Any other academics feeling totally worn down?

[peppapighastakenovermylife]

Sorry being a bit miserable here. Grateful to have a job etc.

The cuts have started with us - threats of redundancies, departments closing, courses reducing. Management seem to be taking this as a fantastic opportunity to make everyone work harder. They haven't actually said it but there is the expectation that doing our actual jobs is nowhere near enough. People on teaching only contracts seem at risk because they havent done enough research .

There is only so hard we can all work and I am exhausted at the constant working evenings and at weekends. My marking pile is the height of a toddler, we have meetings coming out of our ears at how we are going to work harder and with the best will in the world we can't conjure up papers and grants out of nowhere. Somewhere in the back of all of this the students are unhappy at the amount of face to face hours and feedback they get.

And despite the 60 hour weeks and rarely having a day away from the place let alone an actual holiday we are all worried for our jobs.

Anyone else feel totally miserable about it all?

Peppa, your last one is such a sensible post.

As for me: I was happy the moment I handed in my notice, and have been happy ever since. However, I've deliberately chosen to have nothing whatsoever to do with what I researched/taught at the university. It was such a horrendous experience that I have moved completely away from all that. I might one day re-read the author I wrote my PhD on because I was totally passionate about his work, and if I ever think about it now, I still love it (I named my son after one of his characters!) But it will be a very, very long time before I revisit even him. It's just all too soured at the moment.

Your set-up sounds much more humane, even if it's still extremely hard work!

Thanks again for all your replies!

Peppa, thank you for all the very practical information and advice. It gave me a deeper insight into how it all works.

I know my posts sound breezy, and sorry if I gave the impression I wouldn't be passionate about a subject. I don't want you to think I'm wasting your time with all these questions.
I'm finding non-fiction a lot easier to write that fiction because the fire that drives me to write it is derived from the passion I feel about the subject. It's as thought the book is writing itself.
Fiction OTOH is creative and you don't, or shouldn't, have an ulterior motive: you shouldn't write to prove something, but just for art's sake IYSWIM. I spend about 2 hours a day or more writing my book, and I've got a 10 month old and three year old, so I'm sure I have what it takes to be committed enough. (I am interested in political science, sociology, and international trade: all three overlap and are intrinsically linked, which is why I'm not sure which diretion I'd go until I was certain of what I wanted to research)

Interesting that books don't count for much, though. I can see why, but it doesn't really help me and my situtation so that's dissapointing in a way.

The logistical side makes me think this is probably just a pipe-dream for me, though. But I'd be quite happy to leave my husband for a few years while I moved around, and he'd be ok with that too. It's just that I'll be hitting 40 by the time I do that because of the kids.

BUt thank you again, and this is a very interesting thread.

OK, just thought I'd pop back to see whether anybody else is equally frustrated at the HE bashing the media has been doing today?

When are we ever going to be actually valued for what we do?

sorry you are feeling so tired Peppapig.

Gosh this thread makes me wonder why anyone becomes an academic. What are the good things about the job?

On some days I wonder, Xenia.

On the plus side though, I love my research (despite the overinflated egos and politics). I love seeing postgrads develop during their PhDs to become confident, independent young scientists. I also enjoy the fact that they challenge my views on things with sometimes quite a fresh approach which you don't get from others who have been working in the same area for years. I also love the fact that in my case, I do quite a lot of medical-related research and the thought that I am doing something which could make a difference (and not just doing it for the profit that a new drug will bring).

I do work very long hours, but then when I worked in "industry" I also worked very long hours. I'm therefore not sure that the amount of hours worked is entirely due to an external pressure to do more work than can be fitted into a day, but due to an internal pressure to want to do the best that I can possibly do. I also think academia attracts those types of individuals and no-one will ever tell you that you have done enough. In some ways, running an academic research group is a little like running your own business. You establish yourself within an area, you find sources of money outside the university to fund it (the university gives very little to support research), you do the research, hopefully you come to some useful conclusions and with this you can generate more money. In the meantime the funding that you generate allows you to create research jobs so that you build a research team around you (and you can hand-pick your team). If you don't work hard, you won't be able to build that team and your research will never really take off, but if you do work hard, you generate a good income and the sky's the limit research-wise.

