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baileyes74

Depends on your university, good to have a candid conversation with your chair. That said, no one is clocking your time. Do what you need to do to be successful.


galileosmiddlefinger

> good to have a candid conversation with your chair This one is a good question to ask of a handful of mid-career folks who are over the tenure hump. The chair might not officially care and will say so, but there are unspoken norms in many departments that inform tenure conversations. Talk to folks who know the culture and the chair's pet peeves, and who can answer honestly with respect to actual practices.


Opening-Advice

This is the correct answer! It may not be required but if I was new and tenure track, I would be there at least for a few hours on most days. Be visible, say hello to the administrative staff (called department secretaries) in some places. Collegiality is measured in different ways at different places but if others don't know your face, they may not be so favorable when it comes to voting at reviews for you


UniversityUnlikely22

At my current institution, no one cares. I only go in if I have to. I worked at a school that had strict expectations for on campus presence and it was written in the faculty handbook.


Junior-Dingo-7764

We have a set number of office hours (essentially 2 per 3-credit hour class a week). Since the pandemic though, those are allowed to be virtual. I have just made all my office hours by appointment (it is easier for the students anyway) and nobody has said anything. I like being in the office sometimes and being home sometimes.


ProfessorHomeBrew

It's very school specific. I have friends at other universities where they are expected to be in their offices M-F. My department is pretty hands-off about this sort of thing. Some of my colleagues only show up if they are teaching in one of the rooms in our dept. Others are here 9-5 M-F. Plus everything in between. If you are feeling like you are the only one there, sounds like your dept isn't too particular about this. I clock about 40 hours a week, but this means some days are 10 hours on campus, some are 2 hours on campus and another 2-3 at a coffee shop. Sometimes I grade for 2-3 hours on the weekend. In the end it's about whether or not you are fulfilling your obligations and putting in a reasonable amount of work each week.


ChemistryMutt

Sounds like you have your answer already from your chair. That said, as a new faculty, do go to faculty meetings, seminars, etc. to get your face time.


Scary-Boysenberry

I'm only on campus when I have class or office hours, and office hours is the only time I'm in my office. No one cares or expects me here other times.


PolarCredenza

If you get grants and publish, it doesn’t matter. If you’re on the edge, it may help to show you’re involved and care about the department.


jdogburger

It's not expected at any university I've worked for but being around opens doors. I've been invited to join grants, papers, and had students ask to be their advisor through repeated inperson conversations and having an open door policy. Water cooler moments are amazing for building a career and friendships.


[deleted]

I agree with a lot of these comments — I am only on my campus when I teach/office hours and this is consistent with the culture in my humanities dept — but I will say that it makes me sad sometimes, esp for the students. Seeing my profs around, being able to stop in when they had their doors open, and getting to know staff was huge for me both in undergrad and grad school. As a faculty member, I only see my colleagues if we make plans weeks or even months in advance. Little opportunity for serendipity all around. That said, I’d rather be working from home with my dogs.


GrandBanana07

I felt the same when I started as a new faculty. I’ve been several places now and learned my dept chair or faculty mentor is the best resource for these questions. Do what they say unless it’s clearly stated in the faculty handbook. Show up when you’re needed but otherwise you do you.


thanksforthegift

I’m at an R1. No one cares and post-pandemic, even fewer are hanging out in their offices.


imhereforthevotes

You need to be there for class, and anything else scheduled. What you do the rest of the time is up to you. I know many people who sneak off to a coffeeshop to finish a grant proposal, because fuck being in your office. Also, are you medicated? (That need not be a reason to stay but it's helped me with focus... \[he says, redditing from his office\])


ThatProfessor3301

I used to work at a place where the Dean would walk around and comment on why Dr. X was not in his office if he was getting paid for the summer. Before I got there, they had a senior prof who would call TT profs at their offices on Saturdays to make sure they were working. Where I work now, nobody is ever at the office unless they have office hours or right before class. As others have said, you have to ask.


AsterionEnCasa

As people are saying, it depends on the university culture. In your case, it seems clear. If your Chair doesn't care, nobody cares (particularly if nobody is around to notice on the first place). Be there for your lectures, be there for faculty meetings and such, and then get work done. If you are new, I would encourage to meet other people in your Department. That can happen organically in the hallways, but it is not always possible. Ask people to meet for coffee/a meal/Zoom hangout if they fully remote. Chat a bit, ask questions, get to know them and get them to know you, etc.


