On working away from work

hypoglycemiagirl was mentioning the other day that although she is just starting a job as an assprof in Sweden, she’ll spend some times in the UK as well, as part of a previous plan.

I happen to be doing something similar and I thought I’d share.

I have mentioned it occasionally, I have spent all my time in my alma mater and am now an assprof there. This is not out of laziness or reluctance to travel on my part but, there were interesting opportunities that I decided to take, the last one was the professorship. I got it on the condition that I spent 6 months abroad over the course of my two first years.

How is that working out?
I was really happy to organise this for myself and decided to spend three months in two different places. I did a first stay last year, in another European country which allowed some commuting, and Husband stayed in our usual place. This year I’m abroad (properly!) far from home! I am a bit homesick, but not too bad. Fortunately Husband is here with me. Three months is an odd length, long enough for having a daily routine but not long enough to properly commit to a place (eg we’re staying in a hotel room-with kitchen- but still. It gets very dull at some point).

What is great about it:
It’s like a mini-sabbatical. I can allocate it to my research and writing and brainstorming. I discover new ways of working, new ideas, I meet new people: I’m in a new place. I am away from the trouble of daily life in the department, excused from three months of meetings and things like that. All my teaching is in the second semester. Having it all concentrated avoids me letting it eating all of my time, beyond a threshold of diminishing returns. That’s not a bad thing.

What is not so great about it:
This demand does not mean I am spared from other things. Hiring people when you are not within easy reach of the administration is challenging. This also stands for pre-proposal writing discussions. Because I am in a very distant time zone from most of the people I am currently doing this with. I am away from the trouble of daily life in the department. The best source of information is talking to people, so I potentially miss some crucial albeit informal discussions, at a time when my uni and department are undergoing profound changes. And I don’t get to gossip on it either!

What kind of extra effort it’s asking me:
Well do you think the university funded me for this? Tsk. Of course not. But actually that’s not so bad because I didn’t have too much trouble securing grants for travelling, including a prestigious one. They will look better on my evaluation than something I wouldn’t have needed to work for. But starting a team at a distance is a pain. The administration is not very responsive by email, and I do not enjoy staying up until 10.30pm to make phone calls. Thankfully, the secretary has been fantastic help with these things, checking my mail and calling people for me.

On the whole, I’m really happy that I got this opportunity, a little parenthese before being “stuck” in the same place. If being away is somewhat impractical, I don’t miss so much by not being there and I get to do a lot of exciting and enriching things.