I just can't be fucking arsed any more.

[SmashedPumpkings]

It's a rainy Monday at the beginning of assessment and marking season, and I'm at a point in my life where flouncing off forever for an early retired filled with an absence of academic bullshit feels within reach.
No longer being fucking arsed with academic life seems like a perfectly natural reaction to this context.
But, still I need to be a little bit fucking arsed because I do actually need to do my job, if only with minimal effort and if only for a decade-ish.

My lack of arsed-ness is manifesting in several ways including, but not limited to:
> Not pursuing any new research avenues unless they are genuinely innovative, fascinating and/or disruptive. I have no fucks left to give for research which is safe and intending only incremental shifts.
> Not attending conferences or workshops unless there is a clear and direct benefit to me. I have no fucks left to give for hearing about other people's safe research which inevitably results in hardly-discernible incremental shifts.
> Only writing academic articles that excite me even if they are completely left-field from my core research area and not guaranteed 3/4*. I I have no fucks left to give for spending weeks agonising over writing articles that are dull but strategic.
> Putting only minimal effort into teaching such that I ensure the basics and foundations are sound while giving no attention to the singing and dancing add-ons because, shock horror, academia is not one long Tik Tok video. I have no fucks left to give for pedagogical practice which ignores the fundamentals of sound scholarship and assessment and, instead, focuses on shiny things in the name of some bullshit strategy.
> No longer answering stupid student questions. I have no fucks left to give for students who email with questions that have been answered both in person, in lecture materials and on Ultra sites.
> Completing my citizenship role to the absolute minimal standards and at a time which is convenient for me (barring meetings of course). I have no fucks left to give for roles which have minimal kudos attached, from which I get zero satisfaction and which I believe would be more effectively, and cheaply, done by a colleague on an administrator contract.

In short, I'm working to contract whereby I'm doing my job to an adequate quality but no more than that.
Though I'm still a decade away from leaving academia, I'm already beginning the process of winding down. In six or seven years I'll dispense completely with anything which is absolutely non-essential.

Thank you for giving me the time to vent this. For obvious reasons, I've name changed.

I wonder whether anyone else just can't be fucking arsed any more? And if so, how does your not arsed-ness manifest?

I'm looking at your list and I don't see 'can't be arsed anymore', I see 'sound strategy for personal advancement'

When I look at all the senior and mostly men in my department, this is pretty much what they're all doing already

I'm curious what field you're in because all the things about not doing research activities that aren't innovative or impactful -- I mean, surely that's a given?

I particularly agree with you re citizenship. Someone asked me recently what it means and I said, it's all the free labour that the university coerces you into doing. They understood immediately lol.

Thanks @dreamingbohemian I agree that senior men have been running their careers like this for years.

But my no longer being arsed isn't an exercise in advancement. I don't want to progress or advance or get promoted. It's much more of a state of mind - I have just completely stopped caring which has translated into me not being arsed to do any more than bare minimum. I probably should've made that clear.

I'm in the social sciences in a Russell Group university. I would say that the vast majority of my colleagues' research activities are un-impactful and un-innovative. They talk a good game but when you scratch the surface, most people's work is just a derivative of what's gone before.

Just came across this thread, shouldn’t be in this space really. But it struck me that this is what is called quietly quitting isn’t it?

I must admit that I hadn't come across that concept before but, yes, you're absolutely right. That's exactly what it is. Thank you! And you're very welcome here

I totally get you - academia can grind you down to the position you are taking. Was just reading Gallup’s Sate of the Global workplace report earlier and thought I’d share it so you know you aren’t alone. They even claim that the majority of employees across the globe are quiet quitting… https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace-2022-report.aspx

I am utterly on board with this. Still have a soft spot for students though.....and need to stop answering emails on a Sunday morning etc. Have begun by refusing to do non remunerated assessments of people's promotion bids so they can earn tons more money than me. But also caught in the dilemma of having to prove myself useful because redundancy is a real and present danger

That's a fascinating article @Feline1 thank you. It makes total sense.

@tizalinatuna I feel really conflicted about students and teaching to be honest. On the whole, students are great. I do enjoy classroom sessions with them because most of them are curious, critical thinkers and bring new understandings to the topics we study. But, the minority who are frustratingly childish and dependent really cloud my views, and I do find myself slipping into generalising students based on this minority.
I also find the teaching and learning processes utterly exhausting, long-winded and over-kill, and I love being innovative in teaching and assessment. It comes quite naturally to me. But the need to have approvals for any and every change to teaching or assessment methods 9 months in advance sucks the joy and spontaneity out of it.

We've been assured that redundancies aren't coming at my university. I'm not so sure given the state of the sector. My university is in the black but by how much and for how long, I have no idea. I wouldn't want to be made redundant now. But in three to five years, I'd actually be quite pleased if it happened.

I love your list. I will add I can no longer be fucked to attend departmental seminars that have been organized for the sole purpose of expanding the personal network of the brown nosing person who runs them.

I’ll add being sick of being told that I must incorporate AI / GenAI into my teaching either for assessments or teaching students to use it.

Teach them to use technology that’ll be outdated in 3 months time? For the life of me, I cannot seem to get anything out of chatgpt other than superficial platitudes and surface knowledge. It’s cheeriness and relentless positivity gets on my nerves.

A view that university is about learning to think, to evaluate evidence, to tolerate debate and dissent is considered so old fashioned.

Oh yes, I'm with that totally.
Our seminar series has been running for four years now. I've been to two seminars in that time and one of those was because my friend was the one giving the talk.

That's fascinating - in my department we're actively trying to think of ways to circumvent AI in assessments. What's the logic behind academics incorporating it into their teaching?

