The work year 2023 by work hours

I have just finished reviewing the work year 2023 in terms of work hours logged. The year stands out as the shortest work year in recorded history, with 2.518,5 work hours logged, which amounts to 48,3 hours per week in average (holidays not subtracted), or 149% of a normal work year. In comparison, my average work week in 2009-2022 was in the range of 50,8-62,0 hours per week.

Among other key developments, the share of my work time I spent on "research" was record-high, at 41,4%, as was "research" and "literature" (e.g. book projects) combined, at 55,3%. "Research" was what I spent most time on in 36 weeks, while I spent most time on "UIS" 14 weeks. Of book projects, I spent the most time on Utslippsfrie nye verden? in the 1st tertial, Regnskap in the 2nd tertial, and Captured in the 3rd tertial. 

See also:

The academic year 2023 in review

The academic year 2023 in review

This year has been a special year for me in that I returned to a scientific position on Friday January 6th after 2 years as Head of department (after having been Vice-Dean of Research the 2 previous years, resulting in 4 years in academic leadership 2019-2023). For the first time in years, by Summer, I no longer held any leadership positions. In the course of the year I was replaced as steering group leader of Cognitive lab at University of Stavanger, and stepped down as President of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS), returning to the position as Secretary of NASS. An unhappy consequence of my resignation as Head of department was that my Scientific assistant Jan Karlstrøm´s position was terminated earlier than initially planned, but our collaboration on two scientific articles will continue until completion. In Spring, I had some time for academic updating, which in effect mostly amounted to getting to the bottom of my email inbox over the course of several weeks, and a visit to Oxford University.

At the Department of social studies, I have been involved with teaching in collaboration with Christian Wedler in a course on law and ethics in Spring, and Ex.phil. in the Autumn (all teaching by me, grading by me in collaboration with Rune Falch from University of Bergen). Both courses are part of the department´s bachelor in psychology. In the Autumn I also gave a couple of lectures in the university´s new course on sustainability and green transition, coordinated by Andra Riandita at the UIS Business School.

I have supervised Joakim Jiri Haaland in his ph.d. studies and co-supervised Jacob Tom in his, with Jacob going through with his midterm evaluation in September. I have had some extra research time for working on my book project Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement, have taken part in the national editorial board of the new Stavanger-based festival on philosophy and science "Wonderful World", which was first held in June this year, and have hosted Lenart Škof, Professor of philosophy and religious studies at Alma Mater Europaea in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on an Erasmus exchange in December. Meanwhile, I took up the responsibility as guest editor, along with Carlo Brentari at University of Trento, for a special issue of Biosemiotics on the topic of "Umwelt theory and phenomenology", which will be published next Summer. I also co-wrote two consultative statements issued by Norway´s Council for animal ethics, and was in the Summer of 2023 reappointed as a member of the council for 4 more years.

In 2023, my paper "Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis" was reprinted as a chapter in the anthology Transcending Signs – Essays in Existential Semiotics edited by Eero Tarasti and published by De Gruyter (Berlin). My article "The study of past Umwelten" was published in a special issue of Discipline Filosophische (Italy) edited by Vallori Rasini, and my chapter "Umwelt theory for practitioners: Semiotic guidelines for application in a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology" was published in the book set Open Semiotics, edited by Amir Biglari and published by L’Harmattan (Paris). My introductory chapter "Nosology and Semiotics" appeared in the book Organ Crosstalk in Acute Kidney Injury: Basic Concepts and Clinical Practices, which was edited by Carlo Guido Musso & Adrian Covic and published by Springer Nature, and I co-authored the short communication "Biosemiotic Achievement Award for the Year 2022", published in Biosemiotics, with Ludmila Lackova & Ahti-Veikko Juhani Pietarinen. Finally, my article "Wasted GDP in the USA" was published in Humanities & Social Sciences Communications.

Among my personal achievements this year, I have given a scientific lecture for the UNDP´s Human Development Reports Office in March, seen my article "Wasted GDP in the USA" be mentioned in about 1500 tweets, and reached 1.000 citations by the count of Google Scholar. I further gave a keynote speech at the conference "Contemporary Umwelt Analysis: Applications for Culture and Ecological Relations" in Tartu, Estonia, in April - which also resulted in an extended interview with Martin Avila and me by Thorolf van Walsum - and was an invited speaker at the research colloquium «After Nagel: Science and the phenomenology of animals subjects” held in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in March, at the “Henrik Steffens – The Prophet of the Anthropocene?” conference held in Stavanger in September, and at Dyreetikkonferansen (the Norwegian animal ethics conference) 2023, held in Oslo in December. Also, an interview by Norway´s national broadcaster NRK with Erica von Essen and me on the ethics of wolf hunting was featured in NRK TV´s daily news program Dagsrevyen as well as the popular weekly comedy show Nytt på Nytt.

In 2023, I have engaged in new collaborations, which include commencing article work with my department colleague and legal scholar Maren Sagvaag Retland, with Thomas Hylland Eriksen, based at the University of Oslo, with Martin Drenthen at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and with Søren Nors Nielsen at Aalborg University, Denmark. Of larger research consortia, I am thankful to have been included in the astrobiology-themed book project Mars and the Earthlings, with initial contact made via David Dunér in Lund, Sweden, and in the "Live better" research consortium led by Kuba Krys, based at Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. In the latter, I am currently gaining experience with international quantitative surveys.

