Gyroscopic Investing

So, we come back to the CNBC assertion that being a college professor is the ‘least stressful job’. To that, I say kiss my ass! Not nice? Yeah, being nice, playing by the rules, being erudite, and being smart has gotten us to being in a job we may still love (though by now we’ve gotten rid of our rose colored glasses and often have ‘happy hours’ spent drinking and bitching) but being paid insulting money.

And we have to listen to pundits talk about us like we’re idiot-savants who have no idea what the real world is like.

And for those of us whose research directly translates to the real world (e.g., in my case — persuasion, crisis communication, strategic communication), the so-called professionals look down their overpriced noses at us. That means that even if we did want to move back to the ‘real world’ — we have to basically apologize for our PhD, our time spent training them (Where do they think new professionals come from? Are they hatched?), and kiss their asses for handouts. So, basically until we write our book and ‘become’ a pundit or consultant later in our careers we’re stuck because Americans are scared of smart people.

So, while we may like our students, like our research, and like our colleagues (all of which depends on the day). While we may have unstructured time (because we can be productive without ‘clocking in’). And while most of us either chose this career path when we were young and stupidly idealistic and older and looking for a change — I think I can speak for most of us when I say fuck off with your patronizing understanding of what it means to be a professor in the US.

We know we’re not on the battle lines and most of the time we’re not risking death, but guess what if we do a bad job at our jobs… your workforce is screwed. We have to battle against bad parenting, stupid emerging social norms, a primary/ secondary education system that is broken, and try to reach people at the most annoyingly self-absorbed time in their psychological and social development. All while being paid $12-20/ hour in real wages.

Oh yeah and CNBC — learn to do some damn research you wankers!

http://factsandotherfairytales.com/2013 ... in-the-us/

Sorry, I grew up in a college town.  Filled with well-paid professors, who retire at a fairly young age, with a very generous pension.  Tenure = Low Stress

clacy wrote: Sorry, I grew up in a college town.  Filled with well-paid professors, who retire at a fairly young age, with a very generous pension.  Tenure = Low Stress

My parents are both college professors, and I second that. It's not that they don't work hard... but they have no idea how good they have it compared to normal jobs. Most of the stuff they complain about is stuff that's normal to the rest of us.

OK?

If 50 years did not cloud my memory cells, I recall University classes where professors had only the stress of a two hour, once a week class. The other classes were turned over to grad students who I perceived were the professor's serfs working with taxpayer's grant funds to develop some new rocket fuel which the professor would take the credit for. 

MG, I accept your apology for your PhD.

2thefuture wrote: If 50 years did not cloud my memory cells, I recall University classes where professors had only the stress of a two hour, once a week class. The other classes were turned over to grad students who I perceived were the professor's serfs working with taxpayer's grant funds to develop some new rocket fuel which the professor would take the credit for.

To be fair, they probably had three or four of those once-a-week classes.  A whopping 8 hours of work per week. They'd tell you that there's lots of time spent outside of class preparing for it and grading homework, and that's true. But believe you me that it doesn't add up to 40 hours a week, especially with TA's usually doing half the grading, if they're even necessary at all in the cases of multiple choice tests that can be fed into grading machines. I had two professors who were so lazy that some of the time they didn't even show up and had the TA show them a movie of them being interviewed on TV (true story, not making this up).

Keep in mind that tenure means you can't be fired, the median salary for full professors is over 100k, and the benefits are off the chart. My parents have such a generous pension that it boggled my mind when I found out about the details. Of course, the state government that's supposed to pay for it has gone virtually bankrupt.

FWIW, I've worked in the software industry and academia. The volume and diversity of workload assigned to full time faculty is much higher than anything I ever saw in the private sector. I don't know any FT faculty that work less that 60 hours/week on a 12 month schedule. Classroom contact time is only the tiniest tip of the iceberg. That said, academic support staff and administrators seem to be held to lower standards than their private sector counterparts.

Yeah, PS...maybe your parents had it particularly easy. There are cushy jobs in every industry. Many professors (my brother is one, I was a teacher) have grinding schedules and are expected to do research on top of everything as well as mentor and council etc.

Now, judging by the amount of morning and afternoon posting going on here, I would venture to say alot of people on this forum have some pretty laid back jobs. Any professors in the house?

Reub wrote: MG, I accept your apology for your PhD.

Care to be my TA?

MG, what would an institution of higher learning want with a wretch like me?