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Academic common room

2018 academic resolutions?

25 replies

Marasme · 01/01/2018 18:31

Here is mine:

To take my foot OFF the work pedal.

I am tired of the academic rat race, and the fact that we have no time or space to savour the small or big victories.
Student pass viva? next one! move on!
Paper published? try for a bigger IF next time!
Oral presentation at a conf? you should be giving keynotes at your stage
Got a new grant? it's under £500k - you need to up your grant capture.

I am in serious doubt about where this is all going, and the actual human cost to it (my health, and my kids actually seeing me in a pleasant mood). I have not worked this holiday, and guilt is already coming back.

So I am wishing for the strength to take "work" with a pinch of salt. I am not going to get a nobel prize. I am not going to revolutionise my field. However, I am going to kill myself if I continue to work to reach the fucking idiotic KPIs at my uni. So screw the RCUK january round, I won't put in for it. I am at SL level, I am 37, and the route ahead either as 1) a career change, or 2) a hard climb to professorship. If it's the second, I will resist the push for making the transition in the next three years and will take the leisurely road instead. I'll just need to grow a thick skin for when management comes knocking at my door....

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LineysRumBaba · 01/01/2018 18:38

It's a horrible, ridiculous grind, isn't it?

I'm out of it now - couldn't go back.

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Thetreesareallgone · 01/01/2018 19:07

Hear, hear!

I'm a decade behind you, so that should give you a bit of leeway:)

I have always gone steadily, I started later and have kept going, not in a fireworks kind of a way, but in a plodding onwards and just keeping at it type of way. It has worked fine. I am not as stressed as some others. I'm keeping going with that strategy for the New Year as I've got to keep it up for another two decades anyway, so don't want to burn out too soon (!)

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DoctorGilbertson · 02/01/2018 12:02

Apply for a fellowship. Lots of people keep telling me it is the wrong thing to do. They are probably correct, but I would like to give it one shot anyway, just in case.

Oh, and shorten my to do list. Ha ha. And get a permanent job.

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bigkidsdidit · 02/01/2018 14:59

I'm the opposite to you - age 35, and I'm just revving up! Started a fellowship (five years) last year. Have agreed with dh that 2018 is my year to go full pelt and he will pick up more slack with the dc.

But in strict resolution terms, I am aiming to read a paper every work day in 2018.

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Marasme · 02/01/2018 15:05

sounds good BKDD - fellowship sounds ideal from the point of view of getting genuine time allowance to do research.
What is killing me is the admin (finance, HR, admission) and peri-teaching crap (marking, meetings, moderations, appeals, committees, pastoral load) - followed by the assumption that research will be carried out on my own time. I m a shit administrator - if I had any skills or inclination for this, I would have gone toward an admin sector.

I am also pissed off at my older colleague who have never faced the same admin / peri-teaching expectations but still inflict on me their research expectations, or their disappointment for the thresholds I am not meeting, when they have always benefited from secretarial support (which was withdrawn from all but them about 15 years ago).

In 2018, I will be saying NO.

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user19283746 · 02/01/2018 15:23

I think that for many female academics a NY resolution to say NO to everything that doesn't benefit them directly would be a really good idea. (And something that I should also do more.)

As somebody who is a senior academic (not much older than OP), the unequal standards applied to different people increasingly annoys me when I sit on panels for promotions, grants, fellowships etc. With (male) friends in the right places, OP would be fine to go for promotion to professor. It becomes increasingly manifest to me that women are simply held up to different standards in many instances.

BTW the criticism about not being invited to give keynotes may be particularly unfair if the STEM field is one in which men dominate at the top and on organising committees - and thus women are less likely to be invited to give keynotes.

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dimples76 · 02/01/2018 18:03

My resolution is to turn my emails off more as they mostly enrage me and get in the way of more constructive activity. I had some corkers today from students. I think some of them think I am their own personal slave - reading the module guide, looking at a campus map and interpreting the coursework spec all seem beyond them. The ones from Faculty/University management are even less respectful!

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Marasme · 02/01/2018 18:55

YY Dimples - better to switch off than start foaming at the mouth. This holiday, I had two requests for references specifically stating that student wanted to submit their application between Xmas and NY to be able to enjoy their trip home, so could I oblige and hurry up. Told them I would happily provide a hurried reference - not sure they got the irony....

I also had one email me on December 24th asking whether they would get feedback and marks from exam taken on December 18th before end of 2017. They must believe we are machines.

user promotion is much out of the window for me until I get a big windfall - no ££££ no promo. You can be the worst offender for teaching, admin, citizenship, as long as you have cash, promotion is a dead cert they even promoted a sexual harasser of postdocs on this basis last round

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Thetreesareallgone · 02/01/2018 19:17

I designate times I am on annual leave, send them to the students and tell them they won't receive a reply during these times. I have extra office hours before these times, and immediately in the New Year and so far, I've only had one email on the 2nd, I must have put them off completely! I also tell them to read the 'FAQ' guide I produce for all exams and essays, and only to email me if they read that and can't find the answer. This stopped about 90% of the emails about things like word counts, dates, past papers.

