Office space

[nythbran2]

How common is it to have your own office as a senior academic (senior lecturer and up)? Where I am it is now rare, but I remember most academics having their own offices in the 90's.

it would be perfectly workable if there were sufficient meeting rooms that could be booked.

Bookable meeting rooms isn't workable when students drop by without appointment - this happens a lot, whether it is UGs with teaching related questions or students with pastoral difficulties or PhD students who need to talk urgently.

Non-RG but fairly successful research and teaching university. Those on short-term or part-time contracts share offices - 2 max. Full-time and permanent have our own offices, but we are asked when we go on leave if we will allow someone to use our office. Some say yes, some no.

It’ll never change, I think, because of the way our campus is designed and the limitations we have on building.

However, when I was an hourly-waged lecturer at an RG, covering three people’s leave, I only got to use an office for one hour per week and often had to meet students in hallway meeting areas because I had no access to room booking systems.

So we share, three lecturers to a two desk office……the thinking is that probably all 3 won’t be in on the same day. If you are then you just go and find an empty desk in another office.

so currently it means you get a shelf on a book case, a small locker for personal stuff, a desk drawer and one filing cabinet drawer. But they’re thinking of removing the bookcases, filing cabinet and lockers and squeezing another desk in each office and making it 4 (or 5) people to a 3 desk office. Head of school asked me why on Earth I felt I needed a book shelf or a filing cabinet drawer 🤷‍♀️

since we moved to this office sharing (happened during covid) I had a garden office built and I have transferred most of my books, etc there. But it was 7k I could have done without spending but I’m so glad I have space for work stuff outside of the house.