Academia’s “flexibility” doesn’t promote work life balance.

Challenging the myth that keeps many in academia out of fear of loosing even more of their personal time.

Lorna Rivera
Bootcamp
3 min readMay 28, 2022

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The top reasons for pursuing an academic career follow a familiar script and include things like 1) You turn your passion into work, 2) You have a high degree of self-responsibility, and the biggest myth 3) You are in charge of your own time.

While I could write an article on why each of these aren’t unique to academia, I’m going to focus on #3, “You are in charge of your own time.” This tends to take many forms like “you have tons of flexibility” or “you can work whenever you want.” What this fails to recognize is the sheer volume of work required.

Yes, you can work whenever you want because you won’t be able to accomplish everything in a 40 hour work week.

It’s up to you how you want to spread the extra 10–20 hours of work. Weekends? Evenings? All nighters during your next work trip? It’s up to you — it’s flexible!

Challenging the Flexibility Myth

When I first told my academic colleagues I was leaving, most reactions followed a predictable sequence of shock, curiosity, and concern. I was warned of the perils of industry life and how I would never enjoy the “flexibility” of academia again. I was going to be forced to meet the grueling demands of a capitalist organization that wouldn’t hesitate to let me go at any moment. Some even offered to help me re-enter academia for when I inevitably wanted to return.

While I genuinely appreciated their concern and offers to help, it was ultimately shrouded in the lie that academia is inherently safer and more enjoyable than other sectors. COVID and polarizing politics have taught us this is no longer true. Today’s market is extremely competitive, leading employers to offer more compelling reasons for joining or staying — including intangibles like improving company culture and prioritizing work life balance. Contrast this with the increased risk and responsibilities academics incurred during the same time period and it’s clear times have changed.

I still have plenty of meetings, intellectually challenging work, and a high-degree of self-responsibility. I also still get to pick my daughter up from preschool, stay home with her on sick days, and go grocery shopping in the middle of the day.

What don’t I have? An extra 10–20 hours of work per week that I have to sacrifice my personal life for.

You can hit follow for updates on transitioning from academia to industry and my thoughts on user research.

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Lorna Rivera
Bootcamp

User Researcher and ex-academic. I write about transitioning to industry from academia. Opinions are my own. See linktr.ee/RiveraResearch for more.