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Ima gonna wade into the recent . @wmarybeard tweet issue on work hours. It starts with this: is it possible she is working 100 hours a week? Yep. I was married to an attorney for years and he *billed 80 hours a week, so 100 was normal. It is possible...1/
...when other people do the things like clean, cook, fetch stuff, etc. so you donât have to. Should she work 100 hours a week? If she wants to. Does she have to work 100 hours a week? Probably not. Not even if the public outreach is important for REF (as I assume). 2/
On the thread she posted about, many of the academics I know said they worked about 60-70 hrsâtotally likely. I used to do it myself. If you add an evening TV show in (a 2nd job, really), the numbers add up. what sucks, is that she thinks she (we) needs to do this, it seems? 3/
Like, what kind of world do we help create when we accept that working between 60-100 hrs is not only acceptable, but expected of successful people. This is what people were pushing back on with her. Because if SHE thinks she has to do this, what expectations for ECRs? 4/
She also tweeted it during a strike partially over the problem of overworkâi.e. that contracted hrs are really not sufficient, units just donât want to pay for actual hours, so they expect all to work unpaid overtime. So, her timing on this and the wording were awful. 5/
But, having lived among people who regularly worked and were expected to work (and got paid 6 figures to work) 100 hr weeks, MB may really not have a clear idea of what is considered âreasonableâ hrs. If you always work that much & everyone around you is also working 70 hrs...6/
...it seems totally normal and expected. But is it necessary? Even under the pressures of REF in the UK and in the US T&P? It Isnât. But if even MB thinks she needs to to meet expectations, then how can even the most dim bulb not see that the system is broken? 7/
It will stay broken, however, so long as the Mary Beards of the world (and all of the other senior academics who admitted to insane hours on her thread) keep doing it. It sets expectations for those below them. unreasonable, unhealthy expectations. 8/
Now that she and they all know that it is insane to work that much, letâs hope they and we show some solidarity with ECRs and precarious workers and grad students and start a new trend of slowing down, and working to create work places that are healthier and happier. /end
