I shouldn't have to write this. I should be doing the 101 things I have to do for work, and 101 other things I'd rather be doing. But I feel compelled to.
If you are an academic, or a creative or anything else for that matter, and you are currently working in retail, temping or any other 'survival' job: this does not mean you value your work less.
Sounds logical right?
Well this morning, an academic said that they could 'easily' get a job in a shop but they don't because 'I feel there is loads of value in what I do' and that in so doing she would no longer be 'a good role model for her daughter'
I mean there's so much wrong in this I don't know where to start.
Firstly how about insulting all the people working in retail and raising their kids, and being perfectly good role models thank you? Secondly that age old view that working in retail is 'easy' and something anyone can do? Girl come back to me when you've worked a Christmas Eve that's also a Saturday and then we can talk. And I don't mean when you were 16. I mean now. As a grown up, and yes a grown up with qualifications 'beyond' retail. Because they don't make you better than retail.
Because here's the thing. Retail is a perfectly valid career. It's one with a lot of prospects in management, and a hell of a lot of transferable skills. It's also a career many people love. Not everyone is built for a career sat in an office, and an office job isn't a 'better' one. A dear friend of mine left teaching, and decided to pursue retail jobs, because they just suit her better. In the work, in the lifestyle.
And on the flip side there are those of us who are 'stuck' in a retail job in the short term (or long term). And we are no lesser.
And that leads me to the second point: Working in retail does not mean I value my work as an academic less. It means I value it more. It means I am willing to do whatever it takes to pay the bills, and survive so I can do my work. I don't have kids, but if I did I would be setting them a solid example in hard work in order to achieve your goals.
All this came off the back of another discussion I tried to have with this academic. Who thinks not only teaching, but research is beneath her. Who has 'refused' to do any more teaching because she is not suitably recognised for her research.
To which I say: utter bullshit. No academic is better than teaching. Teaching, in the abstract and the literal sense is our entire purpose. Get the fuck down from your ivory towers all of you who think you are better than teaching. To call someone a good teacher isn't an insult, it's the highest compliment you can pay them. And if you don't want to do it, move over and let the 50 people waiting in the wings take your place. And let them do a better job than you, because they actually want to do it, they don't just want the praise for doing it.
Because here's the thing none of these hollow voices in the echo chamber of popular academic twitter want to here: none of you are any better than the 50 people waiting in the wings. We are all middling-to-decent early career academics. We are all as good as each other. We are all replaceable.
But what I cannot stand is people from an extraordinary place of privilege telling others we are doing it wrong. Because we are all out there doing the damn best we can. And if that means working in a shop, if that means being an office temp, if it means cleaning houses. I salute you all. You value your work, and yourselves and you're doing a bloody good job.
If you don't have a partner to support you, if you don't come from money, if something in life stops you being able to apply for those academic jobs. OR even more importantly if you chose to do another job and do your work in your own time, your work is just as valuable. You are just as valuable. You are still part of the academic community.
And don't shout from the rooftops about kindness when you tell fellow academics to 'fuck off' for raising a dissenting point of view.
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