Saturday, January 5, 2013

Do you have an overwork problem?

Are you an academic who works more than 40 hours a week? Would you like to work fewer hours? If you answered “yes” to both of these questions, this post is for you.

kill me now

In this post, I am trying to be as practical as possible. I am also responding to the omnipresent myth that all academics work 80 hours a week. I am committed to working 40 hours myself and to helping those who wish to do the same be able to do so.

I understand that there are both individual and structural barriers to academics being able to lead healthy, balanced lives. In this post, I will focus on the individual barriers, because we need to work through those in order to get to the structural issues.

There are three possible reasons you are working more than 40 hours a week:

  1. You have too many tasks you need to complete each week and it is impossible to complete them within 40 hours.
  2. You spend more time than you need to on each task.
  3. You are less efficient than you could be with your work hours and spend too much time doing non-work related things during your work day, thus stretching out the time you think you are working.

It may be difficult for you to figure out which of these three reasons is your primary problem. But, a careful, non-judgmental evaluation might be helpful.

Let’s work backwards – starting with the third possibility: Are you inefficient with your work time? The best way to figure this out is to track your time for a week. Kerry Ann Rockquemore explains how to do this here. Track every waking hour that includes some work. If you begin your day by checking your email, start then. If you end your day grading papers, end then. Track your time in 15-minute increments. If, at the end of the week, you find that you only actually “worked” – responded to emails, graded papers, read manuscripts, wrote, ran experiments, attended meetings – for 40 hours, then you have found your answer. In this case, it may be helpful to work on improving your focus so that you can have conscious work and non-work time that will permit you to both work 40 hour and not feel overworked. (Here is one strategy you may find useful.)

If, however, you tracked every minute and are still coming in at over 40 hours, move on to the next question: Are you spending more time than you should on each task? How long do you spend reviewing articles for journals? How many hours do you spend preparing class? How long does it take you to grade papers? How much time do you spend reading each job application? There are no set-in-stone answers to these questions, but there are ways to figure it out. You can ask your colleagues how long they spend on each of these tasks and figure out what expectations are. You can post the question on Facebook. I asked people on Facebook how long they spend reviewing articles and the answers varied between 2 and 6 hours – you can decide if you want to be on the higher or lower end of the spectrum. And, Robert Boice recommends that you spend no more than 1 to 2 hours preparing per hour of class.

Once you do all of this, and you still realize that you are coming in at over 40 hours, then it is time to move on to the next step: What tasks are you going to cut? To figure out what to cut, you have to figure out what the norms are and whether you are in the low or high range compared to your colleagues. Do you have 55 advisees when all of your colleagues have 10 each? Are you reviewing 16 articles for journals a year when most people in your field review 6? Are you directing ten dissertations when your colleagues each have no more than five students? Are you on every single grant panel you have been asked to be on? Are there committee responsibilities you can let go of? Are you assigning five papers a semester in your class when all of your colleagues have multiple-choice exams?

I don’t know what would happen if all academics insisted on working only 40 hours a week. But, we can’t find out until academics make it a priority to try working reasonable hours instead of working hard to convince everyone that we actually work 80 hours a week and thus deserve our median salary of $62,000.

I am posting this article with a bit of trepidation because I am wary of blaming faculty woes on faculty. However, I am also aware of the fact that all academic jobs are not created equally. I am completely certain that some faculty are unable to accomplish everything expected of them in a 40-hour week. I am equally certain that there are many academics who could have healthy, balanced lives if they implemented a few of the strategies suggested by the myriad of academic productivity experts out there.

25 comments:

  1. I love your posts. You give me hope it can be done. I am first year TT and want to love my job but the pressure to let it consume my life is very worrisome for me! I'd love to hear how you balanced things with babies since that will be my next challenge!

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    1. Thanks! I am (pleasantly) surprised to see a positive response to this post, and very pleased to hear you will try to get it all done in 40 hours.

      I had my babies in grad school. Quickly, I'd say that it was important for me to reconcile myself to the fact that spending evenings and weekends with my kids was plenty of time. The other big factor is figuring out in advance what to do if the kids get sick or have a school holiday.

