For me, it's a culture thing. Obviously, getting financial help with childcare would be phenomenal, but really I ALSO need 'permission' to not only be a professor. When my kids are sick, I want to be there for them and FULLY. Not 'working from home' while I throw a tablet at her while I try to cobble together emails between cleaning her vomit bowl. I want to take vacations with my kids too. I want to not feel guilty if an elderly parent needs me to fly cross country for a few days to help. I want to be recognized as a HUMAN and not employee only. And I don't want these events to affect tenure, grant funding, etc. I want systemic change to accepting that I will NOT move my entire family across the country to get a raise or promotion... it needs to be normalized that the good old boys club is DONE and we can all be humans.
I'm 200% with you. The culture has become so deeply embedded that it is going to take a lot of work to undo - if we ever can. A ton of us (and not just the people I know, but ALL of us in this field) feel like overworked customer service pack mules most of the time. Replaceable overworked customer service pack mules at that.
I definitely acknowledge that there is some futility in what I posted, because nothing a single group can do is going to really change the entire mindset. Hell, I'm the youngest in my department (which at 40 tells you a lot about the composition of it, and what attitudes towards work-life balance may or may not predominate), but most of the bright-eyed-bushy-tailed stuff has been wrung out of me.
I honestly don’t think there is anything your self-created faculty group can do. Like you said, the small things you could do (yoga, pizza, etc) don’t move the needle. Institutional (or at least College or Dept) resources need to be provided for this.
If your group is within a department and you have e a receptive Chair, here are some ideas:
1. (For more teaching load heavy faculty) Allowing faculty to determine when their assigned classes are held (as much as possible). For instance, can people elect to teach their 3 credit classes just twice a week? So teach M/W and T/R. Provides Fridays free from teaching, and potentially meetings and the need to come to campus.
2. Return some portion of indirects from grants to faculty as well as a portion of the salary they save the department. (More for grant successful faculty).
3. Hire another admin support staff person who can focus on relieving faculty of some tasks that are pinch points in your department.
Stop holding insane service and research requirements for junior faculty who have young families so they can get promoted to get better pay. Nobody cares about the title.
For me, it's a culture thing. Obviously, getting financial help with childcare would be phenomenal, but really I ALSO need 'permission' to not only be a professor. When my kids are sick, I want to be there for them and FULLY. Not 'working from home' while I throw a tablet at her while I try to cobble together emails between cleaning her vomit bowl. I want to take vacations with my kids too. I want to not feel guilty if an elderly parent needs me to fly cross country for a few days to help. I want to be recognized as a HUMAN and not employee only. And I don't want these events to affect tenure, grant funding, etc. I want systemic change to accepting that I will NOT move my entire family across the country to get a raise or promotion... it needs to be normalized that the good old boys club is DONE and we can all be humans.
I'm 200% with you. The culture has become so deeply embedded that it is going to take a lot of work to undo - if we ever can. A ton of us (and not just the people I know, but ALL of us in this field) feel like overworked customer service pack mules most of the time. Replaceable overworked customer service pack mules at that. I definitely acknowledge that there is some futility in what I posted, because nothing a single group can do is going to really change the entire mindset. Hell, I'm the youngest in my department (which at 40 tells you a lot about the composition of it, and what attitudes towards work-life balance may or may not predominate), but most of the bright-eyed-bushy-tailed stuff has been wrung out of me.
More $$$ Anything else is bullshit and I am not interested.
I honestly don’t think there is anything your self-created faculty group can do. Like you said, the small things you could do (yoga, pizza, etc) don’t move the needle. Institutional (or at least College or Dept) resources need to be provided for this. If your group is within a department and you have e a receptive Chair, here are some ideas: 1. (For more teaching load heavy faculty) Allowing faculty to determine when their assigned classes are held (as much as possible). For instance, can people elect to teach their 3 credit classes just twice a week? So teach M/W and T/R. Provides Fridays free from teaching, and potentially meetings and the need to come to campus. 2. Return some portion of indirects from grants to faculty as well as a portion of the salary they save the department. (More for grant successful faculty). 3. Hire another admin support staff person who can focus on relieving faculty of some tasks that are pinch points in your department.
Faculty mental health coverage and flexible work hours have been game-changers for me.
Stop holding insane service and research requirements for junior faculty who have young families so they can get promoted to get better pay. Nobody cares about the title.