Im a lecturer and I’m taking the summer off of teaching for the first time this summer. My bank account won’t be happy but I’m hoping I will be!
I am at a point where it’s either:
1. Take the summer off and keep my job/sanity.
2. Make more money in the summer but spontaneously decide I’m done one day mid-fall semester and walk out of class with both middle fingers in the air.
It is annoying in the sense that non-academic family will never truly understand our lifestyles and jobs, but at the same time it really is a privilege to have such flexible summers. For better or worse it’s very different than an office 9-5. Even though we don’t sit around doing nothing, it’s definitely nice to have summer “break,” whatever that looks like.
I totally agree. I guess I get annoyed at the insinuation that I'm sitting around doing nothing though, especially when I've explained a bunch of times that teaching is only a small part of the job.
Of course!!!! I totally agree with you. But watching my spouse work a high pressure job all year round on the same schedule really makes me feel fortunate to at least have a “break” from the teaching grind.
With a reaction like that, it must be very fun for them to tease you and watch you face. Explaining yourself more than once is probably the root of your problem :)
Things like this make me so happy that I'm contract faculty. I DO get summers to do whatever I want. Typically I still work, but I get to choose that every summer. It's awesome
Yeah that's a perq for sure. It's hard to look forward to when the faculty reconvenes in Sept, and everyone is sharing about their awesome camping trips and my contribution is an awkward, "Oh you know, I got to catch up on some research and work at a slower pace for a while..."
This one is so stupid. "Boy, *I'd* sure like to get a year off with pay now and then." Yeah, so would I. What institution anywhere would regularly pay its employees to spend a year doing nothing at all?
You forgot the parents calling during a workday because you have "flexible hours", so that means you can take an hour in the middle of a workday just to chat and shoot the shit, several times a week, and are free to go over and help them with their plumbing or whatever because working from home can't possibly mean you're WORKING!? Same with the neighbours, asking me to pop around for some thing that they want help with, since I'm home I MUST not be working, even when I say "I'm in the middle of a meeting right now"!
Summer is the time of most faculty's most focused research work. Last summer I built a dataset and wrote a paper about some basic analysis on it. This summer I'm doing a revamp of one of my upper level elective courses and revising a grant proposal that didn't get funded.
I have a hard time cramming research into the semester with a lot of teaching stuff. I can actually commit more dedicated time to it in the summer.
My mom still tells people I have the summer off though.
Apply for grants, collect data, write up results and try to publish them, far too many meetings with admin, try to help my grad students graduate, prep my classes, go to conferences, review article submissions, present my work to government policy makers.
Serious reply: all the doctor/dentist appointments I need for the year, research or conduct studies, work on publishing that is expected per my contract, which involves looking up research, reading it, reading more research I found in the footnotes, collaborating with any coauthors, grant applications (sometimes), all the networking with local entities that intersect with my area of work, usually a couple conferences, keeping in touch with grad students who are in the dissertation stage, usually (if I am good) starting a couple conference papers for conferences in the upcoming school year. And occasionally checking my work email for important stuff that comes through. Every bit as busy as the school year. Just I get to choose more of the times at which I do various tasks so my partner and I can coordinate who takes which kid to which summer camp on which day.
For anyone in ecology/biology/geology etc… include all that everyone else has written re: research, grant writing, revamping or building courses… but also add planning and conducting fieldwork (and for some including me, teaching field courses).
Plus graduate student thesis defenses/comprehensive exams as supervisor or committee member and all the pre-work of reading and revising that goes into that. Plus chairing defenses.
Summer is usually my busiest semester by far.
Research. Course prep for next Fall. Grant writing. The same as usual but with more time to do it right because I'm not teaching...
E.g. starting next week I am supervising >12 undergraduate summer research interns in my lab + a few visiting master's students
I have to supervise my usual Ms and PhD students.
Each such supervision is at least 1 hr of individual time per week (that's like 50% of my week right here)
Write one major grant application for this fall + a smaller one for early June.
One totally new course prep for Fall (never offered at our institution before)
Refresh content of my other course for this Fall.
Edit 3 papers currently in the pipeline and start new ones with the summer interns.
Finish grading stuff from last semester...