A view that university is about learning to think, to evaluate evidence, to tolerate debate and dissent is considered so old fashioned Hard yes but I really do think students have an appetite for this. I do some very debate-y and dissent-y activities in my teaching and students love it. The set texts for one of my modules are all from second wave feminists.

What's the logic behind academics incorporating it into their teaching?

The short answer is that apparently graduate employers want their graduates to know how to use it. Digital literacy now in top 5 of desirable graduate skills.

https://russellgroup.ac.uk/news/new-principles-on-use-of-ai-in-education/

Plus, RG advocating for it.

That's fascinating, thank you.
That hasn't trickled into our department yet, quite the opposite in fact.

I wonder if there's scope to use AI to try and develop their academic skills. So give them a task, project, question, dilemma that they have to feed into AI and then ask them to critique the AI output. I don't know. I just do old fashioned essays and have no plans to change.

I guess my point was just to think about your approach in a more positive sense, rather than 'can't be arsed' or doing the bare minimum, otherwise you're going to be completely demoralised for the rest of your working years. It's the demoralisation that has you judging all students based on the woeful minority.

I'm also social sciences and Russell Group, I share a lot of your complaints, but I just kind of ignore all the irritating things and focus on all the exciting things I get to do because of this job. I don't go to pointless meetings, I ignore admin stuff that no one ever checks up on, I stay out of drama and politics, and I just do a lot of fun research and teaching, and grit my teeth through stuff I hate. I'll never be massively promoted but I don't really care.

So maybe just think in terms of, I'm just going to do the stuff I want to do, which is not the same as bare minimum I think.

It's because there is a lot of evidence to suggest that most students are using Chat GPT in some ways, so it's better to engage with it rather than just ignore it or forbid it. The exercise you mention here is what a lot of people are doing.

Personally I think norms are important and I would rather try to uphold a strict norm of non-GAI use, in my classes I do a little talk about all of the practical and ethical concerns with GAI.

Personally I think norms are important and I would rather try to uphold a strict norm of non-GAI use, in my classes I do a little talk about all of the practical and ethical concerns with GAI.

Same. I’ve marked where it was allowed and so no improvement in analysis. Rather the opposite. Plus there still was cheating with it.

I quite like AI especially because academic writing can be so deliberately exclusive, AI is a tool to allow people to understand academic texts more easily and write their ideas in a way that academics value. But I think it needs to be used WELL and transparently. I've told my students that it is very obvious when they've used it because it doesn't currently do a very good job!

I honestly think that AI will be writing most academic papers, especially quantitative ones, in the next decade. You will feed in your hypotheses, it'll analyze the data and write it up.

AI is here to stay and we need to work with it. It's quite a good exercise to critique pieces written by chat. But Chat is the tip of the iceberg - there are some super powerful research AIs out there. Going forward, I do think we need to teach students how to work with it. There's no putting this genie back in the bottle.

I don't think there's anything shocking on your list- as long as you are producing some research and doing some teaching, what's the issue? Like a couple of other people on this thread, I see very little negative- great that you don't want to engage in boring or non-impactful work. I just do exactly what projects I like, with colleagues I get on well with and I don't have any desire to be the world's most innovative teacher either. It all turns out fine though. You have to remember that your half-assed efforts are probably better than some people who are trying a whole lot more.

That's my view too, although I'm far from an expert. I'm waiting to hear my teaching allocation for next year to figure out how to incorporate it.

Ten years ago Google scholar was frowned upon and people who admitted they used it did so in hushed tones. Now my entire department says they use it over the 'proper' academic databases. I suspect AI will go the same way.

I’m sort of the same but I still love my research. It consumes me actually. But I never go to seminars any more, don’t so any admin until forced, not interested in climbing the management roles. I want to be left alone to do superb science. Everything else can get lost

Thankyou, that totally makes sense and articulates what many longserving academics are feeling inside but may fear admitting. Working to contract is indeed what we should be doing anyway: let's face it, given how much salaries have been eroded over the past decade and a half, unless you are a professor, manager etc, you just aren't being paid enough to feel obliged to work more than 9-5 to justify it.

I agree with dreamingbohemian, though, that there is a more positive way of framing this approach, as focusing your limited energies on those parts of the job that you still enjoy and love doing, while ticking off other required tasks as quickly as possible. That's not bare minimum, and not necessarily winding down - it's just doing the job you are paid to do and no more, doing your job well but in a way that works for you, not only for your employer, and does not involve working for free (except, occasionally, on something you positively chose to do because you want to and your employer doesn't value it).

The balance of what counts as lack-of-arsed-ness will vary of course from individual to individual. Personally I do still go to seminars and conferences out of a wish to foster a sense of human community and intellectual dialogue, and encourage the next generation of scholars; I have more patience than some colleagues for silly questions from students; and I still feel a sense of purpose and responsibility in being an educator. But I have served my time on committees and now avoid them; have never considered writing 'articles that are dull but strategic' or don't excite me; have never known or cared whether my articles have got 4 or 0 in the REF; or written an impact case study; and would certainly never consider using AI!

In short, more power to your elbow and I hope your next decade turns out to be a more pleasant experience than it feels right now.

What do you do if you're an ECR/post-doc/on a temp contract and can't afford to not be arsed?

I'm burnt out but also know that I have to do much extra shit just to show I'm willing and to prove that I'm worthy of maybe being hired. As much as I want to 'just do my job', I know that I have to do 3 times as much - if I don't, there will be someone more than willing to do even more than me for less money... :( I'm exhausted of trying to get a seat at the table that I don't even know that I want but can't see a way out either :(