Heading towards my annual review with no fucks left to give

[AcademicBurnOut]

I haven’t done half of the bullshit I made up last year due to the fact I work 50 hrs a week without actually starting a PhD like I keep saying I will.

We are quite a small team, someone has left and not been replaced meaning my 90% workload planner must now be at 120% as I’ve taken on a share of the left person’s work.

We’ve been told serious financial issues, nobody is being replaced, more people need to leave of their own choice and if not enough people do then hard decisions will be made, etc. not allowed to use associate lecturers to help cover gaps anymore.

I’m not worried I’m going to be made redundant as the course wouldn’t run if they lost anyone else from the team. I just feel like going to the meeting and saying I have no interest in academia, HE or a PhD anymore and am considering taking up dog walking. 🤷‍♀️

Didn't want to leave you with no replies. That sounds spectacularly shit. I have mine soon and have been honest in the form about how much stress I've been under and how I detest the isolation we experience at work (old style one person per office situation which can be heloful but also desperately lonely).

The only way I can deal with academia at the moment is to have an exit plan I can action if I want to. The students seem to keep me there for the time being.

I think you have to be honest, but perhaps more diplomatically 😁

Sounds really shit, I'm so sorry. Is there a risk your course could be closed if they're talking about possible redundancies?

Have a good vent here and then present the full picture of your workload for the review?

Seconding the vent here, then take the realities of your workload and the impact it has on your targets in to your meeting. Make a really clear list so noi can deny the reality. And make it clear it is the reality and not your experience of it.

You have all my sympathy, I have a probation review soon, and I will be in a very similar position as I'm struggling to do the basics of my job now due to being expected to take on so many 'just one more' things often with little warning (and now have to somehow find solutions to huge budget cuts impacting my ability to meet probation criteria on basically all fronts )

Has anyone else actually never had a probation or annual review?? I never get to say my grievances :( .

@Acinonyx2 I didn't on any contract under 12 months long. But always on 12 months or longer (I have been through probation multiple times at the same place as a result)

Had an annual review in December

Basically the same as the year before

And that was the same as the year before

Why do these people think we give a shit

Some universities are totally shittng on their staff at the moment. Academia is pretty toxic.

I wouldn't give a fuck either. Yes univeristy is a business but they need to ensure staff and students are positively productive.

I am wondering if we work in the same place OP, or possibly even the same team?! I am in a very similar position. In the 'why have objectives not been achieved' section of the review document I'll be giving a factual account of the inadequate staffing in my subject area, the inaccuracy of the workload modelling, the (gendered) disparity in access to research time in the team, and the impact of those issues on my motivation and development. I'll see where we go from there.

I'd be honest and say exactly what you said. This doesn't reflect on you but on the workplace. Staff morale is really low in academia for a reason.

I retired early, DH is a head of dept now, HE is an absolute shitshow and I do not disagree. A few of my friends took early retirement when it was offered during lockdown. DH works in a field that gets funding from industry I didn’t and the difference was tangible as to how those depts ran and stress levels.

What sort of contact are you on ?

If you hate it that much and can do something else and make that provision then start the ball rolling especially is self employed but the market for dog walkers is saturated where I live so be aware. Informing them will make no difference apart from getting it off your chest. Even though areas are specialist there is always someone who will take that job. Last interview I was involved with had 80 applicants for a temp junior teaching position.