‘Being an academic is not a 9–5 job’: long working hours and the ‘ideal worker’ in UK academia

Abstract

The deregulation of working time has been occurring over recent decades. Academia is one of the many industries that can be characterised by a long hours work culture and intensification of work. This is significant given the negative effects of such a work culture on the physical and mental health and well-being of workers. Using evidence from two UK-based qualitative studies, this paper begins to explore the causes and effects of academic long hours work culture further. It has a particular focus on the extent to which the long hours culture is a result of cultural and structural changes in higher education, which have led to an increased focus on performance and outcome measures. It queries whether this is also shaped by more personal factors, such as the desire to excel and blurred boundaries between work and leisure, whereby the pursuit of knowledge may be a source of leisure for academics. It finds that while individual factors contribute to the long hours culture, these factors are shaped by cultural norms and pressures to cultivate a perception of the ‘ideal academic’ within an increasingly target-driven and neoliberal environment.

Keywords:

• academia
• ideal academic
• long working hours
• work-life balance

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the participants that took part in this research as well as Professors Andrew Dainty and Tarek Hassan (Loughborough University, UK), who were involved in one of the studies (S1) on which this paper is based.

Notes

1. The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. It replaces the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

2. The position of Reader is equivalent to Associate Professor.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katherine Sang

Dr Katherine Sang is an Associate Professor of Management at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh. Her research explores the workplace as the site where gender and associated inequalities are reproduced. In addition, she researches academic labour, disability and the role of nonhuman animals in the workplace. She is the chair of the Feminist and Women’s Studies Association UK and Ireland.

Abigail Powell

Dr Abigail Powell is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Impact, UNSW Australia. She currently holds an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). Abigail has over 10 years’ experience as an academic researcher, underpinned by her passion for social justice and equality. Her expertise includes gender, diversity, flexible working arrangements, work–life balance and social policy.

Rebecca Finkel

Dr Rebecca Finkel is an urban cultural geographer and Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in the School of Arts, Social Sciences & Management at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. Her main research interests include strategic analysis of government socio-economic policies for funding and development with regard to creative industries and social capital. New research is framed within conceptualisations of gender identity, resistance to globalisation, and social justice issues with regard to global events.

James Richards

Dr James Richards is an Associate Professor in Human Resource Management in the School of Languages and Management in Heriot-Watt University, and an academic member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. James has published research in human resource management journals, edited book collections and consultancy-based reports. James’ research interests are grounded in industrial sociology and employment relations. His early research projects looked at employee use of social media for misbehaviour and resistance. His more recent research looks at hidden disabilities in the workplace, and he is currently working on a range of in-work poverty projects.