4 ms·

TLDR: It's an anectode of "an associate professor of education-policy studies" at Penn State who suffered from burn-out. I have no idea what we are supposed to

TLDR: It's an anectode of "an associate professor of education-policy studies" at Penn State who suffered from burn-out. I have no idea what we are supposed to take away from her story. Don't work too hard and learn to say no, I guess. There is no clear narrative and the article reeks of self pity (she does not get tired of mentioning that she's a "twice an immigrant" and a woman). EDIT: what bothers me about the article is that there is no root cause analysis and no solution is offered. Also, I am unsure the n-th order immigrant argument is valid. The very concept of a second order immigrant seems bizarre to me. And if they exist, it remains to be proven that k-th order immigrants have it strictly more difficult than l-th order immigrants for all k>l.

easytiger 9y ago
Sounds like a millennial manifesto to me.
deerpig 9y ago
I hope somebody down votes this. If I could I would.
chvid 9y ago
Yeah. She writes as if this is unique to her profession, gender (?!) ... but it is not. This sounds like any other burnout stories from so many fields. Sure some fields are worse than others but academia is probably one of the better ones.
- monkeynotes 9y ago
  Let's not forget health workers. Doctors and nurses often work ridiculous hours with unimaginable stress, literally life and death decisions every day. I often consider myself to be very lucky to write JS for a living. I earn a decent wage, work decent hours, have reasonably good employability and portability of work, and if I make a mistake I can only kill the browser.
  - zolthrowaway 9y ago
    My girlfriend is a NP. She does make a good living, but the amount of stuff she puts up with is something I could never put up with. I may be stressed about a production emergency or a looming deadline, but for the most part I work 8-4. She deals with long, changing hours and has told me stories that have made me physically ill just from the description. I'm not sure how they handle this. She's had to put up with this even before she got an actual job. Clinical took a toll on her even before she graduated. The fact that LPNs and RNs even go to work everyday with lower pay and crazy hours amazes me. My hat goes off to the medical profession. Our system may be a mess but the doctors and nurses are making a lot of sacrifices to keep people healthy and alive.
- impendia 9y ago
  > academia is probably one of the better ones. (Academic here.) In many ways, yes, and I love my profession. But a potential downside to academia is that all sorts of people will contact you and ask you to do things. Heck, I get regular requests to donate money to my employer! You should say yes to some of these, but you need to say "no" often. People who find this difficult tend to have a rough time in academia.

easytiger 9y ago

Sounds like a millennial manifesto to me.

deerpig 9y ago

I hope somebody down votes this. If I could I would.

chvid 9y ago

Yeah. She writes as if this is unique to her profession, gender (?!) ... but it is not. This sounds like any other burnout stories from so many fields. Sure some fields are worse than others but academia is probably one of the better ones.

monkeynotes 9y ago
Let's not forget health workers. Doctors and nurses often work ridiculous hours with unimaginable stress, literally life and death decisions every day. I often consider myself to be very lucky to write JS for a living. I earn a decent wage, work decent hours, have reasonably good employability and portability of work, and if I make a mistake I can only kill the browser.
- zolthrowaway 9y ago
  My girlfriend is a NP. She does make a good living, but the amount of stuff she puts up with is something I could never put up with. I may be stressed about a production emergency or a looming deadline, but for the most part I work 8-4. She deals with long, changing hours and has told me stories that have made me physically ill just from the description. I'm not sure how they handle this. She's had to put up with this even before she got an actual job. Clinical took a toll on her even before she graduated. The fact that LPNs and RNs even go to work everyday with lower pay and crazy hours amazes me. My hat goes off to the medical profession. Our system may be a mess but the doctors and nurses are making a lot of sacrifices to keep people healthy and alive.
impendia 9y ago
> academia is probably one of the better ones. (Academic here.) In many ways, yes, and I love my profession. But a potential downside to academia is that all sorts of people will contact you and ask you to do things. Heck, I get regular requests to donate money to my employer! You should say yes to some of these, but you need to say "no" often. People who find this difficult tend to have a rough time in academia.