Work-Life Balance

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Times Higher Ed (THE) has released results from its 2022 Work-Life Balance survey.

One striking finding was that around 20% of the respondents “strongly agree” that they are likely to leave their positions in higher education sometime during the next five years owing to “excessive workload”.

[source: Times Higher Education]

What’s that workload? Nearly 60% of academics report working at least 9 hours a day, and around a quarter report working more than 10 hours a day:

[source: Times Higher Education]

A good chunk of that work happens not at the university, but at home:

[source: Times Higher Education]

How does work interact with non-work life? More than half of the academics responding to the survey “strongly” or “somewhat” agree that their work interferes with their romantic relationships:

[source: Times Higher Education]

Work and childcare can compete for time, and that competition varies by sex:

[source: Times Higher Education]

The survey had 1,191 respondents, 67% female and 31% male. 70% of the respondents were based in Europe, 12 per cent in Australasia, 9 per cent in North America, 6 per cent in Asia, 2 per cent in Africa and 1 per cent in South America. You can check out its other results and THE’s commentary on them here.

Discussion welcome—of these results, of other aspects of work-life balance, and of work-life issues particular to academic philosophy.

Beyond the Ivory Tower. Workshop for academics on writing short pieces for wide audiences on big questions. Taking place October 18th to 19th. Application deadline July 30th. Funding provided.
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Wes McMichael
Wes McMichael
1 year ago

I found that for the first 8-9 years of my career, I put in insanely long hours. I had to do A LOT of prep, I constantly changed approaches, I made a lot of “rookie mistakes” with regard to the kinds of assignments I created, I volunteered for every committee assignment possible, sponsored student clubs, etc.

The past few years have been A LOT easier though. I prep much faster, I can change approaches incrementally, I know how to manage assignments better, I’ve cut back on committees and student clubs (that was easier to do post-tenure), etc.

I think it gets easier over time. I love my job and have found a good work-life balance.

[Note: I’m a community college prof with no research requirements, so it might be different for you research university folks. I do, however, normally teach a 7-7-4 load, so maybe it averages out(?).]

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