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Is There Any Cure for Researcher Apathy?
22 May 2010
By Elizabeth Dodson
Earlier this week, I attended an over-subscribed Vitae Broadening Horizons day (which I will write more about another time). Being oversubscribed suggested that this was an idea that really engaged members of the research staff community. I was therefore saddened to find that only 50% of those who had been offered a place actually bothered to turn up.
This was a regional event, so for some required a bit of travel and maybe a couple of the no-shows had really good reasons for not attending. Overall though I just had an overwhelming sense of how rude it is to apply for something, accept your place, then simply not bother. This will hardly fill the people who develop and run these events with the incentive to do more for our community – and besides which, what about all the people who were not allocated a place and therefore missed out?
This is not the first time that I’ve been disappointed by the non-attendance of fellow researchers who seem to think that only their time is important. So if this is a pattern amongst those who actually volunteer to get involved in things, how on earth can we engage more with those who don’t even get that far?
Next month I’m speaking at my university’s research staff conference about the importance of being part of a wider research community and of making the most of the multitude of opportunities that we as a community have available.
I know that we are all pulled in multiple directions, often with heavy workloads and a range of competing demands, but I think there is also a great sense of apathy about development beyond the key measurables of grant holding and journal papers. It reminds me of my days in teaching where I’d try to impart the joy of knowledge, but found that many students had an ingrained focus on box ticking (i.e. concerned only with meeting the course criteria and not with actually engaging in the broader topics).
Of course we have to prioritise but strong networks and transferable skills can be crucial when it comes to securing new appointments, especially if you want or need to apply for jobs outside of academic research. I think that overcoming researcher apathy is one of the biggest challenges faced in creating a more cohesive and inclusive research staff community – and in maintaining the will of those who work to provide this community with support.
I’m guessing that the people who engage in this blog are probably those most likely to engage in the varied opportunities that surround them, so do any of you have any inspirational messages to share with those who simply don’t see the point...?
Sarah Davies23 May 2010 at 05:43 PM
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I find that nothing sharpens the mind - and the desire to get actively involved - like not being certain where the next job is coming from. If you're at the end of your contract, and not sure what will happen next, you take every opportunity that presents itself; if you're at the beginning of a three year contract (not that that's ever happened to me!) it must seem like you've got much less reason to make a special effort. However, I do think that the situation you describe has less to do with motivation and more to do with bad manners - which nothing (bar perhaps urgent family crises) excuses.
Andy Humphrey25 May 2010 at 11:17 AM
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I wonder how much of it might actually be down to PI apathy rather than researcher apathy? Not all PIs are enthusiastic about their research staff being away from their desk/lab for reasons which aren't directly to do with the project they are working on - with the result that many researchers are discouraged from attending events like these, or may perhaps have applied to go along and subsequently been told by their PI that they can't be released from their everyday work duty. This is an issue for me too. I'm in the process of organising a UCU regional networking day for research staff (taking place in Bradford towards the end of June, if any of our blog readers are interested! :) ) and I'll need to know what to do to maximise attendance...
Tennie Videler25 May 2010 at 01:15 PM
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There is an event on just this sort of stuff you might consider attending: www.vitae.ac.uk/swwhubfocusonmarketing it's a well recognised phenomenon.... especially with free events. Although 50% no show seems extremely high to me! At least there will have been lots of food and facilitator attention to go round, I guess.
Tennie Videler25 May 2010 at 01:15 PM
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There is an event on just this sort of stuff you might consider attending: www.vitae.ac.uk/swwhubfocusonmarketing it's a well recognised phenomenon.... especially with free events. Although 50% no show seems extremely high to me! At least there will have been lots of food and facilitator attention to go round, I guess.
Elizabeth Dodson25 May 2010 at 02:07 PM
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I agree that not having your PI fully signed up to the value of such events can be a major barrier - and can indeed lead to last minute apologies. Personally I've reached a stage where I'm comfortable saying I've made the commitment and that's that (in the case of last minute requests to cancel) - but I appreciate that it s not always that easy for some researchers. I'd be interested to know what reasons the non-attenders subsquently gave - as this might help with finding strategies to avoid a repeat of this problem. Thanks for the link Tennie. Free events do seem to attract these attendance issues - which is why I think the Vitae conference policy was good - where people where asked pay a deposit that would be refunded if they actually used their place. I have actually suggested this to the team who offered the training event last week...