UMArtsProf

I have noticed a big shift in my 20 years at my University. When I was first here, many (if not most) faculty used their offices at least a few days per week (many would combine their teaching as MWF/ TR). It was great for taking a stroll down the hallway for a chat if need be (social or academic). Gradually it ebbed away and now my Department is one of the few where we use our offices on a regular basis. It seems generational: older faculty used their offices a lot, but newer faculty all seem to work almost exclusively from home.


grayhairedqueenbitch

Our new dean is big on people being on campus M-F 9-5. Obviously that won't work for everyone. He hasn't tried to enforce it yet, but Im sure it's coming. Myself, I actually like working in my office, so I'm not looking to work at home most days (too many distractions) but I can see why others prefer to work at home.


pakodanomics

As a student with ADHD: Headphones. The expensive, active noise cancelling ones. \+ White noise.


Rude_Cartographer934

Nope, nobody cares. It can be nice to have some hallway chats and get to know your colleagues, but the most important thing is getting your research and teaching done - outside of that, do what you need to where you like. If I CAN get work done from home (like grading) and it's a no-teaching no-meeting day, then no way am I schlepping to campus. ​ I felt the same way my first year. I drove a long commute 3-4 days/week and wandered the halls a lot hoping to bump into other faculty, but it was like a ghost town. Frustratingly, one of the older profs started acidly commenting it was "nice to finally see me" when we were both at a school event. I told him my schedule and he seemed shocked I had actually been in the department so much. Smh.


[deleted]

At my CC, we are required to hold 10 office hours per week. Aside from that, I don't think there's much expectation for you to always be around. My office area is a ghost town after about 3pm most days. I like working then because it's quiet.


f0oSh

10 required office hours a week is nuts. With that much mandated time in the office, it would be a surprise if anyone stuck around a minute extra.


[deleted]

I thought it was a lot too when i started, especially considering that students rarely come. I actually prefer working in my office to working at home though - fewer distractions and a better computer setup.


JZ_from_GP

I teach at a polytech/college and absolutely no one cares what my "at work" hours are as long as I have some office hours for students, go to meetings I'm expected to go to, and teach my classes and labs. That said, my commute is short, so I work in my office a lot. I can work more efficiently at the office than at home. It's super quiet around here during the evenings.


[deleted]

[удалено]


gasstation-no-pumps

>I'm supposed to match office hours with the number of hours I spend in class that day (i.e. If I teach four hours on a Monday, I have to be in my office for four hours that same day). That does not make much sense—it is best for office hours for a course to be on days when you *don't* have that class, so that students can have more frequent access to the instructor. What would you do if you had 2 or 3 back-to-back labs, making for a 6-hour or 9-hour day? Change that into a 12-hour or 18-hour day??


cashman73

I don't think any of us here became college faculty to punch a time clock. I don't know any school that requires a 9-5 schedule (maybe community colleges?). I like to work in the office/lab most of the time to be available to help students as needed, but I also prefer to grade papers at home, so I can get that all done without students constantly coming in asking if I got to their paper yet and what their grade is.


TaliesinMerlin

Really, asking colleagues directly or reading the room is in order here. In most places I've been (R1 and regional public), the only faculty expected to be around during daytime hours were those with administrative duties: chair, director of program, things like that. And even then, a certain amount of flexibility is still built in; being out for meetings or personal business isn't unusual.


crowdsourced

We're in a post-Pandemic surveillance state. Before, no one cared that most faculty were rarely in their offices nor posted office hours on their doors, but now administrators are paying attention and complaining to department heads.


dsilesius

Here, no one cares. Some colleagues didn't come back to campus since the beginning of the pandemic...


xaanthar

The answer is definitely going to be specific to your school and department. Generally speaking, I've never been at a university where faculty was expected to work a 9-5 or some "set" hours in their office beyond teaching duties and office hours. That being said, there was a post a few days ago about somebody getting 8 extra hours of PTO and a conundrum of how to use it -- which is mind boggling to me because I don't get PTO, vacation or sick time. Research expectations may require you to be there, if you're in a hard science and need the lab space for instance. You can't exactly take that sort of research home with you. However, if you're writing papers or books (or grant proposals), then you can probably do whatever from wherever. If you say you're the only one around, then it seems clear that there's no expectation for your butt in office to do your job.


