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TimestampAcademic status at/before time of departureArea of ScholarshipType of institution (most recent)Year of PhD (or other advanced degree)Level of debt (numerical pls)Academic salary/income at/before time of departureDiscipline(s)Reasons for deciding to leave academiaCatalyst (if any) for deciding to leave academiaCurrent job or employment situationYears spent seeking non-academic workSatisfaction level in non-academic position (if you have one)Salary/income in non-academic position (if you have one)Describe your process/priorities in searching for non-academic workDescribe responses of academic colleagues to your decision to depart academiaIf you have left academia, do you regret the decision to leave? Pls. elaborateDo you hope to return to academia one day? (if you have left)General thoughts: do you think the Great Resignation has hit academia? Why or why not? And anything else you want to say? For ex: what would you like to say to your Dean on the way out? Profanity welcome.Please describe your feelings about leaving academia, and how they might have changed over time. (ie, anger, grief, excitement, regret, anxiety, enthusiasm, curiosity, relief, fear... [no wrong answers! I know academics are not accustomed to expressing feelings but I think this Q is key.]How has your life changed for the better or worse, since you departed academia? (if you have)Your genderYour racial/ethnic identification(s)Your Socioeconomic class identification/background (ie first gen, etc.)Years spent in academia [as YOU calculate that]Years spent seeking secure academic workSatisfaction level in academic position prior to leavingDisability status Country of originCountry (countries) of primary employmentRole of caregiving responsibilities in your decision?LGBTQIA+ identityRole of sexual harassment in decision to leave academia?
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5/12/2022 13:47:54Graduate studentHumanitiesR2 (Research inst--high activity)Completed290000UnemployedLiterature I refuse to inflict and perpetuate this toxic process upon any other human beingPhD process itself (relatively gentle from what I understand), platitudes, pettiness, and committees instead of solutions to any issueSeeking1Seeking literally anything else They share my objections, but they’re stayingI won’t. It hasn’t. They’re still cycling these poor people through the false hope/false promise of getting tenure track positions. All job advice, including from a job placement committee, was “let’s circle back to your interest in alt-ac, but have you considered tenure track?” These people are fucked in the head. I have reservations about elements of the private sector of course, but I refuse to go back and participate in academia after seeing it through. Only more angry, burnt out, and justified in leaving as the years went on. It was an exercise in completion. Male WhiteLowLifetime0Grad TAship unrewardingUnited StatesUnited StatesCan’t support a family off adjunctingNoneWell known in department, ignored
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5/12/2022 16:01:17Graduate studentHumanities, Arts/Music/TheaterR1 (Research Inst--highest activity), Other50-60kunder 10kMusic Performance(1) Lack of job security, (2) lack of job availability including systemic racism, (3) research topic was too personal(1) COVID-19, (2) abusive individuals in positions of power (or those with unchecked/unaware social capital) and the community's unwillingness or inability to acknowledge the abuseFull-timeunder 6 months9/1040-60k/year(1) something tangential to my accumulated knowledge and skills, (2) salary, benefits, work-life balanceAll were supportiveI don't, for the reasons described above.Yes, but not exactly in the field I left. I would like to become a professor who shows students more paths to contributing outside of academia!The Great Resignation has hit academia for those who are willing to see it. For those with enough capital (of all kinds) to remain in academia, I have a feeling they'll interpret the Great Resignation with comments such as: "Oh, she couldn't handle the pressure," "She was impatient," "She didn't have enough support," "She comes from a rough family," "Academia isn't for everyone," etc. Many administrators and Deans, from my experience, tend to be number/object oriented, so they'll simply find someone else to replace those who left--and they'll likely aim to rehire at a lower salary to reduce costs and balance their budgets. (An Associate Dean literally told me, during a pandemic-era one-on-one meeting, that she saw students as numbers and files during the in-person semesters.) In my process of leaving, I had wondered if my leaving would enable academia to continue as they were; but I was tired and poor, and that was enough.

I think the Great Resignation is not solely contingent on leaving academia but also on thriving in whatever next steps an ex-academic chooses. Honestly, I think academia will not notice that the Great Resignation has hit until they start losing their major funders and target student populations. 		There was so much anxiety about finding a full-time job that the grief of leaving didn't register until months later. This past year, I have been working full-time while completing my comprehensive exams and other degree capstones remotely as my funding ended after completing coursework. I am still processing the massive changes in my life as I complete more parts of my degree.

Before, when I couldn't see a way out of academia, I couldn't imagine a future where I wasn't struggling to make basic needs met (i.e., food on the table, paying rent, living in a safe neighborhood) or a future in which that wouldn't be a primary concern. Now, I have a healthy emergency fund and a way to pay back my student loans. I can see months and years ahead, and I feel like I have choices.

The desolation that I felt for nearly a decade in the combination of academia and music performance/teaching weighed heavily on me--and I think that's contributed to how I don't miss playing my instrument. I still love listening to music and supporting those who do, but my basic safety and security need to be addressed first. 		Please see aboveWomanAsian10+0Satisfaction wasn't really on my mind--just surviving!United StatesNoneYes
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5/12/2022 7:29:27Contract lecturer (We are give a 1-year contract at a time)HumanitiesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)/Elite research-intensive university20210R200 000 (South African Rand) paid over 10 monthsEnglish, Media & CommunicationI am South African and have worked at a leading South African university on a 1-year contract basis for 5 years. One of the biggest reasons I left was because there is little to no prospect of a full-time position at South African universities. Because of the drive for employment equity, which I fully agree with, positions for white South Africans are incredibly limited regardless of your qualifications and experience (if you list "white" on your application, recruitment don't even open it, and HR will readvertise the post if they cannot find an equity candidate, regardless if there are highly capable white applicants). You are now required to have a PhD for a full time position and the average waiting time for employment for a white academic is 5 years. This means I would either spend another 5 years on a ridiculous part-time position or simply find a job elsewhere. Contract positions are part-time and simply abusive. While the remuneration per hour (about R1000 if you have a Masters degree) is excellent, you only get paid per lecture you teach (not for admin, lesson prep and marking) so the annual/monthly is actually awful. This means many of us have to take on multiple contracts at multiple institutions. This hourly rate has stayed the same over the last 5 years I have worked on contract. This is despite our marking and teaching workload literally having doubled over the last 5 years. I was working about 12 hours a day, all 7 days a week and being paid less and working far more than my partner who works a full-time job. Because the pay per hour is generous, you are expected to assist with ad hoc tasks in the department but receive no money for them (eg: taking meeting minutes, sitting on committees, organising events and workshops). These ad hoc tasks fall to contract lecturers because the recruitment process is so slow + relies on finding suitable equity candidates, which are few and far between because black South Africans face historical obstacles to obtaining a postgraduate degree. There is literally not enough full time staff to carry the workload so it gets shifted to contract workers with the explanation that "it will give you experience" (as if, after 5 years on a terrible contract and a PhD, I need to prove myself further or fill out my CV even more for a non-existent academic job prospect). In addition, there is no pay over December and January despite marking/invigilating/lesson prepping because we are not giving actual lectures. Our contracts are renewed on a annual basis but we are only informed of their renewal at the last minute, meaning contract staff are left wondering about their prospects of employment over university holidays. We also have to put away tons of our low monthly salaries to survive two months without pay and have to pay medical aid, insurance, retirement, etc. out of pocket (which is honestly just impossible for many). Oh, and we had no leave days. Even if we were ill, someone else would have to take the lecture and we would have to pay back the money.An increasingly negative work environment, escalating workloads, burn out, and my partner demanding I go to therapy and basically saying that he would rather support me and eat bread and jam every month while I look for work because I was in such a bad headspace, than me continue suffering.I work for the governemnt in linguistic human rights0.251000%R400 000 p/a + housing, medical, and retirement benefitsHonestly, I was so desperate to get out, I just sent my CV everywhere and anywhere in the hope I would find something I liked and paid well (I fortunately did!). Remuneration was a big priority as was work-life balance.Other contract lecturers were relieved to hear that other people would be interested in employing academics! (Many thought they would be stuck in academia for ever because they had "overqualified" themselves!). The university asked me to list exactly how many hours I had worked to ensure they hadn't overpaid me.No.If I did, it would be exclusively in Europe where classes are smaller and work-life balance exists. SA classes are upwards of 1000 students for popular subjects (we had 2000 first year English students!!) and there are fewer than 10 full-time lecturers for the group/subject.Absolutely. Working from home with my partner has shown me the disparity between my work life and his. I couldn't believe he was being paid more than me and having less than 8 hours of work a day! I couldn't continue being abused in that way.At first I was anxious because I wasn't sure if I would enjoy or survive "the outside world". Now, I am so much less stressed and so much more satisfied with my life. I can't stop encouraging others to leave academia.More money, more free time, less stress, more leave!I identify as a womanWhiteLower-middle class when I was reliant on my parents, now in the top 3% of South African earners7 years working, 11 years studying5Basically 0. Because we still have not moved to face-to-face learning, and because SA has such data issues, I struggled to build any relationship with my students who were just little black blocks on a screen. Students were the only thing that made the work worthwhile and their lack of participation in online classes meant I got nothing out of teaching.NoneSouth AfricaSouth AfricaNoneHeterosexualNot much, but my HOD was a misogynist that I was pleased to leave behind.
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5/12/2022 22:17:17PostdocSTEMRegional comprehensive university2016ZeroPart time €1450 per monthFreshwater and Marine Science Mental and physical health reasons, pandemic, realising that academia isn't a good career choicePandemia caused me reavaluate my values and needsUnemployed0First physical and mental recovery, second improving programming and enterprenerial skills (for data scientist consultancy)I don't knowNo. Despite economic crisis, war in Ukraine and uncertain future, I feel that a good decision to departure from academia.NoI no longer need to "prove" myself and others in academia to feel worthy of recognision and meaningful life.Before departure I felt grief, anger and sadness. Had panic attacks at night about uncertain future. Over time I felt more and more relieved. It's my second week since departure, I'm calm and feel hopeful for future but still in grief. It's much in better mental and physical health even though I'm unemployed at the moment. I have much fuller and enjoyable life. A permanent feeling of guilt that I should be writing is gone.FemaleWhite Second generation95Dissatisfied with lack of prospect for permanent employment and growing sense of pointlessness of my work.Not applicablePolandPoland, USA, Sweden, IrelandNot applicableNot applicableNot applicable
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5/13/2022 9:48:28Continuing contingent facultyHumanitiesRegional (non-elite) liberal arts college, Religious institution2018not comfortable disclosingnot comfortable disclosingTheology and Religious StudiesI'm finding it impossible to balance being a new mother with my role as a teacher/researcher. Moreover, I have several edited monographs, a collection of book chapters/articles, exceptional teaching evaluations, and a book forthcoming at a top press in my field, but I have been unable to land a TT job after several years on the market.My unpaid maternity leave ended in the same semester my mother died, and I've been commuting for 10-14 hours a week to make things work throughout those seismic shifts in my personal life. With a 4/4 teaching load, I have been operating on autopilot to get through all that. I am emotionally depleted, drained of energy, and physically not taking care of myself: I have not had time to even grieve my mother's death. Professionally, even without family crises, my day-to-day schedule is currently such that I'm not able to maintain the kind of research agenda that could land me a permanent position anywhere.

My family must come first, but the broad message in Academia is that I should sacrifice them for the sake of the job. I will not do that anymore. 		Employed through the end of the semester0n/a. I'm giving myself time to breathe before I begin this search. I realize that's a privilege. Support, understanding, and love. Yes. But life is short: and I know that what I have, and the time that I had, was enough. Most definitely. Academia abuses all its faculty, and until we stop treating Higher Ed like big business, this will not change. I have felt anger: after spending my entire adult life devoted to this vocation, it is disdainful that I am having to make the choice between that vocation and being a mother. It's an obvious choice for me, but I shouldn't have to make it. I no longer feel angry, but I want better for women and for mothers, and for my daughter when she goes to college.

I have also felt and still feel a great deal of grief.

As soon as I made the call, though, I felt relieved, like a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. In a strange way, I feel free to be "me" now. I opened a fortune cookie on the night I told my Department Chair that I would not be returning; it says, "you have the ability to write your own script." It is now on my desk. 		FemaleWhiteMiddle Class135Satisfied with my research and teaching, though increasingly burnt out by the demands to never quit working. I love my students and my colleagues, and this decision has been painful. USAUSADaycare concerns are real: we've been unable to find daycare close to home, and I'm commuting an extra two hours just to be able to take my baby to and from daycare (that's in addition to my two and a half hour commute to work). Additionally, it's becoming increasingly clear that tenure requirements were I to actually land a TT job somewhere would make a work/life balance almost impossible. I do not know of any tenured mothers in my area of speciality within my field, and while I'd love to shatter that glass ceiling, it's not currently worth the toll that will take on my family.
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5/12/2022 3:05:03Graduate studentHumanities, Arts/Music/TheaterIvy League818 000NilEthnomusicologyFinancial insecurity, change of interests, corporatization of the university, departmental toxicityFinancial insecurity, change of interests, corporatization of the university, departmental toxicityFinishing PhD, non-academic part-time job CurrentlyVery goodPart time hourly Linked in, organization career pages, workshops on resume and cover letter writingMixed - some are very supportive and some think I'm crazyn/aNOStop selling lies to graduate students. Celebrate their skills and support them on how they can contribute to society outside of the ivory tower. Encourage the practice and knowledge of transferrable skills. It's been a slice, later days!Some grief but also excitement to see what is next. Lots of disappointment in the institution and my professors for lack of support and acknowledgment that alt-academic careers are a real thing and that this is the direction that a lot grad students will be heading.n/a but I'm hoping it will change for the better!FemaleEuropean, West AsianFirst and Second generation (first on father's side, second on mother's side)10.5 (masters and phd)0n/a
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5/12/2022 2:36:41Unemployed scholar.HumanitiesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2012None. Received full funding from the university.Less than $8,000 a year. It was sad.American HistoryThere are no jobs in academia, and I felt like I couldn't fit in with the culture because my work wasn't the totality of my identity. I also wanted to choose where I lived.Finishing a PhD program.Researcher with MotivBase Inc. 5 years.Literally 100 percent satisfaction. I get to do academic-style research for corporate clients from 9-5, then have a personal life at the end of each work day.$2,000 for teaching one class.Networked like crazy. That's what made the most difference.They seem to be happy for me. A few are perplexed.Absolutely not. It was the best decision I ever made. I make $80,000 a year now and I get to do research work from home.No way.I honestly don't know, but I hope it has. Academia is a dying organism.By the time I finished my PhD program, I was so burnt out that leaving brought me nothing but relief. Years on panic attacks and constant anxiety and stress simply weren't worth it. Once I left academia, I got into therapy and began to heal. The money is better. My mental health is better. Literally everything is better. MaleWhiteFirst generation university student from a working-class family.7 years.2 years.Constantly stressed out to the bone.
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5/11/2022 23:54:34Graduate studentSocial SciencesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2020140000Grad Assistantship, so like less than minimum wageSociology PhD, WGS MAI spent 2 years working in an undergrad dorm as a mentor in PhD school, and found I loved getting to know the students on both an academic and personal levelI found out I love teaching, and I wasn't ever going to be seen as valuable if I only focused on that. I don't love SOC 101-102 classes enough to continually teach them at a CC level.History/WGS teacher at an all-girl's private boarding high school11-10, maybe a 9 on a good day, a 7 on a not-so-great one51,000Used a head hunting group focused on hiring people into private and boarding schoolsNo one really spoke to me about it. My major advisor never bothered to announce my job to the larger department though, so that tells me somethingNope, see my answer above. Especially not now I see cohort colleagues of mine still struggling with securing employment or feeling like failures because the they didn't. Peach the fuck on out of there and be happy friends!Fuuuuccckkkkk No!Yes. And not to my dean, but to the old white dude above, where's the middle finger emoji when I need it?Amazing, I don't miss it one friggin' bit! I never really loved research as much as I did teaching, and on the few revise and resubmits I got for articles I wrote, the comments were less than useless. I'm not trying to Frankenstein an article I wrote just to satisfy an old, white, dude who doesn't get me and my writing style. Also, I'm not going to say that the students in my department who had the most success with one faculty member who seemed to collect grad students like a harem did anything unethical to earn this (old white) dude's favor, I'm just saying they might have. I know I got frozen out after I refused to be transferred to his service 2 days before class started because he needed extra TAs and his research and classes had nothing to do with my research. Bite me dude!Job security, better job fit, I don't have to prove my worth even after I have a degree in hand (fuck that nonsense!) trying to earn tenure.FemaleWhiteworking class, first gen10 + 4 undergrad0Scale of 1-10, maybe a 7
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AdjunctSocial scienceMultiple (juggled teaching for a max of 9 institutions at once)2013300000Combined total $100KCommunicationHiring processes are a joke. Adjuncts expected to spend >2 hours putting together applications for FT positions only to receive a 1-2 sentence form letter rejection. Faculty who are hired are not hired on the basis of how they serve students but how they can make more money for the institution. Genuinely exhausted from the grind and sad to be leaving all the relationships developed with students over the years but need to provide for family and mental health.Countless employment rejections and unstable pay/lack of benefits/rising costs of health "care"HR executive6 months180000Meaningful work, clear connection to discipline, ability to translate knowledge into action"Sad to see you leave but good luck." Student responses much more genuine and heartfelt.TBDMay continue as an adjunct in online capacityI hope so. Academia is so bloated, self-aggrandizing, and egotistical. I look forward to their reckoning and desperation once reality hits. The great resignation will start with faculty and trickle down to enrollment, and maybe then, the self-congratulating masters of everything administrators will realize that they only have themselves and their greed to blame.Absolutely devasted. The lives I've worked to change and better over the years gave me purpose. I can only hope to do the same in private industry.TBDMaleIndigenousLower middle class/impoverished151As far as satisfaction derived from the work: 10/10. Satisfaction coming from ability to support family: 1/10.AbleUSAUSASpouse/parentCishetNA
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5/12/2022 3:55:40Associate professor, University administratorSocial SciencesR2 (Research inst--high activity)201167,000Base 67,000 recent raise as chair to 112,0000Sociology- criminal justice and criminology Stress and illness due to chronic stress and overwork. Multiple instances of sexual harassment at conferences. Multiple miscarriages and my state passed a heartbeat law. I worked 80-90 hours a week, became chair and saw that there wasn't much I could change and things were only getting worse. I got an autoimmune disease my last semester and had my second miscarriage in the middle of finals week and couldn't take any time off. Full time government job. Director level0.758140000I wanted a public service job for loan forgiveness and had a geographic area target to correspond with my husband's jobMost people were nice. Not one single little bit. Not even the teaching. Nope, not even for a huge raise Yes. Fuck you, sexist asshole!NO REGRETS!!! joy, elation. It took some time to get over the trauma but I felt like captain Phillips in the final scene. I was just free and it's great. I ended up finally having a baby and had 4.5 months of paid maternity leave. In a blue state! No fear of criminalized miscarriage. Better WomanWhiteMiddle class / privileged, not first gen80.50 on a scale of 1-10
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5/12/2022 3:30:18Associate professorArts/Music/TheaterRegional teaching college2008$150,000approximately $75,000The artsMy college has been experiencing extreme budgetary crises for almost a decade. I teach in a state that prides itself on not having income tax, and the colleges are an underfunded and unstable mess. Our department is popular and at any given time there are only a few professors to do all the work. We go through provosts and presidents like the flavor of the week. Last summer the college decided that it would lay off a lot of the tenured faculty. Then, they announced (again) that they are consolidating departments. I feel so angry. I love teaching but I just don't want to be around the college that much these days. Also, I work all the time and never feel done. I have excellent teaching evals and materials. However, I doubt whether its worth it to keep doing this; if my valuable colleagues could be laid off, so can I! What does having tenure even mean in these circumstances?My catalyst has been that I cannot even make time for my own projects throughout any given week. I persist in the first few weeks of the semester, but after a few weeks I can never even touch my work because the teaching and service are so labor-intensive. I find myself looking at job ads any chance I can, fantasizing about having the kind of job I can leave at work so that I can work on my projects in my own (free) time.Associate professorongoingCurrently I am looking on linked in. I have reworked my resume and will continue to do so. I'm trying to hang on in academia until I have mastered certain skills and could get another kind of job.They do not know yet. I think they will be incredulous that anyone would walk away from a job as an Associate Professor.Here's what I would say to my Dean:
You slashed the budget and constantly made us argue at the top of our voices just to maintain what was already insufficient to truly serve the students. You delegated downward, thereby adding to our workload, and you wouldn't listen when we told you that the students' educational experience was being compromised. But we don't actually hold it against you, because we know that in these academic positions, one gets jaded and disillusioned because the discourse behind the scenes is ignorant of the realities on the ground. You stepped up when the college really needed you to. Despite the fact that I was really angry at you, I know your heart is actually in the right place, and no one person can resist the implosion of an entire sector of the economy. All I really have is the determination to feel my feelings, and let go of my judgements, and protect myself from being overly exploited.