Hannah Dee25 May 2010 at 02:14 PM
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I put on a lot of events with BCSWomen - the British Computer Society's women's group - and we often charge a nominal fee (5 quid members, 8 quid non-members, that sort of thing). This gives us a bit of extra money for nibbles, and means that people have committed to showing up. I'm not sure how well this would work for Vitae events though, and it's also predicated upon having the infrastructure to take small payments.
Chris Thomson26 May 2010 at 08:15 AM
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Its not all that hard to set up a paypal account to do small payments in this way. It may not be suitable for institutional events due to the battle that would emerge with the corporate bean counters, but I can see it working for organisations like vitae and independent staff associations.
Matthew Salois28 May 2010 at 08:35 PM
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Hi Elizabeth, I am sorry that happened to you. I agree with both Sarah and Andy that in addition to apathy, not showing up is also likely the result of 1) a lack of respect for commitment and 2) an overbearing PI with a tight leash. However, I must admit that even I am prone to "preference reversals" regarding development events. At first, the event seems worthwhile, but as the time for attendance arrives I am shortsighted and all I can think about is the work that will not get done (though I do show up). The "great sense of apathy about development beyond the key measurable of grant holding and journal papers" that you mention is an institutional apathy more than it is an individual apathy. Grants and publications seem to be the primary currency departments are interested in – not personal development. So for the future job-seekers (even those who are just months away from being on the job market), there is great difficulty in convincing researchers that a development event is going to be worthwhile when it is not very apparent that (even if the event is meaningful) that it will be rewarded by the future employer (or even the current one for that matter). Trying to solve this apathy problem involves something greater than convincing researchers that development events will help them. The benefit of development events must be conveyed and appreciated by the people who are hiring researchers. Only then will it be valued.
Simon Smith22 October 2010 at 11:36 PM
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Did you try obtaining any feedback from the no-shows, Elizabeth?
I don't think I've ever reserved a place at an event and then failed to attend (illness and other emergencies aside). And if I was working for someone I would check with my PI before I reserved a place (that's obvious, isn't it?).
But I have to confess that I've attended far fewer VITAE events than I'd have liked to have done 'in an ideal world', so I suppose I'm an example of apathy. What prevents me? Well generally it is an assessment of priorities, and I'm usually weighing up in my mind a/ the urgency of my different priorities, and b/ their direct relevance to my research.
I think it's a sign of commitment rather than apathy: the very personal (or team-focused) nature of a lot of academic research tends to mean we're very committed to the task at hand and the small teams of people we collaborate with, and not concerned enough about the wider set of factors that make our research possible.
Blanka Sengerová24 October 2010 at 07:13 PM
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Like Simon, I hadn't spotted this conversation topic at the time it was current back in May (a week of conference + holiday at the time), so only just thought about the issue that was brough up by Elizabeth. I think you will always have the problem with free events that people will more readily drop out when, closer to the time, it doesn't suit them and fit in with their work. How I have seen this dealt with before (Careers in Academia event, UKGrad Grad school whilst a PhD student, careers events run by the careers service in Sheffield) is by getting people to pay a deposit cheque at the time of booking, which would be returned to them once they attended the event. It seems like treating them a bit like little children, but I believe it does the job of encouraging people to turn up once they've said they would.
As Simon mentioned, it would be interesting to know what the reasons were that people gave for not turning up.
As has been mentioned, partly the problem can be related to PIs who are not keen on people taking time off work for non-work (or rather non-project) things, so when it comes to the day away, there is suddenly much work found that needs doing. I solved this for the RS conference in November by booking the day as a day of annual leave, because I don't think it is realted to my work at all. However, in general I do think that for personal development events such as courses on interview skills, careers' days, skills in certain software, etc. we should not need to be taking these as holidays, because they can lead to personal development/improvement, which is all part of your job. I do find, though, that with being a postdoc, my approach is very different to when I was a PhD student, when I would have gone to these halfday/day courses almost without telling my supervisor. Now, I feel that I at least should tell my boss where I'll be if I'm away on a non-work thing.
Andy Humphrey01 November 2010 at 04:29 PM
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If you're a member of research staff you are entitled to some time for Continuing Professional Development activities (though it is customary for these to be discussed and agreed in advance with a line manager). If you find that requests to attend such events are being repeatedly refused then this is probably an example of "less favourable treatment" contrary to the Fixed-Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002, and you should probably get in touch with your union rep for advice.