Hahahaha howww true. This neurologist I know said he would fall asleep at his desk after work from exhaustion when he was in private practice. but when he went back to being in academia after 15 years of being out of academia he felt much better and able to have more time.
This really varies, but I think that professors at medical schools are doing a lot more work than you perceive. For example, many have most or all of the following responsibilites:
-develop their own courses (lecture notes, homework, quizzes, exams, office
hours, help sessions, coordinate with lab, TAs
-run a research program
-grant writing (constantly, and usually several at the same time)
-grant administration
-review other people's manuscripts and proposals
-organize and chair symposia and conferences
-prepare poster and oral presentations
-conduct research
-direct undergraduate students, graduate students and postdocs in research group
-group meetings
-evaluate progress reports
-countless meetings with their students
-write progress reports to grant agencies
-write manuscripts (journal articles, book chapters)
-attend divisional and departmental and university meetings
-organize, host and attend seminars and meet with the speakers
-come up with new research ideas and develop them
-give lectures at other universities and companies
-attend graduate student seminars, qualifying or cumulative examinations (and
make up and grade the latter)
-attend thesis defenses
-compliance meetings (e.g. OSHA, budget, technology transfer, etc
-review textbooks
-participate in university committees
oh yeah, and they SEE PATIENTS too. Admittedly clinical faculty will have fewer of these responsibilites, but academics work very hard regardless, at least in my experience.
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