Your point about bureaucratic service positions rings particularly true I think. It’s part of the job description and actually why I’ve decided the career path

Your point about bureaucratic service positions rings particularly true I think. It’s part of the job description and actually why I’ve decided the career path is not for me. The academics I’ve seen thrive all seem to enjoy that part of the job (my mentor, for example, goes out of his way to get involved in standards organizations and other international/academia-related groupings of bureaucratic process). At my research university, even associate professors (not sure about the details of what’s tenure track) don’t have to teach that much. There are actually “teaching professors” here who’s sole responsibility is teaching without research pressure, and they still only teach two classes per semester (admittedly, those classes might have 300 students).