-70-hour weeks) except for when I had course releases.  I also realized that I regularly spend upwards of 10 hours per week on service, which goes unacknowledged and gets me no closer to my professional goals, whether in the broader profession or at this institution.  And, let’s note, that all I get for “managing” (or not) my workload as I’ve been doing is scolded.  So.

I think that I’ve come upon a plan.  I’m going to track my working hours next semester, not for the purpose of justifying righteous indignation – for I have tracked in the past for just that purpose – but in order to attempt to come in at 24/12/4 as my hours each week in each area.  Now, I recognize that I most likely will exceed these targets in some weeks, come in below those targets in others. But if I track, then I can make better sense of when I need to pull back, or when I need to step it up in a given area.

Basically, what I’m proposing is Workload Watchers, the academic’s version of Weight Watchers.  The idea being that if I stay on the plan, I figure that much like with the Weight Watchers I will find a place of peace and tranquility and self esteem, and in addition I will look great and feel like I’m a whole well-balanced person.

I should note, that if I follow this 4 hours per week rule with service, the weeks when I have Major Committee Chair duties I will not have time for any additional service.  In the “off” weeks, when I have Major Committee Member duties, I will only have time for two additional hours per week, which basically takes care of all of my other service commitments.  In other words, I cannot say yes to a single other thing.  Not because I’m a bitch, but because that is what the numbers tell me. It’s worth noting that I spent three hours on service already this week, even though it’s finals week and my two major committees did not meet.  (And I’m not talking about emails or whatever here – I’m talking about actual time clocked in “ad hoc” meetings.)

In addition, I have made the determination that if I go above and beyond, time doing service is what gets cut first.  Research will only get cut if I’m at zero with service and there are service obligations that I must complete.

I have also scheduled my research time for all of next semester, and I am going to post my research time on my office door, along with my teaching schedule and office hours.

Now, the nature of the beast is that I’m going to need to be flexible.  Sometimes, I’m going to go way above my 40 hours, and sometimes, I’m going to work on weekends or at night.  But the point is, much like with the Weight Watchers, Workload Watchers is about lifestyle adjustment.  And tracking is essential to that.  It’s not about tracking out of resentment, or tracking out of a sense that one needs to prove one’s worth.  You track so that you can make better choices.

If only there was an app for my phone for this…. or a points plus system…..

*I would feel guilty about only allocating four hours per week for service, in terms of percentages, if there were equitable distribution of service across my department/institution, but the fact of the matter is that this is not the case.  If everybody were doing 4 hours per week, I suspect nobody would have to do 4 hours per week.