The myth of the “endless meetings” where academics wilted in boredom and sadness thwarted my early day in academia. I dreaded the service aspect of being on the tenure-track more than I feared anything else. I even warned the Chair of my department that I will be horrible at service.
Then, however, I discovered that the need to sacrifice oneself on the altar of useless and boring service was nothing but one of those myths people generate to feel sorry for themselves. This semester, for instance, I attended a total of 4 meetings. Three of them were for an extremely fulfilling, useful, fun committee that I would participate in even I didn’t have a service requirement. I will also give a talk to the people of our town on the economic crisis in Spain. And I advise Majors in our department whose last names start with K-M. I would be a dirty, nasty liar if I said that these service obligations are onerous. Honestly, I barely notice them. And I always rank excellent in service.
The way to make service pleasant and easy is to read the operational papers (if there are none, talk to the Chair of the Personnel Committee) and make a list of all categories of committees that exist. Then all you have to do is hit each category once and try to show leadership in a few. That is absolutely all. People who suffer on 5 departmental committees that nobody will appreciate are authors of their own misfortune. As the administrators keep repeating, “Nobody ever gets tenure because they are active in service.”
Also, all of these stories about women being forced into more service than men, being expected to be nurturing or serviceable, or being discouraged from research turned out to be lies. I’m not seeing anything even remotely like this.
Clarissa's Blog 
My school has a very significant gender bias with women doing more service and men more doing research. However, it is important for everyone. One of my male colleagues is getting fired for doing no service in three years. (He has a book contract, but it didn’t save him.) I really think the every school has its own culture about service, so there’s no one rule about it.
I do think that if one feels overburdened with service then it is one’s obligation to step away from the service. You’re right that you should try different things. There’s no reason to be on 5-6 committees a year, though. I have way too much service on my plate. Next year, I’m stepping back a bit. I’ll only be on two committees instead of five.
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“My school has a very significant gender bias with women doing more service and men more doing research.”
– Are there no operational papers? The faculty could collectively demand that operational papers with strict numerical standards be created.
“He has a book contract, but it didn’t save him”
– A book contract doesn’t count for anything these days, unfortunately. Only an actual book.
“Next year, I’m stepping back a bit. I’ll only be on two committees instead of five.”
– Good for you!!!
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“Are there no operational papers? The faculty could collectively demand that operational papers with strict numerical standards be created.”
– This would imply that anyone else besides me (and the three or four other somewhat new people that I know of) thinks there’s a problem. Actually, we do have a faculty handbook, but it is intentionally very unclear so that the administrators have lots of leverage. People never know where they stand and if they are doing enough or too much or what. Really – your school sounds like it’s well put together. Many institutions are NOT.
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This sounds really harsh! I feel for you, my friend. But you are surviving it and doing well, so kudos to you!
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Oh your service load is considerably lighter than most institutions. I attend a minimum of 2 meetings a week and generally have 2-3 large service projects a semester which require considerable time, thought, and energy. And I guard my time very vigorously. For faculty that aren’t as protective of their time, they attend far far more meetings and have many more projects than I do.
But, I do think that the service I engage in is meaningful and important. I would be happier if we had fewer meetings but I also understand that meetings are a part of almost any career. And all careers have some aspects which are mundane and boring. So I don’t complain about my service load either. Like I said before, I love this career and I do think it’s important that faculty take part in governing their own institution. 🙂
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” Like I said before, I love this career and I do think it’s important that faculty take part in governing their own institution’
– Hear, hear!!!
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I think you could write a post intitulated “Nobody ever gets tenure because…”
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