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The new calendar year is traditionally a time for reflection and for resolutions, but in a fit of hubris I’ve put together a list of resolutions I’d like to see for the sector, research funders, and university culture in general.\u00a0 In short, for everyone but me.\u00a0 But to show willing, I’ll join in too.<\/p>\n
No more of the following, please….<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0 “Impactful”<\/strong><\/p>\n Just…. no.\u00a0 I don’t think of myself a linguistic purist or a grammar-fascist, though I am a pedant for professional purposes.\u00a0 I recognise that language changes and evolves over time, and I welcome changes that bring new colour and new descriptive power to our language.\u00a0 While I accept that the ‘impact agenda’ is here to stay for the foreseeable future, the ‘impactful’ agenda need not be.\u00a0 The technical case against this monstrosity of a word is outlined at Grammarist<\/a>, but surely the aesthetic case is conclusive in itself.\u00a0 I warn anyone using this word in my presence that I reserve the right to tell them precisely how annoyful they’re being.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 The ‘Einstein fallacy’<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a mistaken and misguided delusion that a small but significant proportion of academics appear to be suffering from.\u00a0 It runs a bit like this: I accept that some academics are genuinely bad at administration and organisation. In some cases it’s a lack of practice\/experience, in others a lack of confidence, and I accept\u00a0 that this is just not where their interests and talent lies.\u00a0 Fair enough.\u00a0 But please stop being deliberately bad at it to try to impress people.\u00a0 Oh, you can only act like a prima donna<\/em> if you have the singing skills to back it up…<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0 Lack of predictability in funding calls<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, I’m looking at you, ESRC.\u00a0 Before the comprehensive spending review and all of the changes that followed from that, we had a fairly predictable annual cycle of calls, very few of which had very early autumn deadlines.\u00a0 Now we’re into a new cycle which may or may not be predictable, and a lot of them seem to be very early in the academic year.\u00a0 Sure, let’s have one off calls on particular topics, but let’s have a predictable annual cycle for everything else with as much advance notice as possible.\u00a0 It’ll help hugely with ‘demand management’ because it’ll be much easier to postpone applications that aren’t ready if we know there will be another call.\u00a0 For example, I was aware of a couple of very strong seminar series ideas which needed further work and discussion within the relevant research and research-user communities.\u00a0 My advice was to start that work now using the existence of the current call as impetuous, and to submit next year.\u00a0 But we’ve taken a gamble, as we don’t know if there will be another call in the future, and you can’t tell me because apparently a decision has yet to be made.<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0 Lazy “please forward as appropriate” emails<\/strong><\/p>\n Stuff sent to me from outside the Business School with the expectation that I’ll just send it on to everyone.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Email overload is a real problem, and I write most of my emails with the expectation that I have ten seconds at most either to get the message across, or to earn an attention extension.\u00a0 I mean, you’re not even reading this properly are you?\u00a0 You’re probably skim reading this in case there’s a nugget of wit amongst the whinging.\u00a0 Every email I sent creates work for others, and every duff, dodgy, or irrelevant email I send reduces my e-credit rating.\u00a0 I know for a fact that at least some former colleagues deleted everything I sent without reading it – there’s no other explanation I can think of for missing two emails with the header including the magic words “sabbatical leave”.<\/p>\n So… will I be spending my e-credit telling my colleagues about your non-business school related event which will be of interested to no-one?\u00a0 No, no, and most assuredly no.\u00a0 I will forward it “as appropriate”, if by “appropriate” you mean my deleted items folder.<\/p>\n Sometimes, though, a handful of people might be interested.\u00a0 Or quite a lot of people might be interested, but it’s not worth an individual email.\u00a0 Maybe I’ll put it on the portal, or include it in one of my occasional news and updates emails.\u00a0 Maybe.<\/p>\n If you’d like me to do that, though, how about sending me the message in a form I can forward easily and without embarrassment?\u00a0 With a meaningful subject line, a succinct and accurate summary in the opening two sentences?\u00a0 So that I don’t have to do it for you before I feel I can send it on.\u00a0 There’s a lovely internet abbreviation – TL:DR – which stands for Too Long: Didn’t Read.\u00a0 I think its existence tells us something.<\/p>\n 5)\u00a0 People who are lucky enough to have interesting, rewarding and enjoyable jobs with an excellent employer and talented and supportive colleagues, who always manage to find some petty irritants to complain about, rather than counting their blessings.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The new calendar year is traditionally a time for reflection and for resolutions, but in a fit of hubris I’ve put together a list of resolutions I’d like to see for the sector, research funders, and university culture in general.\u00a0 In short, for everyone but me.\u00a0 But to show willing, I’ll join in too. 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\n1) Einstein was a genius
\n2) Einstein was famously absent-minded and shambolic in his personal organisation
\n3) Conclusion:\u00a0 If I am or pretend to be absent-minded and shambolic , either:
\n(3a) I will be a genius; or
\n(3b) People will think I am a genius; or
\n(3c) Both.<\/p>\n