"Open Doors but Closed Communication": Talking About Work-Life and Mentoring in Academia

Sample

“Shit,” Justine murmured to herself as she opened up her research document. “I should have been working on this hours earlier,” she continued as she glanced at the clock on her computer monitor and back to the to-do list. It was already 11 a.m. on her research day, and she had yet to clock in for any research. Since she did not have any scheduled teaching or meetings today, she started with such high expectations to be finally able to get writing. Scholarly work supposedly accounted for almost half of her job, yet she had a hard time finding even small chunks of time in her week to complete that work. The early morning arrival and empty hallways today was providing promise; however, that promise was short-lived as she was soon interrupted by a knock on her door by her department chair asking if she had seen the e-mail. “What e-mail? What now?” replied Justine. She opened up her e-mail to find an e-mail about a student situation in the basic course— 3 hours later, all of the appropriate offices were contacted about the student, she met with the graduate teaching assistant for that section, and it appeared that the mini-crisis was adverted.