Here's what I would say to the Board of Trustees:
When I started here, I actually liked being a faculty member at this school. I have very fond memories of the senior generation of scholars and teachers who worked here. Most of these people have been laid off by you, despite the fact that they have tenure. You all are appointees of our little Trump-loving governor. You have gutted the university system and you seem to have the belief that educational institutions can turn a profit. Newsflash: this is why most states have income taxes. Education doesn't turn a profit. Your failure to invest in the young people of your state is tragic, it's of epic proportions, so much so that I can barely look them in the face without telling them that they have fewer class choices, less resources, fewer devoted professors who are there for them. But that would be unprofessional of me, so I don't tell them. I absolutely hate the fact that the head of the board of trustees of our state's university system is an executive who has slashed our benefits. Thanks for our ridiculous tiny raise this year, even though our health insurance costs went up more than that. With all the deductions for materials and professional improvement, I make less than siblings who have no education.
I am disgusted by the fact that boards of trustees for state colleges and universities are political appointees with little to no knowledge of higher education. I am disgusted by the lack of oversight by bogus accrediting institutions that allow state boards of trustees to dismantle higher education. I am disgusted by the way that you have treated our institution and venerated professors at our institution. I am disgusted by you and the governor and the legislature which has passed legislation that tries to prevent us from honestly describing the history of race, gender and class in America.
You had something really great in this school, and you drove it into the ground with your weird little agenda and high-priced consultants. In the process you are dismantling quality education throughout the state. I was devoted to the place, and now my dream of being a college professor (which I devoted my life to for decades) has been shipwrecked.
Guess what, this is hard for me to figure out, but I will someday put all of you in my rear view mirror.		Since Covid began, I have been working nonstop. The students are falling apart. During the summers and the first few weeks of each semester, I'm feeling good because I can do my own work and keep everything in balance. And then a few weeks in, I lack the time to continue working on my own projects, and it's hard to even keep up with all the work. That's when I start feeling angry, as I feel that as a tenured professor I ought to be able to work on my own projects. I am starting to think that there might be an environment out there where I could experience better stability for the same or better pay. I have started to believe that despite the many years I had to prepare for and pursue a tenure track job, that it might not be a secure job moving forward, despite the fact that I have tenure. I just saw several professors in their 60s get laid off. They left recycling bins full of the books they had collected over the years. I know that many think that the tenured professorship is some kind of golden goose, but let me assure you, had I realized the amount of insecurity and understaffing involved I would have switched into another career where I could at least hope that as I accrued expertise, I would not be laid off because I'm too old. Yes I am thinking this way decades before retirement.femaleangloworking class origin, first gen25 years3poorUSA
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5/11/2022 23:20:05Continuing contingent facultyLawR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)JD 2008120,00098,000 annualLaw, public health Overworked, underpaid, undervalued. All time eaten with service, no time for research. Too much stress for a job with no lives on the line.COVIDAcademic professional (NTT)On and off looking for past 5 years2 year time frame, applying to any relevant position. Putting my intent out into the universe.Haven't shared yetLots of staff have left but few faculty. Some fear of failure, some guilt for abandoning studentsFemaleWhiteMiddle100Generally low with occasional peaks of pride
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5/12/2022 0:02:11AdjunctArts/Music/TheaterElite liberal arts college4? 150k8kmusicimpossible job market. entrepreneurship way better lost everything thinking i could just wait it out. entrepreneur7high200ki search for clients. regular networking and sales calls they ghost menononot enough. used to be angry. now i just laugh it off. my self esteem. maleWHITE!!!second generation phd, but broker than the previous generation because the previous generation lied about the job prospects 18low
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Full professorHumanities4-yr liberal arts public1988085KStudio ArtStress from increased workload as survivor of university cutbacks, exhausted after years of fighting the cutbacks as a union member, loathe increase in online teaching/job becoming mostly sedentary, years of playing the academic chess game to survive as a woman, abusive administration ExhaustionChair of department, studio arts professor0N/AN/ASomething as dissimilar to academia as possible.Perplexed, supportive, or don't care.I hope so. Let's all go be happy.I am too busy still working to know my feelings, and I have a house to sell, job to look for. I do know I feel a lot less weight. It feels like a divorce, and it should have happened a long time ago.WomanwhiteMiddle class3316Zero.NeurodivergentUSAUSANone.asexualNot directly, but it was a significant issue during the first 25 years of my academic career, so it contributes to the accumulative burnout.
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5/12/2022 0:02:17Assistant professorSocial SciencesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)20169400082kHDFSRacism, sexism, toxic work environmentHarassment and bullying became unbearable. I was successful but became a target of the bully (higher rank) in my department. However, the chair supported the bully and ignored the ongoing harassment. One day the chair and a higher up wanted to meet with me in their office. Because of bullying and harassment, I was traumatized and did not want to talk about the bully. However, the chair ignored whatever I said and insisted that until I cried. Then they said, “see you still have feelings, you need to talk to the bully and move on!” After that I received negative performance review.Still in academia but applying for positions2 monthsHealthy workplace, ethical practices, diversity One colleague asked if they can have the mini-fridge in my office. Another one started sending job ads, others (all tenured) said we know the department did not support you. I’m still working with them.No. If I were not pushed out, I would stay in academia. Pandemic impacted minorities and academic mothers with young children disproportionately, but Many departments still value white male faculty and support them.grief, anger, and sadnessFemaleNon whiteMiddle class84Not satisfied due to discrimination, racism, sexism
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5/12/2022 3:13:18Full professorSocial Sciences, Health sciencesR2 (Research inst--high activity)2010082,500 basePsychology/Neuroscience Low pay, boredom, toxic admin (chair)Pay 20% below CUPA, Chair’s bullying behaviors Full, tenured professor. Currently looking to leave0Slow. Can retire in academic job in 5 years. Colleagues supportive who know of my plansTexas legislators are proposing to remove tenure. Florida also has similar laws proposed. Our administration is telling us not to worry, but I don’t trust anyone. Fear - losing autonomy; heavy work schedules FemaleWhite/non-Hispanic First Gen120, ABD got TT position4 on 1-10
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5/12/2022 19:24:24Assistant professorSocial SciencesRegional teaching college, Minority Serving institution (MSI)2011080KAnthropologyNeeded to leave the location of the college; wasn't publishing; toxic department with sexual harassment and bullying.End of a marriageresearch for tech company1medium250K base + 300-400K per year stockI had social connections at big tech companies. Leveraged those for interviews; leveraged those interviews for others. Silence. Didn't even respond to my goodbye email. no. I'd love to teach part time (one class every couple of years) as a distinguished scholar at a really great institution. How do I do this??I wish I could go back to my younger self in my first year on the tenure track and say it's okay to raise alarms about this bullying. It's not okay - and if they don't fix it and support you, it's totally fine to walk away. That said, it was a good experience - glad to say I was a professor. Most people outside academia will NEVER care or understand. I was explaining to my team that I was a professor (didn't bother explaining the nuances of tenure track), and then I mentioned something about my doctorate, and they were like "WAIT a minute! We knew you were a professor, but had NO IDEA you were a DOCTOR!!! That is amazing!!" Seriously, those distinctions only matter to folks in the academy. I don't even think about it anymore. The more distance you get from it, it all seems so insular and petty. At the time, it was much harder. I always think of advice my friend gave me: Outside of this job, there are infinite possibilities minus one. More money. Work is still all-consuming (maybe even more so). I don't think most people will find work/life balance outside academia. I miss the summers and flexible work hours so much. Miss teaching. But overall, very happy. FemaleWhitemiddle class151mediumnoneUSAUSAnonenoneWhen I mentioned harassment (low-level), other professors defended the accused. They have since been terminated.
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5/12/2022 14:30:38PostdocSTEMR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)20156500080000/yearEcologyToo few jobs Toxic managerSenior manager data science 1It’s way way better193000/yearI took a data science bootcamp and networked a lot Vanilla? My boss was pissed when I quit NopeToxic managers suck Initially relieved but also scared as it had significant financial impact on my family. Now - so relieved and constantly wonder how my boss managed to be so toxic. Like - it’s much easier to be a good manager! Wtf! FemaleWhiteMiddle class, 2 working parents with some college 104Not that satisfied NoneUSA USAYes this weighed heavily as a mom LesbianNone
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5/12/2022 0:45:50Assistant professorHumanitiesOther2013130,00080,000/yearAncient History/Classicsstress, mental health, salary/funding, found unfulfillingtenure clock approached, I decided I didn't want to get bogged down by the "golden handcuffs" full time, TT 2n/an/ahired resume coach, began networking, remade LinkedIn profile, applied for many jobs.largely supportiveI'm on the way out, but don't have an offer yetnoI think the idea of work/life balance has taken on a new intensity since the pandemic, and that more people are more willing to demand it.shame, grief, imposter syndrome, excitement, enthusiasm, hopen/afemaleCaucasianUpper Middle Class184very low
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5/12/2022 19:23:45Research Assistant Professor (non-tenure track, soft-money funded)Social Sciences, EducationR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2011105,00078kPsychologyDetermined that I could not successfully (or at least not in any healthy way) be both a mother and an academic at the same time. It would have been possible, but untenable. Tired of the lack of security and the faux-collaboration. Tired of the unpaid service/labor.Spouse had a job opportunity with enough lead-time that I could launch a non-ac searchEmployed full time<1mid-high (COVID put a dent in it)118000Set up job alerts on idealist, AEA, indeed, etc. Had a few informational interviews with folks who had recently left to learn how to translate my CV for the outside world.Largely supportive but with a vague sort of avoidance. Definitely not! It feels like higher education is a sinking ship. I miss working with students, and I miss my mentors dearly. But not enough to stick with the toxic environment.Highly highly unlikely. I'm not sure I could ever be convinced.I'm honestly not sure if it has. I think it's a bit hard to tell because the jobs were so scarce to begin with, that people had to start looking elsewhere by necessity. I think the data in the next few years of people leaving tenured positions will be really telling. It does make me sad in some ways. Academia and higher education were/are fraught with so many problems. But, my small liberal arts education and my graduate education made me who I am and allowed me to experience intellectual curiosity unlike anything else. I hope the same opportunities will exist for my children some day, but I know it might look different or happen outside of higher education. It was never a sustainable system, and now we are seeing just how bad it was getting behind the scenes. It was a really hard decision that took me a while to come to, and I really only did once my partner had another option. Then, once I allowed myself to really truly consider it, it happened pretty quickly. And once I decided, I felt SO MUCH relief! And it has been just wonderful. I still miss the feeling of teaching undergrads and working with grad students. I really loved that. But I hated everything else (especially grading!). I don't miss the constant pressure to prove myself. I put enough of that on myself as it is, I don't need it externally imposed. So much better! I am still recovering and feel some guilt when I don't work at all hours of the day. But, by and large, I work a typical 40 hours a week. I have had self-authorship in my role and crafted it into something really special. I am well compensated for my work. Cis-WomanWhiteUpper middle class127lowUSAUSAmassiveHeterosexualnone
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5/12/2022 0:22:48Full professorSTEMElite liberal arts college20040 (unless you include 200k mortgage)75kPsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Institution failing/failed combined with no longer being viable in academia College went into financial crisisVisiting professor at local institution 2 yearsDon’t have one yet#1 I won’t hate it #2 I have the skills or can train easily #3 pays sufficientlyMixed. Those at failing institution or who have left are supportive those at other schools mostly don’t understand why I won’t start all over again and move to do so.NANAYes to some degree, but I think it is for a great diversity of reasons, not just COVID or changing academia.All of the above at different points. The overarching feeling at this moment, however is a frustration of being neither here nor there. I have a contact to visit where I am for a few more years but I also want/need out. The department has been very kind to take me when my institution was in crisis that I want to be sensitive about not leaving them in the lurch so I only have a limited windows when I feel like I can do that. I also have limited time to retrain when working full time. As there are a number of local schools I also feel like I can’t quite drop the research/writing in case a position locally comes up. I know at some point I will have to shift fully to finding a job but with several years on my contract I am finding it hard.NACis gender femaleWhiteUpper middle class18 years0 (when started)Fine, not great, but ok
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5/12/2022 18:28:06Assistant professorSocial SciencesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2013disgusting [200k]75600 basepsychologydon't want to be a part of a system that doesn't change, responsibilities take away from what I enjoy and like to do, poor pay. I could not imagine having to revise my online classes back to in-person instructionI applied for one position and was offered it - had higher pay, fully remote, flexible and is in my area of workemployed full time in an academic institution but not as a faculty member0good105000finding work that aligned with my values, had flexibility and would pay accordingly, integrates social justice, etc.dissappointedDidn't fully leave but I do not regret my decision of resigning from the tenure trackNoI think many people were considering leaving before COVID and that COVID acted as a catalyst to make that happen. Academia as it is is not a sustainable institution.Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice because I am still in academia but have no power in the setting where I work. I have started to view this position as a transitional job and would like to get into non-profit work. I value the work life balance that I've been adjusting to - I think I initially felt more excited about leaving than I do nowI stop working at 5pm, am not required to publish or write grants [which I did not like doing], am not expected to respond to emails in the evening or on weekends, have flexible schedule with a lot of days off. It has taken awhile but I am starting to feel more settledwomanwhite130poorUSAUSAI am a single mother to two childrenANA
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LecturerSocial SciencesR12015170K USD72K USDSociologyBurnout. I have accumulated 6 months of paid time off (sick and vacation) and have no way to take it. I worked while I had COVID and returned to in person teaching despite having long COVID symptoms. Inability to move up. Abusive colleagues and administration (and students). Sexual harassment. Zero work life balance. The bottom like - my job makes and keeps me sick. Having to work while having COVID did it for me. Still in this shitty job while trying to find something else. Less than 1N/AN/AWork/life balance, collaborative team, remote, salary, opportunities for growthThe ones I talk to are also headed out N/ANo wayHard to say. I imagine my circle consists of people who are leaving because that's how algorithms work, right? I feel excited about leaving academia. I can't wait to get out and send my letter of resignation. N/Awomanwhitemiddle class16Depends. I enjoyed it prior to working for my current institution. ADHDUSAUSASole parentQueerIt's a factor. My former director and his wife are well known harassholes and they are still around
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5/11/2022 22:29:45Associate professorHumanitiesR1 (primarily PhD granting)2001072,000 / yearFrenchburnout, moral injury, moneynot being able to take leave after covid deaths in the familyrunning down the clock until June in academia$1medium35,000health insurance - I am the sole provider for familycolleagues I value, understand. Colleagues I don't, don't seem to care at all.n/a - haven't left yet, but will next monthIf I did, it would be to a well-paid administrative job it's coming, once mid-career profs figure out they have other skillsfearn/anbWhitelow-income, no generational wealth281utterly demoralized
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5/12/2022 2:58:02Associate professorArts/Music/TheaterR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)1995068kInteraction designlow pay (female), admin asking faculty to recruit students, admin lying, lack of respect for faculty. 4+ years w/o a raise.Syracuse Universityongoingn/an/anetworking/professional certificationsSurprised but a lot of interest in taking the same path.No.It’s growing and the economy will make it move faster. Dean: we are on to you.Worried about lifestyle changes.female caucasian first gen college graduate 2310% respect for admin
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5/12/2022 16:55:12Assistant professorSTEMRegional (non-elite) liberal arts college200920k65kBiochemistryMy priorities are shifting in terms of how I use my time with a particular focus on family as well as my own mental health. I had a few severe mental health crises before and during covid that were directly triggered by my work and that my department does not know about. I no longer am able meet the requirements of tenure while maintaining a balance at home.Mental health crisis (the latest one)Still in position, starting hunt0N/aN/aClear expectations, work from homeThe two that know are aiming to convince me out of itN/aN/aIt’s beginning to feel that way. I certainly am feeling that I am worth more than this offers.Some grief but it flips to relief and excitement. Then I find myself fearing my ability to succeed. N/aFemaleCaucasian First gen/low middle class background133Mixed. Some highs certainly, but what I am good at and get satisfaction from does not match tenure requirements.NoneUnited StatesUnited StatesLarge—my kids deserve me to be mentally and emotionally present. That no longer feels possible in the job. Queer/lesbianI’ve had a significant problem with a tenured faculty member that has included yelling at my research students and verbal slights during department meetings as well as other challenges to common facilities use. His behavior matches closely enough to sexual harassment that I am triggered by the annual online sexual harassment training.
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5/12/2022 14:29:15Assistant professorSocial SciencesRegional (non-elite) liberal arts college2018065,500 USDPsychologyToxic administrators and other toxic faculty. I filed a harassment complaint and then was was gaslight by my Dean who claimed I was harassing the other faculty member by filing the complaint. I filed a second complaint after the harassment had continued beyond a full year. The Dean threatened not to renew my contract as retribution for filing the complaint a second time. Additionally, the Dean made up an accusation that I was "saying derogatory things about the institution, which is deemed defamation" and then she threatened legal action against me. I forwarded her threat to an employment attorney, who responded on my behalf. Beyond that, my department chair tried to prevent a UG student from working in my lab, informing me and the student that her enrollment in "Independent Research" was not going to be approved. I contested the decision and informed the chair that I would work with the student anyway and instead that I would pay the student a stipend since the chair would not allow the student to get course credit. Chair then capitulated and allowed the student to enroll. The student was a wonderful addition to my lab, presented a poster at a conference, and will have a publication in a mainstream journal by the end of the year. Screw the chair for trying to sabotage a student. Beyond these events, my salary is not livable with a child in NY (thank God I have a spouse who also works), the intellectual environment of my small college is incredibly weak. The students will not do any work (reading, assignments etc), are incredibly aggressive with threats when they don't get the grades they wanted. I'm burnt out, despise the students, despise the administration, and despite the shit college I work at, which basically exists to take 120K from first generation students who don't know any better but think they are attending a "top tier liberal arts college" as our school likes to claim. We're not even close to top tier. The immediate catalyst is that I am entirely burnt out from just 2 years as a TT Assistant Professor at a small regional college. I hate my job and faculty get treated like shit at my school by both the administration and entitled students. My contract ends on June 6 and I will not renew. 0--Just beginning my search since I leave my current employment on June 6I have not yet obtained a new position. I am taking a month off to get my sanity back. I have not yet obtained a new position.My top priority is income of ~100K, collegial work environment in a data analytic position (e.g., Data Analyst, Research Scientist), and remote or hybrid work is appealing but not a deal breaker. Generally shocked since I have a respectable CV and am leaving a TT position. No.Absolutely, especially for faculty with exceptional quant and qual skills. Anger and Resentment at how I have been treated at my institution. Relief that I don't have to put up with it after 3 more weeks. MaleWhiteMy household income is 150KPost PhD: 4 years in academia0--unclear how to determine this. I graduated in 2018, received a postdoc through 2020 then received a TT position.Incredibly dissatisfied. No disabilityUnited StatesUnited States1 daughter in daycare and my wife and I would like to have a second soon but we cannot afford 2 children in daycare. Part of me leaving academia entirely is that I need to earn a higher salary to live the life I want my family to live. NANo sexual harassment involved.
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5/11/2022 22:57:34Associate professorHumanitiesRegional comprehensive university2006063500/9 moEnglishHaving to live in a small town in a red state 2000 miles from family. Low pay. Overwork. Toxicity. Institution rewards mediocrity and meanness. Recruits students who cannot succeed and fails to support them. Pressure to “serve the customers” and hand out degrees. Sense of futility, pointlessness. Disengagement from scholarship in my field. Burnout. I’m not sure there’s one single thing. It gets worse every year. Still an Associate Professor, seeking work 1Not yet Not yet, but my skills are better rewarded in other sectors I’ve done some training in data analysis, UXR but my fallback is communications and policy research. I’m applying for jobs in my hometown. When I went through this last year, they tried to tell me it was foolish. Now I’m not talking to them about it. One colleague I consider a trustworthy friend is understanding and supportive. N/ANo. As I said I’ve been out before and I wasn’t done with it then, but I am now. I don’t have any hope that I will ever be employed by any other school, and I no longer identify with the career. I don’t have a broad perspective on this. It certainly feels like it. I know a lot of people are leaving without having found a secure job, or straight out of their PhDs. In my institution, in the humanities and social sciences, people seem to have “resigned” even while still on the job. Nobody wants to do any more than they have to when our efforts are never recognized or rewarded, and when the job itself becomes less rewarding all the time. The only ones still running around doing extra work are the ones who hope to be upper administrators someday. I was stuck outside academia for a few years and desperate to get back in. It hasn’t been terrible this whole time. Right now I feel like academia will never be right for me and I just want out. I guess I feel a bit of shame when I think of more successful people who have supported me. N/AFemaleWhiteMiddle class1080 to 1 out of 10 . Probably 0
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5/12/2022 3:31:22Associate professorHumanitiesMasters Level institution2010060K USDMedieval StudiesI'd spent too many years hating my life. I don't think I fully lost the fundamentally happy core of myself, but I knew it was being eroded every day that I spent hating what my day-to-day life was like. I think I had been pretty badly burned out for years, but I also had some big disagreements with colleagues and institutional culture about some basic pedagogical ideas. Plus, an ugly history of relations between admin/board and faculty/staff, culminating in terrible gaslighting and disregard for people's lives during that first year of the pandemic, when the board removed tenure from the faculty handbook (effectively our contract) and continued to gaslight us about whether that's what they were doing. I had already told my department, dean, and provost I'd be leaving at the end of the year prior, but the provost asked me to stay on to work on strategic planning for the liberal arts. It was basically a disaster, largely because the pandemic destroyed any chance of giving institutional energy to strategic planning, which is iffy at the best of times, and I was left out to dry. The provost sent me a contract to let me walk back into my regular tenured teaching job, but although I delayed giving a final answer as long as possible, I knew there was no way I'd stay on any longer. The realization that nothing in my life would change in the ways I needed if I didn't leave. I'd spent so many years trying to figure what to change about what I did so that I could maybe change big things in my life but also feeling like I needed to stay on the speeding train unless I knew for sure that I wanted to get off, but I finally admitted to myself that change would never happen if I stayed. Singer and retail associate0, though I'm now going to embark on this projectMixed: I love being able to do better at my singing gig than I could as a faculty member with very low bandwidth, but I would love to have a "day" job that provided a little more flexibility and a little more time to work away from large numbers of strangers. I knew the retail job was likely a passing stage, and I'm in an industry where I have long, long ties, such that I know I'm bringing value to the customer experience. I was pretty sure going in that I'd value the same kind of dynamic that I valued in my teaching career, the combination of bringing my own expertise to bear while also trying to draw out the person I'm working with in order to help them figure out what they need and where they want to go. I think I've been proved right about that, but I would love to have some more time to just be an introvert. It's also a tough time to be working in a service role because of how tight staffing is, meaning that it's a big deal to try to get time off because there just aren't a lot of coworkers to spare, if I can put it like that. $16/hour in retail + $400-600/month for singingAssuming I find an organization that is supporting my values, broadly speaking, I'm probably more interested in quality-of-life issues right now. I'd love to be able to walk to work, to work maybe four days a week and/or to work from home once or twice a week, and to have some autonomy over how I use my time. Approaching my one-year anniversary in the retail job, I'm planning to start doing informational interviews and resume work again, and maybe just diving into some applications to get myself back into the swing of things. But I do find it difficult to manage that when I get home from work feeling fairly drained. I wasn't prepared for how different the culture would be in my new work environment, and I've struggled to respond constructively when coworkers hint at racist or ableist attitudes, on top of the general struggle of being an introvert in a service role. So, I'm considering giving notice or perhaps offering to still work a couple of days a week, and then living mostly off of my savings while I spend a few months dividing my time between clearing out my faculty archive and doing more focused job-search work. I still feel pretty burned out, to be honest. When I'm able to get a day off, I have a hard time getting out of bed and tend to spend most of the day just lounging around, rather than doing any of the things I'd like to be doing. If I had a second income in the household (rather than just my 1.5 jobs), I'd very likely ask to go down to part-time work and stick around in the job for a bit longer, maybe trying to pick up some additional singing gigs. But as things stand, I think I probably need both a break and then some time to really do a focused search for a different full-time job, even though it scares me to have to find and then pay for health insurance that doesn't come through an employer. Either silence or support. Nope. See above for my one real sorrow, namely, losing the chance to read while walking to and from work. I haven't quite figured out how involved I want to stay in research (still finishing up one or two projects that were already in progress and that others were depending on), but that's one of the only areas where I can imagine feeling regret. I lament the loss of library access, but I don't think that's worth feeling regretful about the decision to leave. There are certain classes I would enjoy teaching again, but the situation would really have to feel right. Otherwise, I can't imagine going back. Certainly, I left on the assumption that I wouldn't be back. There's a real rot in higher ed, where even a Jesuit university like the one I left, can so twist the idea of cura personalis (care for the whole person) that it gets held up in tandem with announcements that contradict the principle. The desire for profitability is a cancer. I stumbled into governance roles quite early in my career, and I didn't like what I found in the administration, nor in the structures and assumptions of the supposed academic meritocracy. I'm sure that mirrors the experiences of many other faculty. The thing I miss most is being able to walk to work. That was such an important part of my day, and it's genuinely a big part of why I stayed for so many years beyond the point when I started to think about leaving. I usually read a book while I was walking or listened to an audiobook when it was raining or too cold to hold a book. It was so wonderful to have reading for pleasure be built into my day like that, but I also enjoyed the walk if I didn't feel like reading. I really miss that, but I don't miss much else, other than having time to work alone and more autonomy over my daily schedule. I had wondered if I'd feel sad about leaving, but I don't think I really did. I was able to increase the amount of sleep I set as my guideline for each night, so that's definitely better. Still trying to train myself into a healthy bedtime routine, but feeling more functional overall. FemaleWhiteMiddle-class, both parents had masters degrees112 (as a VAP, so in a relatively secure situation)Pretty low
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5/12/2022 12:58:22Assistant professorBusinessCommunity College15 (MBA)? Not sure what this means56,000 / 9 mo.BusinessLack of pay commensurate with MBAUndervalued, no advancementFull-time community college; seeking industry position1N/AN/AApplying, using search firm, reached out to career services at my graduate schoolNo one knowsN/AN/AI think so. More people are realizing it isn't sustainable for either pay or lifestyle reasons. At the university level, it's lifestyle. At the community college level, it's pay. My best friend works for a major university in one of the biggest cities in the nation. She has an MBA and has taught in a specialized program for 17 years. In that times she's received only $9k in raises. Now she's stuck until eligible to retire and has taken on a second job 3 days/wk earning $15/hour just to make her mortgage. Single mom with 3 kids. That's incredibly sad to me. I am looking to jump ship now so that won't be me in a few years.Very sad to leave. It's my favorite job ever. But I can't support my family on what I make and the TRS retirement is a joke. No advancement beyond department chair without PhD and no one gets that for Business. Can't afford to seek it anyway.N/AFemaleWhite/caucasianMiddle class10Not sure what that means. We have no tenure.Favorite job ever. But can't live off of it.
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5/12/2022 2:40:42Associate professorHumanitiesCommunity College2013190k compounding daily55,000 10 monthEnglish No money to live and pay bills, incompetent, scapegoating, gas lighting leadership, toxic environment, White Boy's Club running the show, limited career growth, devalued labor, low evaluations in writing while being told verbally that I'm a top performer and teacher. Being mobbed. Being told to grade inflate for student success and retention, students not caring if they learn. No money, low (undeserved) evaluation, and being mobbed while giving this place my all. Looking. Transitioning with PT job in writing for now. 6 months Contract work for now but looking FTMoney, value added to community, fair evaluation of work, career growth.I want more money and to be treated as a grown human deserving of dignity and respect. Money. No raises. Limited growth in career at same institution. Toxic environments. Student apathy. Political witch hunts. AngerFemale WhiteFirst Gen. Middle class. 152I have never been satisfied with my backwoods rural institution run by incompetent clowns, but I felt I was making a difference in student lives for the first 3 years I have been here. I've been here 8 years.
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5/12/2022 20:28:58Assistant professorArts/Music/TheaterRegional teaching collegeMFA50K originally in student loans - will have 16k left to pay53kActing/Directing/Movement It is a terrible time to be a teacher. Students don’t care. Students don’t want to work. Cancel culture is killing everything. Students have been weaponized. The University is laying off faculty. I hate what has happened in the last few years. This went from a dream job on the tenure track to a total hell scape in 3 years. I got a better offer back in the professional sector. Fully employed 17Total satisfaction 55kThey recruited meNobody that knows is shocked, but they are sad to see me go. NopeMaybeThe sad thing is that those of us that are choosing to leave are the brightest and the best. This amounts to a brain drain in the academy. I have all the feelings at once and I can’t handle it. I need to find hope and joy again. TBDFemaleLatinx First gen, low income2017NoneAble bodiedUSAUSANoneBiNone
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5/12/2022 16:21:27Associate professorSocial SciencesReligious institution2015100k 51kClinical psychology Salary, toxic work environment, unsustainable work load, and no control over teaching load/dissertation load Many of my colleagues left in 2020-2021 Employed FT in clinical work 0Incredibly satisfied and gratified 100k I wanted flexible scheduling, the ability to choose remote work, and more money Many are also actively planning to leave Not for a second! Absolutely!! And the pandemic and budget cuts will continue to force professors to consider leaving Incredible relief Female White 66No satisfaction USAUSAYes No
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5/12/2022 2:28:17Continuing contingent facultySocial SciencesElite liberal arts college2018050KSociology & Political ScienceNot earning a livable wage despite working around the clock- not even enough to pay 2 days of daycare where I live. Not being valued for my work as a contingent faculty. I also started to feel resentment towards high level admins who are not the best in terms of their scholarships and towards my colleagues in more permanent positions because of their hypocrisy. I do not want to be around people that I do not value... The Women of Color Faculty Support Group has not accepted me as a member because they do not consider me a faculty member (I am a postdoc and my teaching load is higher than TTs, and I have been working at my current institution for 4 years). I still can not get over the fact that my colleagues talk about intersectionality day and night and do not see class and exploitation as part of intersectionality. So I was not worth solidarity to them because I was not in a secure-track position. That was the culmination of my disillusionment with academia.visiting AP0N/AN/Aa public-facing position (so that I can continue to write op-eds) & ability to publishNot left yet.N/AN/AI do not think it did. Because the reserve army of labor is HUGE. People can/will resign. If they were in more secure positions, even better. Those will be replaced with contingent labor. I think faculty is as responsible as administrators. Definitely grief. I feel like this is my whole identity. I lost my home and home country because I persisted in defending my thoughts and freedom of expression. And I cannot survive in the "academic job market" here in the US. How humiliating.N/AFemaleMiddle easternForced immigrant (scholar at risk due to political reasons in home country). First gen (but this is very common and not a huge setback where I come from) so it might not correspond to US first gen. I would call myself upper middle class in my home country (not the American middle class!). Needless to say, as an immigrant, I lost most of these privileges back home. 185I was satisfied with teaching and my own research, not satisfied with the pay and extra service.
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5/12/2022 14:00:27Clinical FellowSocial Sciences, Health sciencesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)9th part—time048.000 british pounds per yearClinical PsychologyWork environment; Covid policies; change into more research role instead of clinicalManagement threatened with disciplinary action if I would not work in person, but the risk polocies for Covid were not secure enough to keep me safe. Request for CO2 meters and HEPA filters were turned down. High levels of risk as was working with an unvaccinated population. Management and colleagues were too lenient with Covid policies, legal mask mandates not reinforced, and peer-pressure to conform and not wear a mask.Final day of work today!! Then I’ll be a PhD student, corrections after viva due in August.Not sureKind colleagues and interesting work in research that can have an impact. Health sciences. University or industry, definitely remote.Not sure they cared, relief. I have nice colleagues too who found it a shame. Students said they were said and will miss me.Don’t know yet, final day today.I think so. Have some ongoing links but outside of the current teams.Not so much where I am in the UK but more people have left this year then before, in the last 9 years. I blame the management.Mixed. Relief to be out of a toxic situation. Sad and mad that I had to leave a great job hecause of the Covid policies and mismanagement of the work environment. Worried about my students; about them being gaslighted, unsafe due to Covid risk and about progress for their studies because of disorganisation.FemaleWhite2nd generation phd12.510I liked the work, but the organisation in my workplace was chaotic, and pointing that out could cause pushback. I had been yelled at before so walking on eggshells. Plus the Covid situation. So mixed. Satisfaction with job 8 (0-10), colleagues 4-5, Covid safety 2.
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5/12/2022 15:23:53Assistant professorSocial SciencesHBCU2017045,000 w/30% furloughSociology Crumbling institution, insane administration, no new openingsDepression and anger at institution esp. it’s treatment of students. Little better than For profits schools channeling through poor black students for federal funds and leaving them with debt and often no degree.Private High School Social Sciences teacher 1Better, though administration is back asswards. Good people and kids, and the mission is good at the school.60,000Live in the same city as my partner. Do something that would lay at least the same. Workplace that wasn’t grinding people down. I had little idea what to do. I could teach so did that. Was lost in the application process though, got lucky with a great job.Disappointed but maybe unsurprised. I had pushed back a lot in my last year for my students. Everyone knew the school was in a bad place.I don’t think I would ever go back, even if my current job is similar-ish. Higher Ed is imploding, and demands insane amounts of hours, and the research process is not only not collaborative, but a parade of humiliating abuse by distant, probably old white men. Fuck them, fuck their institutions. I still read critical theory and write a little on my time - not much even at a private school - but I can sleep at night without rage drinking. See above - fuck no. I said everything above. It’s not a nice place. no one is safe, there is so little support, every paper is a parade of humiliation, and who knows where you’ll find a job tomorrow. In retrospect, it’s a shock anyone who values a little stability and time to themselves works in academia. Very sad but ready. I was so burnt out by the madness around me, and following higher ed sociologists I thought the future was grim. I had hoped academia would be a place of very smart people working together, and fuck was I wrong (privilege is so blinding - it didn’t help that my advisors were retiring Marxists who’d coasted into it in the 60s).
Getting out was hard and depressing because I felt useless, another thing I started I couldn’t see through (film school dropout), and I wondered if there was anywhere for a non-entrepreneurial, Marxy type left. I like to collaborate, I’m not competitive, but I liked scholarly stuff.
My interview for my current job at competency based education school changed my feelings immediately. The INTERVIEW was the most affirming and amazing process I’d been through in years, My centering of students was not seen as wacky and irrational but central to my quality. The bliss has settled, it’s a complex institution with administrative silos, but I have other smart people to talk to and kids to inspire. Very soon after I left, indeed, right after I got hired two days after my first interview, I realized I’d been in an abusive relationship. TW for abuse: I would be beaten down and belittled, then told I was what made my college special; I was overworked and underpaid, and the school constantly undermined my knowledge and expertise; they would then use language of family and folksy “let’s work together” bullshit to make me feel bad for mutiny. 		Better. It is still a mad amount of work to teach, but I’m respected and valued even by a moderately dysfunctional school, and due to that, I can make a little bit of a difference. I’m not angry and depressed, I know where I will be next year for the first time (I fucking hate uncertainty -anxious person). I can spend this summer switching from amphetamine ADD meds to non-amphetamine ones. Cis MaleWhiteUpper middle class college educated family101I fucking hated it. It was an abusive relationship.NoneUSAUSANone.GayMisogynoir rampant but not at me.
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5/12/2022 17:48:09PostdocSocial SciencesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2016038000 per yearPsychology Wanted to have control over where I liveReceived tt job offers with low salary in places I did not want to liveEmployed at a nonprofit research and evaluation organization 1High87000I had a side did in a similar field and was able to learn about jobs and network Peers were supportive mentors were skeptical Not at allNoIt’s like watching a train crash that I narrowly avoided.I feel relieved and have felt relieved all along. I miss seeing friends at conferences but that’s the only sad part for me.Much better! I feel supported and have work life balanceFemaleWhiteMiddle122LowNo disability UsaUSA Kind of - wanted child to be closer to grandparents Cis/straight
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5/11/2022 22:51:49PostdocSocial SciencesR1 (primarily PhD granting)200530K35KPsychologySalary, geographic location, spouse employment, desire to have a family and spend time with children without judgement, lack of interest in teaching classesAvailable options at time of decision Senior research scientist 1Really good150K+Networking and application Cool (as in, not thrilled), viewed negatively I mean, sometimes? But mostly no! Great job, do research, paid better, take time off (vacations, nights and weekends with occasional exceptions)Nope! That ship has sailed. I am no longer well qualified for most academic jobs, but I also don’t want one.Yes… although I think it seems more salient in academia relative to industry because changing jobs is much rarer when you are so limited by open positions and geographyComplicated! Especially grappling with judgement as a lesser scholar for having left.Not sure if this is a question about me or academia.Female WhiteLow to mid SES background 9 years grad school and postdoc, none after 2Pretty good
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5/12/2022 6:03:47AdjunctHumanitiesRegional (non-elite) liberal arts college200803500/ course maybe?FrenchDidn't get TT offer, realized it was increasingly unlikely, couldn't afford to continually move in pursuit of VAPs, etc. Had some adjunct gigs and felt disrespected and really bitter about the low pay. I saw that academia had shut its doors to me.Poverty, young children, fear, need to earn money and find some stabilityEditor/éducation content developer. Paid pretty well. (Started as freelancer for not great pay.)3Relatively good. It has varied over the years. I think I'm pretty lucky to have finally landed on my feet. I find the corporate world kind of weird and some of the work pointless. But it's mostly fine and it supports my life.102,000/yr (new job. Prev 79K)I had a phase of applying for jobs and got nowhere. A friend started passing me freelance work. Then I freelanced directly for one place. They eventually offered me an in house job. I left after 4 years when a recruiter contacted me about a position. Applying "cold" never worked for me.I was never TT or even a real part of a community at the places I taught after grad school. My real "colleagues" are grad school friends, many of whom have stories a bit like mine. My grad dept certainly didn't try to keep up with my fate, so no reaction there.No
I didn't have a choice. Very glad I didn't keep adjuncting.		NoNaAnger and grief, still some shame. Glad I've more or less landed on my feet. Still don't own a house, haven't been able to save for kids college. I feel worried about where academia left me financially. Still kind of miss the idea of academia, the life/job/community I thought I would haveMore money. That part is fairly recent so I'm still recovering. I'm still not sure I really fit in outside academia, but I guess I didn't really fit in there either WomanWhiteMiddle class103I was pretty satisfied while in grad school. Loved teaching, felt pretty successful. Loved focusing my energy on stuff that interested me. Enjoyed having a community that was kind of like me. As a VAP and then adjunct, I felt isolated and a total failure. Some colleagues told me I was no good. I don't think I'll ever get over the shame and anger. I also came to understand how I had been exploited as cheap labor for so long. By the time I left, I was furious, disgusted, distraught
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5/12/2022 6:31:17I was an Assistant Professor at one uni , then a NNT instructor when I leftHumanitiesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)MFA in 1991After graduating? About 24,00033 years later, I left earning 33,000Creative WritingPandemic Zoom classes did me in -- my course evaluations were terrible and it was dis-spiriting. I'd also moved from a rigorous state university in a state with very good public schools to the state ranked 49th in the nation for education, and the dumbing down I needed to do with grades was ridiculous. And I was just exhausted. I wasn't enjoying it anymore.Bad teaching evals at end of first pandemic year which resulted in a bad performance review.I retired and I'm now working part-time writing for the immigration wing of an international law firm and I love it.1Very highDepending on the case load -- and I can control how much work I want -- I make about 1,200 to 1,600 a weekNetworkingMixed. Some wanted me to stay and fight; some totally understood.Nope. Don't miss it at all. Actually, what I miss is teaching at the level I taught at all the previous universities at which I worked.NopeI already told my Dean I was treated badly, that it was partly ageism, and I'd documented all the problems I was having with my supervisor. I just didn't want to fight it anymore.I was so angry and so exhausted and so demoralized. And then I felt like Jon Batiste singing about Freeeeeedoommmm!Less stress, more freedomFemaleWhiteOnly sibling to complete college335So low.
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5/12/2022 17:23:49AdjunctHumanities, Social SciencesR2 (Research inst--high activity), Regional (non-elite) liberal arts college20147500030000 (no benefits)Cultural Studies, Fashion StudiesI gave up looking for full-time academic employment in about 2017. I couldn't afford it, financially or emotionally. Unfortunately adjuncting is an incredibly effective trap if you start out poor. I've been teaching at two schools since 2014 -- one on semesters, one on quarters. No benefits. Short windows for imagining/seeking other employment. they're technically part-time jobs, but we all know they aren't really. And it's impossible to make up the lost summer wages. Also there's the constant carrot-dangling ("you are SO important to us! Students love you! We really need you and want to find ways to get you into leadership roles!") that only results in more work without promotion. General feeling of being a sales clerk at a degree store and/or deck hand on a sinking ship. Hierarchies that turn smart people into squabbling, territorial bridge trolls.