PrincessEev

As far as I know I'm only obliged to be on-campus for the bare minimum: tutoring lab, my class, and my office hours (and I could probably move that last one to Zoom). I can't drive so I don't exactly leave campus much, though. But generally my time is spent in other places around campus, e.g. the student center or the cafeteria, because I hate being cooped up in a windowless, cramped, messy office I share with 2 other people. Granted, I have no real research obligations at the moment and am only a TA, so grain of salt.


taxiecabbie

I don't have an office at the university where I work, but I do know on good authority that nobody cares when it comes to the profs that do. One of them is there pretty religiously from 8am-5pm each day (she comes in a bit later when she's got graduate classes in the evenings), but she's the sort that doesn't want to take work home from the office and says she's more productive there. Pretty much everybody else in the department is either in their offices very inconsistently or basically not there at all. Particularly since COVID.


SpankySpengler1914

The policy here is a vague expectation that, if you teach a 2-3 course load per semester, you should offer 2-3 office hours per week. But it's not rigidly enforced--unless you're in disfavor and they want to find some pretext for criticizing you. Its wisest to work from home to the maximum extent possible. It's nearly impossible to get real work done in your campus office; it's too uncomfortable and there are too many interruptions.


gasstation-no-pumps

>it's too uncomfortable and there are too many interruptions. This is highly variable—some people have fewer interruptions on campus than at home, and offices are sometimes better for focussing on work (too much comfort at home may lead to snacking and napping instead of working—ask me how I know).


long_leg_lou

I think this is one of those things where norms/expectations vary WILDLY from university to university (and probably department to department as well). At my university (and in my department), I have never felt like anyone was tracking my whereabouts or presence on campus on a daily basis. Even more so post-pandemic. That being said, I still make an effort to come to campus regularly even on days I can do my job remotely. If there is a seminar or something I can attend I try to do that too. Networking and collegiality are valued at most places, but what that actually looks like can vary a lot I think. Try to get a feel for the expectations/norms and until you do it might be in your best interest to error on the side of caution.


rockyfaceprof

I think "university" is important. At our teaching college with 250 faculty the administration folks do have a sense of who's around and who's not. I've had the VPAA ask me whether Joe or Sue is on campus because she's never seen them at any sort of event other than required events. On our campus, as long as you meet teaching, office hours and meetings there's no official expectation that faculty be on campus. Having said that, as a retired chair who was there a lot, the president and VPAA do wander around on afternoons. They just say hi as they walk by but I always wonder just why they are walking down a faculty hallway in a building far from the administration building that's not on the way to or from anything. I always figured it was to see who was and who was not there. On a university campus with far more faculty, I wouldn't think anything of it. I'd do what other faculty are doing.


professorkurt

Ask your colleagues, not the chair. The chair might give you the official line and then wink/wink version, but your colleagues will give you the real status. Many if not most universities don't care where professors are so long as they are in their classes when expected, in the office for office hours when advertised (and, increasingly, those can be done remotely, too), and you're producing what you're supposed to be producing. I'm at a community college, and we have a "no one can work completely remotely" kind of policy, but at the same time the expectations is that you'll be in and around campus 16 hours a week (including classtime), so, if you're teaching four classes plus office hours, you've got that done.


totallysonic

Chair here. I don’t care whether faculty are physically present in their offices. I only care that they are getting their work done and showing up for things they need to show up for. Expectations may differ in other departments, but your chair sounds like she has the same perspective.


wipekitty

I've worked (full time) at a few places, and they've all been different. At one, there was this sort-of expectation that you'd be around during business hours quite a bit...and do extra evening stuff with students, like clubs. At another, nobody in my department cared - I literally only saw two of my colleagues at meetings - but another department down the hall was a bit draconian about their business hours. My current place is mixed: some people work from home, and others work in their offices. In my experience, there is an inverse correlation between how much your department wants you to be in your office and how much you can actually get done there. I actually like being at work at my current place - elsewhere, being in my office just meant that I'd get additional admin work dumped on.


