Nice new corner! Come and chat!

[NeverEverAnythingEver]

We have our new board! Calling all cademics/aspiring academics/fed-up academics - come and chat!

I think you have to be philosophical about workloads: no model will actually measure the time taken, or the actual hours we work.

The really good thing they do is to offer a tool to maintain fairness - and transparency, if all colleagues can see all workloads in a unit. My attitude as HoD when people complained about their perception of a heavy workload was to refer them to the workload spreadsheets I tabled at our annual review each year, to show them that they were not doing any more than other people in the Department (and in some cases, they were doing less ... )

The issue is with the expectations of work we do, full stop. And that's because as efficient as one can be, research takes a long time, and teaching (the admin related to it particularly) also.

No workload model helps with this, but at least they're a tool to promote fairness, or expose unfairness.

Oh, and I've never worked anywhere where external stuff eg reviewing papers for journals, or running a scholarly association, or editing a journal (and I do/have done all those things) is counted in my workload. But they help in other ways eg promotions and pay rises.

I guess for me it's a bit of a shock from thinking 'okay, I'm doing quite well' to suddenly being on the bottom, when I haven't really done much less in the intervening year. My research has actually been going better in the last year, with papers getting published!

Perhaps I should remind myself that I am ill and some people with my condition can't even hold a part-time job, much less an over-full one like being an academic. But it's hard to not feel like I'm falling off the bottom of things, and it's like validation for my imposter syndrome (see, they've found me out!).

Just popping by. I lost my place a bit as drowning in new teaching and trying to keep research going. How do people do it? Having a young family is so much harder then when I had a lectureship before (old job ironically at same institution pre children).

Our workload thing assigns points to various jobs, like x points for admissions tutor and y points per PhD students etc. Then everyone is supposed to have a certain number of points so you can say no to new jobs. But no, reviewing papers etc don't count...

Our workload is very mysterious. They always seem to do things with complicated equations here. It is meant to tabulate some sort of 'hours', which they might better call points since they have to emphasise that it's not actual hours. But the hours go into several different categories: research, teaching, service, and external (although external only considers things like being on grant panels and steering committees, not reviewing papers). We actually tabulate teaching hours on something reasonably related to how much teaching you actually do, and they send that around to double check with everyone each year. But the others are just a great mystery, you don't see the hours, just your ranking. You get ranked in each category, and there is some complicated equation to turn the components into your final ranking.

Feeling rather philosophical rather than down about it at the moment - another possible interpretation of my going from the top to the bottom with little change in activity is that we're all doing about the same amount, so a small change can make a big difference. And chatted with HoS yesterday at an event, and he seemed reasonably positive towards me. So whatever. Maybe if I can get a PhD student next year I'll pop back up to the top.

I'm bored. I've finished a paper. I want to do more research. But there is too much teaching/supervision and stuff.

Having said that, perhaps I can just wing those things and do something exciting anyway.

I'm bored too, hello. I have back to back tutee appointments all morning with about 1 gap (should be long enough to get a coffee thankfully) but they keep either being annoyingly unproblematic and quick (not leaving me enough time to get a coffee, though) or not showing up (meaning I can't even nip to the post room in case they come late. I'll give the current one 2 more minutes and then pop out).

I got rid of my boredom by inadvertently volunteering to give talks.

I'm bored too. I feel like starting an exciting new project :-)

Me too! But I probably don't have enough time. Still, I'll start planning.

I'll start an exciting but safe project ...

An exciting but safe project, I like your thinking. I 'think' I may have been given a tiny but of project money. Less than £10K but all good in a new job :) Just waiting on a few assurances etc.

Exciting Buffy Enjoy :)

I have an unsafe project, but it's not to do with work.

Sorry to gatecrash but I'm finding myself in a bit of a lull and not sure how to get out of it. I have just finished the PhD (humanities) and was awarded v.minor corrections but found the viva really dispiriting the examiners didn't seem to find much positive to say about it.

This has knocked my confidence in a big way and I've put off job hunting or any post PhD projects for a few months and I don't really know where to go from here. I've lost confidence in my thesis so I'm nervous about using it as the basis of a book or journal article. Al the jobs I've applied for have come to nothing and I really don't know where to go from here. I wondered if anyone could suggest a gentlish way of easing myself back into academic work?

The thing about this situation is that you have to find a way of becoming independent and not seeking anyone's approval (even the examiners'). It sounds as though you're just a bit burnt out/exhausted. Give yourself time to let ideas strew & fructify.

And talk to your supervisor. Maybe say something of what you've posted here.

Find a conference or seminar in an area of your research which has some fun in it (I only do research because it's just all FUN!) and go as an audience member, don't force yourself to give a paper. Get re-involved in the bread & butter of research in a collaborative way. Other people are your supporters and saviours in this regard.

Are you in a post? Maybe re-connect with teaching & students? Develop a new module which forces you to push your own research - I work in a Department where our 2nd & 3rd year modules are based on our research. When I'm starting a new project, I set up a module. It forces me to think through my research & the students are often excited to be part of the bigger research initiative.

But basically, the whole idea of a PhD is that you can now be the judge of your own work. So don't seek others' approval to give your work value.

And huge congratulations - getting through a viva with only minor corrections is an achievement

"stew" not "strew" You're not Ophelia!

I think intense ennui is very common post viva. I certainly faffed around for at least a year, not ready to move on to new projects and equally not ready to start turning PhD into book. I focuses on my teaching and admin (I was in a post that started a month or so after my viva) and my enthusiasm for research returned about a year into it.

Give yourself some breathing space. Focus on teaching (if you are - if you're not can you pick up some associate/visiting lecturing?)

And do talk to your advisor. A good one will guide you through the tricky waters of post-viva (although mine was useless on that and all other matters, other than lending the glow of his 'superstar' status to me and my project).