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I'm still trying to figure out how to explain what happened last week.
It's like, you know how in most workplaces, most people are doing their best and just trying to make it from one day to the next, but there's always that one (1) asshole? In academia, every department has one (1) normal person who isn't an asshole. Maybe two.
I think that, if I had to summarize what happened in one sentence, I would say that I tried to set boundaries during the past two or three years about how much of my life my work would consume, and some people DID NOT LIKE THAT.
I mean, it was like this in grad school too. Everyone in my graduate cohort was repeatedly cautioned against using social media because - and I shit you not - it could be used to prove that there were multiple minutes in the day when we weren't working.
I guess I could understand this mentality if we were lawyers and actually being financially compensated for our time, or if we were doctors and literally saving people's lives (and being financially compensated for our time), but we're college professors. The entire university system is set up to give professors the breathing room to read and think and write and teach, and I suspect the neoliberal push to maximize productivity hit American universities so hard precisely because there wasn't any pre-existing division between "work time" and "personal time."
The crazy thing is that I am productive, so it's not like I'm taking advantage of the system or not doing my job or anything like that. Rather, the people in my department are really upset with me because, like, I don't respond to work emails from colleagues over the weekend.
And it's like, So how did you develop anxiety disorder again? GEE I WONDER.
It's like, you know how in most workplaces, most people are doing their best and just trying to make it from one day to the next, but there's always that one (1) asshole? In academia, every department has one (1) normal person who isn't an asshole. Maybe two.
I think that, if I had to summarize what happened in one sentence, I would say that I tried to set boundaries during the past two or three years about how much of my life my work would consume, and some people DID NOT LIKE THAT.
I mean, it was like this in grad school too. Everyone in my graduate cohort was repeatedly cautioned against using social media because - and I shit you not - it could be used to prove that there were multiple minutes in the day when we weren't working.
I guess I could understand this mentality if we were lawyers and actually being financially compensated for our time, or if we were doctors and literally saving people's lives (and being financially compensated for our time), but we're college professors. The entire university system is set up to give professors the breathing room to read and think and write and teach, and I suspect the neoliberal push to maximize productivity hit American universities so hard precisely because there wasn't any pre-existing division between "work time" and "personal time."
The crazy thing is that I am productive, so it's not like I'm taking advantage of the system or not doing my job or anything like that. Rather, the people in my department are really upset with me because, like, I don't respond to work emails from colleagues over the weekend.
And it's like, So how did you develop anxiety disorder again? GEE I WONDER.