I do agree the amount of emails is out of control and I find it overwhelming as well as annoying in term-time, the least I can do is not have to suffer it over the Christmas period!

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Thetreesareallgone · 02/01/2018 19:19

marasme promotion is the same with us, it's big grant time or nothing for me too, although a couple of smaller ones pushed together may also count. I'm sitting tight where I am for a while on this basis.

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NeverEverAnythingEver · 02/01/2018 22:00

I don't know if I want to make any resolutions apart from just surviving this term - I'm teaching a course new to me, all my admin stuff are heavy this term, and I only work 3 days a week.

My plan is to only do these things and play the piano the rest of the time. And perhaps even think about cooking dinners and feeding the kids.

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NeverEverAnythingEver · 02/01/2018 22:00

I feel a bit meh ...

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HintBean · 02/01/2018 23:12

I am with you OP. This is also my resolution to let go and not take work so seriously. I think it's partly to do with not having a permanent post.

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Yogafire · 03/01/2018 13:53

My resolution is super efficiency and self promotion. To up my profile whilst not impacting family life. Easy, right?!

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NeverEverAnythingEver · 03/01/2018 14:44

Despite feeling a bit meh I have written an application for promotions... Grin While supervising DS making cheese. All in a day's work.

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purplepandas · 04/01/2018 22:30

I think the point about saying no to things that don't' benefit us (or at least interest us) is key. I am doing that. I wavered about two things last year and agreed in the end because I felt I had to. Both are kicking my ass now. I should have said no. Annoyingly I did once for one and went back on it due to guilt. No no no!

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GameOldBirdz · 05/01/2018 11:20

I actually started the 2017-18 academic year with resolutions to say "No" much more and to dedicate at least 1.5 days a week solely to research.

October-December, I said "No" to a couple of things that I previously would've definitely said "Yes" to (that's why I was asked!) and I flatly refused some teaching for 2018-19. Go me...

I mostly manage to do my 1.5 days a week though the peri-teaching (great phrase) can bugger this up.

Have you seen this thread? It's not about saying "no" per se but about keeping academic work in perspective and not letting the stress take over. I've found it quite helpful to watch.

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Marasme · 05/01/2018 12:43

yep - saw it. I like the general direction but I am sadly in an institution where performance review has gone crazy in the last 5 years, so I struggle a bit to take it with a pinch of salt.

True - very few people go into performance management - however, my institution uses different strategies: you don't perform, you lose lab space, access to facilities, get asked to teach more, lose access to internal studentships competitions, and get on the list for getting your contract changed to a teaching-only contract. However - this might still happen whether I kill myself or not - after all, all my big grant applications got rejected last year, which leaves me in a perilous situation, despite outperforming in all other areas... I'll soon have no money, which puts me in the non-desirable list...

so I will be saying NO !

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ghislaine · 05/01/2018 15:12

One thing I am going to work harder at is working to promote other women in academia.

I head a research centre which has various events through the year. I try to ensure that women are well represented at these at senior and junior levels. (I'm particularly proud of one conference last year where all four keynote speakers were women.)

I also sit on an editorial board and make sure that women academics and feminist scholarship get exposure in the journal - don't let the men get away with suggesting the same old chaps to write special pieces etc.

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impostersyndrome · 05/01/2018 15:22

Great thread and good for you ghislaine. Have you seen the #allmalepanel hashtag on twitter?

My own resolutions are to continue to take at least one day off a week and to switch off email for two hours during the working day so that I can actually get some work done.

and, more of a target, but to pick myself up after the rejection of a research proposal and rewrite it for somewhere else.

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Marasme · 05/01/2018 15:42

@impostersyndrome - take one day off a week for you or to do some hobby-work?

the email-off idea is a good one - I hate the mega pile of junk email and non-junk emails I have to get through when i switch back on - I am going to put an out-of-office everytime I am at a meeting / conference / away from office to deter the email pests...

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impostersyndrome · 05/01/2018 16:18

*@marasme simply to stop thinking constantly about work.

And the emails are a revelation. I know I like to think I'm irreplaceable, but when I was away for a few weeks last year with an out-of-office message, it was amazing how the amount of nonsense either stopped coming in, or solved itself.

An alternative to out-of-the-office for short meetings is to not reply immediately to emails (though I'm far from good at doing this yet Grin). I just compose something and file it away in a draft form , ready to send when I'm ready.

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Marasme · 05/01/2018 16:41

i guess i overthink all my responses to email rather than just firing off a quick yes / no / whatever. Or even better: delegate to someone else to deal with the request.

I need to stop aginising about responses and just fire quick replies.

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DoctorGilbertson · 16/02/2018 15:25

Tick. Fellowship application submitted. Now the next thing. But good news. I will celebrate by making low calorie onion bhajis.

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purplepandas · 16/02/2018 21:15

Well done *DoctorGilbertson". Time to celebrate!

Actually, I got a grant in this week too. Good point :)

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