I got my W-2's this year and realized I made more money in 2003 before I went to grad school (when my cost of living was about half what it is now) Now I'm just burnt to a stale flaky crisp. The part I liked (teaching) I don't like anymore. And if I'm not doing this for love OR money, WTF am I doing? I've been slowly building a writing career "on the side". The pandemic enabled me to try making it the main dish. I was able to pay off medical debt and save about a 5 month cushion while planting seeds for alternative income streams. I'm finishing up my last semester right now! I'm just finishing my last term. Giving myself 6 months to stabilize income. I have work lined-up as a freelance content writer, online writing instructor (non-ac!), and writing consultant/coach. I've been edging out slowly.Disney Princess w/ friendly bluebirds, singing daffodils etcTBDRemote/hybrid. Ideally a flexible schedule. Treated like an adult. Paid what I'm worth rather than what an administrator thinks they can get me for. Trying to avoid propping up more exploitative, destructive institutions. Adjuncts don't resign, we just get taken off the schedule. No.Just anecdotally...my friends were starting to resign before the pandemic, and it has definitely accelerated. I looked at the spreadsheet of previous responses here. The difference in salary between adjuncts and FTs is not new info, but it's still nauseating to see on a spreadsheet. One thing I wish I could communicate to the Dean at the school where I've contributed the most -- teaching liberal arts at a private art school where the vast majority of faculty are adjuncts: The school is expensive, but the students mostly are not wealthy. They're lower middle/working-class & taking out massive loans. At the same time, outside wealth is required to teach there. Nobody can live on what they pay. Teaching is treated like a hobby (that requires a PhD?). So, these students have fewer and fewer mentors who understand their experience in terms of class/money. Students also think teaching is something they'll be able to do with their MFA's. It's gross and hypocritical. I went through a period of severe depression in the first two years after grad school. But now the deprogramming is complete. I feel 1. like a sucker/chump for not getting out sooner, for letting myself be treated this way for so long knowing full well it wasn't going to improve. 2. Fear. Growing up without money, it's very hard to give up the "bird in the hand" mentality. 3. Relief, hope, glimmers of...joy? I was going for a walk yesterday running through my post-semester to-do list (send new book proposal outline to my agent, brainstorm article ideas, etc.) and realized that the life I've been dreaming of is actually taking shape. The more I let go of academia/teaching, the more that space keeps filling up with other possibilities. womanwhite, jewishworking-class, low income168Lol. Deep into negative numbers.able-bodiedUSAUSANonestraight, cisHave not experienced it that I'm aware of (misogyny/sexism is another story), but I know I'm the outlier among my friends.
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5/12/2022 2:52:46Graduate studentSocial SciencesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2022025k/yrSociologyRemote chance of landing a job that would be a good fit for my family. Not worth the fight it takes to make happen. No bites in Fall 2021 job marketSelf employed0Fit for my family, meaningful/fulfillingDisappointment, waste of the skills I developed, some quite understanding Systems demand too much, leaving too little time for core functions. Little acknowledgment that we're producing PhDs who can't get the jobs they are trained for. Relief when made decision, but then some grief over loss of the plan I hadManWhiteMiddle class6 yrs in grad school1 year7 out of 10
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5/12/2022 1:19:50AdjunctHumanitiesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)202180k25kAmerican StudiesLack of opportunity, Wanted to live in my hometown & close to familyHaving a kidUnemployed at the end of this semester1Fulfilling, well paying, remote if possibleLargely unsupportive from faculty. My colleagues (current graduate students) are supportive but difficult to talk to on the matter.No. I am gladly and happily leaving. I have no qualms about it now, and I do not really miss any aspect. NoIt seems like it has. From where I sit, it seems like many people realized they will be valued more in a different sector. Initially it was grief and anger. Now it is excitement but also frustration that the transition is taking so long. I am treated better by prospective employers. I once thought that my intellectual life would be lacking, but people are excited by my ideas and my background. WomanWhiteGrew up working class but not first gen83Unsatisfied
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5/13/2022 10:32:41AdjunctHumanitiesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)201510,00025-35,000Media Studies and CommunicationDidn’t get a tenure track position that worked with my family situation1) the pandemic 2) the realization that even the tenure track was not the dream everyone had told me it wasAdjunct Less than 1None yetNoneStill beginning to exploreDon’t think they care much as I am an adjunct Haven’t left yetYes, it seems so. Academia is not sustaining so many people, and is deeply toxic for many.All of those feelings at different times. Female AsianMiddle class, immigrant18, including all graduate work and beyond 5Unhappy with pay and contingency and lack of growth opportunities NoneIndia United StatesYes. Being a mother and having to take time off for family reasons has negatively impacted my career.No, but allyNo, but sexism yea.
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5/12/2022 19:17:32AdjunctArts/Music/TheaterCommunity College201355000240/monthTheatrepaylow pay, didn't make financial sense Learning & Development1Moderate. Pay is great, but the intellectual/creative stimulations and rewards are minimal, and I have to do what my boss wants instead of running my own class. 250000Company culture comes first (I don't want to be in a toxic environment), then how easy the job is, and then how much I get paid.Money and mental health. It's not healthy to invest time in a job that does not adequately compensate you for your work. When you constantly have to defer other things in your life to do a job that pays you next to nothing, it creates stress both inside and outside of work. In most cases, being in academia means that you are in a codependent relationship where you are brainwashed into constantly seeking validation from academia and believing that being intellectually superior (by academia's standards) is the single most important thing in the world. In reality, it is not necessary to teach, publish, or go to conferences to be a valuable person in society. Academia generally doesn't teach you to be kind, caring, or how to get along with other people. No. Not one bit. I worked throughout my entire undergraduate and graduate education so I was building another career. No. No. People I know that are still employed in academia are holding on more tightly. Sadly, academia is good at beating people down (and not building them back up) so my friends will stay until they get fired...even if they are constantly living in fear. For them venturing into another career is scarier than sticking with the devil you know.I never entered academia expecting to get a full-time job, so I was not surprised to leave. I feel relief that I have left, but I also feel sadness for everyone else who can't seem to get out and believe that they HAVE to stay.It's great and I a lot of free time to pursue things I like. When you're a student or a teacher you have to plan your life about a year in advance which creates stress and inflexibility. FemaleAsianWorking Class/First Generation51Moderate. I got to teach a class I enjoyed, but the pay did not compensate for it.n/aU.S.U.S.non/ano
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5/12/2022 6:07:40AdjunctArts/Music/TheaterRegional (non-elite) liberal arts college100,00022kMusic, Voice1. The institutional response to the pandemic consistently prioritized institutions’ bottom lines over the safety and well-being of professors, staff, and students
2. I had more than a full-time load that was split over two separate contracts so they did not have to give me benefits, nor make me a full professor, nor compensate me fairly for my time. This is despite the fact that I was hired to replace someone who was making 3X my salary.
3. There are no jobs for students in my field. While I know students loved participating in choir, I was expected to recruit students to major in music. I, myself, attended an elite conservatory, have six figures of loan debt, and worked multiple jobs/gigs at once just to live— and I was the most successful student from my graduating class. Meanwhile, the students I could recruit to the institution I taught at would never leave our program to work as professional musicians and I couldn’t lie to them to pretend it was worth it or possible. I was essentially recruiting students into a pyramid scheme: if you join, I make money. If you convince others to join, you’ll make money, too.
4. I learned through the pandemic that I love technology.
5. There was a faux support system for students that really only existed to protect the institution from liability. While they encouraged professors to “flag” students they were concerned about, I later learned that students were rarely, if ever, followed up with, and that some students in RA roles were sometimes informed of these flags on other students, which I found so horrifying and a massive violation of privacy for flagged students. This same process exists to some degree at every institution and serves the same purpose— cover our ass and absolve ourselves if a student gets hurt or sues us.
6. The fucking constant micro aggressions from colleagues		I was expected to be promoted to full professor for the 20-21 school year, to replace someone who was leaving at the end of the year. I was elated because I was young by academia standards, and I couldn’t wait to help build a great music program. Of course, March came, and at the “end” of the spring 2020 semester, I was told that admin wouldn’t approve a benefits package for me, but “don’t worry, we will get you in next year— we just have to make it through this.”
I spent an untold number of hours ensuring a successful virtual learning solution for my students— I learned about audio equipment and editing software in my own, unpaid, free time over the summer to help my students have a good experience in my course during a terrible, terrible time. I put on three full length, virtual concerts that were fully edited and masted by myself. I had never used any audio editing software before 2020, and yet starting after my first virtual concert, I had colleagues around the country asking me “Can you teach me how my choir can do this?” Our virtual concerts had a live viewership nearly 10 times larger than any in-person concert we ever did. In the Spring 21 semester, my boss told me if enrollment was down in my courses, that’s expected. Instead, I had nearly 100% retention.
At the end of this grueling year, I was told there “just wasn’t money in the budget” to make me full-time— again. After all of that work, after all of the success despite the odds, and after saving the institution 40k from the person we had lost the year before.
At the same time I learned I would not being getting the fulltime contract I was led on with, my husband— through whom I had health insurance— told me he wanted to divorce.
So, I learned to code.
I did a five month bootcamp and I now make six figures, a full five (5!) times my previous salary. A year ago, I was crying because this massively expensive school couldn’t find 10k to give me a benefits package and a bump to 30k— for a six years of school, multiple degrees. 😂 My current job spends 10k every year just to fly me to their offices in NYC to visit.

