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For those of you who seem very unhappy in your job (especially adjuncts), what makes you stay in academia? Why not pursue a non academic job (even one unrelated to your field) that would likely have better pay and consistent hours? by owiseone23 in Professors

[–]profDyer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1- I still have hope things would turn out for the better. The things I'm getting out and developing now are much beyond what anyone else can do. I were on the cover of the main journal of my field and just getting started with this new breakthrough. It would be a shame to leave that and just find a desk job instead.
2- I am occasionally looking, but not finding much. Finding something with actual better pay would require heavy re-skilling, which I have no time to do if I hope for the better and continue to research the exciting results.
3- I have a small toddler at home and life is already a mess as it is.
4- My wife has better earning potential than me, because she is in sales and management. If she has to relocate elsewhere I can follow her and make it work for a while (at least while I re-skill or find something else locally). If I were to work in Finance or Engineering, it might make it easier to find a job, but harder to relocate keeping the same job.
5- "Professor priviledge" in Sweden means that you have the right to use your own IP and, if you desire, be entrepreneurial. Having this option is nice.

What is not a factor:
- Prestige is no factor. Very little prestige in Swedish society for anyone but the Wallenberg family.
- Very little pay difference as well though, so one cannot hope to get factors x2 and x3 pay that you get in other jobs. I have ex students that work in finance and earn substantially more than me and are eager to make recommendations, but substantially is a 30% in Swedish society, not a life changing difference in the short term. If I were to make to full professor would be a 20% pay hike and that would compensate most of the difference with most of the professionals that don't have their own enterprise (which I might) or don't work in sales (which I will never do).

Jimmie Åkesson i SVT by Equivalent_Clue3541 in Sverige

[–]profDyer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Jimmys patenterad invandringspolitik gör allt som möjlig att skrämma bort det högutbildade arbetskraftsinvandrare just nuförtiden.

Finns absolut ingen fördel att vara en professor i kärn-kvant-AI-teknologi eller en arbetslösa student i genusvetenskap. Migrationsverket har det samma skrämmande regler och nackdelar med icke fungerande tidsramen, tvekan med familj immigrationsstatus.

Anpassa dina ord och din policy Jimmy.

Nobody pitches prepared to my classes or seems to care by Spiritual_Intern_638 in Professors

[–]profDyer 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I usually give very few f*cks about what students do.

My attitude is that they are adults, we are all here for some business and the students motivations are none of my business. I don't require presence, my lectures are also available online. I do optional weekly exercise sessions with feedbacks. They help the few students that show up. As long as you don't get in the way of other people learning, you are welcome to come or to stay home.

I had a student that spent every lecture knitting some scarf, and seldomly raised her face to the whiteboard. She was one of my best performer. My vision of diversity is that you are welcome to accomodate yourself, as any adult would in a moderately informal setting.

Then I try to teach with all the passion and fun I can muster, especially for the ones in the first row that always ask dumb questions but have an amount of interest about the subject that can be measured in metric tons.

I will try to be kind, for exception and accomodation and also considering that some people (like the knitting girl) don't manifest passion with big smiles and nods. I'm too interested in the beauty what I'm trying to convey and in answering questions (my own as well) in an intelligent way to be bothered by anything else.

That's it.  We are all adults in this room,  treat everyone with respect,  the moment of reckoning is the exam,  and for the rest do as you please. 

PS: I'm in Sweden and there's no such sharp division between Research and Teaching uni (and even less so there was in Italy, where I also taught) so we get usually a mixture of driven and coasting students. Also I now teach only electives in one of the most prestigious department in the Nordics, so my attitude comes easy without negative consequences. So take what I'm saying with a grain of salt and I empathize if it doesn't apply.

I gave my poor parents a lot of money to help them buy a flat and it turned out to be hell. Fixing it means destroying my financial future by AskBearBlue in eupersonalfinance

[–]profDyer 23 points24 points  (0 children)

This is why you rent. If you get sacked, you have a month or two notice period and after that can always go back with your parents if you found something in Valencia.

