My response is colored by this morning reading an excellent article about why academics put up with working so hard (and by having to go to work on Monday despite it being a snow day because of non-research parts of the job). The expectation of "no relief" plays right into the hands of university administrators.
Quoting this recent article: 4) Work that is "fun" is often not perceived as *real* work. Academics may be busy, but, hey, we're *doing what we love*, so we can't really complain, right? We can and we should. As Miya Tokumitsu recently wrote, the "Do What You Love" mantra "may be the most elegant anti-worker ideology around," and it's particularly pervasive in academe: *Few other professions fuse the personal identity of their workers so intimately with the work output. This intense identification partly explains why so many proudly left-leaning faculty remain oddly silent about the working conditions of their peers. Because academic research should be done out of pure love, the actual conditions of and compensation for this labor become afterthoughts, if they are considered at all.* As she says, "Nothing makes exploitation go down easier than convincing workers that they are doing what they love." Indeed, the "Do What You Love" philosophy's ability to refashion academic labor as a form of leisure contributes to the unrelenting sense of busy-ness. We work because we love it. Or because we think we *should* love it. Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2014/03/03/essay-why-faculty-members-work-so-much#ixzz2v7eVgkAf Inside Higher Ed Best regards, Barney On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 2:26 PM, Lone Ranger <lonerangerwann...@yahoo.com>wrote: > Circular firing squad? > > Productive people have nothing to fear. > Relief should not be the goal of a Ph.D. > > > On Wednesday, March 5, 2014 12:45 PM, Barney Luttbeg < > lutt...@okstate.edu> wrote: > Seems to me that were forming a circular firing squad and attacking > ourselves. We all know that there is a very tough job market, but are > "dead-weight" faculty really a significant part of the problem? Seems to me > more of the blame goes to the tax-cutters, legislators, and the > ever-expanding corp of well-paid university administrators. > > Most of us work our butts off for many years to get good graduate > positions, good post-doc positions, good tenure-track positions, and > finally, hopefully tenure. I frankly don't blame some faculty for taking > their foot off the accelerator after they finished that obstacle course and > maybe shifting some of their time to the bottomless pit of university and > departmental committee work. Now the message is "get out of the way"? When > do we get the sweet reward of a less-stressful academic life after our > years of underpaid toil? > > Barney Luttbeg > > > On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 8:20 PM, Lone Ranger <lonerangerwann...@yahoo.com > >wrote: > > > At 70 years young this summer, I will retire. Looking back over my long > > career, I am proud I participated as a scientist and educator in one of > the > > greatest universities in the country. My publication record is not as > > admirable as some, I never published in Science or Nature, but I my > > research regularly appeared with students in the primary journals in my > > sub-discipline. But enough about me. > > > > In my career I cannot remember a more daunting job market than the one I > > have witnessed during the past 3-4 years. Recently, I sat on a search > > committee for a position in which we screened more than 250 applications. > > Of these, well over a third had stellar credentials. However, I have to > > ask how much a person really contributes on a manuscript to Science that > > has 15-20 authors, including essentially everyone in the home lab. This > > kind of publication inflation by labs who do it, is simply dishonest. > But > > I digress. The job market must be at a the worst state it has ever > > reached. > > > > How others my age, with 30+ years of service and a nice retirement > package > > sitting in investments, the bank, or under the pillow can look at > > themselves in the mirror each morning knowing that many young Ph.D.s are > on > > food stamps, WIC, and unemployment is difficult for me to understand. It > > further mystifies me why those tenured faculty members and administrators > > allow individuals who are no longer productive, and largely incompetent > in > > their fields, to hang around. Is allowing these sorts of parasites on > > academia to continue in positions they no longer deserve to occupy? What > > happened to post-tenure review? Each of us really needs to ask if we > might > > serve our field better by eliminating some of these warm bodies. > Choosing > > to retire is not an end, it is a beginning. Choosing to evict inactive > and > > now incompetent faculty is not a violation of tenure, it is maintaining > the > > sanctity of tenure. > > > > Yesterday, I spoke with a middle-aged Ph. D. He/She has been partially > > employed for over a decade. He/She has been in and out of jobs thanks to > > the financial difficulties so many institutions are faced with, combined > > with the corruption at the administrative level which so many of us is > very > > familiar. His/Her retirement is zero, prospects are zero, and yet he/she > > continues to publish without any resources. How many are there that fit > > this mold? > > > > It is bad enough that many of our departments serve as homes for > > co-workers who no longer serve our discipline in any way, having long ago > > stopped publishing and now serve as little more than clogs in the > system's > > plumbing. There is little to nothing most of us can do about these > selfish > > former scientists. But the rest of us can still contribute, advise > graduate > > students, and publish as retirees. It might be easier without teaching > and > > committee responsibilities taking up our time. > > > > Will this email cause anyone to stop and thing? I doubt it. But, I look > > forward to a productive retirement in which I continue publishing, > support > > our program, and the discipline knowing that having stepped aside, some > > other player is getting their turn at bat. I hope he/she hits a home > run. > > > > Sincerely, > > Lone Ranger > > > > > > > > -- > Dr. Barney Luttbeg > Oklahoma State University > Department of Zoology > 421 Life Sciences West > (405) 744-1717 > > > > -- Dr. Barney Luttbeg Oklahoma State University Department of Zoology 421 Life Sciences West (405) 744-1717
