Annual leave

[Mumteedum]

I'm just curious.

How much annual leave are you entitled to and how much do you actually take?

I take most of mine but I'm not on a research contract. I know some colleagues do research in the summer but then I'm wondering if they actually take their annual leave too?

I think some academics like to signal how hard they work, e.g. posting messages about how much they got done last weekend, over the public holidays.

If universities cared about wellbeing, they would have stronger norms on people taking their full leave, and putting it in their calendar, and making sure their department/team is aware when they are away - with stand-ins/handovers in place. None of this was done systematically in the various places I worked.

One issue was that there were some tasks that couldn't really be handed over. I was of course told I must take my leave properly - but they were jolly glad I didn't, when nipping issues in the bud that had potential to develop into expensive problem. Much of the sector is overstretched and carrying a lot of regulatory risk.

It is really difficult, I did or have attempted to signal how hard I work, particularly to my bosses, but not as a badge of honour rather because it was deeply frustrating to me that my job was demanding so many hours beyond what I felt was reasonable (and I think my 35 hour contract is ridiculous and should be changed to 40, and then they try to make sure the job fits in those hours). We have a survey that comes round every year which asks how many hours you regularly work over your contracted hours. The laughable thing is that the options are something like 1-2, 3-5, 6-9, 10+. They don’t touch on the 20+ or even 30+. It was so disheartening to not have the work I was doing recognised, and essentially to just be told I was moaning too much.

I know the sector is broken and that it is now impossible for the job to fit the hours we are paid, but I do wish senior managers would acknowledge it too. Vocally and with support.

But, aside from all of that, I love my colleagues and do get to do some very exciting research. So I stay. And moan too much 😂

The last time I took a decent chunk of annual leave I had to pay the price by working ridiculous hours the following weeks to make up for it. Airing this to line managers is totally futile. It’s so toxic.

... are line managers not just academics like us?

i mostly line manage ECR or professional service staff - and i tell them that their jobs is designed to be done in the hours (because i workload plan them that way) - this includes 4hours a week for personal development type stuff - but this does not stretch to the extra extras. By this, i mean the colleague who wants to mentor PGR thesis write-ups despite the fact that this is neither linked to her plan, her objectives or even her career plan, or the postdoc who has signed up for a significant extra mural advocacy role and wants it counted within her hours.

my line manager would probably tell me that if i struggle, i need to cut all the outside "service" work i do, the reviewing, the editing, the society committees, the conference going and organising, and maybe even the "above and beyond" pastoral, the "engaging lecture" prep, the social stuff for the students, the hosting senior pupils for internships, the patient outreach work - i know this, so i keep quiet.

The problem is that all the extra outside service work is part of the promotion criteria, so can't be easily dropped!

I am forever emailing people and you get an auto "out of office" preview but I still send it and hope they will reply before they come back to work.
So I probably shouldn't do that.

I did the same @worstofbothworlds

I'm trying to work out why HE is bad on this. I think it's partly because there isn't enough focus internally on having cover for AL. But another reason is that there isn't any capacity for cover, or the things you are emailing about are just highly-specific to that person, e.g. conference arrangements, paper progress etc.

@grandnational But also everyone in my team needs to take time off around the same time. We're all limited to a bit at Easter and a bit at Xmas and then mainly over summer. As it is, if I cover clearing and exam boards, then I can't take my allocation in full at all.

I've never taken annual leave in 20 years of working in academia. None of my colleagues do either. I have weeks when I'm with DC but I'll keep an eye on emails. Otherwise it just mounts up and eats into research time. The odd time when I've tried to take a proper break (which I'd do informally and not notify anyone in HR) have taken months to recover from.

Journals also do not allow for any leave in our field. It's a very masculine model and no leeway is given for deadlines falling at the end of school holidays for example. Calls for funding and conferences often have deadlines smack bang at the worst time of you have children.

@Mumteedum @Mellownellow This is all horribly familiar and I'm just sorry that it's so rubbish.

Summer seems to be getting busier with things like dissertation extensions to September.

I suggested that the department hire a locum cover supervisor but got crickets in response - because the institution would obviously rather that people carry on with what they were doing without committing further resource (namely giving things a quick read & assessment while they're in their caravan or AirBnB).

