In case the legislature thinks you are not working and needs to know what lazy professors do all day long, let me tell you about my flexibly scheduled day so far. This is after working 6-1 and 2-9 yesterday, 14 total hours with a one hour lunch break on which I both ate and went shopping for books for one of my courses. During these 14 hours I graded for 5 hours and taught for 5 hours, and did administrative work and grant writing for 4 hours.
Today I got up at 8:45 AM. I dealt with e-mail until 9:30. At 10 I went to get my blood tested and at 11 I mailed my wounded computer to Sunnyvale, California.
At 11:30 I went to get mail at my main department, and then to the café in the library where I held office hours for two hours. At 2:00 I went to make photocopies and to check out a tape recorder for a meeting tomorrow, and at 2:30 I started studying. Now I am still studying and I will continue until 5:00.
From 5:00-8:00 I will teach.
At 8:oo I believe I will buy groceries and take a walk, and try not to do any further work. I consider that it has been work since 11:00, because mailing the computer was part of work, but in case you don’t, I will throw in the e-mail time in the morning for free — especially since I have taken ten minutes out of studying to write this post, and since I ate a salad at the library and also drank coffee.
That means that on this light and flexible day I will still have worked 9 hours. When averaged in with yesterday, this comes out to 11.5 hours per day. Tomorrow I am looking at about 15 hours, which is why I do not want to do any work after 8:00 this evening. If I can see a way to reduce those 15 and still get done what I need to, I will do that.
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I warn you, though: If tomorrow comes out to even 13 hours, that will put me at a clean average of 12 hours, 3 days in a row. If you do that for 5 days you can get in 60 hours in a week, and if you put in 6 hours each weekend day, that is how to come up to 72.
That is about how much time you need as a new assistant professor, I found; it was a rude shock after graduate school because then I’d always done 55. I still prefer 55 as a number; it is as much as I do comfortably. It means you can do 48 hours in 4 days and then 7 on Friday, to take the whole weekend off, or take off a weeknight or two and replace them weekend mornings or afternoons. My university assumes the work week is 60 hours.
My point is that even with “flexibility” there is not much flexibility, although there is some self determination.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 