How much work do professors do?

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I'm done with my first week of grad school and I've noticed professors don't seem to do a whole lot of work.

Teach Undergrad Classes - They get TAs to grade their papers, run exams over to be electronically graded, input scores in the online site, meet with students to discuss grades and class material, etc. Sure, they have to prepare a lecture, but if you do that once, you're good to go. Some even use PowerPoint slides book manufacturers send them, so that's no work.

Teach Grad Classes - Most of these classes are discussion-based. There are a few papers, but with class sizes ranging from 6-15, grading those is hardly difficult.

Research - They get grants, then deploy undergraduates to collect the data, enter data in SPSS, etc. They have grad students cranking out papers and posters, then they just attach their name to those papers and posters.

They need to read and correct their students' drafts, but since they only have 1-3 graduate students at any given time, this is no brain buster either.

I'm not complaining. It's a good learning experience to do all that work, no doubt, but being a professor doesn't seem ridiculously hard when they have everyone else doing their work for them. In fact, it seems like a good position to have since tenured profs make $80,000-$120,000 a year. I think I found my new career aspiration.

I'd also have to say clinical psychology students are underpaid given the amount of work we do. $25,000 minimum would be a good salary.

Thoughts?

Great board BTW. I wish I'd found it when I was applying.

Jason

 

[RayneeDeigh]

It depends. My undergrad advisor does a ton of her own research, regularly presents at conferences, teaches a lot of classes, does her own grading, and sits on a lot of boards and committees.

My graduate advisor works half-time for the government so he stays busy that way, plus he has over 20 graduate students. It seems he's always in another city for conferences and seminars.

Plus, profs don't just sit on the committees for their own students, they act as committee members for tons of other people. My advisor had to read a dissertation for someone in nursing this summer.

As someone who gets assigned a horrendous amount of TA hours every year and only gets paid $16,000 to do it, I agree that we're underpaid and underappreciated. But while I was whining about it one day one of my profs said that graduate school is the last time that you actually have very little responsibility, it usually falls back on someone like a supervisor or a prof.

I had the same observation as you in my first week of school though. At first glance it looks like profs do nothing more than fall asleep in case seminars, sit in class and listen to everyone else talk, and boss around their TAs. But I'm pretty sure they do more.

 

[psychanon]

Oh, jeez, professors do TONS of work. It's true that delegation is often the key to success (something I've learned as a graduate student as well-- thank goodness for undergrad RAs), but you can't delegate everything. Profs teach undergrad classes (where it does get easier if you've done it before, but that doesn't mean it teaches itself), grad classes (where there aren't TAs to grade things for you), write lots and lots of papers (and NO, you can't give it all to grad students if you want tenure), run analyses (same as previous), write grants (VERY time consuming), review papers, serve as journal editors, serve on grant committees, serve on other committees (dissertation, comps, department stuff, etc.), serve in leadership positions (in department or professional organizations), clinically supervise students (if they're clinical, which often means listening to audiotapes or watching videotapes), reading the current research literature so as not to fall behind, design research/ experiments, meet with supervised grad students, attend department/ area meetings, and so on. It can easily be a 60-70 hour/ week job, and it's a very competitive environment. But it's also true that there are few professions where you get paid to simply pursue your own intellectual ideas.

 

[erg923]

I kinda understand where you are coming from, but you are grossly underestimating the work that they do. Remember, you are just seeing the end product of everything. lectures, pubs, etc.

Putting together even one good lecture for an undergrad class can be a rather time consuming process. Same for grad level classes. Research is time consuming and tedious. Do you know how long, how tedious, and how much time it takes to write a grant, especially R-01s? Not too mention the budgetary and administrative/business management aspects of managing grants and a large lab. Do you know how tedious the process of a manuscript submission is? How many edits and drafts you have to go through. Even supervising 4 or 5 students first authored pubs is just as much work, or more, than doing one yourself. And I assure, you professors are not just attaching their names to things randomly or haphazardly. They have been integral in making the data available and editing your drafts. Furthermore, most are still doing much of their own writing and manuscripts. Believe me, they want first authorship too! I assure you, meetings, clincial supervision, classes, checking up on all your students, writing grants, reading the literature, reviewing manuscripts, writing manuscripts, are VERY time consuming activities that keep academic psychologists in psych departments very busy. Some professors do clincial work on top of all this as well. Just think of all the extra responsibilities and headaches even a one day a week private practice can bring to that table. My adviser does all this (except for the private practice) with a 4 year old and 2 year old....and believe me...my hat goes off to her!

 

[JockNerd]

I had a philosophy prof who was asked how much work he does in a week. His reply was:

"Well, I teach two classes this term. That's about 6 hours. And I spend about as much time preparing them as teaching. So, 12. Ummmmmmmmmmm..."