I thought that student expectations are higher now (if the extension were due to illness, they feel/are entitled to full support over the vacation). And staff also need to be able to take leave properly, including at the time when their children are on school holidays. Otherwise, when can you take it, other than half-days throughout the year?

@Mellownellow I am a journal editor for a fairly big name journal that had no women editors except the EIC so she appointed some. She always emails us to say "ignore the deadline for finding reviewers etc. if it's Christmas/school holidays etc."

True, e-mail is work. But I make sure it doesn't escalate beyond 5 minutes a day... makes me calmer to just mark e-mail that need to be responded to after leave. It would have to be VERY urgent for me to do any more than this!

@Mellownellow Really sorry that you are in a position that you can't officially take leave (or feel that you can't). That's awful.

But yes, absolutely, the main problem is the highly specialised nature of our work. My real nightmare is to have an illness / injury lasting about 3 weeks. It would have to be substantially longer for my school to find cover. Otherwise I'd come back to work and be expected to catch up on however much teaching I have missed!

Some better programming by the journals on the automated reminders would help. I didn't appreciate a stern request on Christmas Day. I know lots of the world doesn't celebrate it and that it was just automated, but thinking about language/tone & ruling some dates out would be a good idea.

@atriskacademic - I felt the same and it was a real fear. A colleague spent two weeks in hospital with a very serious illness and came out to find her teaching all carefully saved up for her.

I don't know any job, apart from teaching, where deadlines are expected not to align with school holidays. That's a big ask.

I take my full 48 days (35 AL plus BHs plus Christmas and Easter extra closure days). I have risen to be senior, and still publish a lot and write grants. I never understood why my academic colleagues are so poor at time management. We teach about 150-200 hours a year, mostly between Sept-April. We have marking (I limit myself to 20-30 mins per script, so about 50 hours a year, plus another 24 hours to mark 12 dissertations). I don't work evenings or weekends.

The rest of your time is yours to organise. You have admin, service roles, PhD supervision and research to accommodate within this time. It's not rocket science, it just takes basic organisation and time management skills.

I do find myself baffled by the really poor time management exhibited by colleagues, particularly around marking scripts. But I say nothing, so as not to offend. All I can do is role model getting stuff done within the time allocated. It's not a hard job.

I do love a productivity guru and am fascinated to hear more!

I like to plan my tasks in 2-hour blocks, so that they're not off-putting, and then challenge myself to complete the task within that time. I put these in my calendar, so weeks in advance. Never more than two 2-hour blocks of work per day. The rest of my day is for meetings and unexpected stuff.

So, for example, if I had 40 scripts to mark, I know I can get six done in 2 hours, so I would put seven 2-hour blocks in my calendar across two weeks, and get these done fairly effortlessly.

Similarly, I break my research down into smaller tasks, like writing the methods section (two 2-hour blocks), and put these in my calendar.

Works like a charm.

I’m on mat leave and due to go back in August. I was advised by someone that I could maybe ‘go back’ earlier and take annual leave. Otherwise it goes to waste in September. I don’t think I’m going to as I just feel a bit twatty doing that!

That is standard practice at my university. It is not at all ‘twatty’ 😁 Almost all of us work way more than our paid hours and you are legally entitled to that annual leave. Take it, and the pay, and remember there is nothing to feel guilty about!!!!

Entitlement = About 15% of any time that I am contracted to work

Taken = At least 30% of contracted time. I am efficient and am always waiting for other people to do something so I can crack on.

Could not agree more. I’m an exceptionally fast reader though which helps. Like the terminator 😁

My problem is I do everything I should do, meet all deadlines, am a good citizen. So of course I am asked and expected to do more. My research time suffers. My dept has a high bar for research so if I'm going to meet that then I can't take leave.

Or I could go the administration route, drop the research and manage things but I don't think I could bear it!

Workloads vary a lot between institutions and even within institutions it seems. In my team a full time member of staff will have between 10-12 modules, equivalent to contact time of around 400 hours give or take. Then there's marking on top and prep of course plus personal tutees and admin. The allocation for programme leadership and other roles is unrealistic.

Marking in our subject cannot be done as fast as reading a script. It's a practical and creative subject with multiple elements to portfolio submissions usually.

I would not consider myself poor at time management or else badly organised, though I am possibly more generous with my time with colleagues and students than many others are, but again I have leadership responsibilities and the allocation for those roles are not realistic either.

Ok 400 hours is loads