But my bafflement comes from a handful of colleagues who spend all their time trying to outdo each other with their busy-ness complaints.
In the past five days I've heard colleagues complain that they didn't have time to go to the hospital to visit a friend, have dinner with a visiting relative, walk the dog where he likes to go, go see a college play, shop for dinner, go get a teeth cleaning, and watch last week's Mad Men.
Mad Men? It's 45 minutes long. You don't have 45 spare minutes in your week? I kill 45 minute blocks several times a day, every day, and I work full time, have a family, a lawn, hobbies, friends, grading, reading, writing, showering, sleeping, pooping, etc.
Is it a point of pride to be busy? Are we still hooked in to that Protestant work ethic thing?
Isn't there pride in carving out some time for oneself? I know I feel like an odd - well - duck, whenever these contests begin.
"I wanted to go see that exhibit at the Xxxxxxx when it was here last month, but I didn't have time."
"Really," I say. "I went once one afternoon after class, and then took my wife one weekend. Her folks were in town and so went yesterday, too. It was great."
Then the person shrugs. "Oh, well I had grading."
Yes, grading, it's part of it. I know. I grade. But I don't let it define me or take up my whole day.
"I wish I had time to finish my article, but my committee work is swamping me. I spent all weekend working on it."
"Really," I say. "You spent 32 hours on it this weekend, more? Did you have a chance to eat a sandwich or was it just committee work from the time you woke until Mr. Sandman crashed you into bed? Are you doing it wrong? I mean, I'm on 4 committees, 2 that actually do things. My work on those sometimes means I have to review how other nearby colleges do things. I did that from 7:00 am until 7:30 am. I had to write a 2 page report. I had that done by 8. Sure, I could have spent all Sunday on it, but English is my first language. I just did it and then had a bagel."
I know these are not the right answers. I see steam come out of colleagues' ears when I say this. I sometimes get a twinge of guilt for tweaking them, but I just refuse to believe that my colleagues, full timed proffies with 3/4 classes a semester, are such poor planners that they can't better manage time.
I know it's different for freeway flyers and far flung adjuncts who sometimes do have schedules that mean 10-12 hours a day running from class to class, but I'm not talking about that group right now.
For regular tenure-line proffies, if you don't have time for dinner, then you're doing something wrong.
While I agree completely with your o'er-arching thesis here, we gotta acknowledge that for ALL of us, sometimes (and sometimes, for some people, that's oftentimes)"I don't have time for [whatevs]" really means "I gots better things to do wit' the time I got." When those complaints are delivered with a tone of ennui (or even "long-suffering"), you can be sure the activity missed is missed not so very much at all.
ReplyDeleteThe trick is to combine work and pleasure. Translating research materials while watching "Mad Men." Listening to audio books while mowing the yard. And my personal favorite, grading at the bar on half-price martini nights.
ReplyDeleteWhen marking final exams, I go through entire box sets of TV shows.
DeleteDude, I am guessing that you don't have kids.
ReplyDeleteWe have two, 23 and 19. We both worked through the busy years.
DeleteHmmm. Then maybe you raised them before e-mail was invented?
DeleteI'm convinced it's a "top-this" kind of game: "Look at me, working soooo hard." Years ago, I attempted chit-chat with a fellow proffie while we invigilated final exams, hoping to find some way of passing the time. He gave me the stink-eye, saying "I'm thinking about my research." uh-HUH.
ReplyDeleteI completely identify with this. I have encountered these contests of workload suffering many times and have never understood them. Sometimes I think we're like my grandmother and her friends, who liked to one-up each other over the severity of their physical ailments.
ReplyDeleteIt's a more polite response than, "I find other activities more enjoyable than the ones that interest you." but that's what they mean.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like proffie martyrdom. And a sick form of competition indeed. I can say that because for a couple of years I bought into it. "Look at all I do, look at all I give up, I do sooo much more than Proffie X." One day I realized, I must be an idiot. I really don't want to win this game. In fact, I don't even want to play. I also suspect, as noted by others, that it is a lot of "talk" (aka bullshit). Anyone who spends their entire weekend on committee work either needs a trip to the mental hospital or is just a big fat liar.
ReplyDeleteFaculty do seem to have this attitude of, "I guess since I'm underpaid, I should make sure that I'm also overworked." I guess some of us never get over the abuse we took in grad school.
DeleteI never have time to do the stuff I want to do; or that's how it feels. But what I actually am is too disorganized to get out the door to do those things; and too bloody tired. "I don't have time" for me really means "I just want to sit down for a bit and not have to go and do some other bloody thing on top of every other bloody thing I also have to do."
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's work smarter, not harder. A colleague who was complaining to me about being up until 4am grading said she makes her students hand in hard copies of all their sources, and then she READS all their sources to check on the paraphrasing. DUDE.
ReplyDeleteJust cuz you ask for them doesn't mean you have to read all of them. I just tell them I'm pulling a few at random to read closely for plagiarism.
DeleteFroad, that's what I do. And I describe in excruciating detail how unpleasant the plagiarism meeting is with me, should I find it. Seems to have cut down on it in my comp classes.
DeleteNo, I don't have time to go to concerts or even to drive an hour to a restaurant, during the week. But if I skipped the hour I do spend at the gym, or the cumulative hour I spend reading CM and commenting every day, I'd probably have time for that. So it's all about what I choose to spend my time on. I teach classes that require the grading of essays and responses, and written quizzes... that takes longer to grade than a multiple choice quiz, or no essays at all... but I don't have to spend hours in a lab every afternoon, either.
ReplyDeleteAnd really, I have no point, do I?
DeleteMrs. C wrote: "I don't have time for [whatevs]" really means "I gots better things to do wit' the time I got."
ReplyDeleteYep. I recall back in college when a prof asked us students why we don't always do our homework. We filled out papers to be anonymous. Many people wrote, "No time." Prof ignored those. One person wrote, "Other priorities." For me, that sounded like just an honest way of formulating, "No time." The prof got really angry that someone would dare have other priorities, but again, had no ire for those who had "No time."
Have just tallied total # of hours spent on work-related stuff in previous week: 45. In a 168 hour week, it's less than a third of my total hours available. So I suppose I should be grateful.
ReplyDelete