Sunday, September 28, 2003
Time and Space
I'm amazed at how much of a time-suck blogging can be. It is truly an addiction.
I did a little surfing over the weekend and came across a great discussion in The Invisible Adjunct about the publishing crisis. I was itching to make a comment, but I had to hold myself back. Just not enough time this weekend. Well, I briefly got involved in a discussion at Crooked Timber about conservativism in academia. And the Invisible Adjunct is continuing the debate on her blog.
From Andrew Sullivan's site, I came across an interview with Camille Paglia. In the interview, Paglia refers to a recent article she wrote on the high cost of tuition and advises parents to take action. Worth reading.
Why am under such pressure for time? Well, my husband is putting more and more time at the office. He leaves the apartment at 7:30 am and comes home almost 12 hours later. Those hours seem pretty much standard these days. If I worked a full time job, our children would only see us on the weekends. I think that the growing demands of workplace is putting added pressure on the family. There is a crisis on the American family. It's not coming from liberals or conservatives, but from the office.
In addition to those M-F hours, he had to put in extra hours over this weekend working on job evaluations. Yes, it really screwed up our weekend. I need an afternoon to prepare for my Monday night lecture. And then there is all the usual chores -- laundry, food shopping, doctor appointments. But his job evaluations are a great innovation of American business that academics could learn from.
My husband has to evaluate everyone in his department. Not only the administrative assistant who works for him, but also his co-workers and his supervisors. It's really very democratic.
His office is also spaced democratically. Gone are the cubicles and corner offices for the bosses. The walls have been torn down. The floor is one enormous room -- maybe the size of a city block. Everyone sits at long tables with identical computers and phones. The secretary sits next to the broker. The broker's boss sits right next to him. Observing this set up, an outsider would have no idea of hierarchy.
Coming from the academia, my husband was stunned by the openness of this environment when he started three years ago.
The highlight of the weekend was a fine meal on Saturday night. We had a date night and splurged on a fantastic dinner in midtown.
I'm amazed at how much of a time-suck blogging can be. It is truly an addiction.
I did a little surfing over the weekend and came across a great discussion in The Invisible Adjunct about the publishing crisis. I was itching to make a comment, but I had to hold myself back. Just not enough time this weekend. Well, I briefly got involved in a discussion at Crooked Timber about conservativism in academia. And the Invisible Adjunct is continuing the debate on her blog.
From Andrew Sullivan's site, I came across an interview with Camille Paglia. In the interview, Paglia refers to a recent article she wrote on the high cost of tuition and advises parents to take action. Worth reading.
Why am under such pressure for time? Well, my husband is putting more and more time at the office. He leaves the apartment at 7:30 am and comes home almost 12 hours later. Those hours seem pretty much standard these days. If I worked a full time job, our children would only see us on the weekends. I think that the growing demands of workplace is putting added pressure on the family. There is a crisis on the American family. It's not coming from liberals or conservatives, but from the office.
In addition to those M-F hours, he had to put in extra hours over this weekend working on job evaluations. Yes, it really screwed up our weekend. I need an afternoon to prepare for my Monday night lecture. And then there is all the usual chores -- laundry, food shopping, doctor appointments. But his job evaluations are a great innovation of American business that academics could learn from.
My husband has to evaluate everyone in his department. Not only the administrative assistant who works for him, but also his co-workers and his supervisors. It's really very democratic.
His office is also spaced democratically. Gone are the cubicles and corner offices for the bosses. The walls have been torn down. The floor is one enormous room -- maybe the size of a city block. Everyone sits at long tables with identical computers and phones. The secretary sits next to the broker. The broker's boss sits right next to him. Observing this set up, an outsider would have no idea of hierarchy.
Coming from the academia, my husband was stunned by the openness of this environment when he started three years ago.
The highlight of the weekend was a fine meal on Saturday night. We had a date night and splurged on a fantastic dinner in midtown.
