I don’t know if this happens in other professions, but in academia there are so many people who are resentful of anybody who has a good time and digs his or her job that they descend like a pack of rabid dogs on academics who are not (or, rather, do not pretend to be) completely miserable all of the time.
You either whine and complain, trying to outdo everybody else in the misery sweepstakes, or accept being marginalized or even bullied in every academic environment you ever access. This is how the culture of academic misery perpetuates itself.
I feel very sad today because what was pretty much the only voice of reason, passion and joy among all the blogs and websites that discuss academia has gone silent. Stupid Motivational Tricks is a blog that literally changed my life and taught me to be a happy, productive academic. Now, however, its author Jonathan has decided to stop offering academic advice and, instead, “listen to what faculty at a variety of institutions are saying.” And we all know that what they are saying is how they are all hugely miserable and the end of the world will happen tomorrow.
Of course, nobody can or should dispute a blogger’s decision to write about whatever s/he wishes. Still, I feel very sad that there will now be only unrelieved whining and drama in the academic blogosphere. I get more than enough of it in RL, and the idea of seeing nothing but misery in the world of blogging is daunting.
It’s OK, though. After I get tenure in 2 years, I will be the voice of reason, passion and joy in academic blogosphere.
A friend of mine who is a Full Professor in another field told me that it is important to seek out suffering because it is something that one needs to experience to have a balanced existence.
“There is so much suffering in life already,” I countered. “Why look for more?”
“Is there?” the friend asked earnestly.
I discussed the apocalyptic mentality of the First World people with an acquaintance from South Africa and we agreed that their lives are so sheltered and unproblematic (in contrast to what the rest of the world experiences) that they need to exaggerate their tiny little woes to add some spice to their lives. There is nothing particularly wrong about this, except when people manage to convince themselves that their drama is real and their lives are truly miserable.
This means that if I decide to start a “Happy Academics Club,” I will need to reach out to immigrants and people who were born to poverty. And maybe by that time Jonathan will reconsider and join us, too.
Clarissa's Blog 
“I discussed the apocalyptic mentality of the First World people with an acquaintance from South Africa and we agreed that their lives are so sheltered and unproblematic (in contrast to what the rest of the world experiences) that they need to exaggerate their tiny little woes to add some spice to their lives.”
Yes! This is also why the people at the very top of the heap react to any legislative change which effects them in even the slightest way to bitch about how “oppressed” they are, while everyone else silently bears much more onerous burdens.
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I am not going completely silent, but changing my emphasis a bit. I promise you’ll still like it once I get going again.
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This is GOOD to hear.
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But I’m a happy academic… (ok, fine, if you can count a PhD Candidate and academic-to-be as an academic that is…)
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Yay! You can be one of the club members. 🙂
I should have guessed that autistics – who are immune to social pressures to a large degree – will be good club candidates. 🙂
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If I were unhappy as a professor, I would retire. I love the work more and more each year.
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Count me in as a happy academic (and I’m neurotypical!) I actually get really annoyed with the “mystique of suffering” that many academics perpetuate. It’s an amazing career.
I have a very specific annoyance with this too on behalf of my partner. My partner loves his career but it’s _very demanding_ on his time. He is typically at work between 5-6 days a week (sometimes 7); he usually gets in at 9:30 AM and works until 9:00 PM–sometime 10:00 PM or even midnight. Much of the day he is on his feet. And he only gets two weeks vacation a year. Many times when I explain my partner’s work schedule to my fellow professors, they look at me with tragic empathy and say “I understand why he’s so tired. Those are the hours I work too and I’m exhausted.” WTF? Our hours are amazing–wonderful–a huge perk. NOTHING like the hours my partner works. And he doesn’t even complain!
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I’m happy, but honestly I don’t have to deal with the problems that people who complain online face so I’m not sure it’s a valid comparison.
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Off-topic: give a kiss to the baby for me. She must be ultra-lovely. 🙂
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