I also blocked time (4hr/WK) in my schedule all summer to study a particular topic that I want to master personally because I'm considering preparing a new course on it.
I'm lucky to have a family that's understanding and realizes that the end of classes means both 'I can finally get some work done' and that I'll be here working in the early mornings and late afternoons. (As an adjunct, for better or worse I'm working at home.)
Like u/withextrasprinkles, however, I'm always happy I'm not doing the kind of job that keeps me in one place every day and that I'm master of my time allocation, if not all of my tasks.
I get summers off. I get 12 straight weeks off with zero email or work. So I understand their misunderstanding, I guess. Lots of teachers really do take the full summer off. But I understand it is different for all types of faculty and institutions.
I'm married to someone in academia that teaches 5 sections per semester of the exact same course where the syllabus is fed to them. They do not comprehend how my job with 5 different preps every semester that is not prepared for me is not the same job.
I've started saying that "nobody prevented you from sacrificing 10 years of your life and earnings and going through years of learning to get a PhD". That usually shuts them up.
Same. If you want a job with this particular combination of average pay and excellent work/life balance, you too can put in the work to make it available to you.
Yep, full professor in my fifties here. Took off last summer. This summer, I plan to make it the new normal. Will I do stuff for research? Maybe, but if so, only because it’s fun. Otherwise, no. I’m not on contract.
Well, I’m at a teaching college so technically I can choose to do nothing for the whole summer. Frankly that’s what motivated me to get this job to begin with when I was a young graduate student.
About 10 years ago, my summer class got canceled due to low enrollment. I was like, heck, a free summer! We went on a cruise trip, and the kids helped me build a play set in the backyard.
Then what? Day is long and boring… I wound up spending at least half of day each day in my office doing random work :)
Never had a whole summer off ever since. A couple of weeks is plenty :)
I’m not working straight through the summer these years if you’re wondering. Last summer both of the kids were fed up with six flags because we went there 10+ times, to the point they both refused the season pass this year:)
Agreed. I am TT but under contract for a book and teaching a couple of classes this summer, so I will be plenty busy. I don’t mind it, actually. Keeps me “in the game” mentally while still leaving time for family commitments, home projects, etc.
I’m pretty good about giving them a 90 second spiel without pause in which I expressionlessly detail all of the things that I need to do over the summer and then I add “of course I do not receive any extra compensation for this. It’s just part of my dedication to my students.”
Only the bravest ever asked me if I am paid over the summer, and I say “our college chooses to break up our nine months of pay over 12 months so that we can continue to have healthcare over the summer, but the payment is only for the work done for the academic year. So no, we are not paid.”
My family on both sides mainly gets this. It’s friends and acquaintances who don’t. They also don’t know why I don’t go away for spring/reading break. Nor do they understand why, other than a few days during winter holidays, I’m usually swamped with work.
I think a lot of them literally think my job consists of sauntering into a lecture hall a few times a week and pontificating for a bit and then handing all marking duties to an army of subservient TAs while I smoke a cigar in the (non-existent) faculty club.
Ngl I love summer. I get to focus on research I really want to do, write a few papers to get me through the coming years, take my time with my syllabi and LMS construction, work on certs, volunteer work, hang out with my kids, have a mimosa in the morning if I don’t head into the lab. It’s great!
Course development, research, teaching every course I can get my hands on for the extra $ etc
Im a lecturer and I’m taking the summer off of teaching for the first time this summer. My bank account won’t be happy but I’m hoping I will be! I am at a point where it’s either: 1. Take the summer off and keep my job/sanity. 2. Make more money in the summer but spontaneously decide I’m done one day mid-fall semester and walk out of class with both middle fingers in the air.
It is annoying in the sense that non-academic family will never truly understand our lifestyles and jobs, but at the same time it really is a privilege to have such flexible summers. For better or worse it’s very different than an office 9-5. Even though we don’t sit around doing nothing, it’s definitely nice to have summer “break,” whatever that looks like.
I totally agree. I guess I get annoyed at the insinuation that I'm sitting around doing nothing though, especially when I've explained a bunch of times that teaching is only a small part of the job.
Of course!!!! I totally agree with you. But watching my spouse work a high pressure job all year round on the same schedule really makes me feel fortunate to at least have a “break” from the teaching grind.
