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[pilgrim_33]

Hello All,

Longtime lurker first time poster here. I have decided on a break from teaching - maybe permanent. Currently, I'm the proud owner of a SLAC tt job, which I have held for two yrs. I do not enjoy it any longer, probably due to the dept, the school, the students, or all three (or ?). So that's where I am - here are my worries:

1) First,  I am simply afraid - fearful of leaving a tt job. (Hey, I have tons of loans..) Even though I am miserable, I am wary of leaving what I have been trained for (viz. is the dream still alive; is it just me unhappy with a toxic dept?)

2) If I do get a another job, say admin somewhere, will I be able to handle the "banker's hours"? Having been trained - and, for the past few years, worked - to exist in my own temporal world, apart from hard work times and year-round employ, I fear I may miss my freedom.

So those are my concerns; I would very much welcome any feedback from the Chronicle citizenry.

Gratefully yours--

[alleyoxenfree]

First, before you entirely leave the field, work on changing the place.  That will tell you whether it's academia or whether it's just this awful place.

There are a lot of threads here on this topic - on developing a Plan B before you jump off the Plan A bridge.  In this economy, of course you shouldn't quit your job unless you're independently wealthy.  You can begin thinking what else.  But first, try to get a different TT job elsewhere.  Maybe you're just in a snake pit or black hole of a dept.

Banker's hours aren't really the hurdle.  The problem in an admin job is that you have to get used to the fact that in most cases, you will no longer have the same freedom to set the terms of your day.  What you work on, who is keeping tabs on your work, how you "report" that work, all these things are differently constrained than in the classroom.  You work "for" someone else in a way that you do not when you teach.  In a TT job, you have a great deal of intellectual flexibility to do the job before you.  This is not necessarily the case in other jobs.  Depends on the job.  Start exploring, but don't discount the benefits of where you are (aside from the geographic).

I think it sounds like you're tired of the weather and the infighting.  These could change for the better elsewhere.

[zharkov]

The term "banker's hours" means a short working day, since banks used to only be open 9 to 3.  Don't expect an admin job will include a short working day.

Being a low level admin in an academic area is like doing committee work all the time.  Do you like committee work?

[pilgrim_33]

Thanks both for the replies. I should also add one more "fear": will I ever be able to return should I want to? (Humanities PhD here...)

[larryc]

Thanks both for the replies. I should also add one more "fear": will I ever be able to return should I want to? (Humanities PhD here...)

It is probably a one-way door out of academia for you. It still might be the right door, however. I agree with the advice that you try to find a different TT job somewhere else before you give up entirely, but in the humanities that might not be possible. But you should try.

Also, is it possible you are depressed? You might to talk to someone, just to explore the possibility.

[glowdart]

First, know that the middle of the tenure track is a rough stretch.  The shiny and new is no more, and you don't yet have the stature & knowledge about campus to invent major initiatives that would help you feel better about where you are currently.    

I would also look at fellowships & grants.  If you can win yourself a semester-long pre-tenure sabbatical leave covered by some organization other than your school, then that change of location and scenery might help to give you some perspective, too.  

Even applying for grants (or other jobs)  -- the simple act of putting together the materials -- can serve as a kind of therapy and help you to figure out what you want, what you don't have where you are, and whether other schools can offer what you want or whether a total career change is better.

 

[alleyoxenfree]

Thanks both for the replies. I should also add one more "fear": will I ever be able to return should I want to? (Humanities PhD here...)

Probably not - for any rare person who does, there are thousands or more who just aren't able to.  The advice to seek a grant that would give you time off, which you could take in another, more desirable place, is good, because it would give you leave from your department and place while you try to decide what to do.

Another option is to try to arrange your life so that you can live somewhere else on weekends.  Is there a more desirable city close enough (4 hours maybe) so that you could go there Thursday night and return on Monday to teach?  Perhaps you could rent in the new place and just keep a room in college town, a version of what many Congresspeople do.  You could build a group of friends there who would let you see your job as just a job, until you can find a better one.  I know several people who handled non-desirable locations this way.  Start budgeting to spend your summers elsewhere as well.

[ronin]

I can relate with getting a life out of campus and traveling as much as I can.
Depending on workload one should be able to do that and this is something that we may not find easily anywhere else than in academia (Humanities PhD here too!).
This is making all the difference for me. Although what is still difficult is that as a result I am leading a very isolated life. It takes time to make friends outside academia when one has worked and lived on campus for a long time. The upside is that by avoiding all those extra endeavors that are not on my contract, I have much more time and I am less and less stressed. My family is happier too.

[farm_boy]

Aren't all humanities PhDs depressed?