Is lecturing family friendly?

[Sillysaussicon]

Been offered a job as a lecturer 3 days per week. I have a 1.5 and 3.5 year old. Currently on a career break as returned to work after mat leave only lasted a few months. I couldn't handle being separated from my kids, I didn't really like my job, wasn't earning much after childcare and found the whole thing miserable and overwhelming.

It's a healthcare lecturer role and I'd be moving from clinical practice. I'm most excited about the research aspect rather than the teaching. I really want to be present for my two children as much as possible.

As a family we are all pretty tired after renovating a house (did not go smoothly for us!) and the kids don't sleep well.

My eldest has a lovely preschool and I would need to move him to another setting (childminder/nursery) to facilitate my work hours. I already feel guilty about forcing this transition on him 'for me'.

Be honest, am I going to regret this? What haven't I considered that I should be aware of before I accept?

Op you sound like you don’t want the job! University jobs are extremely coveted, they’re flexible enough in terms of hours but yes you would have to leave your children to go to work although it might be a mix of online or in person.

You are going to need to work and whilst there may be flexibility on location and rhe “when”, they’re going to want their pound of flesh from you (at least) three days a week.

what s the research - teaching ratio?
do you have a PhD?
are you expected to supervise PhD students / win research income?

the first and last point will make a big difference.

I’m a healthcare lecturer in a university dept and to be brutally honest the teaching takes precedence over any research even if you’ve got a research element in your contract. Doctorates aren’t a prerequisite - though there are often opportunities to do one beside the day job. The professional qualification is what’s needed more in these programmes. Attendance on campus and teaching can be 100% of your hours some weeks - where I work the minimum expectation is 60% on campus. As staffing gets more and more squeezed in universities workloads are increasing - and we take on more and more and the flexibility we used to enjoy is now eroded.

it Is a fantastic job with a lot of flexibility. You perhaps need to look at the job description, is it a teaching role or teaching and research? Will you be required to engage in income generation? Will you have to do a share of clinical visits? How many papers per annum will you be expected to publish? How much masters teaching and supervision? How many Phd students? Will you be involved in post grad teaching outside the Uni? Is there a requirement to be an external examiner in another University? If you don’t already have a teaching qualification will you be supported in gaining fellowship of the academy?
The main difficulties with children will perhaps be the length of teaching day. It is not uncommon for lectures to be timetabled from 8 until 8 with gaps through the day, not always convenient to get home. You will usually have 7 weeks Al with perhaps a couple of extra days at Christmas but in health the programmes run pretty much through the year and you may not always be able to choose your optimum leave weeks.
I thought I might only be able to stick if for 3 months but honestly it was the best job in the world. I had 20 very happy years with opportunities for travel and publishing that I could only have dreamed of. I did think it was much more demanding than clinical work and more difficult to fit around child care but the rewards made up for that.

I don’t work in that field, but you need to bear in mind that in many universities classes can be timetabled at any time between 9am and 7 or 8pm, and you may not have much say in when you teach. It can also vary from term to term, with only a few weeks notice of the final timetable.

And, yes, teaching loads are rising due to redundancies.

it entirely depends on how much teaching you will have. my first lectureship job had about 40 hours per year with the rest of the time for research and supervision of PhD students. so I had a lot of flex in my schedule to work from home on days without teaching and see my kids (but also pick up on work in the evening after they are asleep).

but if this role is going to have you doing face-to-face teaching for 3 days + extra for marking and admin and lecture prep, then you will be working more hours than they pay.

You will not regret this at all I love my job! The holidays are fab and ai does half my work for me!

Lecturer here. It very much depends on the institution so lots to think about - try and meet staff already there if you can to get a sense of their experience. My experience is that there are times of the year where things are relatively flexible, but when teaching is timetabled it takes priority over everything else. I always find the October school holidays difficult because my kid is off school but I have lecturing and small group teaching scheduled that cannot be moved about. It's also worth considering the research side of things - will you be expected to produce publications to be submitted for the REF (the national research assessment)? Will you be expected to secure grant funding? Both of these things are difficult and stressful, and often spill into working overtime (but without overtime pay!). So yes - it can be a great job but it can also be a miserable job and it really depends on the culture at the institution where you're going and what kind of contract you have! If I were you, I'd definitely want to speak to people already there and ask for some honest answers. Good luck!

I’m a nursing lecturer in a RG university. It’s an incredibly flexible job. No two days are the same. I have heard in certain universities it’s quite a different experience so I would make sure you do your homework.

Can’t speak about lecturing but you may find the move to the childminder is good. Mine is fantastic, DD has started school this year after 4 lovely years with hers. DS was at a nursery and although it worked well at the time the childminder has been miles better. They both go to childminder after school three days a week still and love it there.

On the one hand, I would not have been able to work in any 9-5 job as my DC had many illnesses when young and lecturing does allow for the admin work (marking/prep) to be done from home. Flexibility was key. Lots of late nights and weekends to work around family needs.

On the other hand, it would have been impossible without the support of my (retired) in-laws who were able to cover for me when DC were ill and I had to go in to teach. Agree with pp that Oct and Feb half terms were frustrating because I always taught but the summer flexibility was good as could work around hours enough not to have endless weeks of holiday clubs for them. NB I wish AI would do half my job!

I hesitated to post because my field is far from yours, OP.

However you mentioned that your family are ‘all pretty tired’ and I am not clear whether your post is 60% of an FTE or whether you are required on site ‘only’ three days per week.

As I write, no one has mentioned anything as grubby as current academic workloads. Perhaps your field is different; perhaps this is a 60% FTE with some sort of firewall between you and some of the most time consuming aspects of the job. But every academic I know works a minimum of 50 hours per week, frequently many more. I don’t know any academic on part time who has ever been able to keep to the terms of their contract. So I think you’re looking at 30 hrs per week, minimum.

You are drawn to research; making grant applications and beginning a research programme is a job in itself, especially at first.

I don’t mean to sound discouraging because research is the only ‘happy insomnia’ in my life and I don’t think others do, either. It’s really a question of what your job would entail, what support your family has and, above all, how much you want this.

For some people I can imagine it is.

For a lot of people, absolutely not - and especially in a healthcare role