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Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?

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Re: Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?

#111

Post by hackernewds »

blululu wrote: post #36
mikewarot wrote: post #9

Here in the US, I expect a lot of K-12 teachers to be leaving the field. The additional demands created by Covid were the last straw for many. Their employment contracts are such that they have to give months of notice, so I expect all to be quiet until August, then panic everywhere as slots can't be filled.

(Public School) Teacher pay is largely structured to encourage retention. The salary is pretty lousy if you only do it for 2 years, but if you stick around for 40 years it is a well paying job in most States. The pay increases for seniority and the compounding interest of pensions add up to a very good salary. There is also the other problem that a lot of states require an education degree to teach in public schools…

Well now they're discussing also teachers to require to be armed guard as well. Brilliant idea eh?

Re: Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?

#112

Post by samatman »

bsder wrote: post #58
mikewarot wrote: post #9

Here in the US, I expect a lot of K-12 teachers to be leaving the field. The additional demands created by Covid were the last straw for many. Their employment contracts are such that they have to give months of notice, so I expect all to be quiet until August, then panic everywhere as slots can't be filled.

Teachers are not waiting. I know of several who retired mid-year. That NEVER used to happen. Covid didn't break their back--shitty parents did. Covid just ran the parental shittiness meter up to max. And, to put a cherry on top, practically all teachers now have multiple students who actually had a parent die . In a normal year, that would be rare and that child would get lots of counseling. With Covid--it's too comm…

> And, to put a cherry on top, practically all teachers now have multiple students who actually had a parent die.

This can't possibly be the case. 67,366 adults between the ages of 18 and 49 have died (of COVID) in the US during the entire pandemic. There are 25 million children of primary school age in the US.

Why explains this discrepancy? Social media. Every teacher has seen other teachers mourning the death of parents on social media, and that feels like something that actually happens to you.

But no. It is absolutely not the case that practically all teachers have multiple students who lost parents to COVID. The math is completely off.

Re: Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?

#113

Post by foldr »

SantalBlush wrote: post #86
blahblarblar wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not that they weren’t paying attention. It’s more that academics egos can’t handle the loss to their identity of not being an academic anymore.

That's not entirely the individual's fault. With many (or most) academic fields, leaving academia for industry is seen as failing, and leaving the institution means leaving the network.

This is very true. The only way I coped with it was by basically just cutting off any contact I had with people in my former field, with the exception of a couple of friends. Or at least, I like to think that I cut off contact. A more realistic assessment is that I simply ceased to exist to most of those people as soon as I left the field.

Re: Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?

#114

Post by babypuncher »

jxidjhdhdhdhfhf wrote: post #46
AlexanderDhoore wrote: post #2

Can anyone show me statistical evidence that this "great resignation" is anything more than a story made up by the media?

It doesn't even really make sense as a concept. People resign from their jobs and then what? Maybe a small extra portion of the elderly retire early and a small portion become stay at home parents. The rest find new jobs.

The "Great Resignation" name is fearmongering, meant to make people think something bad is happening. Unemployment is at rock bottom; people aren't quitting, they are moving to new jobs. That is just the free market at work. Yet for some reason the "free market ooh rah" people seem the most upset about it.

Re: Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?

#115

Post by time_to_smile »

abcc8 wrote: post #62
muaytimbo wrote: post #16

I'm surprised it took them so long to get fed up, reaching the mid-career level. I realized doing my PhD that all of academia is a toxic house of cards built on cheap grad student labor, foreign student tuition and grant beggary, and the false promise to students of at least an interesting (if not particularly well-paid) career. If it took you until mid-career to realize this . . . you weren't observant and I don't r…

That, or you were fortunate enough to matriculate into a program at a world-class research university with adequate support and funding, where your peers have graduated and gotten their desired next positions, and where you felt you were learning and gaining valuable skills? Sure, not everything is great all of the time, but not all PhD experiences are like you describe either.

Where is this mystical world you describe? Are you tenured/tenure track faculty at a major university?

I have a wide range for friends all from top tier universities, none of them had the experience you're describing. Today coming from a top tier program at a place like Harvard, MIT, Cornell or Yale means you have a shot at landing a tenure gig at a mid to top tier university, but it sill requires a long run of post-doc wandering. The environments are still toxic, and the majority still end up fleeing to other careers to make a living.

Re: Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?

#116

Post by JoeAltmaier »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #13
nh23423fefe wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you should put forward an affirmative argument of non-existence or continuity with the past, etc. Otherwise, you are just asserting formless skepticism -- with no evidence.

Hmm; I think of it more as the null hypothesis - it is the alternative/proposed hypothesis that would need evidence in my mind. I.e. my daily necessary-for-sanity assumption is that 10 million gazillion things are pretty much the same today as yesterday; if a headline/claim is "This thing has changed/Occurred!", that is what needs evidence in order for claim to be relevant/substantiated/interesting.

Or just google it.

Re: Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?

#117

Post by wmeredith »

lvl102 wrote: post #87

It’s difficult for me to feel bad for these institutions. They jacked up tuitions and caused an entire generation of people to carry lifetime of crippling debt.

> They jacked up tuitions and caused an entire generation of people to carry lifetime of crippling debt.

Please dig deeper if you care about this issue. My wife works at a state school and by far the overwhelming factor on rising tuition has been the systematic defunding of state schools since the 1980's. Our state university currently receives about 20% of what it once did from the state 40 years ago.

Re: Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?

#118

Post by [deleted] »

SantalBlush wrote: post #86
blahblarblar wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not that they weren’t paying attention. It’s more that academics egos can’t handle the loss to their identity of not being an academic anymore.

That's not entirely the individual's fault. With many (or most) academic fields, leaving academia for industry is seen as failing, and leaving the institution means leaving the network.

[deleted]

Re: Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?

#119

Post by lvass »

SantalBlush wrote: post #86
blahblarblar wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not that they weren’t paying attention. It’s more that academics egos can’t handle the loss to their identity of not being an academic anymore.

That's not entirely the individual's fault. With many (or most) academic fields, leaving academia for industry is seen as failing, and leaving the institution means leaving the network.

Caring about something like this is all about ego, though. What good is this network if you're stuck?

Re: Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?

#120

Post by pmyteh »

lozenge wrote: post #100
JacobThreeThree wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>unable to hire for senior and middle positions As usual with these claims, chances are it's due to the fact that these positions don't pay enough to be competitive.

Maybe, but UK universities don't have much headroom. They can't raise their student fees past the government set level; the government funding per student has decreased; only the oldest institutions have massive endowments; and they don't spend crazy amounts on sport, admin or pampering students. Some of them can try to squeeze their student base a bit more (increase accommodation prices, reduce subsidies in the food…

Honestly, I don't think this would be such a problem if the job wasn't getting so grim. It's HR 101 that salaries help with recruitment but are less important for retention and that a cash raise can't substitute for a poor working environment. Even with the 20% salary cuts of the last decade I don't think they'd have much trouble obtaining enough staff (outside London) if people felt respected.
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