The End of Campus Deadwood?

As a social scientist, I was trained that anecdotal observations don’t carry the same validity as aggregated data. In other words, what we see - or what people tell us they see - does not necessarily reflect the true story.  Conclusions about the social world need to be checked against other sources. Or as W. Edwards Deming once said, “In God we trust; all others bring data”.

So I want to use you as another data point. Or at least ask if you have access to better information.

What I’ve observed over the length of my higher ed career is a change. And that change is an end to campus deadwood.

This change snuck up on me. I did not see it coming, and it is only apparent in its absence.

I just don’t see any people working in higher ed who are not working hard.

In fact, everyone that I know is working all the time. They work too much. They are juggling projects and responsibilities to the extent that they work nights, weekends, and too often through holidays.

Nobody that I see is avoiding work. In fact, they are usually taking too much on.

I don’t know anyone who is not doing whatever they can to contribute to the success of the institution. They are all doing their best, working with the constraints and challenges that anyone has when working in an organization.

I have a few theories as to why everyone works so hard.  

First, I think that people who go into higher ed are an internally motivated bunch.  A higher ed career is not an easy one to construct.  Most folks who go into education do so because they love learning, research, and the mission of the schools in which they gravitate.  Not all of us are effective at our roles at all times - we can all improve our own productivity and performance - but I think that the norm is of higher ed people doing our very best.  

A second reason for the end of deadwood may be the increased pace of work.  E-mail, laptops, phones, and the web mean that we are always connected to work.  The higher ed cost disease means that every school must find ways to do more, usually with less people.  At every school I know people are doing more than one job - and doing so without much in the way of administrative assistance or support.  There is no deadwood because there is no time for deadwood.

A third reason for the end of campus deadwood is that how we work has changed.  We all work in groups.  All of our services, projects, and initiatives are done in collaboration with others.  This is a function of the increased complexity of work, as well as the growing ambitions of the projects that we initiate.  Nobody wants to let down someone else on their team.  

So you tell me. Am I seeing the world through hopelessly rose colored glasses? Am I observing a higher ed world that I want to see, as opposed to the one that actually exists?

Are you also seeing the end of campus deadwood?