I am on sabbatical this semester, although at UNCC, we call it reassignment of duties leave. (I think it’s illegal to call it sabbatical in NC. WHOOPS!) So I tell people that I’m on leave this fall, which of course makes them think I’m sitting around eating bonbons and watching Oprah.
I’m not.
I am “doing research” which means spending all day writing, reading articles, and analyzing data. It’s actually a lot of fun. Ok, that’s bullshite. It’s not a lot of fun. But it’s a lot less stressful than trying to do all this while I am teaching and doing my university service. Still, it’s been both easier and harder than I thought.
The easier part is doing this all day long. I thought I would be bored, but I’m not. I have a four main projects I’m working on and they are interesting. I’m also working in coffee shops nearly exclusively. One of our Organization Science PhD students is doing a study on where people work and as I was filling out the survey, I had a “testing effect” moment–I realized that I REALLY, REALLY like working in public, particularly coffee shops, and I REALLY, REALLY hate working in isolated environments by myself. Since then, I’ve worked nearly exclusively out and about in the coffee houses around Charlotte (Dilworth Coffee Company, Amelie’s, and, rarely, Starbucks).
I have also found time to exercise during the day. Don’t let the media fool you, that east coast earthquake was caused by me running for the first time in years.
The harder parts is how much work I still have to do! I thought I’d have leisurely days to sit and think deep thoughts about my research. While I do feel like I am able to relax and get deeper conceptually and methodologically into my research than what I can do when I’m teaching, I’m not finding that I have free time during the work day in any way, shape, or form. I’m booked on my projects from the time I drop the twins off at daycare to when I pick my older son up at the bus stop. I thought it would be easier to update this blog weekly because I’d have All This Free Time. HA!
I feel a strong need to all up the NC legislature (or some other state’s government if they are interested) and encourage them to watch me work for a week while I’m “on leave.” We have ambitions in our state to grow our universities to become more research intensive. To do that, we need to support our faculty more so they can do more research (i.e., regular leaves/sabbaticals for research faculty). And a raise more frequently than once every five years wouldn’t hurt either.