New posting! This one is about the number of unpaid hours in #academia, an insight that's come from the realisation of how much time I'm still committing despite now (currently) being unemployed. To what extent is academic research sustained by the massive expenditure of unpaid labour? How much unpaid overtime do you think you're clocking? Let's lift the lid...
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/06/29/pro-bono-a-riff-on-unpaid-labour-in-academia/
@TIR_scienceblog +1. Academia is underpinned by unpaid labour. Of course it is the way in other occupations too. But the overwork won't go away while we comply! For example, professional services (i.e. admin) staff at Unis will say “No. We do not have headcount to do this extra thing” (and rightly so), then a new person is hired to cope with the increased workload. Academics on the hand just suck it up and do the extra thing at the weekend or whatever. So the academic overwork continues.
@steveroyle @TIR_scienceblog But, that is a problem academics have put on themselves.
I am very privileged because I work in an extremely supportive department (can't say the same for the larger structure of the uni, but I really can't complain about the local environment).
In the past few years I learnt to be very strict and to say no more often. I don't work weekends and I track how much time I spend on different activities during the day, so I have an exact account of how much time I spend doing what. This is very useful to motivate saying no to certain things (I've already spent x% of my time doing xyz, so that's it for this month).
I'm happy with what I do, my career hasn't suffered because of it and I am more efficient at what I do, because I am not overworked.
I do perfectly understand, however, that not everyone is in the position of doing this. We need to change the current academic culture if we want change. This starts from teaching our students about good life/work balance; exposing and discouraging toxic behaviours in the workplace; voice concerns when something is happening. These will likely go unheard, but the more people do it the more changes are likely to happen.