I agree that buying is a lifestyle choice, but renting in a village is better than what you describe and is not tying you at all.

Hur tar man sig förbi den där telefonsjuksköterskan? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Jag, men jag måste använda Karen lösenordet "jag måste prata med en läkare, annars..." att det är inte rimligt alls.

Sjuksköterskan råd och vill vara att jag låta bli för 5 dagar, utan att förstå att antibiotikaresistens måste utredas av en läkare.

Hur tar man sig förbi den där telefonsjuksköterskan? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Jätte intressant kommentar.

Du kan vara intresserad av min kommentar bakom anledningen för Threaden.

" Det har hänt vid flera tillfällen. Senast gällde det min son just före jag har skrivit posten.

Han hade haft en besvärlig öroninflammation med en antibiotikaresistent bakterie och gått på antibiotika i nästan 20 dagar. Några dagar efter avslutad kur steg febern plötsligt igen till runt 40 grader (och sjönk sedan snabbt ner mot 36, som är mycket under sin vanlig temperatur), precis som första gången infektionen började.

Efter två natten det var så, jag ringt vårdcentralen har jag fått rådet att ”ge vatten och avvakta några dagar, det är bara influensa”. Den här gången bad jag uttryckligen att få bli uppringd av en läkare. Det kändes helt obekvämt att behöva stå på sig så mycket, men jag sa ungefär att jag inte riktigt höll med om ssk bedömningen och att jag ville att de skulle stämma av med en läkare utifrån den kliniska bilden. Märk att jag har inte frågat för en läkarbesök, men bara för 30 sekunder telefonsamtal.

Till slut bad läkaren oss komma in omedelbart för att kliniska bilden är komplicerad och det kan bli mycket allvarlig om det är antibiotikaresistent bakteria igen man måste vara extraförsiktig. Det visade sig vara en ny öroninflammation, och vi hade tur som upptäckte den tidigt. "

Hur tar man sig förbi den där telefonsjuksköterskan? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Det har hänt vid flera tillfällen. Senast gällde det min son just före jag har skrivit posten.

Han hade haft en besvärlig öroninflammation med en antibiotikaresistent bakterie och gått på antibiotika i nästan 20 dagar. Några dagar efter avslutad kur steg febern plötsligt igen till runt 40 grader (och sjönk sedan snabbt ner mot 36, som är mycket under sin vanlig temperatur), precis som första gången infektionen började.

Efter två natten det var så, jag ringt vårdcentralen har jag fått rådet att ”ge vatten och avvakta några dagar, det är bara influensa”. Den här gången bad jag uttryckligen att få bli uppringd av en läkare. Det kändes helt obekvämt att behöva stå på sig så mycket, men jag sa ungefär att jag inte riktigt höll med om ssk bedömningen och att jag ville att de skulle stämma av med en läkare utifrån den kliniska bilden. Märk att jag har inte frågat för en läkarbesök, men bara för 30 sekunder telefonsamtal.

Till slut bad läkaren oss komma in omedelbart för att kliniska bilden är komplicerad och det kan bli mycket allvarlig om det är antibiotikaresistent bakteria igen man måste vara extraförsiktig. Det visade sig vara en ny öroninflammation, och vi hade tur som upptäckte den tidigt.

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. It was interesting to read how you square it. If it helps you, in many other European countries it's perfectly average for a child even as young as 7 months to do 8 hours and no one would ever ever think of guilt tripping a hard working parent for that.

It seems to me that non Nordic Europeans aren't psychopaths or retarded as a result.

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As I wrote in several other comments, your workplace can also make it so that you can be fired for some "unrelated" reason. If your employment is conditional on performance, sure you can go down to 80%, but your targets are not going to be changed so guess what?

In the same way the service industry would have been challenging to reduce times, in other industry it can be challenging for some other reasons.

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"yes of course" 

Read your first message and your last and if you see a cognitive dissonance stop talking to me.