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  2. Well, my father worked a 40 hour week. This was at a UC on a UC teaching load. There were things he did not do because of it, such as get promoted into the "stratosphere" and I do not think he would have made the top step of Full by today's requirements. He was efficient, though, and I have figured out that a lot of what he was doing during the day at the office was reading!!! I am not saying this is bad, I am only saying it is fun, and that I should stop thinking of professional reading as something I must only do after hours.

    At my university the work week is defined as 60 hours and they track you for that. For instance, I am supposed to spend 12 hours per week total on every 3 hour class, including attening it and holding office hours for it. 6 hours a week on service and 18 on research. I find I really do need the 3 hours outside class per hour in for preparation, grading, and consultation. With maintenance of websites and keeping up on reading, I sometimes take more if it is an out of field course.

    Right now due to budget cuts that led to terminations they want to put some research faculty up to a 4 course load and also up research requirements. I already need to cut total work hours because I think you are right.

    I am going to try to cut a deal where I dump service and dump freshman courses, I can teach two graduate courses in the time it takes to deal with one freshman one.

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    1. That is crazy they expect you to work 60 hours!! Sounds like they need to hire 50% more faculty!

      Still, glad to hear you may be able to cut a deal.

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    1. thanks! I am still surprised by the positive response to this.

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  4. I am just starting a PhD and it is good to know that you can be an academic and still have a life. So many people you speak to insist that you should spend 12 hours a day and all weekend in the lab!

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    1. Yikes. I know I couldn't do that. It's hard to believe people could, but I suppose it is possible that some people have more endurance than others.

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  5. Tanya - thank you for writing this post. We need more people taking a stand against overwork. As much as I like your tactical suggestions to cut back on hours, I think the key is something you say at the very beginning "I am committed to working only 40 hours." I suspect this is not because you don't think the work is important, but rather that you think other things (like your family) are more important.

    How we spend our time is an issue of values and priorities. When I was in the academic world (and later when I was in the corporate world) my work was the most important thing to me. I was on a mission to make the world a better place. And lo and behold, I ended up working 90 hours a week. Time management didn't help me, because time I saved was put back into the company, because that was my highest priority. I call it Corporate Idolatry.

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    1. Yes. Time is, bar none, our most valuable resource. This is why it is crucial to think about how we spend it! Thanks for reading and commenting.

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  6. It's not that work is less important, but that you can get it done efficiently, the right way. Working more hours doesn't make you get more done; it just makes you tired and your work less good. Your academic writing will be better if you have a hobby too.

    I am surprised and gratified that people aren't beating up Tanya over this post. There is hope for a sane approach.

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    1. Jonathan, I have recently been taking purposeful technology breaks during the day - specifically a one hour walk where I don't take my cell phone! I am sure there are positive benefits to this. Working all the time simply couldn't be productive.

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    2. To support your point Tanya, there is research that shows the most productive people only work around 4.5 hours a day. Three blocks of 1.5 hours each focused on one task and then that's it. I know its not possible in academia but I think you are on to something with doing your writing in the morning and leaving email for later in the day.

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  7. Thanks for this great post, Tanya. I think that the false assumption that academics must work all the time is very harmful, because people get burned out and at some point (usually after receiving tenure), they stop being productive altogether. What I tell my graduate students is that a more balanced approach like the one you propose will make them happier and allow them to be productive throughout their entire careers.

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    1. I like the long-term approach to this that you take!

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  8. One of my graduate school cohort is going into phased retirement as we speak for this precise reason. My college roommate is already retired, again for the same reason. We are 55 and this is ridiculous -- it is not something either would have done were it not for the workaholic training. These are people with good records, UT Press, Max Planck Institute. I remember the crazy people from the East who told us at Berkeley that "[we] looked too healthy to be as intelligent as [we] seem[ed] to be" [sic] and I can tell you that is terrible training.

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    1. wow. and most academics think they'll never retire!

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    2. Yes, kiwi2, the 8 counting time in meetings, and correct, Tanya, above.

