Roxane Gay is unsuited to write a work column

@stonze Yikes - the social media one was one of the ones that bothered me the least.

What's with the one about the person who was seemingly offered a massive promotion after helping restructure their team? We don't live in an ideal world? No way I'm staying in that situation longer than it takes to find a raise elsewhere lol.
 
@katrina2017 Right?!? “Dig in your heels and refuse to post on Social Media!! But you didn’t get a raise for a substantial promotion?? Oh, well!”🤷🏻‍♀️

WTH kind of advice is that??
 
@katrina2017 Real answer is to write a letter/email asking for a raise in your own words (don’t trust your mgr to advocate for you). In this letter, quantify the change in your position, as well as any increased revenue or other benefit to the business.

You can even ask for a specific salary that you think would be fair and back it up with comps: a brief list of other current job listings with advertised salary ranges. Include attachments with their job descriptions so that they can read through and compare themselves if they’d like to.

Pass this along to your manager to share with higher-ups and HR again.

This shows them that you understand your worth, and are also seriously looking at the job market.

At the same time, rage-apply to see what other offers you can get.
 
@stonze Yeah her responses often feel flippant or dismissive to me. I really strongly prefer Ask A Manager, both because the answers are usually more thorough and because they are more empathetic. The include a lot more "in an ideal world X, but at someplace it is really Y" and it just feels more helpful
 
@merrik And Allison Green with sometimes go straight to "your boss (usually) is an asshole and isn't going to change." She is validating the writer's feelings and telling them there's not much rhey can do but move on. She'll also give a "in a perfect world" response, but acknowledges that the letter writer has a different reality to contend with.
 
@merrik This is the first time reading Gay’s advice column. Didn’t know she had one until this post. I’m a huge fan of Gay’s essays and I’m a fan of Allison Greene. I’m sincerely confused by why people say this column is bad. It may have a different tone than Greene’s because Gay is super direct, but in my decades of non-academic work experience, Gay’s responses are realistic. When work is unfair, the only real thing under your control is the decision to stay or leave. Or on a similar note you can make a decision to say no to something but you should be willing to have hours cut or lose your job if you stand your ground. Even great managers can’t help you if workplace policies or upper management decisions are stupid. Mid-management is only there to implement and enforce. Appealing to them is unlikely to do any good. The only time I’ve seen salary adjustments or re-distribution of work loads is after talent has left and the employer could not recruit replacements under the current terms. I do think exit interviews can make a difference for your coworkers who choose to stay.
 
@stonze I like it. It’s rooted in reality. Those are the real choices. Work isn’t an idea - it labor that you sell. Not satisfied? Not being heard? Suck it up or take your labor elsewhere.
 
@eeswarchandra Yea this all seems perfectly fine and defensible to me. Her advice is essentially what you’d get from Allison Greene or anyone else - if your employer is being shitty, your essential choices are to deal with it, try to change it (if within your power), or quit.
 
@stonze I haven’t read this column regularly so I’m sure it could suck. But let me assure you, academia is a real world of work. Sure some conventions are very different and that may matter, but it’s no cakewalk, you work your butt off for little pay or recognition, and people are people whenever you go.
 
@runaway887 I left academia for the corporate world and let me tell you, it has never been more clear to me what an exploitative cult academia can be. Academics were always telling me that if I stayed in the ivory tower I’d have better work life balance, would get more respect from my colleagues, would have more freedom to pursue my interests and get better benefits. That couldn’t have been further from the truth.

The corporate world is no picnic either, but at least I’m paid a living wage and I’m not constantly having to chase grants, grade papers written by chatGPT, or deal with the insanity that is publish or perish. The amount of volunteer work I was expected to do for free in order to be allowed to do “paid” work at poverty wages was NOT ok. I also lucky to get to work remotely, so I’m safer from sexual assault than I was in academia. All my communications are in group meetings and via email so if anyone tries to be creepy or inappropriate it’s relatively well documented, and no one has tenure so there is a bit more accountability for misbehavior.

Edit: Also Roxane Gay is more of a celebrity than a real academic, and has been for most of her career. Her career trajectory has almost zero resemblance to what academia is actually like for most people. In that sense she is more like Jordan Peterson, Lex Fridman or Stephen Pinker… unmoored from layperson reality.
 
@runaway887 Yes! Thank you! And that’s especially true if you’re a working mother. The double bind is true for academic women who are overwhelmingly penalized for being on the Mommy Track with lower paid positions within their institutions.
 
@runaway887 Not to mention Roxane Gay is a highly sought after speaker and travels loads for events, on top of multiple recurring columns, and working on her traditionally published books as well. I haven’t read the specific link here, but likely she puts in 60-80 hrs most weeks for all of her obligations. That’s not small potatoes.
 
@runaway887 I don’t think they meant academia isn’t a “real” job per se (even though those are the words they used). I think they meant it’s a very different type of job then others, and that’s reflected in Gay’s responses. It’s not a comparison of harder vs easier work even, it’s just that there are different norms. Here’s another example:

There was a question a few weeks ago by a trans person who works the front desk at a doctor’s office, and a transphobic patient had to have appointments scheduled around this person’s work schedule to avoid conflict.

Gay’s answer was something like, ideally the doctor would drop that person as a patient, but at least they’re making accommodations for you. Public reaction in the comments was like, actually it’s not ideal to withhold medical care from someone because of their biases. Everyone deserves medical care no matter how much you disagree with them. This is part of a doctor’s code of ethics.

To me, Gay’s answer came off as a very academic. Like, not understanding the obligations of other jobs. Academia in general tries to protect free speech, expression, and experimentation. That’s not how most other jobs work.
 
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