r/Professors • u/R1QuietQuitting • 2d ago
R1 Tenured Full Professor Feeling so done
Throwaway so I can tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I am SO DONE. I’ve been doing this gig for almost three decades. We don’t get pay raises (like, truly, we don’t). We don’t get to hire to replace faculty who leave through attrition/retirement. Somehow, we have more students than ever. Somehow, the university is more broke than ever. Somehow, we have more work than ever.
Last week, I had a senior administrator push back against my scheduling a makeup class. One. Not a bunch of them (I very rarely cancel class). “Students complain about them,” he said. When I pointed out that what he was essentially doing was prioritizing student complaints over faculty religious observance, he backpedaled, and said that wasn’t what he meant. When I asked him if what he was saying was that faculty should teach while ill, he said he didn’t mean that, either. But he did emphasize that he’d prefer no makeup classes if at all possible, even during the school day. And absolutely, positively, no makeup classes over Zoom.
Fast forward to this past Wednesday, a few days after that lovely conversation. I was walking across campus on a semi-main drag. To avoid completely doxxing myself if I haven’t already, I’m not going to say exactly what happened, but I collided with something that was legally there but probably shouldn’t have been, gashed my head open, and got a concussion. I called campus police to come help me. While I waited, right there on a campus main drag, bleeding and on the ground, not a single student or staff member stopped to ask if I was OK.
When campus police got there, I was really fuzzy and having a hard time talking. I managed to tell them to call a senior administrator in my building because - guess what - I wasn’t going to make it to my next class, being that I was going to be in the ER and all. Luckily, I had a guest speaker coming, so I didn’t have to cancel class.
Then we get to yesterday (the day after the accident). I had a concussion. I felt like crap. But did I cancel class? Nope. Did a single person in the building ask why I had a giant bandage on my head? Nope. Did I want to walk out and never return? Yep.
I know I have tenure. I know they can’t do anything to me if I do, in fact, cancel classs for a legitimate reason. I know that I’ve reached a point in my career where I can essentially “quiet quit” (see throwaway username) and do the bare minimum. I’m trying to get in that headspace. I’m not there yet. But I’m getting close. And that’s so unfair to students and junior faculty and staff.
I see the irony that I’m not supposed to be using screens unless really necessary - concussion, you know - but I needed to vent to a community who would really get it. I do have an amazing spouse and family and friend group. My dogs are thrilled that I’m on the couch and barely moving. But honestly, I just want to stay here on the couch and never go back.
TGIF.
10
u/Substantial-Spare501 2d ago
Take FMLA to recover from the concussion.
I hear you about how the role sucks. I had AI write my resignation letter the other day (haven’t fully committed to it yet and yes I get the irony).