I cannot stress this enough: Fuck Academia. I’d burn it to the ground if I could. 		Associate Software EngineerLess than 1100%110k1. Benefits, health insurance
2. Work-life balance
3. Living Salary
4. Potential for growth
5. Ability to move employers/locations at my will		Sadness, some were understanding, others seemed resentful. I was very isolated from my colleagues because of the pandemic so I’m to some degree unsure. NO! I have never once felt an ounce of regret. I know this was the right choice. I’m just sad it couldn’t have worked out that I could be this happy teaching.
But it isn’t my fault— the system is broken, it cannot be, and more importantly will not be repaired. It will only continue to depreciate until it is dismantled. Honestly, I’m not even sure if it ever wasn’t broken— how can a system that once excluded the majority of our world from participating ever recover from the consequences of that prejudice? It can’t. 		Never. I am sure I with continue to teach and mentor others throughout my life, but I will never again be a part of that cult. I hope so. I hope more people wake up. We are hurting students by pretending higher ed is worth saving or participating in— it isn’t. If you love something, let it go. I am sad and angry because I am an incredible voice teacher who really “gets” students. I loved nerding out with students about music and being their to witness their moments of success. But I was also literally killing myself trying to keep doing that, and by the end of it, I didn’t even love music or teaching anymore.
I’m definitely relieved, now. I start my day at 10a, I end it at 6p, I never work beyond that. I never have to worry about my coworkers personal lives.
I’ve also felt sad because I do love scholarship. I love writing, researching, etc. I was preparing to apply to doctoral programs before the pandemic. I’m sad I’ll never be Dr. [name] but I’d rather be able to afford to see a medical dr instead. 		Better. Please, god. Leave. Get out!FemaleLatinaLower/lower-middle5 as instructor, 2 as graduate student 70%
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5/13/2022 5:34:23Continuing contingent facultyHumanities, Social Sciences, Arts/Music/TheaterRegional comprehensive university2017250002160USFHuman settlementstoxic environmentrestructuring from research to forced teachingFull time employed1Just starting to exploreDon't know yetInstitution is not making use of my potentialanxiety of what is nextFemaleWhitefirst generation20nonelowNoneSouth AfricaSouth Africanonenone
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5/12/2022 19:24:20PostdocSTEMR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)201902000 EURBiologyA) burnout, too many projects to balance, terrible work-life balance; B) no longer fulfilled; C) increasing admin demandsGradual decision taken throughout pandemic, had a terrible last year with many failed projects, increased family demands, pandemic stress.Postdoc with 5 year contract1Not yet made the leapNot yetWork flexibility, less stress, less demandsGenerally positiveNot yet leftNot yet leftYes, I think it has. For me, the pandemic gave me the perspective of something that I already knew, but was afraid to admit - research is not for me. Maybe if it wasn't for these two very tiring years, I would still be mindlessly plowing through the late evenings making up for the extra work (still doing it, dear god, but not so frequently). Why do some of my answers sound so much like Stockholm's syndrome?Multiple feelings. I think I already overcame an initial sense of failure, and I am at peace with the fact I will be part of the majority that do not make it. I am actually excited thinking of what life may hold, as if being stuck doing the same things all my life would be a waste. But still feel very attached to my work, so I think I will struggle to let go when I quit, probably will still be coming back to thr email and analyses to help tie loose ends. And I am also afraid of what might come, of the possibility of not finding a job, of even regretting my decision. This feels like the biggest decision in my life.Not yet leftMaleCaucasian991-10, I'd say around 4. Still have days I like, but they are fewer, and bad days have a bigger tollNonePortugalPortugalSince having a second child, juggling everything became more tiringStraightNone
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5/12/2022 3:23:21AdjunctArts/Music/TheaterCommunity College2014100,0002000 / per classPaintingI had to reapply for my job every semester. I wasn't allowed to use the copy machine because I wasn't a "real faculty member." I never taught the same class twice, only taught on the same campus once. The angry conversation with the Vice President when I questioned the value of a degree from their institution after being pressured to give a A- to a student who attended/ handed in about 30% of the material.Self employed, with employees and a plan to pay back the student loans and buy a house.1Quite high.80k in revenue, 50k in profits, 2021.Why not invest all the effort I was putting into teaching into myself?Suddenly, they're all quite proud of me. I'm an artist making a living selling paintings to strangers via the internet. I've gotten more interest as a guest speaker than as a potential faculty member.I get wistful when the fall rolls around.I would have gone back for one particular position at one particular college, but then that faculty member retired and I didn't care. I've got better things going on.I think it's shameful that no one is having conversations with undergrads about careers in higher ed. (I live in a college town with no grad program) and talk to undergrads regularly who are being encouraged to go to grad school so they can become professors.Grief. Regret. THANK THE SWEET BABY JESUS I GOT OUT BEFORE COVID. My stress dreams - which involved showing up at a new campus to teach - have gone away.Way better. I make more money, I have less stress, I work from home and have more time for my family. I'm living my best life.FemaleWhite55Ha! Very low.
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5/12/2022 0:34:59grad student and adjunctHumanities, Social Science, STEM, EducationR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)ABD424,96220/hr PT adjunctEducation (trauma in education, math education), Conflict Resolutionlow pay, discrimination, no job securitydiscrimination against my disabilitiesPT, trying to start my business5100% betterundetermined, as I am just starting my business100% virtual, flexibility, little to no supervision, set my own hoursNo one speaks up because they fear losing their positionsNo, since the pandemic, I have been forced to prioritize my physical and mental health, and have learned life is too short to tolerate toxic work environments, be overworked, and discriminated against.If I do, it would only be on my terms (not likely to happen)I am disgusted that you protect abusive people in administration, and that you refuse to accommodate employees with disabilities who are being discriminated against and sexually harassed. grief, fear, reliefWorse: no real plan for paying back loans Better: so much more flexibility and freedom!FemaleWhitelower520loved working with students, did not like being micromanaged
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5/11/2022 23:49:07AdjunctHumanitiesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)PhD 50000018000/yr Communication / RhetoricDehumanizing, can’t afford itToxic department, colleagues thriving outside academy Interviewing for industry position 1If I get it, I’ll start at 85000/yr Looking for something with stability and no more than 40 hours a week Haven’t spoken to my committee since 2019, all my grad school friends are supportive NoYesAnxiety/grief/regret for the first few years, now excited FemaleWhite Working class 134Low
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5/12/2022 16:39:34AdjunctHumanitiesR2 (Research inst--high activity)2022017,000 my own. 45,000 partner. Cultural StudiesLack of jobs and all the aboveSeeing miserable mentors and other professors that had positions that aspired for. Unemployed Beginning now Picking up outside training for UX Research Not announced yet. Groups on facebook would have me believe so, but I have yet to see that from other graduate students and faculty at my university Curious and excited. Attempting to avoid being victim to the sunk cost fallacy MaleWhiteFirst gen. Lower Middle Class61Little to no satisfaction
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Adjunct STEMLiberal Arts college PhD 2013100k<15k>STEMNo opportunities for full-time position or promotion. Got a new job They didn't even consider me for the AP position open in my department Transitioning to nonprofit position 2No!!!!!NopeYesCis femaleBlack/AAFirst Gen
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5/11/2022 23:24:51Full professorSocial SciencesRegional comprehensive university1999Paid off 155k Public policy and administration (education policy) Harassment and retaliation for racial equity work, harassment and retaliation for fundraising success, inadequate infrastructure to support center I was running, complete burn out after working 80-90 hour weeks for 8 years (ran a center all day and taught nights and weekends), low salary (compared to my original professional trajectory)Toxicity of my former institution and system Researcher - run program area at large research orgZero (secured new position before leaving) Satisfied 200kFlexibility, autonomy in setting research agenda, ability to do applied research I’m passionate about, diverse team, kind people, good work culture, work from home (pandemic)My department chair didn’t respond to my resignation letter. Half of my department left the same semester (all tenured), so we were on the same page with each other. My president requested a discussion to see what he could do so that I’d stay; he was lovely. My dean was amazingly supportive and caring. No. My heart was actually damaged from the stress. It wasn’t worth it and I think I could have lost years off my life if I had stayed. No. From the data, I see that a lot of people in academia dislike it and have checked out - especially student affairs staff and faculty/instructors. That’s not actual resignation, but it’s part of parcel of the toxicity, I think. My dept was small, but three of the six of us resigned in 20-21, all tenured. Another is resigning after this month, leaving the two white make harassers. I think that’s extreme and not generalizable, but I don’t know anyone in academia who is happy. I had started and ran a network across the CA State Univ system, and my field is higher ed and high school/college connections — and I don’t know anyone who is truly content in higher ed anymore. So whether it’s truly a Great Resignation or whether it’s more a Great Checking Out, I think it’s certainly something to take stock of. Many of my former colleagues are waiting for early retirement and finding ways to buy out their time so that they’re distanced from their institutions. Happy to chat about this sometime! Thanks for creating this space. It’s helping me work through the trauma. I was only in academia for 8 years, but being an executive director of a center I built was so much a part of my identify. Being a prof was not because my dept was so toxic from the start (the arrogance on the faculty side made me not identify with it). I felt deep emotional/psych pain and trauma to walk away from all the amazing projects and ongoing initiatives I had co-created/run, and from my fabulous former team of professional staff (admin and researchers). It hurt. I questioned myself. On the teaching side, I felt horrible leaving students I cared deeply about with racist and unkind professors. Over time, while I miss the things I was doing that gave me energy and purpose and my life is pretty boring now, I’m calmer and I think I’m back to being myself, I am sleeping again — so I’m grateful. I’m still unwinding my identity from work. A weird indicator: my kids have wanted an emotional support cat because of the pandemic. Before, that completely tipped me over the edge. I couldn’t imagine one more thing in my life, requesting something from me. Now? It seems like a joyful thing to do. Having the head space and time in life to be cool with a pet is mind blowing to me. It feels luxurious and calm. Everything is better except my sense of impact on something in the world. But I’m volunteering a lot now, which I didn’t have time to do before, so that helps. The ego side, for lack of a better word, has taken a hit. I miss advising the Governor and running statewide programs that I created with my team. But I’m staying safe re: Covid, my kids are safe, and I hang out with my family every night and every weekend. Another aha moment: after I quit, my kids started asking if I’d watch shows and play games with them after they’re done with homework. I’d never done that before because I was always grading papers and catching up on administrative tasks. It’s been such a blast and is what life is about. Female White Upper middle 8Zero (was recruiting to apply and was working in policy research) Unsatisfied isn’t a strong enough word
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5/12/2022 19:44:15Graduate studentLawR1 (Research Inst--highest activity), R2 (Research inst--high activity)2023£6000015.83 per hour Environmental and Human Rights LawAs an environmental and human rights legal scholar, I am increasingly failing to see the point of staying in a discipline (Law/Law Studies) that makes no real world difference. I'd rather use and develop my legal skills at an NGO, international or national institution to fight climate change and human rights violations rather than spending years in precarious employment doing research projects and theorising about it in papers that nobody is going to read or really benefit from. I'm also tired of my department guilting me into providing more and more labour, either unpaid or paid £15 an hour for four hours a week when I'm actually working at least triple or quadruple that on my grad student contract whilst working on my PhD (and that is if they pay me the correct rates, which they often don't)Ableism and people treating me terribly Full time summer internship (nonacademic). Recently turned down a doctoral tutor teaching contract due to ableism 38£26000 per year (pro rata to four months for the internship) A full-time, permanent policy, legal or advocacy job that allows me to pay my bills, work a normal 37.5-40 hour week and doesn't exploit my labour. The bar is set pretty low. I don't think they care Not a chance in hellI think that the neoliberalisation of academia has profited at the exploitation of marginalised and vulnerable groups (e.g. racism, sexism, ableism etc) and the unpaid labour of grad students and precarious contractual positions (e.g. 1 year fixed term contracts). People are realising they don't have to deal with these subpar working conditions and labour rights violations anymore and that there is something better out there: a job where they can be treated with more respect and make an actual impact (and not some 'impact and engagement' smokescreen that the University forces lecturers to do to keep their jobs - an actual, sustained, and visible impact). There was a lot of regret and anxiety at the start of this process. Now I just have relief to the point that I don't even care if I finish my PhD - if I find a good job i'll happily leave this horrific industry behind for something better FWhiteMiddle class4Grad student currently so none (yet)0Deaf USAUKNoneHeterosexualNone experienced (yet)
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5/12/2022 2:14:40Associate professorHealthR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)200580 k Canadian $130 k Canadian $Dentistry Pressure to make grant money, unfair competition to get those grants (low % approval, being measure harshly due to my subject of interest - does not match agencies priorities, being considered as a mid-career research in Morth America from my 1st day of work), micromanagement/lack of autonomy to do certain kinds of research, possibility of making more money as a private practitionerA Dean with strong tendencies to micromanage faculty members, with administrative/bureaucratic “leadership” style (with hints of autocratic behaviour)Associate professor, tenure-track (about to get approval for tenure, all committees were favorable and now I am waiting for a letter from Principal)0N/A0Trying to slowly write board exams for dental equivalence in Canada, and Portugal. If I could get a supportive Faculty that could match my professional goals (being a real clinician-scientist in a Faculty with a healthy, supportive leadership), I would not consider leaving academia Some feel that I should get another position like mentioned above, and I agree. But leaving academia in parts of totally may be more financially fulfilling and give a sense of more direct usefulness for society I do not know, but I imagine that my institution will prioritize individuals with meek behavior rather than ambitious individuals. This may be a better match with the bureaucratic/soulless administration we have so far, which I regret to acknowledge it may take some 6 years to finish.Anxiety with what I may find, or wish to revert the decision. Sadness for all that I have built so far, but do not feel it could provide me with some autonomy in my current institution — one of the main research universities in Canada. Although the university itself is not bad, the Faculty/Dept. Administration has been a nightmare MaleWhiteImmigrant (permanent resident)161Average to low. I wish we could have some consulting hours as a dental practitioner, but this is not viable today
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5/12/2022 18:43:32Assistant professorHumanities, Social Sciences, Arts/Music/TheaterRegional comprehensive university1990None (came out of PhD with no debt—those were different times)120kVisual culture Workload, pointless meetings, anxious and aggressive colleagues, sexist management, students treating us like service workersMother dying—and no paid leave for faculty Retired2High (I create art now, so—less money than when I had my academic job, but way happier)Maybe 20k a year. If I had been younger when I left I would have had to find another career, though Collegiality Anger and dismissal (“friends” stopped calling)Not at all, it is a sick system No—but if there was a setup where I could, say, teach a 6 week seminar I would do itI think the adjunct issue is symptomatic, also the transition to a (badly paid) service industry My feelings have not changed — I have not regretted it for a single dayI have a lifeFemale WhiteqProfessional family 3010OkNo disability USACanadaI had to travel frequently to assist my mother Lesbian (now)Not harassment per se, more gender based expectations (eg who would do the work)
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5/12/2022 12:37:37Graduate studentHumanities, EducationR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)202010,00011,000 (grad student stipend)Social studied curriculum and instrucitonPrivate sector paid better; lack of available jobs; devaluing of service over other metricsjob marketprivate sector ed tech job2very satisfied140,000aligned with my ethics, skillsetmy professors were happy that I found something aligned with my skills; good pay
Overall, there is a general vibe that it is lesser than academic roles....but then folks ask me how to get into it, so....		NOPENOPEIt's hit all of educationI didn't go into the academy necessarily thinking that was my forever pathway -- I left the classroom so that I could be a louder voice for teachers, which I always knew didn't necessarily mean academia was the only pathway. It was definitely anxiety-inducing at the beginning, knowing that leaving meant I was really closing that door. However, I haven't looked back.Good pay, I keep a pretty 9-5 schedulefemaleWhitemiddle class52dissatisfied with a lot of things
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5/11/2022 23:41:09Assistant professorSTEMR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)20160107KStatisticsBurnout and disillusionment. I thought academia was about science, but I am realizing that it is actual about the scientific establishment. And the scientific establishment is not an organization I feel happy in.Immigration issuesEmployed as Assistant Professor0Still figuring outHave not discussed with colleaguesIn my field, not reallyApprehensiveMaleIndian AmericanLower Middle Class110Still enjoy the basic research part, but hate almost everything else
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5/12/2022 15:43:48AdjunctSTEMRegional comprehensive university, Community College32k 100kCommunication Studies Need of job security and additional job interests Pandemic and difficulty finding full-time 8Adjunct at multiple institutions 1 yearn/an/aTraining in tech, not looking yetDidn't tell anyn/an/aIt was partially hit for adjuncts because of greater job opportunities. I can't speak on tenured faculty. The pandemic causes many of us to reevaluate our lives.Grief and excitement n/aFemalwFirst gen9 years7 yearsmoderate satisfaction USAUSAnonenone
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5/12/2022 2:17:55Graduate studentHumanitiesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2021010000/yearArchitecture/GeographyHate the culture, hate the never ending work and the lack of job securityMom got covid very bad and it made me think none of this is worth itEmployed - private sector0.48/1065000I was not systematic about it, made applications as much as I could. I wanted a good work life balance and a job that when I leave work stays at workSupportiveNot yetI hope toI think there are still more hopeful people out thereResentment, relief, guılt and embarassementSo far betterFemaleWhite - middle easternfirst gen1021/10
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5/12/2022 18:51:38Adjunct, Visiting ScholarHumanitiesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2019125,000 USD1,343.27 per monthPhilosophyHostile environment to out schizophrenicsBeing an adjunct for the first time. UnemployedI'm just beginningI don't have one yet. n/aJustice, student oriented, making the university a more inclusive space. Support!n/an/aYou're a bunch of ableist fuckers. Spite kept me there, but compassion for myself allowed me to leave. n/aWomanWhiteFirst Gen104Highly dissatisfiedSchizophrenicUnited StatesUnited StatesCaring for myself. QueerNo sexual harassment, but a lot of ableism.
