I'm only finding a little sympathy ... from the CHE:
New national data show that associate professors are some of the unhappiest people in academe. They are significantly less satisfied with their work than either assistant or full professors, according to the data, which were collected this year from 13,510 professors at 56 colleges and universities by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, at Harvard University. ...
"A lot of people who get doctorates are idealistic, they want to change the world or study something where they think they can make a true difference," says [Cathy A. Trower, research director of the collaborative at Harvard that surveyed professors]. "Most of us teach at places, though, where students are after a credential, and where your colleagues—who you thought would be really smart—are people you don't even like all that much. Plus, you feel underappreciated. ...
And, for all those professors who think the worst part of their job is the dolts they must work with, those dolts are probably saying the same thing about you, you dolt.
... The president of the college doesn't even know your name."
I want to work at Cheers!
Brent Chesley, a professor of English at Aquinas College, understands the phenomenon. "We were all accepted into a grad program, completed degrees, got a position, and got tenure," he says. "Then there is this point at which one realizes: Oh, I won't ever earn a huge salary. I won't ever get to live in New York City. But worst of all, I'll never be interviewed by Terry Gross." ...
At what point did the UK faculty suggest I'd have a huge salary, live where ever the heck I wanted and be interviewed by Bob Costas? Never! So, I had low expectations.
On the other hand:
Certainly not all associate professors are disgruntled. In fact, the prospect that people with lifetime job security are unhappy can seem ridiculous, especially at a time when universities are increasingly staffing courses with adjunct instructors who have low pay and no job security. Only one-third of all instructional employees at four-year colleges are tenured or on the tenure track.
"To be an American professor is a happy thing, and to be tenured at any level is to be an extraordinarily happy, fortunate, and lucky thing," says Margaret Soltan, an associate professor of English at George Washington University. "I don't accept the description that this is one tormenting, anxiety-ridden life chapter after another."
Yes.
Ms. Soltan recognizes, however, that higher education attracts people who are "neurotic, ever unhappy, and ever restless," which, she says, is partly a good thing. "You don't want your tenured professors to just sit back, take their money, and teach a few classes. The profession wants people who have enormously high standards and who always think of ways they could do more and how they fall short."
But that also breeds a general level of dissatisfaction, says Ms. Soltan. "It doesn't matter by the time you die if you are John Kenneth Galbraith," she says, referring to the widely read economist. "You are still an enormously dissatisfied person who is always thinking of ways you could do more."
Galbraith?
