‘Being an academic is not a 9–5 job’: long working hours and the ‘ideal worker’ in UK academia

Abstract

The deregulation of working time has been occurring over recent decades. Academia is one of the many industries that can be characterised by a long hours work culture and intensification of work. This is significant given the negative effects of such a work culture on the physical and mental health and well-being of workers. Using evidence from two UK-based qualitative studies, this paper begins to explore the causes and effects of academic long hours work culture further. It has a particular focus on the extent to which the long hours culture is a result of cultural and structural changes in higher education, which have led to an increased focus on performance and outcome measures. It queries whether this is also shaped by more personal factors, such as the desire to excel and blurred boundaries between work and leisure, whereby the pursuit of knowledge may be a source of leisure for academics. It finds that while individual factors contribute to the long hours culture, these factors are shaped by cultural norms and pressures to cultivate a perception of the 'ideal academic' within an increasingly target-driven and neoliberal environment.

The curious under‐representation of women impact case leaders: Can we disengender inequality regimes?

“…These are often unconducive to women's ways of working and detrimental for women scholars' career progression (Davies, Healey, & Cliffe, ; Harley, ; Yarrow, ) because objectives such as achieving research excellence and impact demand high levels of dedicated and undisturbed time. As women academics typically experience unfair workload allocations (Barrett & Barrett, ), with less time than men for research (Winslow, ) which requires significant time commitment (Sang, Powell, Finkel, & Richards, ), they face disadvantage within gendered cultures, structures and procedures (Benschop & Brouns, ).…”

We Need to Talk about Impact: Why Social Policy Academics need to Engage with the UK's Research Impact Agenda

“…Several interviewees gave examples of opportunities for knowledge exchange and impact that had involved significant travelling and/or attending evening/weekend events, with obvious implications for personal/family life. Given what is known about the persistent gender divide of caring responsibilities (Wheatley and Wu, 2014) and the culture of long working hours that already pervades UK academia (Sang et al, 2015), an under-resourced demand for researchers to achieve research impact has the potential to exacerbate and reinforce career inequities. It may also be, as several interviewees suggested, rather riskier for earlier career academics to engage in the kinds of activities required to achieve impact.…”

O úspěšnosti slaďování rodičovství a studia doktorských studentek s malými dětmi

“…Zahraniční studie ukazují, že téma slaďování rodičovství a vědecké kariéry je zde mnohem aktuálnějším tématem, jemuž je věnována poměrně velká pozornost (viz např. Bagilhole, 2002;Hardy et al, 2016;Laguhlin, 2000;Rolin & Vainio, 2011;Sang et al, 2015;Van den Brink & Benschop, 2012;Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2004). Do již proběhlých výzkumných šetření v České republice byly zařazeny ženy na všech vědeckých pozicích, tedy i včetně doktorského studia.…”

“…Sang, Powell, Finkel a Richards (2015) v rámci svého výzkumu připouštějí, že dlouhá pracovní doba a intenzivní práce je běžná pro různá pracovní prostředí, avšak co od nich odlišuje akademické prostředí, je fakt, že být akademikem neznamená práci od "devíti do pěti", ale že v tomto prostředí dochází rovněž k nejasnému oddělení hranic mezi prací doma a v zaměstnání (srov. též Bagilhole & White, 2003;Wright, Williamson, Schauder, & Stockfeld, 2003).…”