The thing with academia is I can sit here and tell you to set boundaries. To not work weekends for your mental health, because you shouldn't have to, but the culture of overwork means that if you take a step back and look after yourself, or take time to be with your family 1/
or simply, want to enjoy your life outside of the academy, I cannot guarantee you will be "successful" in academia. Because from where I sit, to be successful means to give everything. Your weekends, your health. You are meant to show up and deliver classes during a 2/
pandemic "for the love of it", with disregard for your life because you have no choice. And after all that your dedication and sacrifice might still mean nothing because of the the fact it's not a meritocracy. 3/
You can do absolutely everything "right" and still have nothing to show for it at the end. After years of precarity, uncertainty, rejection and anxiety, you might be deemed unworthy. And it's not a question of ability - everyone is smart and capable. There's just not space 4/
for everyone. But we hardly even talk about this, we just get told if we keep working hard we will succeed. And then we wonder, why we have a "leaky pipeline"? Half of me hopes that it is just people waking up to the fact that they deserve better. 5/5
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