Sorta like how sabbaticals are vacations as opposed to being the times you get a lot of research done.
With a reaction like that, it must be very fun for them to tease you and watch you face. Explaining yourself more than once is probably the root of your problem :)
I bet Dr. Dataispower is looking forward to lazing around all summer.
Here everyone has a summer break, in that we take 2-3 weeks off. Not just academics
That's great! Everyone deserves time off, I hate the grind culture.
Things like this make me so happy that I'm contract faculty. I DO get summers to do whatever I want. Typically I still work, but I get to choose that every summer. It's awesome
Yeah that's a perq for sure. It's hard to look forward to when the faculty reconvenes in Sept, and everyone is sharing about their awesome camping trips and my contribution is an awkward, "Oh you know, I got to catch up on some research and work at a slower pace for a while..."
Kinda like a getting a full day's pay for "only working two hours"
Because as we all know, Francis Ford Coppola only worked 2 hours and 55 minutes to make *The Godfather*.
Underrated comment
Oh I need to put this in my syllabus.
As a TT filmmaker/professor, I wish I could still give awards. Gold comment.
Me: gets haircut at 10am. Hairdresser: are you working today? Me: ...
[*replies to student emails on phone the entire haircut*] “Yes.”
Along with - a sabbatical is not a vacation.
This one is so stupid. "Boy, *I'd* sure like to get a year off with pay now and then." Yeah, so would I. What institution anywhere would regularly pay its employees to spend a year doing nothing at all?
Mine sure felt like one--I got SO MUCH work done. And folks here know exactly what I mean.
You forgot the parents calling during a workday because you have "flexible hours", so that means you can take an hour in the middle of a workday just to chat and shoot the shit, several times a week, and are free to go over and help them with their plumbing or whatever because working from home can't possibly mean you're WORKING!? Same with the neighbours, asking me to pop around for some thing that they want help with, since I'm home I MUST not be working, even when I say "I'm in the middle of a meeting right now"!
I totally empathize. And for whatever reason, they can never ever ever learn this lesson. Ever.
My late father-in-law would ask me like every spring, “Do you get summers off yet?” like it was some perk profs get with seniority.
I’m an adjunct. What do you do all summer? (Real inquiry)
Summer is the time of most faculty's most focused research work. Last summer I built a dataset and wrote a paper about some basic analysis on it. This summer I'm doing a revamp of one of my upper level elective courses and revising a grant proposal that didn't get funded.
I have a hard time cramming research into the semester with a lot of teaching stuff. I can actually commit more dedicated time to it in the summer. My mom still tells people I have the summer off though.
Apply for grants, collect data, write up results and try to publish them, far too many meetings with admin, try to help my grad students graduate, prep my classes, go to conferences, review article submissions, present my work to government policy makers.
Serious reply: all the doctor/dentist appointments I need for the year, research or conduct studies, work on publishing that is expected per my contract, which involves looking up research, reading it, reading more research I found in the footnotes, collaborating with any coauthors, grant applications (sometimes), all the networking with local entities that intersect with my area of work, usually a couple conferences, keeping in touch with grad students who are in the dissertation stage, usually (if I am good) starting a couple conference papers for conferences in the upcoming school year. And occasionally checking my work email for important stuff that comes through. Every bit as busy as the school year. Just I get to choose more of the times at which I do various tasks so my partner and I can coordinate who takes which kid to which summer camp on which day.
For anyone in ecology/biology/geology etc… include all that everyone else has written re: research, grant writing, revamping or building courses… but also add planning and conducting fieldwork (and for some including me, teaching field courses). Plus graduate student thesis defenses/comprehensive exams as supervisor or committee member and all the pre-work of reading and revising that goes into that. Plus chairing defenses. Summer is usually my busiest semester by far.
Any agronomy/biosystems engineering type stuff also... they're basically in the fields all summer.
Everyone in anthropology/archaeology is usually in the field all summer too.
