How do you explain one of them...

[RoadRaven]

As Women's Rep and Acting Dep. Chair of our union at work, I have been encouraging staff to log their hours for about a month before going to their section manager to discuss the workload issues.

I suggest any of you do this if you have workload issues. Quint is right - you need to be honest and upfront with your boss.

I made a decision last year to try and stop bringing work home.

This year my decision is to cut the "try" out of the sentence. I know there will be times when I have students work I need to bring home to finish marking, but I have already crossed off days in my diary to do marking at work throughout the year.

Anything extra I do at home/in my time I log - most commonly this is the on-line component of my classes which I often do when I cant sleep (today I was on one class forum from 4-5:30am).

My decision to stop doing long hours at the office was fuelled by missing my partner and him feeling it too, as well as getting home some nights and finding children in bed - or asleep!

My decision to stop bringing my work home was fuelled by my youngest who would angrily tell me he hated my laptop...

[Wahine]

Kimmy, I don't have any words of brilliance for you above and beyond what others have said. I just wanted to add that in the academic world of research PhDs the average life expectancy is 63 years. That's about 10 years less than the rest of the population and it means that more than half of them die before they even retire.

Think about that when you are deciding if it's worth rocking the boat to fight for your right to lead a balanced life.

[Grog]

Kimmy, I don't have any words of brilliance for you above and beyond what others have said. I just wanted to add that in the academic world of research PhDs the average life expectancy is 63 years. That's about 10 years less than the rest of the population and it means that more than half of them die before they even retire.

Think about that when you are deciding if it's worth rocking the boat to fight for your right to lead a balanced life.

Wow that's an amazing stat, where did you get that? I'm very interested.

[Wahine]

Wow that's an amazing stat, where did you get that? I'm very interested.

My husband is a PhD, was a research scientist at the University of Alberta. He is in excellent health, exercises regularly, eats well and has great longevity genetics. He applied for life insurance and the price was pretty high. When we asked about the breakdown this stat was a big reason for the cost. He looked into it further and found another reference to this stat in an Academic Union Newsletter but he says he never looked the original source up. So sorry, I don't have it for you.

[Grog]

My husband is a PhD, was a research scientist at the University of Alberta. He is in excellent health, exercises regularly, eats well and has great longevity genetics. He applied for life insurance and the price was pretty high. When we asked about the breakdown this stat was a big reason for the cost. He looked into it further and found another reference to this stat in an Academic Union Newsletter but he says he never looked the original source up. So sorry, I don't have it for you.

I have a friend who's an actuarian. He does professional insurance but he should be able to access that sort of data. Very cool!

[Thorn]

I've been reading this thread with interest. About 10 years ago, the smallish company that I worked for got purchased by a large multi-national. I was not, and never will be, a big-company, political thinking employee. However, I made good money at the big company and had great benefits. At the time I thought that if I just hunkered down and put up with it that I'd be able to retire at 55. After about 6 months of long days and too much travel, I realized that at the rate I was going, I wasn't going to live to 55.

I quit and started working for a small company. The transition was not easy, but 7 years later I have a job that I can live with (emphasis on "live"). My hours are just as long, but I set them. I work in the office 3 days a week and from home 2 days a week. When the weather is nice, I ride in the afternoon and work into the evening.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, yes, too much work is bad, but, perhaps, look further outside of the box. Do you have a job where you can rearrange your hours just a bit? I realize I have the ideal job for that and that some jobs must remain 9 to 5. But, if you have developed a good reputation for hard work and getting the job done, can you, perhaps, suggest alternative scheduling, one where you can fit in a ride, refresh the soul, and still have room to finish the job?

[Kimmyt]

Well, thanks everyone for the input! And this thread has given me a lot of thinking recently.

So here is some more info. I have been going in earlier than usual lately, around 6 am, thinking I will be able to leave earlier due to this, but it seems that because most people in my group don't get in until about 9, I am always stuck here with 'something that needs to be done' until around 5.

Which, honestly, may come down to me having a problem saying no. See, I like to get my work done, and if I have something on my to-do-list, I will do it so I don't have the stress of it weighing on me.

Yesterday I forced myself to leave work at 4. I didn't ask or tell anyone I was leaving. I felt furtive about it, but in respect realize that I had already worked 10 hours by the time. Nothing was urgent. I left work, and felt okay. I went for a ride, and felt great!

I recently had a meeting with my manager's manager, which is a pretty big deal, but he wanted to know how things were in the department. I think I did a really good job of bringing up the issues of us being overworked, and our hard efforts being unappreciated. We both agreed that we needed to have some sort of under-the-radar comptime thing going on, and I feel that my conversation with him made more of the managers aware of the situation. Perhaps they really just didn't know how hard we were working up here in our little cubbies.

I know that alot of this has to come down to me. Me, opening lines of communication with my manager and my coworkers and not being afraid to express important issues to those people in higher positions than me because if I don't, perhaps no one will, and also it has to come down to me being able to say no. Recently when I realized I was assigned more studies than any one else in our department, as well as doing multiple other things, I brought this up to my manager. I felt like a snitch, at first, because I knew my load might get shifted to another, but I felt it needed to be done. And to my surprise and happiness, I was listened to, and promptly the work load decreased (slightly, but there was a decrease).

Yes, I'm still busy. No, I fully don't expect to be able to leave at 3 every day like in my last job (but then at least here I won't feel stagnated and handicapped). But I do have hope now, that I might be able to *gasp* learn to actually like this job. And learn to balance my life around it.

Thanks again for all of your input, and please feel free to continue the discussion!

K.

I've been reading this thread with interest. About 10 years ago, the smallish company that I worked for got purchased by a large multi-national. I was not, and never will be, a big-company, political thinking employee. However, I made good money at the big company and had great benefits. At the time I thought that if I just hunkered down and put up with it that I'd be able to retire at 55. After about 6 months of long days and too much travel, I realized that at the rate I was going, I wasn't going to live to 55.

I quit and started working for a small company. The transition was not easy, but 7 years later I have a job that I can live with (emphasis on "live"). My hours are just as long, but I set them. I work in the office 3 days a week and from home 2 days a week. When the weather is nice, I ride in the afternoon and work into the evening.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, yes, too much work is bad, but, perhaps, look further outside of the box. Do you have a job where you can rearrange your hours just a bit? I realize I have the ideal job for that and that some jobs must remain 9 to 5. But, if you have developed a good reputation for hard work and getting the job done, can you, perhaps, suggest alternative scheduling, one where you can fit in a ride, refresh the soul, and still have room to finish the job?