Most Professors Say They’ve Considered Quitting Over Work-Life Conflicts

Work-life conflicts have caused roughly three out of every four assistant professors to think about leaving their institution, according to the results of a new survey.

For some assistant professors, leaving their institution isn’t enough to solve their work-life problems. Almost 45 percent of those surveyed said they could see themselves leaving academe altogether. Meanwhile, 65 percent of full professors surveyed said that they had considered leaving their university in the last year.

The survey, of 511 full-time faculty members, was conducted by Horizons Workforce Consulting, a company that helps its clients provide work-life programs to employees, and was released this month.

The survey found that nearly 80 percent of faculty members would consider leaving their institution in search of a more-supportive work environment. About 60 percent would consider leaving where they now work to spend more time with their families. About 35 percent of respondents would think about leaving to deal with elder care, while about one-fourth would consider leaving their institution because of problems related to child care.

Dependent-care assistance offered by colleges seemed to make a difference in faculty productivity, although less than half of the respondents reported having access to child care or to child-care centers affiliated with their institution. Sixty percent of faculty members said they were able to work at least one day more per week thanks to dependent-care support, and about half said it enabled them to go to a meeting that they would otherwise have had to miss.

Update, 12/6/2012, 8:27 a.m.: The headline was changed from “most faculty” to “most professors” because this article is about assistant and full-time professors.