We do lots of free work in academia, and sometimes it's too much / Nous faisons beaucoup de travail gratuit dans le milieu universitaire, et parfois c'est trop
I think about this a lot - especially around peer review and committee participation.
And even in contexts where the work is part of the job, or a paid contract, there's still unpaid labour - course development and restructuring, even grading, might not be explicitly included in a contract. It incentivises developing courses that are less about learning opportunities for students, I think.
The problem, I find, with our academic tasks is that while they're specified as general areas/domains, it's never really clear what counts in the categories service/outreach. Research and teaching are easy to determine, the others less so. So for me, it's an ongoing reflexive process, and trying to weigh in advance of a request the work actually involved. Thankfully experience has helped in this process, in part because I've been burned often enough with saying "Yes" to volunteer work that ended up being far too demanding!
Thanks for this better lesson of life
I think about this a lot - especially around peer review and committee participation.
And even in contexts where the work is part of the job, or a paid contract, there's still unpaid labour - course development and restructuring, even grading, might not be explicitly included in a contract. It incentivises developing courses that are less about learning opportunities for students, I think.
The problem, I find, with our academic tasks is that while they're specified as general areas/domains, it's never really clear what counts in the categories service/outreach. Research and teaching are easy to determine, the others less so. So for me, it's an ongoing reflexive process, and trying to weigh in advance of a request the work actually involved. Thankfully experience has helped in this process, in part because I've been burned often enough with saying "Yes" to volunteer work that ended up being far too demanding!