I am forced to acknowledge that I have been a whiny baby and that my schedule, in fact, is pretty delightful.
Now, I don’t entirely retract my former claims. It is true that during the academic year my schedule is such that I can’t a) take vacation time, b) call off sick unless I’m on my death bed, c) assume that anybody else can pick up my slack for most of my work responsibilities, d) entirely avoid bringing work home with me.
However, it is also true that even during the academic year I don’t need to go sit in a cubicle for 40 hours a week. And it is definitely true that when we are on break I don’t have to go into the office at all, even if I am doing work-related stuff from home. And it is also the case that even when it is the academic year, my schedule and activities change every 4 months, so I don’t get bored. And it is the case that I get to do things – more so during breaks, but even with some frequency during the academic year – like go to lunch with friends or make hair appointments in the middle of the afternoon. Not because I don’t work a 40-hr week, which I do, but because I am not chained to a desk and I get to decide which 40 hours of that week I work.
In other words: I really should be more appreciative of how my work life fits into the rest of my life. And I maybe shouldn’t complain about my schedule, or gloat about it, to people who do not have the benefit of a schedule like mine. Because really, that is sort of insufferable.
Nicely said. I’ve fallen prey to the same gripe. This is a great reminder.
Yeah.
ditto, even as TTLAC attempts to force us all to be on campus 5 days a week for no apparent reason, there are still lots of schedule perks to being an academic
I hate that faculty does not have personal leave. We have 4 days per year which we basically have to ask for, in advance, and if you don’t use them you lose them at the end of each fiscal year. Everything else is SICK LEAVE which is very generous (I have like 250 hours banked) … but I hate having to lie when I take a day off. So, yeah.
I think it’s different pre- and post-tenure. Right now I’m pre-tenure, and it’s not so much the time spent working, but the corrosive anxiety and fear over losing my job that hangs over my head 24 hours a day. No, I can’t not work on this book right now, parents and loved ones.
As a colleague of mine once put it: We work 80 hours a week, but we get to pick which 80 hours. To me, that’s huge.
NC – I don’t disagree with you. I have found a much better life balance with work post-tenure, especially since I regulated my service crap (4 years after tenure). My only point in this post is that while there *are* challenges to our schedules as academics, we aren’t necessarily working more or harder than other people, which is what I always used to argue (because I was kind of an ass).
O – I honestly don’t believe that we are generally working 80 hrs a week. Not most weeks. Yes, I have some 80-hr weeks, but that is not my schedule, not during the academic year and not all-year-round. And there are a lot of 20-30 hour weeks that make up for it. Was an 80-hour week my schedule my first year on the tenure-track? Maybe. But, to be honest? I think if tenured people are working that schedule it’s not because it’s required: it’s because they want to work that schedule. I honestly don’t believe that it has anything to do with performing well in our jobs, or that it has anything to do with the basic stuff that’s required. For what it’s worth, I say this not to diss you… I say it because I’d rather convince the public that we actually work for 40 hours a week year round than try to compel them to believe that we work more than anybody in the whole world and yet for no money. Because you know what? Who would believe the latter?
go to lunch with friends or make hair appointments in the middle of the afternoon
OUTRAGE!
I definitely appreciate the flexibility of the job. Although teaching and meeting days are not negotiable, the ability to just take a mental health day here and there without having to report it, or to follow my bliss, go to the mall for an hour, or whatever else mid-day is worth a lot to me.
The challenge that I have is the blurring of work life and other life, for any moment could be a moment of work life. But I’m increasingly aware that it’s on me to define those boundaries. As my both parts of life get fuller and more demanding, I have to work on this issue.
I’ve done both — worked a 40-hour-a-week regular job and the prof gig. While I like the prof gig better in a lot of ways (intellectual stimulation, mainly), I also really MISS, YEARN FOR the time when I could go to work, do my job, come home, and DO SOMETHING ELSE. Perhaps this is because I have kids now, so I have a built-in guilt factor. Perhaps I will feel differently after tenure. Or perhaps I’m just a workaholic, and I do too much, but I just don’t know it. My job and my home life are both very demanding, and it would be awesome if one or the other would shut the hell up sometimes.
I tend to do 40hrs/week when I’m not teaching (48 before having kids– I’d work one day on the weekend back then, just because). 50-60hrs/week when I am. (Closer to 60 pre-tenure… or rather, pre-getting my act together teaching-wise.) I include pointless meetings that I have to be at in that time because even though they’re not the least bit productive they’re plenty draining.
But yes, I love being able to not set an alarm clock. I hate waking up to an alarm.