What's "work"? The time I spend in class being bored is "work," but the time I spend in the shower building an SEM model in my mind is "non-work"?

 

[deleted176373]

I'm done with my first week of grad school and I've noticed professors don't seem to do a whole lot of work.

Teach Grad Classes - Most of these classes are discussion-based. There are a few papers, but with class sizes ranging from 6-15, grading those is hardly difficult.

I think I found my new career aspiration.

Thoughts?

Jason

Teach a few graduate level classes and you may take a new perspective on this. My professors work like dogs, but they truly enjoy their work. I honestly don't know how they even have a life with the amount of work they do accomplish.

Granted, grading a graduate level class isn't difficult, preparing to teach one is a whole different ball of wax.

Mark

 

[Cosmo75]

As someone who's taught 3 graduate level classes (MA program at my school), it's more time consuming than it looks. And I only carried 1 class per semester. I do think that there's a range in effort levels, and there are some profs who seem to put in the minimum effort. Perhaps that's what you've come across so far.

 

[Ollie123]

You will be sorely disappointed when you get hired at your first academic job.

I'd take a second look at what your professors are actually doing before changing any career goals. There's an unbelievable amount of "behind-the-scenes" work that you probably don't know about.

 

[LM02]

Write a grant AND get it funded, and then get back to us...

That part of a professor's duties alone is the equivalent of a full-time job.

I agree with the others - what may look easy from the student perspective may seem much harder when you are in the shoes of your professors. Yes, you can do a crappy job at all of the above, and just coast by. But if you want to excel at any of those things, you're suddenly looking at A LOT of time and energy. I won't even mention how to balance all of that while maintaining some semblance of a personal life (e.g., family) and obtaining tenure.

 

[JockNerd]

 

[psybee]

and that's amazing!

 

[cara susanna]

Oh, how I love PhD Comics.

 

[psybee]

i've definately met the slacker profs that don't do much work, or rarely do, but they are really unhappy and were the ones that recommended that i not do clinical psych because they didn't find it rewarding. well, yeah. i think the ones that work a lot do find it a rich and rewarding career, and i think that when you invest your self in it, it is not just work but a lot of work. teaching a rote class takes little energy, really teaching, assigning meaningful work, updating and refining your course takes tons of work. ditto for research -- having a ga be the one to teach an ra how to enter data (and call that a research assistantship) takes little work, having lab meetings, mentoring students, encouraging the development of new work, presentations, papers, really creating a research culture and environment in your lab that is invigorating and purposeful (and then applying for grants to further your work, all those letters of rec.s for all the students that are in your lab, training, on an on). being a good prof is hard, i think, but i have worked for both and would way rather be that hard working, overworked perhpas, connected, engaged one.

 

[erg923]

i've definately met the slacker profs that don't do much work, or rarely do, but they are really unhappy and were the ones that recommended that i not do clinical psych because they didn't find it rewarding. well, yeah. i think the ones that work a lot do find it a rich and rewarding career, and i think that when you invest your self in it, it is not just work but a lot of work. teaching a rote class takes little energy, really teaching, assigning meaningful work, updating and refining your course takes tons of work. ditto for research -- having a ga be the one to teach an ra how to enter data (and call that a research assistantship) takes little work, having lab meetings, mentoring students, encouraging the development of new work, presentations, papers, really creating a research culture and environment in your lab that is invigorating and purposeful (and then applying for grants to further your work, all those letters of rec.s for all the students that are in your lab, training, on an on). being a good prof is hard, i think, but i have worked for both and would way rather be that hard working, overworked perhpas, connected, engaged one.

A program that is big enough and productive enough to have a doctoral level clinical training program likely will not have any of these types of professors you describe. Unless they are emeritus/emerita. Some are more personable and friendly than others, some care about you more than others, but I have really never met a "slacker professor." Especially not one within a clinical training program. They would likely not last long.

 

[psybee]

A program that is big enough and productive enough to have a doctoral level clinical training program likely will not have any of these types of professors you describe. Unless they are emeritus/emerita. Some are more personable and friendly than others, some care about you more than others, but I have really never met a "slacker professor." Especially not one within a clinical training program. They would likely not last long.

true -- i've worked at community colleges, where research was rather optional -- some profs had research programs, and that definately helped them in thier dept. standing, but it wasn't required the way it is in depts with grad programs. some did research, and in a way since there wasn't the same culture of research as in a grad dept., they had to be more self motivated. those that were did well, mentored thier ras and got lots out of them (and vice versa) produced, etc. others, not so much. there were profs. that didn't do research and were happy, but they also worked a lot, teaching 4 (or more) undergrad courses and really giving thier all to it.

i was i guess commeting on the last part of the OP's post, where they felt that profs didn't do much and jokingly said that would be a sweet gig (well not in those words) -- i've seen profs living that, and invariably it isn't.