For real pandemic productivity, try stepping off the treadmill

A very thoughtful piece but (at least in the UK) Alessandra Minello's statement must be modified to include the raising of research funds. I know plenty of professors with fewer publications, fewer citations and smaller h-indices than mine but I cannot even make a shortlist for such positions as I am not great at getting large grants. Chasing money is also severely impacted by family responsibilities but as someone on the road to retirement, I am glad that my children will be around long into the future when everyone will have forgotten that I ever worked as an academic.

Hello msl_csp - thanks for your comment. What you say is so true - I completely agree with your comment. Career advancement depends not only on publications but also research grants as you mention. The acceptance rate of research grant applications is probably a lot lower than esteemed journals and writing an application is just as time consuming. And the awarding of research grants follows the Matthew principle - those that have will be given more.And the professional treadmill of academic life - writing papers, grant applications, networking, attending conferences - is not that family friendly. All the best.

It's not just about children. It's "family" as a whole. Let's be honest... with some of the targets academics are given, the whole work/family balance is severely sckewed towards work. The whole sector is based on the assumption that acaemics will put up with ever increasing working hours because they have a passion for the subject or research area they work in. In other sectors this would not be pushed to the extreme like in academia and there would be greater chances for being remunerated for extra hours of work. The issue in academia is also that much of what we do cannot be quantified on a temporal scale. For example, you can put together a grant proposal in x amount of hours or need ten times more hours. There's not fixed rule... And that is abused by the sector. People end up working way more hours than it's bearable physically and mentally.