Thread by @thijs_bol

How did Covid affect academic work in the Netherlands? The study that @belle_derks, Lidwien Poorthuis and I did for @DeJongeAkademie and @LNVH_NL is out today. Here is the full report, in the thread I will share some key findings and recommendations. 1/13
dejongeakademie.nl/publicaties/20…

The results are based on a survey where all academic workers (PhD, researcher, prof, etc) could participate in. About 6,000 people provided information on how the first lockdown (March-June 2020) affected their work and well-being. 2/13

First, we find that of the different tasks that academics have, they reported the largest losses in research time. *All* academics saw average losses in research time, while some groups spent more time on teaching and management. 3/13

While there were research losses for all academics, they were about twice as large for parents--both mothers and fathers. The loss was largest for those with young children, indicating that those with heavy care duties gave in most on their research time. 4/13

These groups then also reported the largest family-work conflict. The gap is large (about 1.5sd), and larger for mothers than fathers. It's important that although we looked at care for children, these findings likely extend to everyone with significant care duties. 5/13

Different workers experienced different stress: young scholars were worried about their future in academia, whereas those with heavy teaching duties (lecturers, assistant/assoc professors) reported stress about having way too much work. Everyone was stressed about research. 6/13

While the reported loss in research time was similar between men and women, they reported different stress levels. Women with children were most stressed about their research, being overworked, and future in academia. We found similar gaps between Dutch and non-Dutch workers.7/13

Younger workers (PhDs, postdocs, tenure trackers) expierenced large delays. Many of them reported to not having applied for grants during the lockdown, and this was particularly true for young scholars with children. 8/13

Finally, for those in leadership positions it was a challenging time too. They found management to be more diffcult during the pandemic, and not everyone felt enough support from their organisation. 9/13

Just like other workers, those working in academia also had difficulties with the pandemic. However, there are two things that are important to note. First, academics gave in most on research whereas that's exactly the thing that they are evaluated on most. 10/13

Second, for young academics the effects can be more detrimental as we know that early career success is important for their future careers. And specific groups (those with heavy care duties, women) require extra attention to make sure that they don't leave academia. 11/13

In the report we do several suggestions to circumvent negative effects (change evaluation criteria, extend time on tenure clock/grant eligibility for those with heavy care duties). 12/13

Read the full report, or come to the seminar the @_knaw is organizing this Thursday. Here we'll present the report, and there will also be time for questions.



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