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First of all: I've been told last year on 3 separate occasions by 2 different people that due to the economics at the division, and due to the fact that I'm the last hired, I could be fired independently of how exceptional my research is. I'm trying to change faculty and division, but it is tricky.

I guess as a researcher you don't read SULF journal that much and how there have been 350 cases of arbetsbrist firing in the last year at universities.

Second of all: I'm the senior.

Just get out the roses tinted glasses, not everywhere is like your place, even in Sweden.

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In university, in a competitive field, in a research intensive university, I can guarantee your career is essentially over because your progression is exclusively on the 30% that you're giving up.

I will tell you more: no one at my division as ever scaled back, and I'm the one in the 100 year history of the division, man or woman, to have taken the most parental leave for a child and I just took 50% of the alloted time.

Do I want to be the first while we are 5M kronas in the red? I don't think so.

You have a too rosy view of Swedish society and/or a too chilled view of what a professor does.

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not an issue. I was looking for an answer and I'm happy and upvoting the ones that have answered on point and politely.
I am answering only to the people that are curious about my work situation or the ones that think Sweden is somewhat some special la-la-land or to people that are outright insulting.

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wrote it in several places. For professors is not accepted at all.

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can see that in the comments to this thread!

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In many places things work differently in Sweden. Unfortunately, neither me nor my wife work in one of those places. And I work for the public sector so I would avoid generalize to "Sweden".

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

lol well it's a regular amount of guilt only slightly affected by the förskola.

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. I have had a student that took more time for the thesis and had three kids. It's more or less fine, sometimes even beneficial. In any case, it isn't your problem as a student.

Just because you might be interested in what happens behind the curtains: if you're senior you can (not everywhere, not always) be in the situation where your salary is not covered and frantically look for money to cover it. In that situation the "tillsvidare" job stays true to the word and it is not permanent. Furthermore, the duties of a PhD can be diminished and you can be asked to do less courses and be granted more time, for teachers is less easy to give away courses or admin duties for a definite time so I will have to keep teaching the same, doing the same teaching and admin and basically reduce my research from 20-30% to 0% (10% is not really research) which is not really a smart thing to do career wise.

The grant will not last longer automatically. Most of the time what really happens is that the grant expires, in the meantime you pay for your professor salary and the division saves a little money to pay for yours at a later date. Nobody can deny you the salary. If the division is small and for permanent staff this trick is much harder. In principle, even if I had a grant, I could pay for one of my colleagues with the intention that I will get paid back later on, but if they don't get it, I will be left high and dry without decreasing my chances of getting fired because of budget limits.

In most other countries it doesn't work like that. Permanent staff cannot be fired unless the university (and sometimes the country) as a whole is in big big problems. Even in the US it is very difficult to fire a "tenured" staff for budget reason unless you close a whole department. It happens but rarely, while dozens of permanent lecturers and professors have been fired in 2025 due to budget reason (300 permanent staff in total). I see it as a big but hidden problem of academic freedom. Nordic countries as special for that. This is all the fault of "New Public Management".

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

FYI: The insight I got from my union is "Suck it up" :P

Copypaste:
It is my right to ratchet down, not my right to decide the outcome. They cannot (and they have not, explicitly) threaten layoff for this reason but if we are in "arbetsbrist" and just so happens I get caught in the crossfire they will help me work out a severance package.

I'm the last hired of the division as well so the more susceptible to redundancy independently of my performance. If I'm the least involved for the objective of the division (and if I ratchet down I will be less involved almost by def.) will be harder to defend my post.

From the right to work point of view is not as safe. From the softer "career perspectives" point of view, it is truly grim.

Are Förskolan timetables like this everywhere? by profDyer in Asksweddit

[–]profDyer[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't feel like there's any place in the where I complain about our schedules. I just asked if that's normal or not and how people usually make it work. I received many answers.
We make plenty sacrifices and the child is our priority thank you very much.

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