Towards a generation of Academics at eaze

“Academics generally work within a university, combining research, teaching and administrative duties. Academics are the life-blood of a university, without whom the institution would not exist”  

    “On a given day, you might have to write a reference for a student; develop teaching materials; read and comment on a PhD dissertation; review a journal article and organise a workshop, have an impromptu meeting, to name a few! Yet, when academics talk about their 'real work', they often mean research. 'You have to carve out time and space to think about writing. You must focus on your own research,' says Dr Angelia Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Politics.”University of Manchester.  

    The role of an academic is hence multidimensional and complex. And while one can argue that all professions have their own features and requirements, an academic is required to be a teacher, a researcher, an administrator, a supervisor, a contributor to societal change, an academic citizen and so many others. The load of each task varies depending on the level and years of experience, as well as the individual personality and skills of the academics. During Covid19, the load and expectations of academics, in some cases, were those of superhumans by institutions. Not only did academics not stop working during strict lockdown periods, but they were expected to adapt to what was called emergency online teaching and learning without proper training, for example.  

    Since the beginning of my career and during my PhD studies, I had discovered that I am kind of academic that likes challenges. To feed this desire, I have evolved into an academic that does not say no to invitations and opportunities. I have justified this inability to “say no” under three pretences: 

1. If I do not do it now, when will I do it? 

2. If I do not grab the chance now, I will not be considered again. 

3. I was trusted by someone; how do I disappoint them by saying no? 

I know I am not the only one faced with this dilemma as my #academicateaze sisters have reported responding in the same fashion. All these are conscious or subconscious thoughts of a generation of academics that have glorified the “I am very busy” statement. I feel and fear we are a generation of academics that: 

1. Value commitment: the work ethics are strong and living in an unstable global environment with regards to employment we have learned to be grateful for having a job to provide security to our families. We value hierarchy and hence we are thankful for the opportunities given and for the trust instilled in us by our seniors. We have been raised to value loyalty, sometimes to our own detriment.  

2. Suffer from stress and anxiety: We want to be good at what we do and we want to make an impact. The competition is big and the workload does not get smaller - especially in the beginning of our careers. That contributes to the increase of stress and anxiety to be perfect forgetting that we are also humans. 

3. Experience low self-esteem: Most of the times without good reasons and linked with the notorious “impostor syndrome,” we do not believe we are good enough for the job we do. The vicious cycle starts in most cases from the years we were students where the system, to keep us in order and disciplined, taught us that we will never be good enough or as good as the teachers. Such feelings are particularly common among female academics who lack role models to look up to, coupled with societal biases. Low self-confidence can lead to lower productivity that in many cases confirms the scenarios that led the academics to think that way. 

4. Have ambitions: Why do people link the word “ambition” with negative behaviours? Our generation of academics is characterised by ambition oftentimes personal or in more altruistic examples, to save the world and make an impact on society. Ambition, however, leads to added expectations of oneself in order to achieve their goals, resulting in one taking more tasks than one can complete - the cycle of stress begins anew.  

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    We tend to see thus academics with high teaching and supervisory loads that accept the load thinking: “I am a young staff member; of course, I will teach more than the seniors” or “I am assisting a senior staff member while I am learning more from her.” Similarly, we see emerging academics who in their path to be recognised and accepted in the academic community get to say yes to reviews, co-authoring, panels, and committees and so many others.  

The life of an academic, however, does not start and finish with their job. We are also parents, spouses, friends, daughters and sons, brothers, and sisters, and we also enjoy doing things for ourselves. Our worth is so much more than our productivity. Many of us tend to neglect ourselves and leaving our needs to the end of the priority list.  

The career - personal life balance is particularly difficult to achieve for an academic (such a pursuit for balance adds to the stress of an academic as an unachievable target reminding us that we are not good enough…. but that is a discussion for another day). The flexibility one finds in ones’ job might contribute to this: I can leave early to take my boys to soccer training but that means that I will have to mark papers this evening after I put them to bed, even if that means that I will only sleep for three hours tonight. During the lockdown periods of 2020, the phenomenon got intensified. We all felt we had time for more things since we did not waste time commuting for example but in reality, we ended up having virtual meetings throughout the day and having to conduct research and prepare for classes in the evenings. For those with kids, the added burden to home-school meant, time was stretched even more. Work-life balance became more complicated and one had to find new ways to adapt to the new “normal.” 