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13/5/22Full professorHumanities (Medieval History)Russell Group (research intensive UK)19940£75kMedieval History (non-European)Burnout (with 3 months sick leave), clash of values, institution dysfunctional-sexist-racist-misogynist from the top, hysterical management responses to radical suggestions like writing down our policies, exhaustion, stress, being given a task and then undermined and prevented from doing it, denied training specified as available for my position, denied pay rise by impossibility of reaching the bar because of non-transparent "process" for how to apply, bullying behaviour by line manager(s), excessive and pointless admin and audit, unsuccessful with applications to more senior roles (senior management roles) within the institution including one where I was regarded by everyone but the committee as the best candidate - denying me what felt like the last opportunity of a role in which I could actually do something to make my colleagues' lives a little better, realisation that all my (unvalued) mentoring was just patching people up to go get shot some more and so supporting the dysfunction, sick of the neoliberal market bullshit, sick of years of having to fight to defend pay and pensions etc, institution effectively made me a victim of an abusive relationship...Burnout - prompted big rethink, therapy, career counselling, divorce, and a plan to leave as soon as I calculated my pension would suffice - so after 3 more years to pay off my mortgage. Brought forward 18 months by pandemic-induced voluntary redundancy scheme.Portfolio (of sorts): early retirement but postponing taking pension. Finishing legacy academic writing and projects. Some paid academic gigs (e.g. report writing) - refusing to do any that involve real work but no pay. Part-time job as cycling instructor to plug financial gap. Taking MA in practical subject, which may (or may not) lead to a second career.0 (got cycling job after redundancy approved but before actual end date)A range from good (bike job) to very high (MA). The days are good :-)All told, about £6k a year. I also have lodgers. Will take pension too in 18 months' time.From 2023 I'll be starting to look for physical/practical work involving building and making (primarily in timber), networking with my MA cohort and graduates of the same institution, and following my nose on the basis of what I find interesting and appealing. This may involve working for someone else or starting a business with others. Or it may involve full retirement supplemented with a bit more no-stress and enjoyable paid work. I'm really very open. But it must be something practical, useful, that I enjoy, low stress, living wage, co-op or humane management, teamwork, not fulltime. Quality of life! I am signed up for wildly varied job ads (some from an earlier period of the departure process, but who knows?) including trusteeships, contracting, writing, apprenticeships... May eventually start applying for apprenticeships but probably not the others."Oh!" [Surprise]. And then, "Oh..." [Understanding, requiring no explanation]. All the people I like (which is almost all of my immediate colleagues) have said they're sorry I'm going, basically because so few people do/are doing what I was doing in terms of caring about people, maintaining the values we pretty much all came in with, and speaking truth to power, and they reckon they will be short a role model. Line manager response: "Sorry to see you go." Full stop. Did not attend (online, necessarily) leaving do. Institutional response: "Here is a very junior undertrained HR person for you to deal with, who answers questions by reading the FAQ (not her fault), and here we are shoving you out the door unceremoniously and without any financial (or other) advice, or any respect or acknowledgement of what you've done for the uni". Like the divorce, everything they did during the process confirmed I was absolutely right to leave.Not in any way, shape or form. I had already dealt with the rage as part of beginning to recover from burnout. I already had a plan. I was just so sick of it, and just so relieved to be able to go earlier than I had thought I would be able to.Wild horses would not drag me back.Yes. Pretty much everyone I have spoken to has or wants a plan to get out, either as soon as they feel it's feasible in their circumstances or definitely before retirement age, including people in positions of responsibility from big departmental admin jobs up to national (voluntary) leadership roles. Everyone is just so exhausted, sick of being so badly treated, sick of having to waste their time trying to defend things that should be no-brainers (pensions, notably) and in despair that the things that drew them to academia are not only not valued any more, but are regarded by management as either threats or milch cows to be sucked dry. They understand neoliberalism and do not like being screwed by it. What would I say to the pitiful excuses for human beings who will do anything to climb the greasy pole? That they are feeble, insecure, pathetic bullies, unable to escape hierarchical mindsets, attempting to prop up their feelings of inadequacy (usually unjustified! They are usually perfectly adequate, and some are even talented) by elevating themselves over others. That they are, indeed, pitiful excuses for human beings; that they have chosen money and status over integrity and being decent, empathetic human beings. That they will never feel they have enough money and status, and therefore will never be happy. And that they do have other options, for how to behave, and for what to do with their lives. And that if they weren't so keen to trash other people's lives for the sake of their own self-aggrandisement, I would feel sorry for the emptiness of their lives and the vacancy of their souls.Happy, happy, happy! Relieved. Excited about pursuing a part of myself there wasn't time for as an academic. Interested to see what comes next. The change in feelings spans before and after. As the rage of burnout dissipated (thankfully, I had two years of research leave for this to happen in), I slowly realised that I had to get out. I was longlisted or interviewed for senior academic roles elsewhere and was disappointed I didn't get them, then applied to a couple of other academic-type or senior management roles and did not succeed, and realised I wasn't actually that disappointed any more. And finally worked out that what I really wanted was to be free, which meant I did not want this any more, and that I could afford to not have a "professional" job, and acknowledged that I wanted to work with my hands now. I had already got to this point before the pandemic, and predicted very quickly that a redundancy scheme would be coming, so I only had to do one examining term and one teaching semester in those conditions, and for the second one I knew I was going, so I was demob happy.Now I not only determine how I spend my time but I also control how many things I spend it on. I only choose things that I actually want to do, and that make me happy. I have much much less money, but it is enough. Did I mention how happy I am?FemalePrefer not to sayWorking class, child of single mother when that was still widely stigmatised, first generation uni.From pre-PhD training onwards: 30 years.2, during postdoc. I was lucky.A little bit variable. Periods of thinking about doing something else from postdoc onwards, but on the whole pretty high satisfaction in the job, until around 2015, when it just kept getting worse, but gradually enough that I didn't notice until I burned out.Not disabledUKUK, US, UK.Youngest heading for uni, which did make it easier. No longer also being made responsible for the needs of an exceptionally needy partner, so I could suit myself. Parents deceased.StraightNone for me personally, but angered by handling of cases affecting others, and by complete failure of institution to take up this issue in any meaningful way. Saw effects of sexism and misogyny on others, and I can't imagine it didn't affect responses to me from above.
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5/13/2022 10:01:09Associate professorSTEMR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)20060£55,000Earth SciencesTired of the toxicity and negativity; want to prioritize family and mental health; want to be appreciated; want to use my skills to help people rather than fuel egosIn the past year my department has increased my teaching and admin load by more than 100 hours, while the University simultaneously slashed my pension and shut down my analytical lab and ability to do researchFinishing final semester, leaving end of the summer0Remote, flexible hoursI've not told them yetYes - it is becoming more and more clear to many UK academics that UK HE is fatally brokenI feel extreme relief and excitement for my futureFemaleWhiteFirst-gen2016LowNoneUnited StatesUnited KingdomNoneHeterosexualNo, but I have definitely experienced this during my career
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5/12/2022 19:56:25Lecturer (not sure how this equates to US)Arts/Music/TheaterOther20160£51'000Overwork from increased teaching and admin load burnoutFull time permanent4 monthsNot started yet£42500 pro rata to hoursReasonably equitable salarySome colleagues have been very supportive, others less so...Not applicable I may return to full-time, Yes - in a small department As I am only partially leaving, at the moment I feel a mixture of positive and concern ...Not applicable FemaleWhiteFirst gen, working class background 1374I have a long term chronic health condition UKUKNot applicableHeterosexualNot applicable
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5/11/2022 22:44:29Adjunct/contingent facultyHumanitiesOther2020£30,000£18,500English Literature and Film Financial security and lack of fulfilment/recognition. Lack of prospects and financial hardship. Full time employment. 1High and still improving. £25,000Lots of searching on job sites, LinkedIn, and following social media fora for advice and motivation. Targeted applications based on skills match.Largely commiserations and a few congratulations. No - not yet at least. I am working in an adjacent industry but feel better about my own security as a result. Nope! Yes. I'm seeing more and more former colleagues and long established academics leaving each month. Some what is and imposter syndrome but largely optimism. Stress levels are dramatically lower and I'm sleeping better. Female Multiracial - Egyptian/English Working class (first gen) 2 (+ 3yrs teaching as PhD candidate) 3Extremely low.
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5/12/2022 18:26:49Associate professorSTEMCommunity CollegePhD 1991$5k$96kChemical Engineering, thenchemistry & physical scienceHealth reasonsNeoliberal atrocities in academia, awful working conditionsRetired5Pathetic The least damaging and racist positionLeft incognitoNopeNot even my ashesI saw the transformation of academia from the 1970s to the 2010s. I believe that if there are no radical changes, tenure will be the realm of very few. Strong faculty unions with strong contracts will become the only solution. After I left, my health began to improve. Best decision I made. Happier than everMalePuerto Rican First generation college graduate, first PhD in the whole family line21 years10.5Disgusted & sickenedPuerto Rico Puerto Rico and the U.S.None
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5/12/2022 19:27:02Associate professorSocial SciencesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)0$74kPsychologyBurn out/moral injury; shift of institutional focus away from learning and research to cranking out as many graduates as possible; bullying and harassment; glorification of bad actors; constant budget cutsSeeing a selfish, bullying senior colleague win an award for mentorshipTenured faculty1Remote option; related to research interests in some way. Using LinkedIn and networkingMany have been sympathetic and understanding. "I don't want you to leave, but I understand why you would." Some have been dismissive that I would have prospects. Others know but haven't said a thing.I think the pandemic made some institutional priorities very clear and those priorities, at least at my institution, were neither student learning nor anyone's well-being. I would not say a word to any of my administrators. They don't listen anyway.All of the above at the moment. I'm very angry and sad, but also nervous, but also kind of excited. I suspect once I get out, I'll be very relieved.Female193SubterraneanUSAKind of the opposite. The main reason I haven't left already is that I don't want to uproot my teenage children.Minimal
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5/11/2022 22:39:30Adjunct/contingent facultySocial SciencesElite liberal arts college2012$110k$73kPsychology Unable to secure TT position in current location and unwilling to keep moving. Tired of being overworked, underpaid, and undervalued. Not even offered an interview for TT position at institution where I’ve been doing the job already for 4 years as a contingent faculty memberJust accepted a position as a clinical data manager for a digital health startup 1Haven’t started yet!$95kPriorities were better salary and better work boundaries. Also wanted a job where I could still use my skills and work on something that was meaningful to me. Tenured faculty in my department looked at it as a failure - encouraged me to keep trying for other TT jobs. NoNoYes because many people seem to be leaving for better working conditionsMostly relief but some grief over loss of identity. Lots of anger about how long I stayed.Not sure yetFemale White Middle class 1510Very dissatisfied
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5/12/2022 19:54:05Associate professorSocial SciencesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2007$0 college...$250k house, car, cc$73kSociologySo many! Underpaid, exploited relationship via institution, lack of respect and autonomy from admin. Disrespect from students who act like entitled consumers. Lack of time and no support for my research. Burn out. Poor COVID policies. Just fed up!Two things. 1. Health scare last spring when w no symptoms, I had a 99% blocked coronary artery which was discovered by chance. 2. Admin requiring faculty to teach in person early this winter, while requiring no penalties for students who don't attend. And threatening disciplinary action against faculty who "disobeyed"Assoc Prof tenured2I used to do applied research. (Why did I leave?) Reconnecting w some long ago colleagues. Networking in general. Using LinkedIn. Don't know yet! I think it is here but I call it The Great Re-evaluation. Even if I don't leave, I know my worth. And so do others. My Dept has lost 3 faculty during the past 2 yrs. Others are taking phased retirement or are on the market. My "Dean" is an Interim Dean who is greedy, tone-deaf, and arrogant - I guess that's the job description but he didn't make the cut in the failed search...I'd say, Bless your $@#&%*# heart. I hope it's all been worth it.Sad at giving up this dream; extremely disappointed at what academia has become. Angry w greedy unethical administrators. Anxious about whether I can make the transition given my age (60s). Feeling some relief investigating possibilities in applied/policy research.FemaleWhite European/ScandanavianSecond gen college/first gen female college202Poor, very unsatisfied. I'm looking but haven't left yetChronic diseases but they don't currently affect my functioningUSAUSANo, it's just me and my dog's. But I do need to take care of me.LesbianNo
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5/12/2022 13:55:12Full professorHumanitiesRegional comprehensive university19980$67,000/yearFrench languageAdministrative malfeasance and hitting my limit re neglect of the humanitiesA budget crisis caused by an incompetent administratorSelf-employed author0High$125,000/yearI had begun doing this work on the side and during the summer.Dismay, but understanding. Most were supportive. No. Things are only getting worse.Never.I think *a* great resignation is happening. But there will be more to come.Anger and grief at the beginning. I never missed it for a moment once I was gone, however. I have been away from academia for six years now, and I am so glad I left when I did.Soooo much better. Less stress, less anger, more agency. FemaleWhiteFirst gen22I obtained a tenure-track position my first year on the marketVery dissatisfiedNonUsaUsaNoneCis hetNone
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5/12/2022 18:19:18PostdocSocial SciencesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2018$48,000$60000/yearPsychologydon't want to move for a job, no secure jobs availableBought a home, so now I am not willing to move for a new job, need to find a remote job or job in the city in which I livecontract full-time2LinkedIn, TPIO facebook groupdisappointed, pity, assuming I'm not willing to sacrifice or work as hard, a sense of abandoning the cause because I work in issues of gender and healthCapitalism is an inherently evil system, and a lot of the issues in academia are because of a business model instead of a service model.At first I felt like a failure, that I just wasn't hardworking or smart enough to get an academic job. I felt embarrassed and shame when telling people I didn't want to pursue TT after graduation. Now I feel validated, that the public narrative has finally caught up a bit and the default assumption isn't that I'm not smart enough or not willing to work hard enough to get a TT job, but there is more common knowledge that TT jobs don't exist and that it's not a failure or "settling" when I don't get a TT job even with a PHD.cisgender womanwhitefirst gen Canadian of immigrant & working class parents. middle class as an adult.1364noneCanadaCanadanonestraightnone, but only because I generally work with LGBTQ folks in the research work I do on gender so I rarely work with straight cis men. If I worked more regularly with straight cis men, I'm sure I would have experienced sexual harassment like most other of the women and queer folks I know in academia.
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5/12/2022 13:19:21AdjunctSocial SciencesRegional comprehensive university20030$4700 per course WGS, sociology Burn out, overwhelmed by students needs and no support to address needs that prevent learning, feeling like the University is exploiting me and them Empty nesting allowing me to explore some new pathways volunteer only n/a hard to say, all mixed in I am volunteering in community social change space and also finding it under resourced and full of burn out pathways, hoping I can figure this out N/AIf I'm going to work for social change/meaning, I want to be clear about where I can do the most good. I wouldn't mind volunteering for Academia if they didn't pay the football coach $275,000 but I feel like I'm deep in a ponzi schemeThey don't believe me and it is true I could easily be lured back in I regret not understanding the game more when I was much younger. I did not know how to advocate for myself or get into a TT job fast enough, and once in adjunct track could never move over. For a long time I felt so sad about it but lately I realize I don't envy my tenured friends at all anymore. I never imagine a FT or TT job again. I would like to find a way to teach PT that feels less exploitative or demoralizing. I am appalled and terrified at the ways Higher Ed is jumping on the bandwagon of forcing mothers and caregivers of elders/in general and disabled or medically vulnerable people to the absolute margins. Affirmative action for the mediocre white men is on full display and enraging. Sexual harassers are paid to stay but those of us teaching in feminist or anti-racist spaces are essentially driven out and then blamed for leaving. There is no integrity toward fulfilling the mission of Higher Ed and it makes me furious and very sad. shame, relief, curiosity, fury, dread at what the future brings when workplaces in Higher Ed are so bad I am so lucky to be able to afford to leave and recognize that privilege. I have let go of feeling ashamed about not "making it" as a caregiver and feminist academic. cis female whitehigh income via family of origin/marriage 300I found myself complaining and crying more and more which signaled growing dissatisfaction - I wanted to have a stronger sense of belonging which meant taking on a lot of volunteer projects that let me to bitterness.
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5/13/2022Postdoctoral FellowSTEM (Ecology & Conservation Biology)University2017None (had approximately $30,000 from my undergrad that I paid off about two years after finishing my PhD)$47,000 (CDN)No permanent job opportunities (just short-term postdocs or teaching contracts). Plus the culture around authorship and "impact factors" started to drive me completely insane. I love the work and I frankly don't care whether my name is on a paper or not (even if I did the study and wrote the whole thing myself), so I have trouble understanding people who strategically try to get their names on stuff all the time.No catalyst per se. It's been more of a gradual disillusionment haha.I'm still technically in academia, but my current postdoc is split 50/50 between my university and a not-for-profit conservation organization (where nobody gives a crap about impact factors or h-indices or any of that garbage). So I guess I'm kind of half in half out haha. I plan to try to get a permanent position with the not-for-profit organization though (i.e. I don't plan to return full-time to a purely academic job).1Amazing. It's brand new, but I love that the focus is entirely on the work itself, not on publications or metrics of "research progress".60000 (CDN)I'm quite picky about where I end up (I want to stay in my home province to be close to family after living far away from them during grad school). So I regularly look at the job offerings on the websites of the not-for-profit conservation organizations operating in the province, and I check the relevant provincial government job offerings pretty regularly.I don't think many of them know (since I recently made the change and still have a foot in academia). But they keep sending me tenure-track positions even though I've mentioned many times that I don't want to be a professor.Not at all, but I do think it's a horrible shame that academia drives out so many amazing people. Nope. No plans to return. There is a small possibility that if a tenure-track position opened up in a department at a tiny teaching university that I knew for a fact had an amazing departmental culture, I would apply for it. But that's the only way I would ever actively attempt to return.My main concern is the way academia treats graduate students. I happened to have an AMAZING supervisor who genuinely valued me as a human being first. But I've witnessed so much bad treatment of grad students. They are SO SO SO vulnerable, in part because they don't realize how much they're being exploited, and in part because they're so beholden to their supervisor. The power imbalance is absolutely insane and goes far beyond a normal boss-employee power imbalance. I basically feel like academia is a power abusers wet dream.I was absolutely in love with academia in undergrad because it was the first time I ever felt like I fit in anywhere (I come from a tiny, extremely religious town in rural Canada and I did NOT fit in there). I also LOVED graduate school (possibly even more than I loved undergrad) because my supervisor was amazing to work with and my labmates were some of the best people I've ever met. I would say I started having negative feelings towards the toxic aspects of academic culture when I witness my PhD supervisor struggle so hard for so long to get any kind of research funding. Funding agencies simply didn't value his incredible mentorship skills or creative ideas and approaches to science, whereas other professors who pressured their graduate students to publish huge papers in huge journals all the time were rolling in cash money. Then when I did my first postdoc, I experienced the publish-or-perish mentality firsthand. My labmates were amazing people, but the culture in that lab was rife with toxicity due to the PI's approach to publishing and research in general. After two years, I was sick of watching her treat her grad students poorly (but not poorly enough to warrant any formal complaints) and I left for another postdoc in my home province even though it came with a MASSIVE salary cut. Definitely, definitely better. After leaving my first postdoc, I found myself regaining confidence in my abilities and excitement for the work. I hadn't even realized how much energy I had been using to try to preserve some sense of self worth when I was around that first postdoctoral supervisor. Now ALL that energy is redirected into the work again (like it was during my PhD), and it feels awesome.FemaleWhiteFirst generation academic (my parents have their high school diplomas and my brother dropped out of high school). My parents were living at the poverty line all through my undergrad (I got a ton of burseries for being from a low-income family). They were doing a little better financially when I was in grad school, but even then I wouldn't describe them as "middle class". They've since retired, but my dad was a truck driver and my mom was a day care worker (although she sometimes went through periods of unemployment due to severe depression and anxiety).14 (from the start of my undergrad to the present)5 (since finishing my PhD)Okay. Definitely better than it was during my first postdoc, but the lack of permanent job opportunities is still incredibly frustrating.NoneCanadaCanadaI moved back to my home province so that my brother wouldn't have to take care of my aging parents alone (not sure if that counts as caregiving?).AsexualI would say none. I certainly experienced it in my undergrad (from one of my professors) and in grad school (from two postdocs in the department), but THANKFULLY I never experienced it from a supervisor or any of the other people I had to work really closely with (labmates). So it didn't directly influence my decision to leave, although the fact that professors are routinely allowed to get away with it as long as they're pulling in big research grant money doesn't exactly make me inclined to stay!
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5/12/2022 19:22:49Continuing contingent facultySocial SciencesRegional teaching college2016$11,000$43,000/yearPsychologyI have never had a promotion or a raise in 17 years, despite dramatically enhancing my skills and value by earning a PhD 6 years ago.Realizing the above fact. And being turned down as a co-signor for my daughter's student loan and first apartment. I do not have debt other than a small student loan I took out to cover health insurance in my PhD program. I just didn't make enough money.Research consulting firm0.5I haven't started yet, my first day is June 6. I expect my satisfaction to be very high.$177,880/year - Yes, you read that correctly!Joined the Professor is Out first, Revised LinkedIn Profile, Revised resume. Prioritized 6-figure salaries, as I had been income-deprived for nearly 20 years and struggling financially.I have not told anyone yet. I am accepting an offer in 2 hours :)I will absolutely not regret the decision to leave after I start my new job in 3 weeks.No.I think this concept has hit all low-paying positions. I do not think necessarily it has or will hit academia at greater proportions than other positions. I'm leaving because I am not valued - someone will always come along and pick up one of my classes as an adjunct because academics are passionate about their content area. That passion is being taken advantage of. Universities have money to create a new advising center on my campus but not to give cost of living raises to current employees. I'm going somewhere that cares about my financial well-being, and somewhere with a career ladder.I feel betrayed by academia. I did all the "right" things, which basically means taking on more and more work for no salary increase to make myself more "marketable" for a tenure-track position. I have been in the final round of interviews several times, and either wasn't selected, the job was pulled by the Dean, or the search was canceled. I give up.The quality of my life will dramatically improve. My husband can take a leave of absence from his job to care for his 29-year old daughter in cancer treatment. I can help my children pay for college now. FemaleWhiteMiddle class1761 out of 5. Low.Non-disabledU.S.U.S.Moderate. NoNone
