Finally, I’ll note that a senior worker in a strong union can have a position that is in effect not unlike tenure. It sucks to be forced to let exceptional junior employees go in a budget cutting adventure, while you have to retain much less useful senior staff. I’ve seen it happen numerous times in several different organizations, and it really isn’t fun.

Check and I suspect all the handbooks, for example, say “Faculty and Employees” where you work, too. That’s not a mistake the lawyers made, nor is it merely a respectful bow to faculty’s universally esteemed social standing. That tenure thing makes a big difference.

A long term employee? While nothing’s certain in life, I suspect my job is about as stable as any. (If I were to lose mine, there we’d probably be concerned with vastly more troubling things in the world than my employment.)

Or collegial? I realize that many academies (perhaps most) aren’t terribly collegial, but mine actually is, and that’s one of the key reasons that I work there. I do totally agree, however, that the “Academy” is by no means a paradise of sweetness and light.

I also agree that there are good things about the Life of the Mind that can move out into other parts of the world. As we move from an economy of physical things to an economy of ideas, it seems that some of this is inevitable. Cool to have groups like this moving that forward.

The total amount of energy in a closed system does not change. Why not focus that energy on the work, and the client, instead of office politics? (Spoken as one who is still partially tied down by said politics.)

As a tenured academic at a highly collegial institution, I’m personally in a somewhat gray space. I am definitely an employee, and probably among the longest-term sort that there is.

Actually, you may want to look closely at that. According to a good friend who happens to be a Department Chariman around here, he’s not, nor are his faculty colleagues.

One of the goals you might ascribe to us is that of bringing the Life of the Mind out into the “real world”. There are some places in the Academy it can’t be found; surely there’s some law of conservation we can take advantage of….

I find this idea really interesting and look forward to following it. It’s clear that many traditional ideas of how labor and capital are structured just don’t make sense in our current universe; if nothing else the role of physical capital and goods has changed radically since 40’s and 50′ (which I suspect may prove to be the last great heyday of physical goods).

As a tenured academic at a highly collegial institution, I’m personally in a somewhat gray space. I am definitely an employee, and probably among the longest-term sort that there is. On the other hand, I have far more flexibility in my work, projects, relationships, and commitments than most people.

“We need more laboratories, exploratoriums. Places with the people, resources and collaboration tools to do experiments and share what works and what doesn’t. With no requirement for a tightly-focused short-term ROI. Play spaces where people who care about something can sketch, make stuff up, try it out.”

In this good spirit I wish you luck.