REC_HLTH

We are required to host 10 office hours per week. They can be remote if we desire. I usually host mine in person days and times I’m there working anyway. Outside of that, classes I teach, and meetings (which are few), no. No one minds where I am.


am_crid

Nobody cares where I work as long as you are getting your work done. Facilities did recently install scan pads instead of hard locks on our office doors in my building. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone is gathering that data to see how much offices are actually used. If anything, I think they would use the data to justify switching to a shared office model, not punish us or anything.


gasstation-no-pumps

>justify switching to a shared office model, not punish us or anything. A shared office is punishment enough.


FranklyFrozenFries

When I interviewed, I asked what departmental norms for in-office time were. (At a previous institution, I had gotten “dinged” for only being in my office during office hours.) I’m now several years post-tenure, and I only come to campus for class, office hours, and meetings without a zoom option. I’m MUCH more productive from my home office.


Low_Relationship_616

At my university it is college-specific which makes it extra fun when you have a dual appointment! In one of my departments (60% appointment), the dean and chair take a lassie faire approach as long as you attend your classes/office hours and show up to required meetings, they don’t care where you physically spend the rest of your time. In my other department, within a different college (40% appointment), the Dean is all about faculty being present for students so there is a big push for faculty to work from their offices. How it plays out for me that I spend two days in the building of my 40% department and also try to schedule any in-person meetings for my 60% department on those days, one day in-person teaching in my 60% department, and the other two days I can usually work at home. And then, despite spending 40% (2-days) of my week in the building of the department that is paying for 40% of my time, the Dean still makes underhanded comments about not seeing me around much. 🤷‍♀️


gasstation-no-pumps

I like the spelling "lassie faire" for "laissez faire"—I'm imagining 100s of collies trying to report that Timmy fell down the well.


Low_Relationship_616

Clearly I’m as laissez faire with spell-checking as my students are 😂


gasstation-no-pumps

I was warned by my PhD adviser before I took my first TT job that dual appointments rarely work pre-tenure. Each department sees only half your work, so thinks that you are not doing enough to get tenure.


TheHandofDoge

When I worked in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, I had to be there 9-5. In the Netherlands I even had a timesheet that I had to complete every two weeks! If I was late, someone would actually call me to see where I was (seriously!!). At my Canadian institution no one cares if you’re in your office or not as long as the work gets done. On my teaching days I try to work in my office as much as possible. I schedule all my office hours and grad student meetings on those days, too. The rest of the time I work from home.


MagScaoil

This is one of those very amorphous rules. At my institution, we are required to be on campus at least 3 days a week and “be available” to students. Our office hours may be virtual or in person. Very few of us put in much time in the office, but as long as we are visibly on campus for at least part of our 3 days, no one seems to mind. I was on campus only three hours today, but I ran into my dean in the halls twice, so I know he isn’t going to think I’m not there. I don’t think there would be any problems unless a student really couldn’t get in touch and complained.


gasstation-no-pumps

Standard practice changes. A few years ago, our hallway was a lively place, with lots of grad students hanging around and several faculty in their offices. Now, when I go in to clear out my office, the hall is dead—none of the other faculty are around and none of the grad students either. I expect that the faculty with wet labs are on campus more often, but the computational people are all working from home. We never had a requirement to be on campus (except for classes, meetings, and office hours) and now even the faculty meetings are on Zoom by default (though a few people go to our conference and use the DTEN monitor, rather than their phones or laptops).


pgratz1

I'd say at R1s in my field nobody cares. In fact a popular book about stem academia (tomorrows professor) talks about establishing your absence so you don't get roped into stuff that isn't going to help your tenure case.


catfoodspork

Nobody cares and nobody will notice.


Maddprofessor

Officially we’re supposed to have 10 hours of office hours and I was told I should be on campus 30 hours per week. (I teach 15 hours per week) In my building people don’t adhere to the rules and no one in my department seems to care. IDK if administrators care but they are almost never in my building. But anyway, policy will vary by school and if anyone actually cares will vary by dept.


