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Antiwork

College Anti-Work Rant from a Professor

Long story short— I teach at a small college in the US. Unlike other colleges and universities I’ve taught at, my present school’s management is very strict about faculty time on-campus. Don’t get me wrong: I would not “cheat” my face-to-face students out of the class time they are entitled to and I wouldn’t short my students (both face-to-face and online) all of the office hours they are entitled to (a total of 10 per week). However, school management mandates that I spend an additional 18 hours per week on-campus for my online students (they already have office hours….I can do my online classes from anywhere with Wifi) and for being available to the school. We have to submit to-the-minute schedules each semester. In the past, I’ve used “campus” time for leaving school early. I’m the type of woman who would rather be anywhere else other than sitting at a…


Long story short—

I teach at a small college in the US. Unlike other colleges and universities I’ve taught at, my present school’s management is very strict about faculty time on-campus. Don’t get me wrong: I would not “cheat” my face-to-face students out of the class time they are entitled to and I wouldn’t short my students (both face-to-face and online) all of the office hours they are entitled to (a total of 10 per week). However, school management mandates that I spend an additional 18 hours per week on-campus for my online students (they already have office hours….I can do my online classes from anywhere with Wifi) and for being available to the school. We have to submit to-the-minute schedules each semester.

In the past, I’ve used “campus” time for leaving school early. I’m the type of woman who would rather be anywhere else other than sitting at a desk just because my employer says so. At the other colleges I taught at, we weren’t mandated to have these excessive “just because” hours. Many days, it is all that I can do to stay awake at my desk, despite having good sleep. I wrestle with anxiety and depression and these conditions impact how I physically feel. And that doesn't even count what else I could be doing with this time, since faculty at my college don't get paid that well. I think our state's professors are the least paid in the USA.

This morning, our clown boss reminded us by e-mail of these 18 hours per week over and above face-to-face classtime and mandatory office hours.

I have two questions:

  1. How do I maliciously comply with this arbitrary edict of being on-campus “just because”?

  2. Should I be an informant to clown boss about someone who may have stooged me off about leaving work early? Because the person who may have stooged me off has a history of leaving early/not being in their office. Or reporting others who leave early?

On either matter, any and all advice is appreciated.

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