Anon, as someone who wishes for an intellectual community--or just a couple of drinking buddies in my field. I don't think it's wrong to work at home any more than it's wrong to take a semester's leave from teaching and spend it in a place where it's easier to focus exclusively on research or writing. (One’s office is empty either way.) But I do think there are structural issues in academe that work against intellectual community, such as the desire to limit the number of people in any one subfield.
The main issue you raise is something like flex time, which is well-taken, and less controversial than what's been discussed here. But your main complaint is economic. College profs get paid about twice the median wage in the US, which is about average for a PhD.* When I consider my lot in life, though, I don't just compare it to my friends' lives--that would be at once elitist and waaay too depressing!
Now I'm wondering: if hairboy were in my field and he were an office regular. Could I make him a drinking buddy, given the hair thing? Probably. (But I won’t deny hearing the “George of the Jungle” theme song in my head.)
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*According to a Bureau of Labor Statistic Report (pdf) the median income for people with PhDs in 2001 was $66,000 while the median income for the general population in the same year was $30,300. You can get academic salary figures broken down by rank, discipline, and school at The Chronicle.
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Posted by kodachrome to academicsecret at 9/03/2006 09:32:38 PM
