I’m not big on New Year’s Resolutions, but a lot of little reflections really coalesced for me around this new year. Until the past year or so, I was planning to spend the rest of my career where I am. I have tenure and a respectable salary, and I have not yet had a chance to get bored or stagnate in a position here. Every time I level up and start to get comfortable, I’m offered a new challenge to take on.
But the way the University System of Georgia, and my campus specifically, has handled covid-19 has been unconscionable in my opinion. Some policies have been implemented across the board – for example, employees are not allowed to require masks anywhere, not even in my own office. But I have not been made aware of any formal prohibition from the system office against administrators setting a good example by wearing masks… Upper administration at my campus, though, make a habit of “going raw” anywhere and everywhere with everyone. (Yeah, that’s a crude reference, but it’s the best that I believe they deserve for that practice.) (And I guess at this point I should clearly state the obvious – I’m speaking entirely for myself, not on behalf of my employer or anyone else.)
The University System of Georgia also made news this past year for effectively gutting tenure protections. In all honesty, I haven’t even been able to fully process that with everything else going on. But it tells me loud and clear that my employer (the state of Georgia) does not value me or my work.
So it’s time to start exploring what’s next. I have some ideas, but I also don’t know what I don’t yet know. I really enjoy working with authors to strengthen their writing. I’m used to doing that work for free in academia through peer review and co-editing books for an academic press, so figuring out how to get paid for that work is taking some adjustment. I also really enjoy mentoring junior colleagues, especially in learning to set boundaries, say “no” in productive ways, set clear goals for their professional development, and develop their leadership skills. And I’ve led several projects and had some professional development training related to project management, and could see enjoying work in that area. But again, I don’t know what I don’t know yet, so maybe the perfect next step is something I haven’t even heard of as a viable source of income yet!
One caveat is that whatever I do next must be fully remote. I’m also exploring moving out of the US, and don’t want to be tethered to any physical location requirement other than somewhere with a reliable internet infrastructure.
My plan for now is to spend the next year or two living frugal to save my pennies, so I’ll have some cushion when I do make a move, and take my time exploring my options. So, with that goal in mind, I’m planning to revive this blog with posts about the different projects I’ve worked on and skill sets I’ve developed in my decade as an academic librarian. I would love any feedback or support you have to offer on what I could do with those skills outside of academia and fully remotely. I’m going to try to post once a week, at least until I run out of ideas to post about!