Don’t fixate on promotion

Yeah sure. Dont worry about promotions, dont worry about pay. Just do world leading research/excel at teaching/bring in millions in grants because that is what academics do.You know just for the joy of it.This is as much a profession as a job. People need to pay their bills and provide for their families. "..will probably not appreciate being told by long-time professors to be more content with their lot." especially in cases where they would have never got anywhere near a professorship if the standards they apply to others are applied to themselves. "..I asked the dean of a business school " - ahh...probably one of the great deans who moved to management because they failed at being an academic. Having paltry academic credentials but never desist from grandstanding and get by on borrowed glory. So in terms of the approach, what was it? You didint tell us that. You just told us he said there were four criteria. "...that academics trade for extrinsic trivia such as wealth and imposing job titles." - Oh yes? show me one professor who hasnt bargained for that pay rise, bonus, market supplement etc. Sorry to say this but one is left wondering what exactly is the point of this article?

"If none of that works, academics still desperate for promotion might be reminded that it is possible to upgrade title by downgrading institution." I am reminded by a comment made to me some years ago that Professor X had moved from institution A to institution B, and at one stroke raised the academic standing of both institutions... You are right that academics have in many ways an enviable life style, and if you set even a lecturer's salary against say the mean (or median) wage, we have little to complain about. But one's perception of pay is all relative. Full Professors get paid a *lot* more, and the job rarely attracts much extra admin duty now that it is so common.

Forcing people to move elsewhere by denying them progression in their careers is unethical and probably discriminatory - as there may be people who cannot move for personal reasons. No point is comparing a lecturer's salary to mean(or median) wage - the requirements to obtaining a lecturership in a university is not average by any means. This is a straw man argument. The nub of the issue is this "Opacity and double standards are infuriating, but the blessings of an academic career are present at all ranks" So we should be Ok with opacity and double standards? These make perfect breeding grounds for corruption and discrimination. Opacity and double standards should have no place in any work place let alone universities which we profess are centres of truth seeking and knowledge. If this sad state of affairs is flourishing it is because the mindless and the spineless have let it.