Dec. 13, 2005

Nose to the Grindstone

Those who say that academics have it easy probably haven’t been consulting scientists and engineers.

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The report, “All in a Week’s Work: Average Work Weeks of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers,” used data from the NSF’s 2003 Survey of Doctorate Recipients, which collected self-reported responses from more than 500,000 scientists and engineers. Scientists and engineers employed in the education sector, which included those with doctorates who work in elementary and secondary schools as well as professors and researchers in higher education, reported a 50.59-hour average work week. Scientists and engineers in industry jobs worked 47.61 hours in an average week, and government workers clocked out at 45.17 hours a week.

Karen Grigorian, a senior survey director at the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center and one of the report’s authors, said that government and industry work hours are more regulated than in education, and especially higher education. “Business has some degree of regulation, the government work environment is much more regulated,” she said. “It’s just the nature of the animal.”

Whereas government and industry scientists might have to go home at five, there’s generally no one to keep academics from sleeping in the office.

And maybe some engineers are. Engineers working in the education sector reported working 52.13 hours each week, as compared to 47.56 in industry and 44.83 in government. Biological and agricultural scientists had the next longest work week in the education world at 52.07 hours a week, compared with 49.25 hours for industry, and 46.77 hours for government. Of all disciplines surveyed, mathematicians — 47.33-hours per week across sectors — and psychologists — 46.62-hours per week across sectors — worked the least.

Michael Prudich, chair of the chemical engineering department at Ohio University, said that teachers, in college and below, need to spend a lot of time working outside the classroom or office. “You tend to be in the office for the normal 40 hours a week,” he said, adding that he uses that time for teaching and meeting with students. Prudich said writing and grading have to come on his own time. During the day, “you don’t get a lot of quality uninterrupted time,” he said. Prudich suspected that the long hours for biologists probably result from having to manage several people in a lab.

Also, while industry scientists and engineers who got their degrees four decades ago work less than more recent graduates, there was no clear trend of lessening work hours for older scientists and engineers in education and government. In fact, tenured professors worked an average of 51.13 hours per week, while postdoctoral fellows worked 50.33 hours each week. Full-time faculty members not on the tenure track worked an average of 48.72 hours a week, while those on the tenure track, but without tenure, topped everybody at 52.51 hours a week.

Gene Trapp, professor emeritus of conservation biology at California State University at Sacramento, said that he stayed busy all the way until retirement, preparing classes and mentoring some of the 33 graduate students he saw through to degrees. “I know the public probably thinks a university professor has an easy life,” Trapp said. “That’s not the case. The only place where guilt comes in is the three months off during summer,” he added. “But you can do research.”

Trapp said he thinks the work week has gotten longer since Sacramento State started pushing faculty members to do more research. He said he stayed busy in the years leading up to retirement, but that, even with long hours, he had more flexibility that many current faculty members. “The younger faculty members are put through hell,” he said. “They not only have to teach a full load, but have pressure to produce research, too. It helps if you’re single.”

For men, anyway. The report showed that the work week varied little for men who had children as compared to those who didn’t. For women, the week shortened by about two-and-a-half hours, to 46.88, with the first child, and then stayed steady as more kids came along.

John Tsopogas, a senior analyst in NSF’s Division of Science Resources Statistics,
said that one reason older faculty members might continue working a lot is because they can tailor-make a lot of their own work, and they enjoy it. He said that scientists with doctorates have responded in other surveys saying that intellectual challenge motivated them the most. “You’ve got a lot of people so dedicated to the field, they aren’t even retiring,” Tsopogas said. “Of course, that can cause problems for new faculty members.”

Prudich said that academics keep on keeping on because the enjoy their work, and the flexible working environment. “The hours don’t weigh on you as heavily,” he said.

— David Epstein

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Comments

True, but

Does this study look at only average hrs/week, or does it include weeks per year? If 10-13 weeks of summer are not worked by academics but are worked by industry, then the higher number of hours Sep-May is offset, and aademics work less total hours per year. I have no bone to pick with either group—I;m just glad someone knows these things which help my life to be better.

