Post Sabbatical Blues

[Angeline Kantola]

This is a bit astray from Diane's query (as a graduate student I've not 
experienced personally what she's talking about; I have, however, thought 
that my boss's job looks like _no fun_ due to the phenomenal amount of 
administrative work and grantwriting she has to do...)

Anyway:

In article <34alfp$f3f at quartz.ucs.ualberta.ca>,
Diane Finegood <dfinegoo at gpu.srv.ualberta.ca> wrote:

[snip]

>routine?  I had a senior scientist (male) in my field tell me "you should 
>never do a good job on a University committee".  I'm sorry, but I just 
>can't operate that way.  If I have a task to do, I prefer to do it well 
>(besides wouldn't that make our systems more efficient?)  But of course 
>this just sets me up for more work.  I have come to believe that I am 
>asked to do more administration than some of my colleagues because (I do 
>a good job) 

[further snip]

I'm surely not privy to all the politics in my department, but I have 
observed well-respected faculty members completely falling down on the 
job with respect to other responsibilities in the department like 
committee work and organizational/advising tasks. Sad to say, it seems 
that the quickest way to get out of being asked to be responsible is to 
not fulfill one's responsibilities. 

Barring that, one way to pare down your work load is to respectfully 
decline administrative duties unless they're politically expedient or you 
can delegate a lot of the work. 

Good luck in your quest for balance. If it proves too elusive, consider
what you may have read in another thread on this group regarding other
options for being engaged in science without moving into technical or
postdoctoral positions.

Cheers, 
Angie