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I have an advanced degree and have been (managed/manager) in industry. Academia is much, much worse: First, in an industry job, you can almost always quit or transfer, when in academia, your success is tied very tightly to your advisor. There are stories from the old days of people whose advisors died in the late years of their thesis work, causing them to have to abandon their degree or start over. Second, professors are never trained to be managers, nor are they hired for their management skill. In most departments, the role of chair is mocked and despised, to the point that its often a rotating position - nobody wants to be the boss. Most companies invest significant time in training and coaching their managers. Third, there is almost no consequence in academia for your students failing. If it’s widespread, you might not get enough work done to continue getting grants, but usually even abused grad students turn out a few papers. It’s not like there’s a customer satisfaction survey or annual performance evaluation for faculty, at least not one that incorporates grad student happiness. Where I work, if your employees are significantly unhappy, you’re not going to be a manager for long. Finally, I’ve heard an argument that academics is based on a libertarian concept of freedom of thought and action, which is why professors have tenure. For a long time, this translated to there being no rules, even around things like profs dating students - if it’s consensual, who are we to get in the way? Outside of academics, we have agreed that it’s not a good idea to date your employees ... |