To think academics are seriously entitled??

Professional whinges at a party about their job and how different it was when they started 40 years ago. In other news bears shit in the woods.

FFS. Substitute lecturer for teacher, police officer, nurse, accountant, tv producer, surveyor, care assistant, bus driver. Everyone has those exact same conversations. Have you never spoken to anyone at a party before OP?

YABU, you don’t know what you’re talking about. The pay is far from great for the level of qualification and often experience that’s required. Universities are in crisis and lecturers are kind of the front for a failing system and have to deal with all kinds of shit you can’t even imagine from the students. They have to cover for the university management which is often a shitshow. They face immense pressure to advance their careers by bringing in money for the university from an ever decreasing source. The research and teaching they wanted to do when they got into the whole schtick ends up compromised to the point that it feels out of reach.

I don't think it's particularly good pay, and a lot of the job after a certain level is just chasing funding.
Dh considered it, glad he didn't. Lots of reasons, but the first thing was the department he was considering joining, lost all the funding the next year, and they had to relocate to a different university and their research subtly changed on the outside, but to those who were in there said it was a massive change.

Most lecturers are not going into it because they love teaching. They teach because they love their subject and are doing research in that area. The teaching is a necessary evil to get paid. What they'd like to do is just research.

And when any group of any career get together, they'll moan about the aspects of the job they don't like. Good way of bonding.

It doesn’t sound like you have any idea what the job entails.

If someone in their 60s wouldn’t get a job today that’s because the publication threshold is so ridiculously high. We now routinely interview people for entry level roles who not only have a PhD but two books, a raft of articles and a lot of teaching and public engagement experience. The salary is not high for people who are that qualified. There are also a lot of staff on precarious or hourly paid contracts which don’t reflect the volume of work delivered. This doesn’t mean the person in their 60s is useless, it reflects a crazy threshold for getting an academic job now.

The hours are not minimal either. I’ve worked nearly every weekend this year, and most evenings. I took two weeks holiday this summer and two days in April. When I was a junior lecturer, I was earning less per hour than the department secretary because of the unpaid overtime.

As for emails, I got 200 yesterday but my day was back to back with meetings and teaching which meant that the emails could only be dealt with after the working day ended. That is pretty much the norm for me.

Friday drinks with colleagues - totally normal to have a whinge

But it is unusual to invite judgy critical people that aren’t well liked

They wouldn't use double question marks though

Having done both jobs definitely not alike.

University is a walk in the park compared to teaching secondary school.

everyone likes a bloody good moan. It helps us all keep going. No matter how fab or not work conditions are.

Don’t all people moan about their workload? I know I do….

I’m surprised you were invited to whatever event this was tbh!

Well is it any different to a teacher complaining about their admin load ? Lecturers are teachers after all

and many people in their 60s won’t meet today’s entry requirements - but that doesn’t mean they can’t do the job which has evolved over time as like as not.

minimal hours? I really have to question that because my dad lecturered for a number of years and the hours were anything but minimal. 9 till 5 as a minimum working with students either lectures or tutorials or one one one work , and lecture prepping evening and weekends was quite difficult to accept at times how much time he was working and all that evenings and weekend was unpaid