Tea at Trianon: Academia’s Culture of Overwork

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Academia’s Culture of Overwork

From Nature:

The pressure to perform sucked me into a negative spiral. When I felt stressed, I doubted myself, feared saying ‘no’, overcompensated by saying ‘yes’ to extra tasks, and became more stressed. I cut back on spending time with friends and on sleep. My then-boyfriend told me I was married to my computer and cut our holiday short when he saw me typing a paper on the beach. The ticket inspector on the late-night commuter train knew me by name because I regularly overslept my stop. When I had a bout of autoimmune illness, my family was not surprised.
I see now that my choice to work hard was fuelled not only by my love for the work but also by systemic factors. Studies show that the risk of burnout is higher among young researchers (A. Boone et al. Front. Psychol. 13, 839728; 2022), as well as among female academics from marginalized groups, because there is greater pressure to perform....Through a combination of hard work and luck, I got a permanent position early in my career. But the workload has only grown heavier as I have climbed the career ladder, with increasing requests for mentoring, article and grant reviews, departmental duties, committee memberships, and voluntary contributions of time and expertise to professional societies. The costs of making a mistake are also higher: if my lower performance delays a large grant, that can jeopardize several people’s salaries. (Read more.)