Unhappy in Your Academic Job? How to Improve Things for Yourself and Others
Since I started working as an editor, I’m been struck by how many of my clients seem anxious, frustrated, or dissatisfied with their academic jobs. I felt the same way during my last few years in a faculty position. While I ultimately did leave higher ed to become an academic developmental editor (you can read more about that decision here), I wanted to share some changes I made to my work during my last years on campus that made a positive difference for me. I hope they will be useful for some of you.
I want to start by acknowledging that there is no magical solution for making academic jobs easier. There are structural issues and constraints that lead to high, sometimes uneven workloads and often low pay. And academics occupy a range of positions—close to two-thirds of faculty are now adjuncts—that come with varying challenges. I’m writing from the perspective of a white woman who was in a tenure-track position at a small liberal arts college, where there were high expectations for teaching and service and, increasingly, research. Your situation may be quite different from mine. But I think many of these strategies can still help those of you who are in different positions (maybe even nonacademic!).
1
Acknowledge that you can leave. Even if you are just sort of unhappy in academia, it can be really healthy to admit that you don’t have to be there. This is difficult to do, I think more difficult than it is in many other jobs where moving between companies or even into a different field can be much more common. Many of us have been taught that being a faculty member is the only way to happiness, and many of us fear that we are not qualified to work outside of the academy. However, as I grew more interested in leaving, I saw many examples of people from different disciplines who had. They were living interesting, satisfying lives and most had found jobs that used skills they had gained in the academy. Many were making more money than they had as faculty members. Just admitting that you don’t have to be here means that staying becomes more of a choice. That is empowering and allows you to feel more control over your life.
2
Have an exit plan. This doesn’t mean you have to leave, but starting to think about how and when you might leave can help you feel more control over your situation. I was pretty miserable the year before I got tenure, but I wanted to see if being more senior might improve how I felt about my job. So my exit plan was to return for two years after sabbatical and then leave if I remained unhappy (other events transpired that changed this trajectory).
Making a plan can also help you have a more concrete timeline in which to figure out your next steps. Are you thinking of trying to move schools? Spend time getting your job materials ready. Want to transition to a career outside of academia? Start doing informational interviews with people in fields that interest you. Are you just trying to figure out what leaving might look like? Read books like Christopher I. Caterine’s Leaving Academia: A Practical Guide or ‘So What Are You Going to Do With That?’ Finding Careers Outside of Academia (Maggie Debelius and Susan Basalla). These have helpful practical advice to help you determine your next steps. The Professor Is Out Facebook group is also a helpful resource.
3
Determine what brings you joy in your job and then figure out how to get more of it. You haven’t quit yet so there likely are some things you enjoy about being a faculty member. What are they? Can you identify ways to make them a bigger part of your job (without taking on more work)? Again, I recognize that there are limitations to this strategy, depending on your position in the academy. But most of us have some room to maneuver. If teaching is your passion, but you’re feeling pressure to do research, how much research do you actually need to do? Be realistic about this. For example, do you have to publish a book to get tenure at your school? Would a few articles be easier for you to write? Can you find people to help you get the research done (colleagues, student workers, developmental editors, etc.) to free you up more for teaching? Or if writing is your passion, what strategies can you implement to make more time for it?
4
Say no and yes strategically. Again, this can be hard to do, but maybe easier than we sometimes think. Often faculty are unhappy because of how much service they have to take on. So think about what you can say no to. Seek out advice about this. Ideally, your chair will mentor you, but you can also identify other colleagues who can help you decide what you must say yes to and what you can more easily turn down.
Another strategy is to figure out what to say yes to. I am very bad at saying no! But I found that agreeing to run a fairly large program that I was passionate about made it easier to say no to other things that I didn’t care about since my time was more limited. This helped me to feel more in control of my time and energy and to spend more time doing something at work that made me happy. (Note: do think about how your saying no might affect other colleagues, particularly women and people of color. Please do your fair share.)
5
Find mentors. Who at your institution can help you navigate your challenges? Who do you trust? Who is willing to speak candidly about difficult situations that it would be helpful for you to understand? Seek out mentors and ask them for help. Consider explicitly asking them if they would be willing to mentor you and discuss what this would entail. These people might be outside of your department or even your division. Having people who you trust can build community and help you feel more confidence as you navigate institutional politics or other thorny issues.
6
Admit you need help. While I was a faculty member, I often worried that telling others I felt overwhelmed would make me look weak and risk making me vulnerable; however, I found when I reached out to more senior colleagues (who I trusted) they often had good advice and sometimes could even improve my situation.
Help also doesn’t always need to come from within your institution. If you think your mental health is suffering, try therapy (find therapists here). If research or writing is stressing you out, you might consider working with a writing coach or developmental editor. I worked with a career coach after leaving, who helped me gain the confidence I needed to make my next move. Being honest with family and friends about how you feel about your job can also help you get the support you need.
7
Acknowledge that you can make a difference. A lot of what’s difficult about higher education are institutional structures that lead to high workloads, excessive stress, and lack of transparency. You may feel, as I did during my first few years at my institution, that there’s little you can do about it. But is that really true? About five years into my time there, a mentor sat me down and suggested that I was complaining a lot without doing much to make a difference. This conversation really stayed with me. Are there issues you can identify that you might be able to improve? Are there people you can partner with (staff and faculty) to do this? Starting to feel more responsible for our institution made me feel more empowered to work for change.
8
Form some alliances. Find your people and figure out how you can work together to make things better. These groups can work on issues both big and small, personal and institutional. Maybe this is a group of scholars at other institutions who you can form supportive writing groups with to help you spend more time on your research. A friend and I formed a “say no committee” and conferred with each other when we were asked to take on additional service, helping each other decide when to say no. I worked with larger groups of colleagues to help think through ways our school could better address issues of racial and social justice and to try and make our faculty layoff process more just. Although these projects didn’t accomplish all that we’d hoped, working with others on issues I cared about were some of the most gratifying parts of my job.
9
Make it better for others. Again, this can be harder when you are new to the academy or in a contingent position. But try and think of how colleagues (both faculty and staff) are doing and act accordingly. Anyone can ask a new colleague out for coffee and/or work to help them feel included in the community. If you are in a more powerful position, what can you do to make things better for others? Just because you had to go through an arcane tenure and promotion process doesn’t mean everyone who comes after you should. Can you assert some power to improve this system for others? Can you lead a service audit in your department to help ensure that service loads are more transparent and equally distributed? Can you figure out ways to streamline some of that service and cut unnecessary parts to lighten everyone’s workload? Can you figure out ways to better support your graduate students and prepare them for the realities of the job market?
If you are truly feeling miserable, it might be time to step aside. I did this and feel pretty good from the other side. But if you’re feeling unsure about whether you want to make a change, taking active steps to improve your experience in academia might make you happier. If they don’t help, at least you will be closer to figuring out whether a change is right with you.
I recognize that this blog post merely scratches the surface (read more about other ways to protect your time here). I’ll write more on these topics in future posts, and I’d love to hear ideas from you about other things that helped improve how you felt about your academic job. Please paste them in the comments section below!
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