Academics Chat Thread

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I believe the old Chat thread has fallen off the front page of this section, and I thought it might be time to reinstate it. I know it's only sporadically useful, but sometimes it's nice, right?

I am a lowly postdoctoral English Lit type. Finished my PhD in 2014, teaching associate for a couple of years, and now part-time while DD is a baby. I'm currently working frantically to get my book manuscript to the publisher by my deadline (October), and also trying to regain enthusiasm for the job market.

Who else is lurking around here?

No word on ours although they are looking into opening up some computer spaces for those students still on campus.

I’m starting to think that social distancing will be gone by September. The lobbyists are clamouring for the government to relax the current rules and prioritise the economy. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if were expected to teach in the usual crowded, unventilated rooms in the autumn term.

@GCAcademic my fears in a nutshell.

On another matter, I'm being nagged by our administrators to complete the fiction that is the TAS survey, requiring academics to report on the preceding period to state how they spent their time. I refuse to do this, not just as its impossible to remember going back so far, but also because it's impossible to segment my time in neat chunks of research vs. teaching. How do I allocate time spent writing a paper with a PhD student, for example?

Of course I continue to get emails reminding me that I'm threatening the research funding model of my institution , but I'm wondering how much of an anomaly is my refusal.

I can't think of the last time I did my TAS. Maybe they scrapped ours?

Maybe they’re in your junk folder. Just don’t go and check. Keep a clear conscience

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jun/26/ministers-may-move-university-applications-to-after-a-level-results

Is this a dead thread? is there a new one?
this rank semester nearly finished me - evaluating my options right now...

Well, you have resurrected it. I barely have any energy left to type. Just told a PhD student to find work in another field, cos this is Hell

hell it is!

looking at other jobs - i think i m done with it :/
I often fantasize to close my lab and walk into the sunset...

No one would have me, I am an old goat. Just trying to keep my head down and do as little as I can for the new digital regime. Students don't come to me for my Moodle mini activities and online quizzes....they really don't. But this is what we are all mandated to do at my place.

ohhh the moodle mini activities and quizzes

i m salivating at the thought of a tenure track job in another country... the fact it s not permanent is even more enticing, because i cannot take an eternity of any job in HE...

My parents recently had their wheelie bins cleaned. Ours are minging, so I looked to see if there is a wheelie bin cleaning company in my area. There isn’t. I started thinking about setting one up. That’s how much I hate my job at the moment. Cleaning out putrid bins for a wage cut would be an improvement on it.

yep.

no moodling no zooming while cleaning bins!

No senior management getting hysterical about the next effing REF and breathing down your neck about impact when all you’re trying to do is get through the next 24 hours either . . .

and all the blinking reminders threats about impact cases deadlines for the 29th committee review - on Jan 6th no less.

Cognitive dissonance to the max versus the "take care of your MH and have a break at Xmas"

Oh yes, the constant barrage of emails about my wellbeing just feels like gaslighting at this stage.

I turned off my computer on the 19th and won’t be looking at emails until we open again in Jan. I have to say that it’s taken about a week but my energy levels have risen and my stress levels have fallen as a result.

Lucky you! I have had reference requests, PhD supervisions, project tutorials and other stuff. Pretty constant round here.

Plus the research which is why I do this job!!

I made it clear to students, including PhDs and dissertation supervisees, that I am not available during the University's Christmas closure. When accepting to write references for them, students were told that the request would need to be generated in time for me to complete it by the 23rd. I did quickly check my email and had two emails from students on Boxing Day asking about things they should have sorted out weeks ago, which is really rude in my book. They won't be replied to until the 5th. The good will I had in the early years of my career has entirely evaporated.

for the first time in ~20 years, i ve not looked at emails since the 21st, and won t til the 6th.
I ve not done research either. I know i ll have 10s of email about the REF which i don t want to work on over xmas, and references requests, which i refuse to look at because asking them over the hols is disrespectful in my book. As for my PhD students, they have been told to have a break, because life happens and everybody deserves one.

This is partly due to being unwell, but also the realisation this year that my employer really does not give a shit about me or how I am, unless I bring in £££ in form of grants, or foreign students.

When they froze my accounts in April and got me to supervise 3x my usual massive postgrad dissertation load on no funds (not simple lit reviews, these are too lowly for my uni), this basically was it. I had no summer, and i ve been a wreck since.

The good will I had in the early years of my career has entirely evaporated.

100%

I've been having a break at Christmas, I've done this for years, and at Easter. Let all the students know in advance (and provide details of Jan exams in writing), let references know the deadlines, book nothing in that period, it's quite straightforward to have a break. I'm guessing most of my colleagues are doing the same, no colleague emails last week or this so far, our university has a 'quiet' email policy til 4th. It took me a week to decompress as well. I don't take the full two weeks off, always, but I don't do admin or teaching during the closure period.

@Marasme I agree, one of the biggest shifts in my thinking was realising that my institution (in the larger sense) doesn't give a shit about me, having said that my own department and immediate colleagues are still collegiate and has been very helpful to me personally. It does make you choose what you do differently, I also find participating in new initiatives hard, as when you've been somewhere for a long time, you get tired and probably know the outcome of any given committee and how little action will be taken before you get there!

I am on leave next term, though not from main roles, PhDs and running a research centre. But if I wasn't I'd be prerecording my mini lectures and setting up quizzes that no student bothers to do.......so glad that is not on my plate right now. Lot of messy student stuff though, outstanding work and mental health issues that I can't just totally leave. I would have 1000 emails if I didn't look for 2 weeks and new ones coming in all the time. Plus If miss the occasional, lucrative, offer to write a think piece or go on radio.....