Thanks for another timely newsletter, Loleen. My true break plans are to truly disengage and hit the reset button before the new year. I have scheduled 4 focused days to honestly appraise the status of my responsibilities prior to disengaging. I day for teaching & grad supervision, 1 day for research (some overlap with supervision), and 1 day for service & admin roles. The fourth day is for pulling it together into a manageable plan, and to make some hard decisions about what I am bringing into the new year, what has to be delegated, and what has to go in order for me to have a more realistic set of expectations for myself and others, as well as to find balance again. This is my way of avoiding resolutions for the new year that have no basis in reality. Maybe during this 16th year in academia, I will finally get my feet firmly planted. I
Also I would like to give a shout out for your incredibly powerful thread on twitter about invisible illnesses. I think it warrants real attention. Our institutions establish equity in hiring, shout out commitments to diversity, yet those of us from within, may be reluctant to share our own status out of fear of non-acceptance and impact. There seems to be encouragement to share our other minority statuses, but not health status. I think that the why behind this is important, interesting, and inequitable.
Thank you, Rosemary, for this. Manageable expectations are a huge challenge for all of us. And I appreciate your comment about my Twitter thread. I have been encouraged by how positive the response has been.
I have come back to this post multiple times in recent weeks and am writing this comment at the end of my TULE day. I even shared it with a non-academic friend who is taking time off in January and needed help setting boundaries. Thank you for writing this and I hope you are enjoying a true break this year! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some movies to watch, chocolate to eat, and cats to cuddle.
When you're good, you're good. And you certainly are! May I humbly suggest ReNW ('renew') for REturN to Work Day? I sooooooo needed to hear/read this today.
Thanks for another timely newsletter, Loleen. My true break plans are to truly disengage and hit the reset button before the new year. I have scheduled 4 focused days to honestly appraise the status of my responsibilities prior to disengaging. I day for teaching & grad supervision, 1 day for research (some overlap with supervision), and 1 day for service & admin roles. The fourth day is for pulling it together into a manageable plan, and to make some hard decisions about what I am bringing into the new year, what has to be delegated, and what has to go in order for me to have a more realistic set of expectations for myself and others, as well as to find balance again. This is my way of avoiding resolutions for the new year that have no basis in reality. Maybe during this 16th year in academia, I will finally get my feet firmly planted. I
Also I would like to give a shout out for your incredibly powerful thread on twitter about invisible illnesses. I think it warrants real attention. Our institutions establish equity in hiring, shout out commitments to diversity, yet those of us from within, may be reluctant to share our own status out of fear of non-acceptance and impact. There seems to be encouragement to share our other minority statuses, but not health status. I think that the why behind this is important, interesting, and inequitable.
Thank you, Rosemary, for this. Manageable expectations are a huge challenge for all of us. And I appreciate your comment about my Twitter thread. I have been encouraged by how positive the response has been.
I have come back to this post multiple times in recent weeks and am writing this comment at the end of my TULE day. I even shared it with a non-academic friend who is taking time off in January and needed help setting boundaries. Thank you for writing this and I hope you are enjoying a true break this year! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some movies to watch, chocolate to eat, and cats to cuddle.
That is wonderful, Alison - thanks for sharing this with me!
When you're good, you're good. And you certainly are! May I humbly suggest ReNW ('renew') for REturN to Work Day? I sooooooo needed to hear/read this today.
Thanks, Laura! ReNW is so much better - I love it!