4 ms·

20s year olds are burning out 80h per week until their health allows and until they are replaced by another batch of 20s after ~10 years. Meanwhile, teachers an

by zerr 7y ago

20s year olds are burning out 80h per week until their health allows and until they are replaced by another batch of 20s after ~10 years. Meanwhile, teachers and researchers enjoy their relaxed and stable lifestyle for the rest of their lifes. In fact, there are lots of candidates fighting for such relaxed permanent positions in academia, which is ruled by nepotism and protectionism, unfortunately.

tidepod12 7y ago
I get your point, but teachers hardly "enjoy their relaxed and stable lifestyle". Professorships at universities may be different, but elementary/middle/high school teachers often work long, long hours, suffer from burnout, make low money (low as in ~$30-40k/year), and more recently, there is a trend that a lot of them are ending up in therapy to cope with the teaching conditions.
- froindt 7y ago
  The path to tenure is publish or perish. I don't know specific hour commitments, but at an R1 university, you're looking at 4-7 years of long hours with a risk that you won't get tenure. And unless you bring in BIG money or work in a super HCOL area, you probably won't ever make 200k/year.
  - mattkrause 7y ago
    4-7 for the PhD alone, plus a few more years as a postdoc, plus the run-up to tenure (another 4-5 years). None of these are particularly stable or relaxing.
mattkrause 7y ago
> researchers enjoy their relaxed and stable lifestyle A few faculty with tenured, hard-money jobs might be able to kick back and relax, but those positions are the unicorns of academia. Everyone else is scrapping to bring in money, just so they can keep their jobs. A lot of places, especially medical schools, expect faculty to cover most of their salary from external grants (~15% of which get funded). I would bet a lot more grad students are burning the midnight oil than FAANG engineers too.

4 ms·

20s year olds are burning out 80h per week until their health allows and until they are replaced by another batch of 20s after ~10 years. Meanwhile, teachers an

by zerr 7y ago

tidepod12 7y ago
I get your point, but teachers hardly "enjoy their relaxed and stable lifestyle". Professorships at universities may be different, but elementary/middle/high school teachers often work long, long hours, suffer from burnout, make low money (low as in ~$30-40k/year), and more recently, there is a trend that a lot of them are ending up in therapy to cope with the teaching conditions.
- froindt 7y ago
  The path to tenure is publish or perish. I don't know specific hour commitments, but at an R1 university, you're looking at 4-7 years of long hours with a risk that you won't get tenure. And unless you bring in BIG money or work in a super HCOL area, you probably won't ever make 200k/year.
  - mattkrause 7y ago
    4-7 for the PhD alone, plus a few more years as a postdoc, plus the run-up to tenure (another 4-5 years). None of these are particularly stable or relaxing.
mattkrause 7y ago
> researchers enjoy their relaxed and stable lifestyle A few faculty with tenured, hard-money jobs might be able to kick back and relax, but those positions are the unicorns of academia. Everyone else is scrapping to bring in money, just so they can keep their jobs. A lot of places, especially medical schools, expect faculty to cover most of their salary from external grants (~15% of which get funded). I would bet a lot more grad students are burning the midnight oil than FAANG engineers too.