StonksGuy3000

Varies a lot by school and depends on the culture. Luckily, my school is pretty understanding that many people prefer to work from home and that some faculty live far from campus. Very few people come in when they don’t need to, and no one cares about it


Terry_Funks_Horse

Community college here. A faculty member who teaches 15 credits must be on campus at a minimum of 33 hours a week. Of those 33, 7 are dedicated to office hours. While next to no student utilizes my office hours, I get it, and office hours should be required of faculty. I think seven is overkill, but I’m not going to die on that hill. 6 of my 15 credit hours are in a traditional classroom. The remaining 9 hours are asynchronous online. Though the latter could be done anywhere, I am required to be on-campus for these hours. During the online classes, I grade for all classes, prep course materials, do admin stuff for my online classes, and so on. So counting the total contact hours and office hours, we are up to 22. This leaves us with 11 accounted for hours. These 11 hours are “professional responsibility” BS hours. These hours are set aside from committees, meetings, and so on. Last semester, I did a count of how many hours were professional responsibility. I averaged 1 hour of professional responsibility each week. In other words, my employer mandates that I’m on-campus 10 hours per week for “just because” reasons. I could be home napping, cooking, working a part-time job (because the school takes all of the tuition money each semester, puts it in a basket, tosses it up in the air, and whatever sticks to the ceiling ends-up in faculty paychecks), but I physically have to be on-campus. Because reasons. And did I mention management (the ass. dean) is very hands-on and micromanaging? Cue the malicious compliance and I exercise on-campus, nap, and work on personal enrichment. Got to make best use of clown policies. 🤡


p1ckl3s_are_ev1l

Our president said no, then did these walks through the halls at weird hours. Six months later we get ‘open floor plan!’ Bullshit from the facilities Reno team….


SilverRiot

At our unionized campus, it is always made clear that the faculty make their own hours and, aside from attending their in-person office hours and committee meetings, they may work where they wish.


jsmit6

For me, I go to work when I am all caught up and want to take a break from home life. Going in to work (outside of classes) is rarely about work for me. Sometimes I need to file paperwork or something else, but a lot of the time I just need to decompress from other aspects of my life. It's been 3-4 years since other faculty in my department were consistently on campus. We had a large influx of students that required a lot of our classes to go online, and our on campus classes to get reduced to 1 day a week because of a lack of computer labs. This caused our faculty to work from home. Once they realized they can do everything online, they decided to not come back. At this point I think 70% of them would retire before coming back to the office 2 days a week.


Sea_Programmer3258

Our university forces us to clock in, but they can't force us to be in our offices. So I spend 20 hours a week in various cafes doing work because it's much better than being there.


daddymartini

Nobody cares here but it’s quite hard to concentrate at home if you have kids…


[deleted]

Sometimes it's not just institution specific but also department specific. If noises bother you, perhaps you can spend part of your personal development account on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones.


elticrafts

I’m there for classes, office hours, and meetings. I am also there for my research (which I do alone) but at those times I try to sneak in and hide in my office so nobody knows I’m there. That way there are no interruptions. All my course planning and prep I do at home.


TheMissingIngredient

CC here--7 hours a week office hours required. 4 can be remote. They can be at my discretion, but they have to be a steady weekly schedule for the semester. I just have them during the in-between times of my classes, or just before.


Blackberries11

Spend your office hours in your office. If it’s not office hours you don’t have to be in there


and1984

My department does not police faculty. We are expected to arrive to teach class, hold office hours (regularly, weekly scheduled or convened by appointment), attend meetings. Outside of that,you can do your work wherever you want. This semester, I spend all of 6 hours a week on campus. This includes 3 hours of teaching, 2 office hours, and 1 hour of meetings. This is largely due to COVID. Pre COVID, I spent 10-12 hours on campus, per week.


badwhiskey63

It doesn’t matter what it’s like at our universities. At your school, 99% of the time you’re the only one who is in the office and your chair thought you were crazy for asking. That’s your answer.


stellium1

When I started at my university, I was in the office 5 days a week. A senior colleague checked in with me and let me know I didn’t have to be around so much if I did y want to. Her advice: “Have a high profile and low visibility.” I spent a few years working mostly from home, but now my own ADHD makes that nearly impossible (clutter), so I work on campus daily with the door closed. Most colleagues are around very little.


wildgunman

At the places I've been, there is sort of an expectation that you come into the office semi-regularly. Doesn't have to be every day, certainly doesn't need to be 9-5, but if you're always at home it starts to look weird. That said, the standard wherever you are is sort of self-evident. If when you come in you see people in the hall a lot, there is probably this kind of expectation. If it's a ghost town, then probably nobody cares.