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5/12/2022 0:53:44AdjunctArts/Music/TheaterRegional teaching college20040$4000-6000 per classArt & DesignNo full-time jobsLack of healthcare & steady paycheck High school art teacher3Even lower$70,000Indeed & teacher hiring sitesBurned bridges, very annoyed I left, expected loyalty with none given by themWould have stayed or looked for alternative employment if I knew how much worse the k-12 system is than college. Yes. Yes on k-12, retirements in high Ed offset low enrollment firings.Teaching is one of the worst professions on any level.Better pay & security (if that exists anywhere) but exhausted everyday.FemaleWhiteThird 2015Low
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5/12/2022 16:13:12Adjunct, University administratorHumanitiesR2 (Research inst--high activity)2015thankfully, none from PhD$30,000 (combined admin & adjunct work)Religious Studiesclear I was never going to get a tenure track job, found department I was adjuncting in very nepotistic, was working in admin for a different and completely toxic department. I actually got fired from my admin job and decided that was the sign to completely leave the academy. If it could be so cruel to me, why should I cling to it?Operations Lead (full time, continuing) for a not for profit in medical tech1feel secure and able to plan my life now. I felt like a ton of bricks had been taken off my shoulders the day after I got fired - it was so bizarre. I hadn't realized how terrible things were until I was forced out.$72,000/yearat start just needed a job - I am American but I did my grad work abroad and was working at at a foreign institution when I lost my job. I was in the middle of immigration paperwork, and even with my husband, a citizen of the country, sponsoring me, I needed to be employed. I was throwing out applications to every not for profit I could find in that city. Eventually, I spotted a job at the city library in admin, applied, got in, and was so impressed by the culture there. My advisor stopped speaking to me, so I can't say, but I am guessing he was not happy. Quite a few told me to try for post docs to "get back in" the system. Others told me they felt sorry for me, how could I leave the academy?I was brokenhearted when I left the academy, but now I do not regret the decision to leave. Watching my PhD friends continue to eek out existences and grub along makes me feel so good about the security I have. Sometimes I look at my retirement savings account and ask myself why I stayed in so long. But then my husband (also alt ac post PHD) reminds me that we own our apartment because we got out (that is the term we use) when we did and while we can't change the past, we can be glad we threw in the towel when we did.No, others suggest I do, particularly that I try to get admin work at the university in our current city, but after my experiences, I really don't want to go back to the current academic culture, which I suspect is similar across campuses and the globe.Of my colleagues and friends still in academia, I haven't seen it hit. Those of us who left, left before it, and so far those still in it are really quite entrenched. Re: to the Dean, I would say the current state of the academy is completely unsustainable. I see it as a ticking time bomb - eventually the model will collapse.I was really bereaved at first, and also angry that everyone had, it seemed to me, lied about the state of the academic job market. As I said above, I also felt huge relief when I was out. I talked a lot at the time with a friend of mine, who was denied tenure at an institution around the same time, and we both felt like we had emerged from a cult. It took several years to get over it, but now I am so glad I got out when I did. My work/life balance is much better now. I have my weekends all to myself. And if I have to work a weekend for a conference or something, I get that time banked, to take off later! What a concept. I also have savings and as mentioned above, we were able to buy an apartment in the city we live in. I also think I am a much nicer person. Reflecting, as I had time to do, after my departure from the academy, I was really aghast and embarrassed by my behaviour at the end of my time there. The uncertainty and cut throat nature of the place definitely brought out the worst in me at times. femaleCaucasian middle class 2 post finishing PhD2very low, was extremely stressed out, getting bitter, felt like walls were closing in
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5/12/2022 18:10:20AdjunctArts/Music/TheaterRegional (non-elite) liberal arts college20050$28,000 CADMusic (conducting)Harassment, misogyny, low pay.Harasser becoming department chair.Employed.090%90,000Took some time to turn my side hustle into my main hustle…it was mostly about expanding my existing roles.Fear that I will speak openly and publicly about what I experienced. They should be afraid. I will be speaking out.Nope.Maybe don’t protect harassers? What goes around comes around, asshole.It has been hard to leave, to think of myself differently, to cede that space and that affiliation. And as I’ve told people, my students have reminded me so sweetly of why I love teaching. But I also feel freed, I counted down the weeks through the final semester. I’m so happy to be out.Female White settler Jewish French-CanadianSecond gen, intergenerational Holocaust survivor27 years010%NoneCanadaCanada100%Cis het100%
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5/13/2022 9:11:34AdjunctSocial Sciences, EducationR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2013$65,000$2600 per courseCurriculum and Instruction, Ethnic StudiesJust can't live for a dream anymore. The job hunt was tough before COVID, but now, it's horrible. I've applied for over 60 Asst. Prof positions this year and only offered 3 ph interviews and 2 campus visits. I teach K12 and get paid much more now than my 3 years as Asst Prof at a university (by about $20k). Just dealing with shattered dreams and unrealistic expectations.Therapy! Helped me understand that what I do is not who I am. I can continue to teach or do whatever else and still be a good person, father, spouse, etc.employed at a virtual HS0meh - teaching at my HS is not very enjoyable$84,000I will focus much more after I am done applying this month. Then, it is full attention on new career path and not on searching/applying for uni positions.Some are very understanding. Some are confused, like "Why won't you apply to x position at podunck school in middle of nowhere town?" It's like they don't understand the reasons for not wanting to do that at this point in my life. Others in academia have just been mute.No. Once the door is closed, that part of my life is over, and I am only looking forward.Not from what I can tell. When I graduated with my PhD 10 years ago, I heard that many profs would be quitting due to age, but I have seen no evidence of that. The market has only gotten more competitive and unforgiving. I've heard about several positions I've applied for this year getting like 150+ applicants. It's just insane. I was just thinking this AM about contacting my former dept head and asking why she ruined my career path, but I know she has moved on to another uni (and the dean has retired), so they don't give two fucks about me or what happened after they let me go after 3 years for absolutely no reason (literally, none given at all). I might continue to do a little adjunct work for one school because I like the extra cash and the work isn't much, but I might quit the whole system completely this summer. I was devastated and felt ashamed, belittled, angry, depressed, and very confused as to why I have been so unsuccessful getting a F/T uni position. Now, with therapy, I have gotten to the point of acceptance and understanding that it's the university system and not me that has failed. I have value and will find a position that appreciates my talents and skills. It's still tough at times, but I snap out of any funk much, much quicker.maleWhite Jewfirst PhD in the family75High my first year or so; that is, until 2 of my co-workers were fired. Then, it was tense and very uncomfortable.noneUSUSI refuse to move my family again for a career that is so unstable and unappreciativeno
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5/13/22 1:13 AMContract InstructorHumanities? Does it matter when you're not really a part of it?2017$175,000 USD$25,000CADFilm StudiesNo future. No respect. No fair compensation. No stability. No say in the department. No motivation to do scholarly work. Tired. Used. Abused. Middle-aged with no kids because academia took up all my fertile years. Pissed off. Knowing that if I don't start working in another capacity soon I may never be able to make any money or have any stability.Still doing contract teaching.0N/AN/AKeeping my values. Work/life balance. Remote work. Good compensation. Autonomy. Fulfilling work, but also the ability to leave work at work.What academic colleagues? I don't exist to them.N/AI don't know. I'd like to keep teaching but I don't trust them and I don't want to jump through their hoops anymore.Yes? I don't know.I feel betrayed. I feel like I wasted my life. I feel like I sacrifice everything for nothing. So, yeah, bitter.N/AFemaleWhitePoorI will count the years I spent in the PhD and the years since graduating. So, 14. 5? 6?My students constantly tell me how much they love my classes. No one else talks to me. I have no stability and no money. It's a mixed bag.Depression/AnxietyUSACanadaNone, for now.PansexualThe prof whose expertize was in my area was gay and only gave opportunities to gay men. He was on my committee but I didn't ask him to supervise me in part because he clearly only wanted male mentees.
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5/13/2022 11:06:00AdjunctHumanities, Social Sciences, STEMR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2020More than $150,000$22,000 annuallyAnthropology/Environmental StudiesAcademia blowsCOVID essentially shut down all of the job searches I was part of in 2020. After that point I adjuncted for a while to take time to rethink my career path. At the end of the semester, I was not renewed, and was not even told I wouldn't be renewed- I simply saw that I hadn't been included on course schedules, and when I reached out to ask, they were like "oh yeah..." This was truly insulting.Employed full time: state government, research analystSix monthsScale of 1-10? Like an 8$79,000Pay, work/life balance, ability to perform meaningful & fulfilling workGeneral surprise--I was always one of the ones my professors thought could "make it" and had a real passion to stick out the years necessary to do so. But, they were also largely supportive.Absolutely notLol fuck noI think it has- I am continuing to talk to more folks who are looking for a similar way out. Academia collectively needs to remove its head from its ass to see the world around it.I felt sad until I saw how much more money I'd be making. No regrets!I have many fewer migraines and panic attacks. I am much happier with my work/life balance and career prospects.MaleWhiteFirst generation PhD (parents were working class: father was a police officer, mother worked at a factory)6.51.5On a scale from 1-10? Like a .5Have a disability (severe migraines)USAUSAN/AGay manN/A
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5/12/2022 18:48:14AdjunctHumanitiesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)20217000$21,000/yrLinguisticsWork-life boundaries, better fitExtremely low pay for available work (lower than graduate student stipend)Contractor role in tech0.5High$120,000Looked for work that is relevant to my trainingThose I’ve talked to are excited/happy for meNo. I would most likely be miserable (and poor) if I stayed in academia. I am now (a) not miserable, and as a perk, I am (b) not poor. NoI wonder this myself! I would hope so, because there are better-paying jobs available for many recent graduates who don’t have to sacrifice their mental health in order to have satisfying work and/or make a sustainable living. Excitement with an occasional pinch of grief. I was very excited to be able to support myself and my partner while my partner is finishing grad school. I am very glad about my decision. At work, the culture is that it is abnormal (and concerning) if someone is working after hours or on weekends. I have been repeatedly reminded by supervisors not to work more than 8hrs a day, and on occasions when a message comes in on Slack over the weekend, it is usually tagged with something like “please don’t respond on the weekend, I just needed to get this out of my head now so I don’t forget”.MaleWhiteFirst gen72ModerateUSAUSANoneYesNone
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5/12/2022 1:38:38AdjunctHumanitiesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2012$30k$20k annualEnglish / Rhetoric; Gender & Ethnic StudiesToo much work for too little money; disappearing line between work time & personal timeCouldn't get health insurance through my employer and can't afford it on my own. I'd been without health insurance since 2019. I'm old. I have compromised lungs. There's a pandemic. Grocery-store clerk0Low. But I have health insurance now, and I make 3x the hourly wage I was making as an adjunct (once the salary was divided by the actual number of hours worked). $18 p/h + health insurance and unemployment if my hours go down. I went to a union grocery store and applied. Discouraged, shocked, and understandingNope. I have time to have an actual life. Nope. I volunteer teaching literacy and writing. I get my teaching in on my own terms, and it doesn't eliminate the rest of my life. Yes, the GR has hit academia. The gig-ification of academia has led to rapid burnout among the majority of instructors (adjuncts outnumber FT faculty in the US)Grief and reliefI have time to read for pleasure, spend time with loved ones, sew, bake, and garden. I am making art. I am writing. Much better since I left. femwhitefirst-gen143 ( I quit a FT administrative job in academia in 2018 Low
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5/12/2022 19:08:39Graduate studentSTEMR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2007, 2014, expected PhD in approximately 2025$300,000$18,000/9 months. Optional summer employment of about $4000Physics, EngineeringDepartment refuses to allow me to present my research allowing me to proceed to the next step in my degree. Department refuses to address the abusive practices of faculty, also refuses to put anything important in writing, and if they do, it contradicts what they told us.My department has asked me to take a terminal degree instead of continuing on, because they don't approve of the original project I was asked to complete, and instead are requiring me to complete a project that is not in my field and the program they provided me to use does not work. They say its my fault that the program doesn't work and I just need to try harder.Still a research assistant, but I work 3 additional part time jobs, and I am searching for a single full time well paying job.15 years9. Working in industry, even part time, paid 3 times as much as I earn as a student. The hours were flexible, and I was celebrated for my skills and work ethic.$50,000/year, only working part time. Currently applying to jobs only offering $80,000 or more.Im fighting with the department to ensure I don't leave the program empty handed after all of my work, while updating my resume, contacting people in my network, and applying to and interviewing for jobs. I wanted to be able to have something to hold me over until I found a good job, so I picked up 3 part time jobs that replace my $18,000 student salary, and ill be able to keep them all indefinitely. Im also starting my own consulting/freelance company and growing that business at least until I find a steady well paying job.Other grad students are very supportive. Many have already left themselves. Faculty are all trying to encourage me to "just try harder" and stick it out because they had it hard too.I left in 2011 for 3 years. I paid off so much debt, met my lovely spouse, and got to raise our son in relative peace. I regret the boss I encountered at that specific job, but short of that one person, it was quite enjoyable. Yes. But I think I'm done with the low paying traditional route. Many people get PhDs without having to deal with trash department politics. I plan to choose a program with a more critical eye, instead of just on their reputation, programs, website, in person visit, etc. Absolutely. It is insane to expect people to live on poverty wages, work 60-80 hrs per week for that trash pay, and on top of it, constantly move the requirements goal post. Nobody has time for that. And soon enough, not even the rich kids will voluntarily choose to be exploited and overworked. And seeing what faculty go through? I know I spent a lot of time complaining about my department in this entry, but the reality is, they are often in a worse spot than the students. Theres no way in hell that I'd voluntarily sign up for that torture. To the Dean, there's really nothing to say that hasn't already been said by thousands before me. PAY YOUR PEOPLE. Dassit. Your employees that do all the work to make you an R1 institution should not be surviving off of food stamps, housing assistance, welfare, and free food given out at undergraduate club events. Anger, excitement, and regret. Angry that I put all of this work into this for the past 15 years, pushed through every single hurdle, only to reach another hurdle. And the fact that these hurdles are only there because the department sucks. Excitement, because I have always viewed my PhD as a stepping stone on my path to my ideal career. Its always been something I wanted to do, but its just a step. Im excited to potentially just be done with it and never look back. And regret, similar to my reasons for anger. Ive always reached every goal I've set for myself. And I've had to start from scratch multiple times. I regret trying so hard, and choosing the struggle life in hopes of a better life, only to be giving up right now. I wish I hadn't wasted these 15 years only to be told that I should just try harder.As soon as I made the decision and emailed my advisor, I felt AMAZING. Unfortunately, im currently figuring out the logistics and details to try to not leave empty handed, but I am ready to go whether I get through to them or not. My mental health is significantly improved, but I still have a ways to go.FemaleBlack American2nd generation, low-middle income during childhood15 years11 years0. The entire process has been pretty terrible. The little support they offer is littered with caveats and restrictions that make it completely useless. And they make me feel like hundreds of hours on a project is worthless because I began skipping the useless meetings where they would ask me to do things that were not required and got in the way of my actual job. ADHD, misdiagnosed with Bipolar and DepressionUSAUSACovid forced me to become a full time homeschooling parent while continuing to work remotely on a project that required in person work. I had to change projects to a different field in order to complete my grad student requirements.Bisexual, womanFortunately, none.
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5/12/2022 18:27:50Adjunct, Continuing contingent facultyHumanitiesRegional comprehensive university20100$17,000 per yearHumanitiesLow pay, brutal top-down management, precarity, academic scapegoating/bullying/mobbingStudents doxxed and stalked me and institution did nothingInternet website content writer3Less stress, but looking for better position/payvariableGood schedule, lack of stress, clear objectives, cordial environment, good paySympathy and understanding, some envy, some fearNO REGRETSNOIf it has, academia will not tell the truth about it. If there are great numbers, that will take some years to gather the data, because academics themselves can be cagey and competitive. As to what I'd say to my former bosses? That I saw their game, and have nothing but withering contempt for them, when I think of them at all.//Dignity, better mental and physical health, more meaningful intellectual lifeFemale"mixed"middle class246Less than zerosemi-disabled, though not at the time I had left academiaUSAUSheavy -- my own health and that of my familybisexualnone
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5/11/2022 22:31:15Full professorArts/Music/TheaterElite liberal arts college1998Mortgage only$103KMusicUnderpaid colleagues/staff, burgeoning workload, staff cuts that dramatically affect recruitment, salary study that shows need for almost all salaries to increase that is then summarily ignored, general disrespect of being told how wonderful we are whilst being treated poorly, financial irregularities in scholarship administration, horrible communication from upper administration to faculty about major changes to policies that affect programs and faculty—I could go on.The above-mentioned salary study and zero retirement match. I do want to be able to retire someday.Solar sales!!0Super highCurrently matching academic position but expect to double in the next year.Needed to match income. Not in school/teaching/academic design—literally no. Had to align with my values. Realized I loved my solar array and thought that everyone should have one. Reached out to a friend who works for our company, and the rest is history.ShockNo, no, no. My degrees served me well for 35 years. New chapter.No, absolutely notFaculty are exhausted, and we are tired of being treated like people who don’t matter. We’re tired of being asked to constantly do more with less funding, less support staff, less salary/retirement benefit, and do it with a smile. No, thank you.I was never scared—I knew I could do it, but I wanted to make sure it was the right fit. I am stoked about my new position, which actually is a lot more like teaching than I originally thought.Better: stress, feeling valued, income potential. Worse: I miss my students.FemaleCaucasianMiddle360Ish
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5/12/2022 18:51:47Assistant professorSTEMOther0~80KCog neuro Moral injury; consumer model plus covid. Dehumanizing HR policies, unpredictable teaching conditions. McSweeney's-worthy Dean communications make me think I'm living in George Orwell's 1984. dehumanizing HR policies and very bad comms during COVID killed trust in the institution and its missionstill in academia<1Network with non-ac people who know my worth Haven't left yet. Yes, but slowly. Wait 5 years. But I won't be waiting that long. I'm out, Dr. Dean. Peace. I will be very very sad to leave really great colleagues who I imagined working alongside for the rest of my career. In my head I do a lot of bargaining, like, isn't there some way they could find a way to keep me ? But I'm not dumb. I know what I would need to stay after all of this, and also that as someone who is not tenured, that I have no power to make demands in this situation (doesnt seem like my tenured colleagues have much power either to be honest). From admin's perspective I will be very replaceable. Sad situation. But things will be better on the other side. FemaleWhitemiddle 113-4High, in some ways. My colleagues are the best. Low in others.USUSYes. Child with health issues. Related to dehumanizing HR policies. straight/cisnone
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5/12/2022 17:42:36Assistant professorSTEMR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)20130~75,000EcologySexual harassment (approved by the university), Isolation, BullyingI moved departments to get away from the DH who was sexually harassing me, spent two years being completely ignored by my colleagues in this new department, and was recently told that I don't deserve to be here since I transferred from another department.Still Asst. Professor but on the job market1Don't have one yetNAI'm using LinkedIn, Jobs.gov, and ecolog to search and apply for non-academic positions.I was told by my faculty mentor that I would "starve to death" if I left academiaI don't think they care what I have to say or whether I leave.It breaks my heart to give up on something I've spent my life striving for and I feel a lot of guilt for abandoning my students. I have wanted to be a scientist since I was 5 years old, despite coming from a non-academic family. I moved all over the world and worked insane hours for this job. I gave up everything, have no social connections, no relationships, and no family. In return, I was harassed, abused, ignored, isolated, and bullied by other faculty. FemaleWhite175SadNoneUSAIreland, AustraliaNoneA
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5/12/2022 19:14:47Full professorSTEMR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2009100000~1800 USD/monthControl engineering / Mechatronics1. Absolutely no home office, hostile approach to the idea of HO, lots of commuting, 2. Low pay 3. Incompetent faculty and management 4. Toxic work environment 5. Constant workplace politics over anything else 6. Every faculty member gets treated in the same horrible way regardless of research/teaching output unless a crony of the dean, etc.a). Paycut (of the otherwise low pay) b.) Occasional (2-3 days a week) home office repeatedly deniedFull time0 (Got hired instantly)So far so good. Not sorry for leaving, doing everything4000 EUR/month pre-tax (hard to compare with US, but pretty good here)I wasn't seeking, the job found me. What I liked about it was a) still research b) home office -permanently c) good paySome were expecting it and thinking about leaving themselves. Some were butthurt and try to relativise my leave: saying how good I had there, I will return anyways, etc. Some became downright hostile. I have left, and I do not regret it. (2 months in...)Don't know. Not hope per-se, but I keep the opportunity open. I think I will miss teaching a bit.Our dean was one of the reasons for me to leave. Imagine the management style of Putin/Kim Jong Un in academia.