Richard, East Coast non academic, at 8:55 am EST on December 13, 2005

What do you mean by work?

Richard,

Actually, I can believe this. Most bench scientists in academe work year-round. There is no such thing as a summer sabbatical so long as there is grant-funded work to be done. I don’t know if teaching responsibilities themselves add to the number of working hours, but even the 2004 Sigma Xi survey suggests that postdocs (who generally have no teaching responsibilities) work around 50 hours a week (if I recall correctly).

Emil Thomas Chuck, at 9:22 am EST on December 13, 2005

Summer work

In fact, summer is pretty much nonstop for me (an academic in the humanities — I can’t imagine it’s much different for scientists). I work at least 40 hours a week during the summer on my own research and writing, plus designing new courses. My partner has to argue me into going on vacation for more than a week (!), and it’s rare that I don’t bring work with me. I take time off during the summer when our kids aren’t in daycamp, but that’s about it.

The idea that summers are “time off” for academics is a myth: there’s no way we could write grants, articles, books etc without using the summer as a kind of third semester (let alone those people who teach summer school for the extra money).

Sarah Chinn, at 10:52 am EST on December 13, 2005

50 hours average — a minimum for most humanities profs too

I think the article reflects pretty accurately what the situation would be for most humanities profs (I’m in art history), given the increase in teaching loads in some universities or the historically high load at others (3-4 courses per semester, or 3 one, 2 the next). And remember that ‘average’ means that many months of the year you’re working more (when exams produce the piles of grading). When this gets offset by some summer months working ‘only’ a normal workweek — 40 hours — something is indeed wrong.

Faculty members need some kind of employment- protection. This should be in addition to self-generated protection from ourselves, who generally go along with the system’s requirements because we love (or used to love) what we do. And yes, dear undergrad commentator above, working 50 hrs a week may not sound like a lot — we all did that and far more as students and pre-tenure profs, but — that pace gets harder to keep up as you age. And once/if you have children and/or a significant other, that mandated 40 hour work-week comes to look really good if not essential, to maintain your health, which in turn allows you to maintain the quality of teaching and mentoring, let alone research.

I feel strongly that all academics need to be surveyed and work-loads readjusted to a more realistic and humane level; specialists who trained between 5-10 years longer than most often far-better-paid ‘professionals’ (losing out on mortgage- paying income, retirement- savings etc, and in some cases, losing their fertility), shouldn’t have to continue ‘paying for’ their choice of field in which to contribute to society. As universities follow the corporate road more and more closely, they should also learn the ‘human resource’ lessons the best corporations have learned.

Astri Wright, Associate Professor at University of Victoria, at 2:46 pm EST on December 13, 2005

Work week

Dr. Wright, while 50 hours per week may sound like alot, or seem like alot, or to some might even be a signal to order a reduction in productivity, it really is far from a long workweek. Last year, for instance, my father, who is a middle manager in a corporate setting and far from a jet-set executive who incidentally participates in the raising of his 3 children worked 80 hours per week on average (calculated by his company). I have a number of family members who are doctors, several of whom consistantly worked or still work over 100 hours per week — and the medical field is just as challenging as facing academic pressures are, so none of that. While my summer job averaged around 24 hours per week in years past, I find it hard to believe that someone working only twice as many hours would be incapable of sustaining a family life, especially in light of all the people who manage just fine. Don’t expect sympathy — your job and hours are guaranteed and your benifits are expansive and you can still complain with smug supperiority about how much harder you work that those uncreative corporate cogs.

Kevin, Undergraduate, at 5:48 pm EST on December 13, 2005

Welcome to France?

” .. I feel strongly that all academics need to be surveyed and work-loads readjusted to a more realistic and humane level ..”

Be careful what you wish for, sir. You might get it. Your projects might be reviewed again and deemed not useful.

Friends of mine at a certain U.S. corporation used to say the same thing all the time — “we’re working too hard.” That company: General Motors. Now look at the state they are in. You can be busy, doing the wrong things.