    Choices, I agree… We are lucky we can do that but it certainly takes its toll on both our mental and physical health. Our productivity, thus, decreases and the characteristic cyclical path discussed before appears again. And where does this lead to?  

“Forty-three per cent of academic staff exhibited symptoms of at least a mild mental disorder. This is twice the prevalence of mental disorders compared with the general population. Primarily to blame are the increased workloads of academics and demands to publish and obtain external revenue. High levels of poor mental health have a profound impact on the professional competence and productivity of academics, affecting administrative, teaching and research quality – as well as impairing communication and work relationships among staff. Of course, poor mental health also affects the personal lives of these individuals.” The Conversation from EMS Community Journal paper.

Sadly, these were PRE-covid19 findings. One must therefore wonder and subconsciously worry how the COVID-19 era and even post-COVID19 trends will look like.  

    Our self-care, our desires, and dreams of the academic we would like to be are important; but we all find ourselves in a world that competes ruthlessly around us. After a couple of years of working with a colleague overseas, during December and amid some health issues from my side, there was an exchange of emails that I will never forget. The co-author was planning our research during the break; I knew I needed a break from everything but at the same time, I sensed that my colleague was overworked. I dared to ask the question “Do you ever get some rest?” The colleague was offended and decided not to work with me anymore. This left me wondering if we even take time to self-reflect on our career to consciously try to balance it with our livelihood. It dawned on me that there is a need to unlearn some of these stereotypical ways of doing things.  

    “Academics are inherently vulnerable to overwork and self-criticism, but the sources of stress have multiplied to the point where many are at breaking point.,” said Liz Morrish, a visiting fellow at York St John University who researches the effects of managerialism in universities (The Guardian article). The lesson for me is that in a competitive environment, there will always be people that will disagree with our stance and need to self-care but we need to protect our physical and mental health and our need for taking a step back to recharge.  

    In the 2019 Africa Science Leadership Programme (ASLP), four of us (Prof Fanelwa Ajayi from the University of Western Cape, South Africa; Dr Priscilla Kolibea Mante from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana; Dr Pacaline Fru from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; and myself) discussed what we would like to change in academia to create an easy situation of academics, especially women. The experiences similar or not, all could be summarised in a single statement: academics are stressed, overloaded, and overworked.  

    Looking back at the year since the birth of the project “Academics at eaze,” I admit I have not prioritized it in my to-do lists. And without me realizing it, I have become a study case of the problems our group identified that need action. I have accepted too many challenges, too many responsibilities, too many roles because of the momentum in my career “If not now, when?” I have been completely overworked twice this year, sleeping a couple of hours every night for days, and becoming unhappy with mood swings and as a result, negatively affecting on those around me, all in a quest to try and boost my career. In so doing,  I might have lost myself a bit. Dr Pascaline Fru echoes similar sentiments. While juggling four kids from primary school to the university level, she also enrolled for a two-year professional development course that has added to all the numerous hats she normally wears ranging from a supervisor, research coordinator, teacher, mentor, lab manager, administrator, project manager etc.  

    As academics, we should know that our roles are many and there will be times when the one will take over from the other and vice versa, and we should understand that this is fine and acceptable.  

“Universities do recognise that there is more than can be done to create the supportive working environments in which both academics and professional staff thrive, including ongoing conversations about the structural conditions of work in higher education” as per Universities UK.  

I agree that nothing will change if we, the academics, do not share our experiences, our challenges, and our problems, if we do not assist each other in getting out of the cycles of stress and “abuse” if we do not challenge the status quo and the “that’s how it always worked” mentality.  

Our ASLP group thus invites all to join our voices and create a community that actively aims at being Academics at eaze (Twitter handle: @academicsateaze).  

Written by Roula Inglesi-Lotz, University of Pretoria. 

One of the Fantastic Four 

Twitter @RoulaILotz

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