I am outside the US, in the "balkans" with its own specific academic bubble. Many things are similar to what I read in the group, many are much-much-much worse. Incompetence, cronyism, corruption is rampant... well. I probably could write a book about it....		I felt I have betrayed my students, and I was (am) still feeling bad about them. I was feeling that I'm not adequate enough for the new role in industry, yet so far I think I'm doing fine. Anger at how many incompetent people thrive in academia, and there is a pattern of more competent leaving (of course there is always exception to the rule).No commute, better pay! I will miss teaching and messing around on my own (research) and being surrounded by young people.MaleWhite150 (straight to academia from PhD)Disillusioned, burnt out, cynicalSlovakiaSlovakiaYes. Small children, at the time of leaving 2 and 3- (Straight)None
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postdocSTEM. EcologyR1PhD 201530K<=55KNo job opportunities, no work life balance, teaching (which I'm great at) completely undervalued, terrible mentorship, burnout and mental health crises, no chance of a financially stable future.The pandemic started at the tail end of my postdoc, which wasn't "finished" (in terms of pubs being completed). I had no support, sendoff, or guidance for next steps...no one even asked about the pubs. I'm an Electrical Apprentice. Total career change, last chance to establish a stable career and pension.2It's new, I'm physically sore and tired but go home feeling accomplished and supported by peers and supervisors. Currently less than 40K but I can expect it to be closer to 100k in 4-5 years.location, financial security (short and long term), opportunities for growth and learning, opportunities to teach, opportunities to gain mastery of a skillFrom peers, nothing but support. Radio silence from any "superiors"No. But I experienced a lot of guilt, shame, anger, and feelings of betrayal. Like a bad breakup.The teacher in me wants to say yes, but the environment is too toxic. it would probably kill me. trans manwhiteupper/middle class background10I loved it. it did not love me back.ADHD, autism, anxieyCanada Canada notransgender no
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5/12/2022 14:58:31Full professor, University administratorSTEM, Education, Health sciencesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)19870$210,000Genetics/ BioinformaticsJust want to retire earlier than my peers (but still after being eligible) to still enjoy some travel, and figure out what to do after academiaMarriage to a much younger non-academic person of a different culturestill employed in academia0N/ALinked-In, networking, I know some who have left. they don't knowI am hoping to do academic stints elsewhere in the world - I have taught in China before, and could imagine in Europe but I will age-out there quickly. Yes, I had several grad students leave this year when before it happened every 3-5 years once. I also know many women who retired earlier (something I am contemplating).