      I know these things in theory and from experience but the big challenge is putting them into practice at current job. SO much time goes to nonessential stuff that really is essential. Like, accreditation paperwork, other bureaucracy, bleaaah. This is what I really have to cut down to size and it is a huge challenge.

      What I have always tried to do is cut that time so as to "free up" time and this is not working, there is something about the defensive gesture that makes me weak. I am now trying to go at it from the other end: visualize research and recreational time expanding.

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  9. Hi Tanya,
    i am really enjoying the ideas in your post, as I feel constant pressure to get more work done in a shorter time. So, I have been trying your tracking work system. This was interesting: my primary work at the moment is research/ prep for conference talks, and some student supervision(no lecturing etc at all at the moment). Wow! Having decided I would work 7.5-8 hours per day, yesterday I tracked all my work time- I started at 8 in the morning, but didn't finish until 10pm. I was determined to do 8 hours. However, I was exhausted by the effort! The length of time needed was in part due to stops for children related activities, exercise, and cooking dinner. This exercise has taught me two things so far though: first, I must spend more time out than I realise, and second, working on intense writing/ research for 8 hours a day is really tough. I can imagine doing 8 hour days with more time spent in meetings, and doing other kinds of work, but suspect that 8 hours of intense writing every day would kill me. I'm going to keep going with it this week and see, but wondered if you have any thoughts about this, or strategies to cope with this kind of intensity (and thinking too about your pomadero timer for writing sessions!).
    Kiwi2

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    1. Meggin McIntosh says you should only plan out a maximum of 6 hours a day - as more is just too much.

      I find that - at maximum - I can write for 2 hours and read for 2 hours. I can use the rest of the day to respond to emails and keep things in order. It took me a long time to come to term with my limits, but there they are!

      If I am teaching, I can write for two hours, prepare class, and then teach - for perhaps a 6 to 8 hour day of "work."

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  10. My response that ended up in the box above these two comments was meant to be down here -- sorry!

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  11. Those boxes drive me nuts, which is why I don't use them in my comments section!
    The fact is that the key to success is to have a staff. The new people coming down the line know this, whereas boomers think they have to do it all, especially women. And if they inadvertently end up as staff when they were focused on succeeding on their own: that's when it gets really tough.
    I have seen very successful people who never seem tense or worried. What they are good at is delegating responsibility. And they have a lot of people working for them.
    I think academics in particular expect too much of themselves.

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  12. Hmm, ,I think a 40-hour work week must reflect a job where the prof is no longer writing new syllabi, new course lectures, or lots of grant proposals. As a first-year TT prof at an R1, and a pretty efficient person (worked in business for 8 years before going ot grad school), I honestly do not think 40 hours will get it all done. Do you have caveats for the first couple years on the job developing new courses etc.?

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  13. Meredith, true. You will not get it all done in 40 hours when you are new or with lots of external grant proposals.

    And Hattie, on staff, VERY true.

    And I believe it about the productive people only working 4.5 hours a day, because you do need empty time to develop your creativity, etc.

    I really only do 40 hours of actual work, work that goes to my job description, but this means I do not do as well as I theoretically should -- I do less on research, teaching, and service than I should. And I do work more than 40 hours, on things I would not have to do if we had staff or if things were more efficient on campus or if we had books in our own library or if there were fewer obstacles created generally. So the extra 15 hours is handling the lack of staff and the make-work issues, when I could be using those to do my own job better.

    I think the 40 hours = success presupposes good staff, a good library and an efficient institution.

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  14. What about when you're teaching a NEW course (or even two!), and they are out of your expertise? I *love* the idea of charting out my time like this (and even managed to do so toward the end of my PhD), but what is a "reasonable" amount of time to spend on teaching when you - and your courses - are brand spanking new?

    In my situation, I'll be teaching 4 hours/class with two news classes, hold 3 hours of office hours/week, which already adds up 11 hours/week! In your template (and I understand that it's just that), 16 hours/week on teaching means only 5 hours to prepare FOUR new lectures a week!

    Now, I'm not one for overstating how much I work, but I really don't know how much is realistic in this scenario (and especially because of my first-time status and working in a department I didn't do my degree in). Thoughts?! Advice?!

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