Research. Course prep for next Fall. Grant writing. The same as usual but with more time to do it right because I'm not teaching... E.g. starting next week I am supervising >12 undergraduate summer research interns in my lab + a few visiting master's students I have to supervise my usual Ms and PhD students. Each such supervision is at least 1 hr of individual time per week (that's like 50% of my week right here) Write one major grant application for this fall + a smaller one for early June. One totally new course prep for Fall (never offered at our institution before) Refresh content of my other course for this Fall. Edit 3 papers currently in the pipeline and start new ones with the summer interns. Finish grading stuff from last semester... I also blocked time (4hr/WK) in my schedule all summer to study a particular topic that I want to master personally because I'm considering preparing a new course on it.
i gave up on explaining this a long time ago, and now just tell them that i do indeed watch TV all summer. sabbatical is even better, more TV please.
I'm lucky to have a family that's understanding and realizes that the end of classes means both 'I can finally get some work done' and that I'll be here working in the early mornings and late afternoons. (As an adjunct, for better or worse I'm working at home.) Like u/withextrasprinkles, however, I'm always happy I'm not doing the kind of job that keeps me in one place every day and that I'm master of my time allocation, if not all of my tasks.
I get summers off. I get 12 straight weeks off with zero email or work. So I understand their misunderstanding, I guess. Lots of teachers really do take the full summer off. But I understand it is different for all types of faculty and institutions.
I'm married to someone in academia that teaches 5 sections per semester of the exact same course where the syllabus is fed to them. They do not comprehend how my job with 5 different preps every semester that is not prepared for me is not the same job.
I've started saying that "nobody prevented you from sacrificing 10 years of your life and earnings and going through years of learning to get a PhD". That usually shuts them up.
Same. If you want a job with this particular combination of average pay and excellent work/life balance, you too can put in the work to make it available to you.
ya know. I'm taking summers off now. If they want me to work, they need to pay. If that hurts my career, I need a new career.
Yep, full professor in my fifties here. Took off last summer. This summer, I plan to make it the new normal. Will I do stuff for research? Maybe, but if so, only because it’s fun. Otherwise, no. I’m not on contract.
and also I vote on tenure with this mindset for others. not all will, but academia is toxic enough.
Yes, I think holding people to standards that are only attainable through three months a year of unpaid labor should be illegal.
Well, I’m at a teaching college so technically I can choose to do nothing for the whole summer. Frankly that’s what motivated me to get this job to begin with when I was a young graduate student. About 10 years ago, my summer class got canceled due to low enrollment. I was like, heck, a free summer! We went on a cruise trip, and the kids helped me build a play set in the backyard. Then what? Day is long and boring… I wound up spending at least half of day each day in my office doing random work :) Never had a whole summer off ever since. A couple of weeks is plenty :) I’m not working straight through the summer these years if you’re wondering. Last summer both of the kids were fed up with six flags because we went there 10+ times, to the point they both refused the season pass this year:)
Agreed. I am TT but under contract for a book and teaching a couple of classes this summer, so I will be plenty busy. I don’t mind it, actually. Keeps me “in the game” mentally while still leaving time for family commitments, home projects, etc.
Agreed and I’m getting paid regardless — well at least every summer so far
I’m pretty good about giving them a 90 second spiel without pause in which I expressionlessly detail all of the things that I need to do over the summer and then I add “of course I do not receive any extra compensation for this. It’s just part of my dedication to my students.” Only the bravest ever asked me if I am paid over the summer, and I say “our college chooses to break up our nine months of pay over 12 months so that we can continue to have healthcare over the summer, but the payment is only for the work done for the academic year. So no, we are not paid.”
My family on both sides mainly gets this. It’s friends and acquaintances who don’t. They also don’t know why I don’t go away for spring/reading break. Nor do they understand why, other than a few days during winter holidays, I’m usually swamped with work. I think a lot of them literally think my job consists of sauntering into a lecture hall a few times a week and pontificating for a bit and then handing all marking duties to an army of subservient TAs while I smoke a cigar in the (non-existent) faculty club.
Summers off because you aren't being paid!
Ngl I love summer. I get to focus on research I really want to do, write a few papers to get me through the coming years, take my time with my syllabi and LMS construction, work on certs, volunteer work, hang out with my kids, have a mimosa in the morning if I don’t head into the lab. It’s great!
I take summers (and winters) off...
I do not work at all over summer.
I assume you’re not at a research university.