In my field, which borders data science, outside academia job prospects are plenty. Staff is leaving. Hiring new staff is a nightmare or requires much more funding than before. 		ambivalence as I have a relatively good positionfemaleEuropeanmiddle class - teacher's family background but my parents didn't attend college - my native country has a good system of trade schools instead. Hard to answer. 41 (incl. MS and PhD) 0 (if it means how long looking for?) so so - Benefits and salary are great and investments just fell by a lot so financial stability is a big reason to stay. I also love that I can get involved in new, non-routine things and instead of paying for them, I still get paid (e.g. public engagement - we get professional coaching!, admin career development). I also was able to go 75% and spend 3 months a year abroad teaching - what a perk!

I do enjoy working with students, and helping students make the best choice for them is what I love as well, as well as rarely saving a life with my research.

Dealing with administrations has become an ever-increasing cause of frustrations. We are non-profit but really, its pure greed when it comes to taxing grants and tuition. The number of assistant and associate Deans has probably increased 10 x in the past 30 years, the number of hours we need to spend on mandatory trainings and evaluations etc. also has proliferated 10x.

The time we can spend on what we love is becoming less and less.

My issue right now is, do I have the energy to work on being the agent of change (as wellness advocate I might be able to do some of this) or should I just drop it all?
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5/12/2022 1:03:16Assistant professorHumanitiesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)20140$200,000musicworkplace toxicity, intl politics, covid, superficial diversity pledges, spouse's career moveworked overseas and just wanted out of that mess (which is saying a lot considering US politics)looking and up-skilling1n/an/aI'm seeking real solutions to diversity and corporate governance, perhaps by doing an MBAranges from supportive to ghostingI don't regret leaving the overseas place i worked, but i do regret not planning better to land in the mess in the US and having to leave that. In retrospect, I regret I was naïve to think I'd be chosen to help lead the way towards rebuilding. I do regret not having a firmer understanding of the politics and legal structures in US academia, which seem compromised by culture wars I'm frankly burned out from. i might well hope to--but only on the condition that substantive changes are made.The Great Resignation has hit academia. However, given inflation and academic stagflation, it is not possible for many who would like to resign or retire, hence the Great Disenfranchisement in academia. disappointment, anger (especially from agitprop in the news/social media), but also optimism to build on the experience in a positive way. my spouse's mental health, if not mine yet.mCaucasianupper middle class72had its pluses and minuses
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5/12/2022 18:27:13Full professor, University administratorSTEMR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)20060165000Physics and Aerospace EngineeringPoor Upper Administration, Lack of Support, increasing liability, increasing workloadBad faith contract negotiation and covid. University offered early retirement buyouts.Owner/CEO of Aerospace Consulting Company0High475,000Created own company (new startup of similar company I owned in the 90s and 2000s prior to academenia). Niche credentials and 25+ years experience in field made it possible."Its about time." "I can't believe you put up with this for so long!" Generally supportive.Not at all. Yes, post career, teaching only. No more administration!I think it's just starting to get rolling. Since I left as Dean of my college in 2020, the resignations have been increasing in number each year at that institution. There's still a long way to run before it peaks and with the demographic challenges ahead for admissions at most schools, the working conditions will likely only worsen.I'm fine with it. Not looking back. Better: work/life balance, compensationMaleWhite Alone81Teaching: High Satisfaction, Administration: Extreme dissapointment and frustrationUSAUSANoneNoneNone against me, but increasing cases in the studnet and faculty ranks
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5/12/2022 16:20:59Full professorSocial Sciences, Health sciences, Law, MedicineRegional (non-elite) liberal arts college1974None136,000PsychologyRetirement and more trainingBurnoutRetiredZeroN/ANoneA regular work dayShockNo. I should have gone to law schoolOnly of academia met its core purposeMy university went insolvent and they neglected the collective agreement entirely. I had left before then. I09 tenured faculty fired.
Depression, burnoutMuch better., my time is now mineMCaucasianMiddle357Low
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5/12/2022 16:13:02Associate professorSTEMR2 (Research inst--high activity)20100129,000Environmental ScienceToxic exploitation, inability to have work-life balance with family, sexist bullshit that still happens all the time despite years building what most would consider a successful and impressive career, too many stupid and unnecessary meetings, want to make an actual difference in the worldFinally finding people in industry that I identify with, and the desire to make change the way they are making itTransitioning to consulting1Highhourly consulting rate is 3x my hourly rate as a professorRemote workMost think I am crazy, can't understand why I would leave the security of academia given my CV. Spouse in particular is struggling with this because they are perfectly happy in academia (would have left academia much earlier but spouse was not supportive of this).yes, it has. Academia is cult in the US, a pyramid scheme to some extent. You get rewarded for creating junior people in your likeness who will cite you. But there are no jobs for those people, and it's exhausting trying to be someone who cares and support students in a system designed to exploit them. Fear has been the overwhelming barrier for years. Hated academia for a long time, in part because I could not figure out how to find something else and leave and felt powerless. Now it feels like I am in control again and am planning my exit with surgical precision. FemaleWhiteFirst gen172Very low
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5/12/2022 1:27:01Associate professorSocial SciencesR1 (Research Inst--highest activity)2005, 2015 (two PhDs)0120,000AnthropologyUniversity was a corporation, bureaucrats ran the show, students were entitled and last, had to take a job in Australia away from my partnerSee above. Pandemic and budget cuts (“ let’s do more with less”). Generally hating the corporate universitySenior consultant2 weeksMedium120000 (same)LinkedIn, retooling and translating cv for Non-ac workSupportiveNope. Glad to never read another student paper ever againNopeYes. My department is 50% smaller over just 4 years, and none of those positions are being replaced with permanent lines. The university is dead. Happy to be out. The “idea of the university” died a long time ago, and I was living in My Own Private Idaho (ie, pretending I was part of the university as monastery when I was really just a cog in the wheel of the university as factory)Better prospects , more autonomy, simple shit impresses people, optionsMaleCaucasianFirst gen, queer15 years3Medium
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5/12/2022 20:00:01Full professorHumanitiesRegional (non-elite) liberal arts college, Other2000 (PhD)at graduation in 2000, $6000 Cdn120,000health humanities I never really loved academia, but in the late 90s/early 2000s it seemed safer and more accessible than the thing I actually wanted to do, which was journalism. I've thought of quitting for as long as I've had my full-time job, but have the security, $$, and schedule always won out. Reasons for quitting: 1) (dirty secret) I've never believed that humanities scholarship is all that useful, and now with the world literally on fire, it seems complete absurd to justify doing cozy little humanities projects that no-one will read and which change nothing; 2) I work at a health sciences college, so the vast majority of my students think my courses are a waste of time; 3) I HATE the corporatization and commodification of higher education, especially the exploitation of adjuncts and the way in which academically under-prepared students are hoodwinked into enrolling in grotesquely expensive programs in hopes of getting job training (not education, thanks but no thanks)Laying the groundwork for big career shift and move overseas - in the works now!still employed full time as a prof (though our positions are not tenured)2 (same time period)I'm old enough and fortunate enough that patching together a few part-time opportunities will be manageable; I'm also planning to move with a partner to a part of the world with a very different cost of living.Actual co-workers don't know (we get evaluated on professionalism and collegiality as part of our annual reviews, so don't want to risk losing loyalty points!). Other colleagues split between supportive, even envious, and non-comprehending. And people already working outside of academia, that is, in the world, are baffled - "so you want to quit a job to look for something that makes you happy - and the problem with that perfectly normal choice is...?I wish the Great Resignation *would* hit academia! The only way to push back against adjunctification and other forms of exploitation of faculty is unionization and people simply refusing to play by higher ed's rules any more...and yet so many faculty are socialized/indoctrinated to believe that there's something wrong with *them* for not being dedicated enough to stick with academia through all the hard times - their identities are completely bound up with their faculty roles, they're just trapped - they just can't see themselves doing anything else (ie being happy) anywhere else. So messed up. I actually kind of like my Dean (who herself is now a practitioner of "quiet quitting"), so I would tell her my real reasons for leaving and she'd probably be quite sympathetic. And then I can fantasize about telling the provost what's wrong with higher ed and with our institution in particular...and she'd think the college was lucky I was leaving and taking my toxic negativity with me! The whole problem is that no-one in power wants to hear compelling critique because then what? they'd have to dismantle the institution and their role within it, and say good bye to profit and raison d'etre...sadly, I think if I leave after 20 years at my school, I might get a cake and a farewell present, and then I'll promptly be forgotten. Whew. That's another reason to quit, right there! I always think of the old guy in Shawshank Redemption who finally gets out of prison...and kills himself because he can't handle non-institutionalized life. When you're *inside* the thought of being *outside* is terrifying. Used to feel all sorts of feelings of shame (like maybe I would be happier in academia if I were a more productive and dedicated scholar and teacher) and guilt (how ungrateful and selfish am I to turn my back on such an opportunity; because I am occasionally good at my job, then who am I to turn my back on the few students who *are* positively influenced by my teaching?). Those beliefs still niggle. Things that are more directly holding me back from leaving are current salary and benefits. What is helping me get out the door: being in my 50s, which makes the idea of (semi) retirement more real; realizing that life is literally too short and fragile to waste one's energies doing things that just don't matter for the vast majority of people I work with; really desiring to live in accordance with my values (which is not possible as long as I'm a cog in the machinery of the neo-liberal, academic industrial complex )femalewhitefirst gen from a lower middle class home302 (but that was in the late 90s, early 2000s)low!CanadaUSAnone at this timebi/pannone directly
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5/12/2022 2:49:22Associate professorBusinessRegional comprehensive university20010$120,000ManagementSatellite campus closed, refused relocation for family reasonsAdministrative competency, pay, potential loss of accreditation Volunteer work0N/AN/AWork life balance They want to join meNo. I am now in best health, physically and mentally.Right now, noHigher Ed needs to be rethought in how it’s done in general.Best decision everLifeFemaleAsianFirst gen220Low
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5/12/2022 19:48:23Assistant professorBusinessMasters Level institution20180118000ManagementBurnout from teaching & personal circumstancesPoor health, family situation, student disengagement/evaluation feedbackFull-time0Location, main tasks, remote optionsThey understand but they feel bad about losing a colleagueCertainly! I have seen several colleagues retiring/taking leaves during COVID and all the articles on faculty burnout would be one of the evidences showing that the Great Resignation is a thing in academia. I was anxious and worried at the time I decided that I want to escape from academia. I am still searching for non-academic jobs right now but currently I am not anxious anymore and feel somewhat relieved and feel better that maybe I am making a good decision after all. FemaleAsian93Mid-levelUSN/AStraightN/A