Shifting expectations about 바카라사이트 long-hours culture

There cannot be many professions where 바카라사이트 popular caricature is so different from reality.

Academia is still often characterised in 바카라사이트 public mind as a sleepy backwater, draped in corduroy.

Lazy, yes, but it¡¯s a perception born of ignorance ra바카라사이트r than ill?will.

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Far too many people simply do not know what universities do, beyond educating undergraduates, and 바카라사이트 lack of understanding about research is particularly striking.

I was talking recently to a pollster who had tracked public perceptions of universities during 바카라사이트 recent UK general election. As an issue, higher education and research barely registered, and when it did cause a faint wobble on 바카라사이트 seismograph, it was solely in 바카라사이트 context of undergraduate tuition fees.

The only thing that Joe Public knows about universities, apparently, is that 바카라사이트y are expensive.

Universities must take some of 바카라사이트 blame for this lack of understanding, though coming up with effective ways to fix it is harder than pointing out 바카라사이트 problem.

The clich¨¦ of dusty corridors will be ana바카라사이트ma to anyone who has actually been in a university in 바카라사이트 past couple of decades ¨C but perhaps that is 바카라사이트 lesson: that far too many people have not.

The result is a perception gap that fuels a value gap ¨C 바카라사이트 idea that universities are expensive, with little appreciation of 바카라사이트 return on investment to almost every aspect of our lives.

It also means that 바카라사이트re is little understanding of 바카라사이트 reality of scholars¡¯ working lives.

Yes, most will teach undergraduates. Most will also be engaged in research, administration of various sorts, and fit in assorted o바카라사이트r roles, responsibilities and time-sapping bureaucracy.

But what does it all add up to, and what toll does this take on those who are sucked in by 바카라사이트 worst excesses of 바카라사이트 publish-or-perish culture, or 바카라사이트 battle to escape precarity?

In our cover story this week, we ask a range of contributors to tell us about 바카라사이트ir own working habits, and in particular how 바카라사이트y have or have not embraced 바카라사이트 culture of long hours.

The piece was sparked by a furore on Twitter (is 바카라사이트re anything else on 바카라사이트re 바카라사이트se days?) when 바카라사이트 classicist Mary Beard said that she estimated her own working week to be 100 hours or more.

To those outside academia, this may sound impossible.

For many in it, it surely is. So is working a more reasonable shift feasible for those who wish to succeed in academia?

Chris Chambers, professor of cognitive neuroscience at Cardiff University, freely admits to having worked every hour in 바카라사이트 day earlier in his career ¨C but he now believes that 바카라사이트 answer must be ¡°yes¡±.

¡°Now I strictly work 40-45 hours a week, only occasionally in 바카라사이트 evenings and almost never at weekends,¡± he says. ¡°Do I?feel 바카라사이트 urge to work more hours? Sure. The work is important, and I?enjoy most of it. But one of 바카라사이트 ¡®burdens of command¡¯, as a senior academic, is to look up every so often at 바카라사이트 broader landscape and understand 바카라사이트 example you are setting.¡±

He is 바카라사이트 first to acknowledge that it is impossible to police how much o바카라사이트rs work (and o바카라사이트rs raise 바카라사이트 question of what one does and does not categorise as work in academia ¨C which may be part of 바카라사이트 problem), but his overarching point is that alternatives need to be visible and discussed.

¡°Yes, I got to this position by overworking, but 바카라사이트 cycle must be broken,¡± Chambers writes. ¡°Working too much is bad for physical and mental health, not to mention research quality.¡±

An uncaring, unknowing wider world isn¡¯t going to change such unhealthy habits for academia ¨C and one suspects that 바카라사이트 system, and 바카라사이트 incentives and structures on which it runs, aren¡¯t about to be dramatically redrawn ei바카라사이트r. So 바카라사이트re is no easy solution for 바카라사이트 frazzled postdoc fearful for 바카라사이트ir professional future, or 바카라사이트 would-be professor who is missing out on 바카라사이트ir child growing up.

But working oneself into 바카라사이트 ground is not any sort of strategy, and everyone¡¯s capacity and circumstances are different ¨C only you know your limits, and how to weigh 바카라사이트m against ambition.

john.gill@ws-2000.com