On some days I absolutely hate my job and everything about it. On other days, I still couldn't ask for more than to do this job.

I do think though that with all the calls for salary cuts (and academics are paid reasonably modestly compared to what people with equivalent qualifications demand in the private sector), plus calls to stop final salary pensions in favour of average salary pensions and demand to take higher numbers of international students based not on academic ability, but on higher fee-paying status, we could end up completely destroying our HE system.

Considering the comments which have been made here, both about ego's and male-dominatedness (sorry wine-indused spelling acrobatics here!) and the effect of almost being an "island in oneself" as it were...what do you ladies think about mentoring and other incentives to help each other? Do you think its less approprate because it makes female researcher stick out as a sore tumb when we ought to blend in to be promoted or is it perhaps something which could be developed to increase a work/life balance (i.e. people helping each other out in cases of bereavement or maternity leave). Or is it not desirable in academia? Not sure if my questions are too late for this thread - I hope not. Any thoughts on the ideal future in academia would be lovely. What's your utopia?

I had a female mentor when I first got my current position. She was great in terms of advice on how to get things done, how to get yourself noticed etc, but tbh one of the things I noticed wih her and with other female full professors is that in order to really get on you need to be more male than the men.

I am also part of a programme at our university to help women to progress in academia. This is done in the form of meetings, courses aimed specifically at women in addition to the formation of small learning sets where you can discuss work-related issues in confidence relating to specific issues e.g. promotion or balancing an academic career with motherhood amongst others. This is great because it does help you build up networks across the university which you might not do otherwise and it helps to understand the workings and politics within the University from other angles. I don't think that it makes you stick out like a sore thumb, but that's perhaps because I (quite deliberately) don't discuss my involvement in this programme with male colleagues.

However, one thing that I have notice is that women are sometimes their own worst enemies. By this I mean that rather than women being supportive of other women e.g. during maternity leave, you are more likely to find women being the least helpful and most critical. Women are also likely to be more critical than men when other women take time off to tend to their children's needs e.g. when a child is at home, ill. Quiet often in these cases, male colleagues will be more than understanding, whilst females will be the ones complaining loudest and offering the most critical judgements.

But the main questino is why aren't the male colleagues at home minding the sick chidlren. That's the crux of the whole thing. Why do these women marry sexist men and have unfairness at home?

In my case, dp does stay home and mind our sick child (he gave up a good job to do so as ds2 has health problems making it difficult for him to stay in childcare).

Before dp resigned, we shared responsibilities such as staying home if a child was sick on a 50/50 basis. I'd say that this is only fair, but then if he took time off for looking after our dc's for whatever reason, he has always been hailed as "understanding" and "supportive", otoh, if I took the time off for the same thing this is welcomed with the attitude that women obviously shouldn't want to have it all.

I think you can't win in these things unless there is a culture change in the UK with respect to these things (and maybe we are atypical because dp is not British and I am only half British). This should include for example, the right for mothers and fathers to share a years parental leave between them as they see fit, rather than offering only maternity leave.

Xenia:

1. People are impressed at dinner parties ;).
2. You sometimes can get a good sized office and lots of free books.
3. Many of us can wangle time off to go to our children's school plays and so on, as teaching terms are a bit shorter than school terms.
4. The pension scheme has been pretty good up to now - lots of deferred pay, effectively (although battle is about to commence on that one as the employers want to dismantle it).
5. You can look as old or scruffy as you please. In fact the older you look, the more respect you tend to garner.
6. Students buy you chocolates and cards.
7. You get sabbaticals every few years, which technically allow you to travel around a bit for a few months, pleasing yourself about what work you do, and not teaching.
8. It is dead easy to get your kids into university as you know all the tricks.