tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post7813010692193749817..comments2024-02-28T18:29:41.120-08:00Comments on Not of General Interest: Work to live or live to work?undinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-16946979393788181282013-03-25T05:40:46.111-07:002013-03-25T05:40:46.111-07:00Buy my way out of some classes like DEH or more in...Buy my way out of some classes like DEH or more interestingly, take a job in Latin America (those do not pay well, but are interesting) and have this $ as backup.<br /><br />That is due to age; I can tolerate being a professor in current field if I have research time, so this is what I would do now. If I were younger I would do one of the things I always wanted to do, ideally Arabic immersion and then PhD in Near Eastern Studies (the degree I always wanted) or if not, law school to work on global prison industrial complex. <br /><br />HM, I would still do that now, I could do degree at UNAM or USP (do Latin American degree and I could be a lit professor while doing it). <br /><br />More modestly and realistically, though, what I would do first, without buying out of classes or anything, is pay off debt and fix house, so I could start living with a little more ease, be gone more at weekends. See how I felt then.<br /><br />Contingent Cassandra should be hired to tenure somewhere.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-88419128004945982552013-03-24T09:35:11.613-07:002013-03-24T09:35:11.613-07:00Jonathan--I think of an endowed chair as being lik...Jonathan--I think of an endowed chair as being like the king without the crown, so yes!undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-39367172699932859652013-03-24T09:18:25.417-07:002013-03-24T09:18:25.417-07:00I would set myself up in academic chair and then w...I would set myself up in academic chair and then work only with students I wanted to and continue to do my research. Imagine being able to fire your students the minute they get irritating Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-73030905522815758602013-03-23T08:21:13.410-07:002013-03-23T08:21:13.410-07:00Dame Eleanor--our thoughts converge almost exactly...Dame Eleanor--our thoughts converge almost exactly, right down to the lottery fantasies and not wanting to give up research. "Emerita" for some day in the future has a nice ring to it.<br /><br />Contingent Cassandra--no clear answers indeed. It's tough to sort out all those strands of the job, and tougher still to figure out what might be a better fit, if anything.<br /><br />Nicoleandmaggie--thanks! I forgot about that post but would still opt the solution. <br />undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-32258164291222103102013-03-22T16:10:07.090-07:002013-03-22T16:10:07.090-07:00Aha! That was YOU. http://notofgeneralinterest.b...Aha! That was YOU. http://notofgeneralinterest.blogspot.com/2012/04/if-i-were-rich-woman.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-1691118983487389572013-03-22T16:08:54.865-07:002013-03-22T16:08:54.865-07:00It's all about the compensating differentials....It's all about the compensating differentials. Somewhere we've got a post (or two or three) on this question... one of my favorite answers was the person who said if ze were fabulously wealthy, ze'd endow hir own chair and just do the parts of academia ze wanted to do.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-83784463468588540612013-03-22T10:48:15.405-07:002013-03-22T10:48:15.405-07:00This is an even trickier question for those of us ...This is an even trickier question for those of us in contingent (or otherwise unsatisfactory/underpaid/dead-end) academic jobs. <br /><br />I don't have much of the Holy Calling issue (for all that I belong to a branch of Protestant Christianity that takes the issue of calling quite seriously, and believes that various kinds of secular work can, indeed, be a calling). I do think that academic work is a pretty good fit for my temperament, personality, skills etc. A more research-oriented job would be even better (I'm an introvert, and although I enjoy teaching, and think I'm relatively good at it, my current 4/4 teaching-only job is not really the best use of my skills. I should be doing some writing and research, as part of my job, not as a semi-hobby, and, after 12 years in my current job, I know the place and our students well enough that I should be putting some of my observations, and my analytical and organizational skills, to use in service/committee work). <br /><br />There's also the problem that I'm underpaid, and insecure. Though I have a full-time salary and benefits, I don't make as much as an entry-level tenure-track professor in my department, and I have fewer opportunities for raises. I also have to plan for the possibility of my job being eliminated before I'm ready to retire -- and that will be some time, since my retirement contributions are in proportion to my salary -- i.e., small. <br /><br />All of the above, of course, would be a good argument for leaving academia. However, I haven't yet identified a non-academic job that I think would be a better fit (well, not one with better pay and benefits; I'd probably be pretty happy as a freelance writer, if I could pay the bills, but that's even chancier than my current gig). <br /><br />So, I don't know. Academe is, indeed, just a job, but, as DEH points out, jobs are complex things, made up of a bunch of constituent parts, from the activities one performs to the schedule and location on/in which one performs them, to the pay, benefits, degree of stability, and amount of autonomy/input in governance involved. And they vary by field as well as status (lab scientists, for instance, tend to be on campus much more, which may make industry jobs look less different to them). It's a good thing to break them down to their constituent parts now and then, I think, and examine the value of each from various perspectives, but that activity doesn't necessarily yield any clear or easy answers. Contingent Cassandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08161652083031423415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-86771858275345786702013-03-22T07:03:28.136-07:002013-03-22T07:03:28.136-07:00A little of both. Early on my drive to work comes...A little of both. Early on my drive to work comes a billboard advertising the state lottery, with the current numbers, so I often spend part of my drive thinking what I would do if I won N million dollars (not that I play the lottery, you understand, just that this is something to think about on the long drive). Grumpy though I am right now with my department and uni, I think one thing I would do with N million is try to buy my way out of some of my classes. I would like to teach a 2-1 or even 1-1, to give some structure to my life, and because in small quantities teaching is much more fun than when one feels overwhelmed by it. Also I'd outright give the department some money if I had enough to give away and not just enough to replace my current salary. But I also would like to spend much more time on research. Then, as an academic, there's the question of institutional authority: maybe I wouldn't worry about that once I'd published a couple of books, but it is useful to be employed somewhere, rather than wearing the label "independent scholar." There are some really notable independents, and then there are the amateur crackpots and people with personality problems who would never get hired, so I would like at least to be "emerita" of LRU rather than just "independent." But I can't imagine giving up research. There's nothing else I want to take up instead, and I'd get bored if my whole life were reading and crossword puzzles. <br /><br />But it is a very complex subject. I have lost a friend because, once she had money, her life changed so much. It wasn't the money itself, but that it enabled her to change careers to something in which I have only a mild interest, and apparently our friendship---or my side of it---was built on shared academic interests. No doubt I am too narrow, but I don't think either of us anticipated this. Financial independence can have ripple effects that may take years to show up. Even if I tried to keep teaching, maybe something would change enough that over time, it just wouldn't work any longer.Dame Eleanor Hullhttp://dameeleanorhull.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com