Academia’s culture of overwork almost broke me, so I’m working to undo it
The author is too optimistic. There are going to be continuous waves of mass firings of tenured faculty in the 2030s and 2040s.<p>The overwork and stress culture are going to get much worse over the next quarter century. The problem is structural, not cultural, and there isn&#x27;t much that academics are going to be able to do in order to combat the problem.<p>Specific to the USA, but also true in much of the west:<p>1. Revenue is a huge problem, which means academia will become a zero-sum game even (especially!) for higher-compensated labor. Academia&#x27;s revenue streams come from three sources that are decreasing in real terms. Those revenue streams will likely begin decreasing even in nominal terms even as inflation reaches a higher steady-state! Government budgets for higher education and academic R&amp;D are more likely to decrease than to increase, and even if they increase almost certainly won&#x27;t keep up with inflation. Meanwhile, due to demographics, the USA in particular is about to enter a period of decreasing college enrollments (unless the percent of the college-going population can increase substantially, which is unlikely).<p>2. There is an oversupply of academic labor and labor is the primary controllable expense.<p>3. Some of these problems used to be manageable because academics controlled the institutions that employed them. But the management culture of universities is becoming professionalized. This means that academics are losing institutional influence that would allow them to maintain good working conditions even in the face of unfavorable market conditions.<p>I don&#x27;t think we should give young academics feel good advice like &quot;don&#x27;t work too hard&quot;. What we should be telling them is that even if they bust their ass and get tenure, it&#x27;s very likely that their pay will languish and they will live in fear of layoffs <i>despite being tenured and working at a steep discount to pay in other industries</i>.<p>Academia is just another industry, and it&#x27;s entering a period of secular decline. That situation is never fun for the foot soldiers.