TENURE!

[mamselle]

People need a balanced mix of intrinsic and extrinsic satisfactions.

They often don't balance out in the ways we expect, or come from the sources we thought they would.

Finding a way to live with that is a constant growing process, and identifying how to earn and live with whichever rewards one finally earns--which may also be unexpected--tests ones maturity and challenges ones commitments.

Sometimes the reward turns into a chimera, sometimes it's a rock you can build the rest of your life around.

You'll know what you really wanted after you get there, perhaps....

M.

[Ruralguy]

I had to constantly prove myself before tenure and almost didn't get it (seriously, not exaggerating).  So, there's some satisfaction in surviving on to win awards, lead important committees, continue to publish and have rewarding relationships with students and colleagues. I'm no "star,"but I've built myself up. But if you were already "there" before tenure, and tenure wasn't at all contentious, then I could see why it would lead to a big "so what." Frankly, my biggest reward, I think, is my autonomy, but then also the reward of bringing what I've got to the table and being seriously considered.

As far as it being a sucker bet, well, that depends on what is being offered to you.
A permanent job pushing a rock up a hill will only lead to permanent boredom and back ache. Plus, if the rock rolls back on you , you are in big trouble. Still, lots of jobs out there amount to rock pushing. Granted, some aren't that, and some of those are outside if academia, but in general, I am not sure it is more of a sucker bet than anything else unless you delude yourself that life on the ADM is worth it because you might get your big break. But I do see from recent posts that some people just happily take jobs at places they know they will hate. I guess they figure its the closest thing offered to what they'd like, a job is a job, a paycheck is a paycheck, you gotta eat and can't live in a ditch, etc..

[Cheerful]

Why is tenure so great?  After all, I have a job where technically I can be fired tomorrow for no reason as an at-will employee and yet we've bought a house and taken many actions consistent with a long-term future here. Tenured people can end up with no job when their program is cut or the institution closes, as many people are finding out.

Even with all the changes in academe, tenure is still a BIG deal.  You have much more job security with tenure than without.  You're not nearly as vulnerable across various contexts with tenure as you are without.  You receive more respect.  You can talk more.  You must still be careful in what you say and to whom you say it -- largely because the power balance in academe has swung so strongly in favor of admin as apathetic faculty continue to surrender power and influence ("shared governance?" ha!) -- but you have much more freedom to speak with tenure than without.  (Remember the STFU thread on the Chronicle forums?)

Being fired for no reason any time?  One day, you walk in to work and the bosses tell you to clean your desk immediately and escort you out?  Those aren't humane, just ways to treat hard-working employees.

[Ruralguy]

Polly was speaking (I think) mainly regarding academia with tenure vs. not in academia, not so much tenure in academia vs. no tenure in academia.

[Cheerful]

Polly was speaking (I think) mainly regarding academia with tenure vs. not in academia, not so much tenure in academia vs. no tenure in academia.

My second paragraph is about how it is for many employees in the nonacademic, corporate world, echoing what polly_mer wrote.  Painful watching decent, hard-working co-workers escorted off the premises one day, with no prior warning that they would be let go. I could not be a boss who does that, immoral in my values system.

[Ruralguy]

That can happen in academia too, though its rare among tenured faculty, and I know we've only done that a couple of times in 20 years for adjunct faculty (the person definitely deserved it).

[Wahoo Redux]

We have a ghost-colleague who would be fired in virtually any other industry on the planet.