Conversation

Notices

1. Erinn Acland, PhD (erinnacland@fediscience.org)'s status on Saturday, 21-Jan-2023 18:50:04 JST Erinn Acland, PhD

   Is academia facing a massive burnout crisis?

   Academics are increasingly "reevaluating whether their jobs are worth the high cost to their personal well-being. They are less willing to continue in positions with oversized workloads, salaries that do not keep up with inflation, and inflexible policies."

   48% of universities report that faculty turnover increased in 2022 and >70% of academics reported mental health difficulties in 2021

   via https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/01/trends-faculty-exiting-academia
   @academicchatter #AcademicChatter

   • Arindam Basu (arinbasu1@social.arinbasu.online)'s status on Saturday, 21-Jan-2023 18:49:39 JST Arindam Basu

     in reply to

     • Strypey

     Managerialism is bad at universities but it is worse elsewhere. OTOH, the job of an academic can be very satisfying and life enhancing, depending on how one views their jobs. A lot of hard work perhaps little pay, but the pleasures of the opportunity to live at the bleeding edge of one’s disciplinary knowledge is life giving in itself

   • Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Saturday, 21-Jan-2023 18:49:56 JST Strypey

     in reply to

     @erinnacland
     > Academics are increasingly "reevaluating whether their jobs are worth the high cost to their personal well-being.

     I know a number of people who have completed postgrad degrees, evaluated exactly this, and gone for jobs outside academia, which are often better paid and more secure (compared to pre-tenure adjunct lecturing positions), but always less stressful. Managerialism is a cancer in universities.

     @academicchatter

   • Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Saturday, 21-Jan-2023 18:50:56 JST Strypey

     in reply to

     • Arindam Basu
     • ZingerLearns

     @arinbasu1
     > Managerialism is bad at universities but it is worse elsewhere.

     Maybe. But the key difference is between work places where the job structure has been designed to work within a managerial system, and universities where the job structure was designed within a much more democratic, collaborative work place, then shoehorned into an increasingly managerial one. The result is more tolerable for some than for others, but far from ideal for anyone.

     @erinnacland @ZingerLearns