how common is working from home in academia?

[hatwoman]

I've seen a job I'd like to apply for - but it's not local and I'd like, mainly, to be able to work from home. It's a research job, with a small amount of teaching as a bit of an add on, and some supervision of post-grads. obviously it's not lab-based scientific research (or I wouldn't be asking). I'm wondering what my chances would be of negotiating something like 1 or 2 days a week in the office, and the rest at home. Also - as a research job, are they likely to differentiate between term and non-term time? I wondered if maybe lots of academics work at home outside term-time? so I could negotiate on the basis of being more present in term time? I actually know the head of dept and his name is on the ad to call for an informal chat - which I'll do, but any tips on how to handle this, and even how to handle the informal chat. would be v. gratefully received.

Depends on dept, butb yes, flexibilty to work from home often seen as perk of the job, ime. hope you get better advice from peopkle actually in academia noew

sorry for typing - feeding!

Was in academia (arts), and working from home was an absolute no-no. We had to Be Visible in the Dept, even if we'd have got far more done at home. I'd put your cards on the table at the outset when you call the HoD. I found that academics are also very bad when it comes to straight talking!

Good luck...

In my experience (now somewhat out of date) the idea that you get to distinguish between term and holiday is a joke. The only difference is that there are fewer students about - but you say teaching is a minor part of the job. Academic holiday is the standard 30 days which you have to take during the students' holiday period (reasonably enough). The rest of the 'vacations' are not vacations for staff.

IME the only aspect of termtime that is a bonus is that if you're at a university, the departments often shut down totally, eg Christmas but otherwise if you're doing research it doesn't stop just because it's the holidays for the students(our dept didn't allow access during the Christmas shut-down)so apart from Christmas,the other "holidays" didn't apply. That was part of the reason that I stopped working when we had DCs because it wouldn't have worked for us as a family having both of us working so much.
I'm at home with the DCs now fulltime but I have worked from home in an academic position with a small amount of teaching but mainly research and found that working from home is only viable when you're writing up papers or peer reviewing because if you're supervising students, it's not much help if you're not around a lot of the time.
Call for an informal chat about the position but I would be surprised if they would be happy to have you at home more than you are "at the office" because it probably just isn't a viable arrangement.

oh I know annual leave is standard - just wondered if visibility was considered to be more important in term-time and wfh more acceptable in vacation

I'm suprised the supervision thing is a potential barrier to wfh say 3 days a week. I know academics who have strict, regular times when they're available to post-grads - eg one day a week. if the post grad wants to see them they have to make an appointment on that particular day.

That's why you need to ask the head of dept to see what would be expected. In my case, we had lab work and so I needed to be on hand to supervise that and because it was my project I needed to be there if the post grads needed any queries answered. We didn't have restrictions for when post grads might be able to refer to us for advice. It's the amount of time you are wanting to work from home that my response has been based on but of course I can only speak from my own experience and the position you're interested in may well be very different.

I guess it varies quite a bit depending on the field and the institution.

It very much depends on the field and the culture of the institution, yes. So if you know anyone there or can find out more on those fronts, it would help.

Yo say you know the head of dept personally - in that case you're in a good position to discuss it. Would you be reporting to him or someone else?

FWIW I work a lot from home during non-teaching weeks as can get more done there, but am careful to make sure I check email regularly. Having said that, the expectation for my dept is only that heads of subject check email at least once a week during non-teaching time, which to me seems ridiculously low in this age of home internet access! You could emphasise to the HoD that you'll be checking email several times a day if working from home and will be available to postgrads via email for consultations as well as face to face.

And yes, I also know people who do all their postgrad appointments on very strict times. It seems a bit mean to me always to have only one day available for this though, as sometimes paid work stops people being able to see you then. I would do 'drop-in' availability on one specific day a week but be prepared to be flexible from week to week, if you can, on which days you come in and which days you work from home, so as not to disadvantage the student who is always at their bar job on Tuesdays or whatever.

The other option with all this, which my DH would recommend, is to leave it until/if you are offered the job. Then you are in a much stronger bargaining position as you know they want you.

I'm very surprised by people outside lab sciences who are required to be visible. The culture in my dept (arts) is that as long as you turn up for teaching and meetings you could be on Venus the rest of the time as long as you answer e-mails every couple of days (though students do complain about some of the less available people). I do the odd informal supervision meeting at home - probably contrary to insurance or some such but better than cancelling for sick kids etc. But yes, I'd get the job and then negotiate, especially if you can find out a bit about the culture of the place first. I'd imagine that research-intensive institutions are more likely to expect people not to be in their offices all that much?

Celia, my place is not too different from that, though we do have to observe set drop-in office hours every week. Glad I am not the only one!

thanks for the responses. I'll have a discussion with the head of dept. there's a possibility (that HOD is aware of) that we'll move (back) to near the uni in question - so I can ask him questions about flexibility without giving him the impression that wfh would be a deal breaker iyswim.

