Is there room in academia for the not-very-ambitious?

[dameednatheaverage]

I'm wondering what people think about this? I have busted a gut for a good few years (c. six years since my PhD) to make it as an academic. I've been successful in the medium range I guess - a lot of impact and some sort of public profile in my area, a few decent papers, but not nearly enough - my productivity is very low. I finally got promoted to SL recently though (I'm in a mid-ranking university).

I have come to the conclusion that I am just not sufficiently ambitious to go much faster, although I may go further, eventually. (I am probably also just not quite good/clever enough). And I am only prepared to work fairly standard hours (9ish-5.30ish), I just won't do endless evenings/weekends/etc. Essentially, I want to enjoy my life and my work and I have realised I regret spending my DC's early years in a fog of striving to achieve. I want to make sure I really enjoy what's left of their childhood.

Academics constantly complain of overwork, but I don't feel over-worked now - largely I think because I've decided to reduce the pressure on myself, and let my career just tick over. I would obviously never voice this to peers/colleagues, but admitting or experiencing a lack of ambition in academia seems quite unusual and perhaps a bit controversial.

What do you think? Is everyone here fired by ambition? Or are you ticking over too?

I think it's fine to bring children in occasionally if necessary, mine are old enough to sit on a computer/tablet and not really need me, I've had colleagues even breastfeed in a meeting, fine by me, student of mine used to bring his baby into classes, another student asked if her very quiet daughter could sit in one class in the holidays, also fine by me, never disturbed me. I just don't care about this stuff, unless obviously the children were running around/being disruptive which they are not. Mind you, I didn't mind that a colleague brought her dog into work, til someone made a complaint about that! I thought it was nice.

I drag my DS along with me to out-of-hours events and pay a student to help keep an eye on him (DH travels a lot, no relatives locally). If I have absolutely no other option, in almost always unnecessary out-of-term meetings I sit him at the back of the room plugged into headphones and a movie.

Fine if it works for you. Definitely not fine to expect it to work for everyone as a matter of course, particularly when children are very young, have special needs, etc.

Thankfully, Athena Swan has made many depts aware of what kind of demands are unreasonable to make of staff - for instance, I have a friend at a university that opens the on-site nursery on Saturday open days to provide free childcare for staff who have to work. Not perfect, but a decent attempt to address the problem.

@flowersonthepiano hahaha :-) I'm not uberdriven, and it's rare that I bring DS to things. But I do if I am the person running them and there is absolutely no other option.

What I do point-blank refuse to do is attend student-run society events on Sunday evenings. We used to have a three-line-whip in the department to attend such events because it was nice for the students and they were disappointed when we didn't show. The students even put complaints through the staff-student committee about disappointing attendance, but they stopped when I pointed out that it was simply impossible to expect staff to come into London on a Sunday evening, when most of us live an hour+ away, trains are crap, and we have families and private lives.

Actually, one of our most outspoken "not on weekends" people in our department is a woman with no plans for children (known preference personally). I really appreciate that she stands up for this, because it's so easy to dismiss people with children who do as it's 'because of the kids' - whereas she is forthright in saying "I want my weekends for doing things other than work".

I'm fascinated, though, by the thought that in order for "journals be edited, scholarly associations set up & run, conferences organised" it must be done outside of working hours? I do that sort of thing inside of working hours. Okay, yes, accepting an invitation to speak at a conference, for example, will include outside working hours because you'll be there overnight. But I don't think these things should be considered "extras". They're part of the job.

I may be biased, in that I'm disabled, and I quite literally cannot work more than working hours. So everything I do gets done in 40 hours a week. But I've organised conferences, attended networking events, been representative on a variety of bodies, etc.

I'm ambitious, but frustrated that the bar is set by those who can put in extra. I wish it wasn't. Because I'm working to my absolute limit to accomplish what others see as 'just coasting along'.

I'm ambitious, but frustrated that the bar is set by those who can put in extra.

This is inevitable, though, in any field of work.

I'm ambitious, but frustrated that the bar is set by those who can put in extra

Oh really ... don't fall for the divide and conquer. Aim your anger not at your colleagues (I am really sick of the "Oh it's OK her her she doesn't have anything else important tin her life" attitude I get), but at the government's lunatic desire for revenge on academics who dare to do research which questions the world the government would like to control, and so have imposed on us, over the years:

QAA
HEA
RAE
REF
TEF

and it won't stop there. They're the reasons some of us work over & above.

Oh, wey, I'm not upset with my colleagues. I'm just frustrated at the system and culture that allows this to happen. I completely don't fault those who can doing what they need to do to stay afloat, or get ahead.

What shouldn't happen is a group of academics' concerns about increasing workload be dismissed because "it's like that at all Universities". Support staff shouldn't be cut left and right and same level of service expected, with faculty taking up the slack. Increasing grant funding rates shouldn't be expected when overall funding rates are falling. Expectations are inappropriate and academics keep trying to meet them - because not meeting them doesn't hurt the Universities, at least not initially. It most impacts the individual - in their career progress. Then their students, and their research field. These are the things academics care about, even if they were willing to sacrifice their own career to make a point!

I don't know how it can change, but it has be at the cultural level. That's why I greatly appreciate people like my colleague I mentioned above who stands up for work-life balance. I apprecaite the Professor who asked, "But will that make us happy?" at a staff meeting when the Head was talking about research output.

And, yes, user, it's like that everywhere. And probably less so in academics than some things, definitely better in UK academics than in the US, where 60 hr work weeks are basically the minimum - "extra"s are above that. But I object to the workaholism culture in general.