Further — I wonder what the ratio of PhD engineers going from academia —> private is, compared to private —> academia? I’m reasonably certain, the ratio is at least 1/7.

A.D., at 5:32 am EST on December 14, 2005

Long work hours, hmmm? As an overseas aircraft maintenance officer, my work schedule was very simple: 12 hours on, 12 hours off. Theoretically, that was for only six days a week. In practice, weeks would flow by without a full day off.

The long work hours were a great benefit. Working most of one’s waking hours is an admirable way of getting things done.

Marvin McConoughey, at 12:49 pm EST on December 14, 2005

Work should not be your life

I see an abundance of support for preposterously long work weeks here. Working more hours should not be worn as a badge of honor. Firstly, productivity drops the more hours you work b/c of inevitable burn out, and the increased money or prestige and pride gained from giving work “your all” is more than cancelled out by the fact that you will inevitably either lack a personal life entirely, or else neglect your spouse and children. Essentially you should be evaluating the value of your time spent at work compared to spending that time with your loved ones and being, quite generally, a human being rather than a machine whose avlue is based solely on output. My goal in life is to work enough to be productive and make a living while maximizing the amount of time I can spend not working, since no one on their death bed wishes they had spent more time at the office.

ST, at 1:46 pm EST on December 16, 2005

I hate to point out the obvious, but when talking about summers you should remember that faculty don’t get paid during the summer for the most part. So, whatever work we do during the summer is done for free, unless one has grant money or teaches summer school, which then invariably adds to the hours worked. I am also wondering about how people who work 100 hours per week maintain themselves, let alone their family life. it comes out to 14.3 hours per day, 7 days a week. Assuming only 6 hours of sleep (although you should get 8) that leaves less than 4 hours per day for commuting to work, shopping, showering, reading the newspaper, socializing, laundry, paying bills, etc. etc. At 80 hours a week, it’s still more than 11 hours a day 7 days a week. Of course, many who work such schedules have wives, accountants, and other people who provide services. Lucky if you have a job that helps you to afford such a life style. Most junior faculty don’t.

Hannah, Assistant Professor, at 4:17 pm EST on January 6, 2006

Diminishing Returns

I have to agree with the comment about diminishing returns. Remember that academic work consists of thinking, writing, teaching, and a lot of reading. These activities are simply impossible to do at a high level if you are too fatigued. The brain needs time to recover, sleep is very important for clear thinking. I would suspect that just about every additional hour an academic puts in at work is less productive than the last. The work cannot be compared to manual labor where you basically either do it or you don’t.

At my job last summer I was able to wash dishes for over 60 hours a week with no real change in productivity. By contrast, some of the material for my current modern philosophy class is so abstruse (Spinoza) that I literally can only comprehend it during the peak hours of the day (maybe from 10-4).

I know that a lot of those long business hours don’t actually include doing any thinking. I remember the manager of the old supermarket I used to work for would put in 70-80 hours a week. 70-80 hours of what? Walking around the store barking random orders!

If you include the long travel time of some execs it becomes even more distorted.

I simply don’t think its possible to put in more than 50 hours or so of quality intellectual labor and have time for a family and good health. The brain simply needs time to rest.

James Gambrell, Student at UMM, at 4:30 am EST on March 20, 2006

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Nose to the Grindstone

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Comments

True, but

What do you mean by work?

Summer work

50 hours average — a minimum for most humanities profs too

Work week

Welcome to France?

Work should not be your life

Diminishing Returns

Jobs Related to Nose to the Grindstone

Assistant or Associate Professor University of South Florida

Department Head and Associate Professor/Professor Auburn University

Assistant Professor East Carolina University

Faculty Position in Computer Science or Software Engineering Mississippi State University

Institutional Research and Effectiveness Manager Madison Area Technical College

Phlebotomy Instructor — Part-Time Temporary Pool College of Marin

Director, Success at Southern/TRIO Student Support Services Program Southern Oregon University

Post Doctoral Resident, Clinical Psychology Princeton University

Assistant Professor — Rhinology University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Clinical Psych Faculty Positions University of Colorado