Good luck

I'd ask if many internal candidates are being considered for the job.

just in case anyone pops back in again, can I ask a follow-up? is the fact that I'm working on a (relevant) book proposal, having been approached by a publisher, a good thing (potential publication) or bad thing (have no idea how/whether I could combine it with the job)?

Relevant book proposal is good as it shows your research in the field is well thought of. Tbh, how you combine it with the job is your problem, really - they will not see it as one, in as much as they will expect you to prioritise the work they assign you and then fit your own research around that (at the cost of your personal life if necessary...). So yes, I would mention it, and worry about any workload issues it throws up when you have to.

"oh I know annual leave is standard - just wondered if visibility was considered to be more important in term-time and wfh more acceptable in vacation"

My (former) Dept insisted on visibility during vacations too. And, yes, it was a top research Dept. And, yes again, I left as it was incompatible with having a family.

But not all academic departments are that bad.

Relevant book proposal with a publisher behind it is very much in your favour. However, it also opens up further cans of worms (in that there will be very high expectations of you to produce the next book, and the next book, and the next book - though you will not necessarily be granted the extra time to write any of the blithering things, and you will be expected to do it in your "spare" time) [bitter emoticon].

All that aside, I think MaleyDale has a good point.

thanks again all. so no chance they'll say "book sounds great, run along and get it written (from home) and we'll just put some money in your bank account every month"? thought not. .

the was to academia/academic bosses not to any of you...

Hatwoman, if only!

If that were the case, I would still have a glittering career in academia. My former Dept bought me for my astonishing research record: I was worth a lot as my research boosted their RAE rating. I never wrote another thing after I started working for them. Funnily enough, I could only get any research and writing done when I didn't have an academic job.

When i was a senior lecturer I just had to turn in for the teaching.

Workes at home whenever i didn;t having teaching/tutorials/meetings.

seemed pretty standard.

I don't know if this will help as I am only a lowly Postdoctoral Research Fellow, but I work at home a lot as does my mentor (which leads to certain problems but I won't discuss those here)! I don't have any teaching responsibilities however, and I am at a point in my career where I recognise this could change. But at the moment, I work exactly as I please. In the departments where I have spent time (Social Sciences), it seems to have been pretty well accepted that people will work where they want to when they are not required in the department for specific duties. This has seemed to mean that people are in a lot during termtime, and a lot less during the 'holidays.' Good luck with the application.

I'd be pretty pissed off if any of my colleagues, and especially the senior ones, simply thought they could show up for teaching and meetings. It's an awful and old-fashioned culture that is thankfully being slowly wiped out.

I don't believe in a culture of presenteeism either and often work from home as it is the only place to get thinking done.

But what happens when people assume they can just drop in and out is that other people who are more 'present' have to pick up the flack of student emergencies, admin crises as well as the general 'getting things' done vibe.

I think academic departments should work on a 'core days' basis, timetable allowing, so you are expected to be in your office for 3 days a week (ideally some of the same ones as your colleagues) unless on otherwise agreed and funded research leave. It helps collegiality and prevents resentment and unbalanced workloads.

In answer to your qu Hatwoman, I think it depends on what kind of research you're expected to do. We had a fieldworker on a project who lived away from the Univ and came in on a negotiated basis every couple of weeks. We kept in email and phone contact regularly but it was still hard to manage. I think supervision is a different matter though and you'd certainly need to be in weekly I'd imagine.

But I wouldn't have a problem with what you're proposing if you were a strong enough candidate and could suggest how the project would be managed while you were out of the office!

dh is a university based lecturer with a research position. he is supposed to get 2 days working from home a week on research but it never works out like that, he always gets less. unfortunately for him, time always gets swallowed up with meetings, student assessments, feedback tutorials, open days, post grad mentoring, interviews etc. he gets a little more time at home during the holidays but not much more. it will depend on the institution and what is the norm within a particular department.

he thought he was going to get more time last summer until he was slapped with the programme co-ordinator job so spent the whole summer organising all the teaching timetables, very frustrating as that role is supposed to go to a senior lecturer, and dh is not a senior lecturer!

re the book proposal, i know where dh works, a published book scores well within research. one thing that does bother me though about people employed within academia, all this talk about research and working from home, the actual STUDENTS sometimes get forgotten about!

Lucykate, the problem is that in terms of promotion (or, increasingly, keeping your job) research is all that matters. Where I work, you can be the most fantastic teacher in the world, and still get the sack for not publishing enough. So even those of us who love teaching have to skimp on teaching/teaching prep in order to survive.

But of course you DO have to be in the Department quite a bit in order to do your job properly. I completely agree with Wilf's idea about the 'core days' - allows you to be available to students and colleagues, and have some peace and quiet to get stuff done.