I have done what I mention in this post within a work year that has been shorter than usual for me - around 2.500 work hours, compared with around 3,000 work hours in previous years. This has allowed me to basically have weekends and evenings off from academic work, making for a healthier balance in my life.

See also:

#35; 2023 totals (words written)

Summing up the work year 2022

In 2022, I logged 2.763 work hours. This is 53 hours a week (all year, including in holiday weeks). At 163,6% of a standard Norwegian work year, this is considerably longer than the average employee´s work week. And yet it was my second shortest work year in terms of work hours over the last 10 years, due to health issues (which resulted in about a month´s sick leave altogether in the autumn). However, in 2013, my first year as a father, I had a somewhat shorter work year (2.650 work hours). In 2020, as an effect of the covid pandemic and a month´s sick leave related to surgery, my work year amounted to some 2.790 work hours. My longest work year ever was 3.231 work hours (2011).

2022 stands out with a few records of different sorts: Highest share ever for academic work (vs. literary and other work), lowest share ever for "other work".

Summing up 2021 in terms of work hours

In 2021, I logged 3.114 work hours. This compares to an average work week of 59,7 work hours (holidays included).  This is my third-longest work week ever, beaten only by 2011 (when I finished my ph.d.) and 2012 (my first year as an associate professor and about the time up until I became a father), and compares to 184,5% of a normal work week.

Other highlights: As expected, the category "UIS" increased the most and reached record levels, while research and book projects had a significant decline. Also the broad category "academic" reached a record level, at the cost of literary projects and "other tasks".

Summary of work year 2019

In 2019 I ligged 3.073,5 work hours, which is 186% of the normal work year in Norway. My work week was on average 58,9 hours, up 2 hours from 2018 and up 4 hours from 2017. This is my longest average work week since 2012, and in other words my longest work week/year since I became a father.

About 31% of this time was spent on research, down 3% from 2017. Work with book-long texts was stable. UIS work (primarily as Vice-Dean of Research) was largest category, with 32% (+9%). I spent less time than ever on "other tasks" (4%); 77% on academic work; 19% on literary projects.

Work hours 2016

Yesterday I looked over my logged work hours in 2016. Altogether I worked for 2.901 hours, which amounts to an average work week of 55,5 hours (vs. 54,6 hours in 2015). Of this 64,9% was spent on academic work (vs. 75% in 2015), 14,1% on book projects etc. (vs. 8,5% in 2015) and 21% on "other" activities (vs. 16,5% in 2015). Among activities that contributed to more spent time doing "other" activities were the Green Party, administrative work (for one thing because we bought a house and moved), and music-making.

At office 5 days a week

After moving to Stavanger around November 30th, a new work routine has started, with 5 days a week in the office at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies. Occasionally, later on (once all my three kids are in kindergarten, starting next autumn), I expect to stay at home some days to write in full concentration. Next Spring will be somewhat different, with plans for 50% graded parental leave.

New work title for book on CCS; to be finished in one year

Today I have started on my new work routine for book projects, with, among other things, half a day´s concentrated work on an academic book each week. The academic book project for the next year is a politics-relevant book I have been doing research for since 2005. Today I changed its work title from «Utslippsfrie nye verden? Hva debatten om gasskraftverk sier om natursynet i norsk offentlighet» to «Utslippsfrie nye verden? Hva debatten om gasskraftverk sier om norsk natursyn» [Emission-free new world? What the debate about gas power plants says about Norwegian nature view].

Plans for commuting, wife´s studies, moving

This weekend my wife and I have made plans for her studies, my time with the kids while she is in class, and the right time for moving from Kristiansand to Stavanger. We aim to move around New Year. This autumn I will commune, as I have done the last 4 1/2 years.

2848 work hours logged in 2015

According to my regular overview, I had 2.848 work hours in 2015. This is about the same level as in 2014, and results in an average work week of 54,6 hours throughout the year.

According to my calculations, academic work amounted to 75,0 % of my work in 2015, book projects and writing for 8,5 % and other work for 16,5 %.

Two more evenings off per week

Today I have decided to make some changes with regard to my work week and work time/free time devision. Among other things, I will have two more evenings off per week (Wednesday and Sunday, in addition to Saturday). The aim is to attain a better balance between work and family time (including more housework), now that my wife is pregnant with twins. I should also be offline in my free time (afternoons).

From 50 to 70% contract with Department of social studies; all in all 100% workload and pay at UiS this academic year

I originally had a 50% contract at University of Stavanger's Department of Social Studies when I formally started August 1st last year, but by September I had agreed to increase the percentage to 70% with effect from September 1st (until July 31st 2015). As it turned out, my responsibilities amounted to more than the contract we had signed. My work plan has later been somewhat adjusted, but remained essentially the same, with responsibility mainly for the department´s Examen Philosophicum (SVEXPHIL10) and the bachelor thesis in social work, plus 40% research time.

With agreements on grading of exam papers in Examen Philosophicum at Department of Health Studies (SVEXPHIL2) and the 10% employment in the research project "Animals in changing environments" (EMP151), my total work load and pay at UiS adds up to 100% this academic year.

A day at the office

Today I have been at my office at University of Stavanger (in town since yesterday, now on my way home). No teaching this week.

End of second round of parental leave

My second round of parental leave (graded leave, 75%) at the occasion of the birth of a certain Matias Laurits da Silva-Tønnessen, my beloved son, ended yesterday, on March 13th. The next few months, however, my work routines will likely remain pretty much as they have been since New Year (he still needs being looked after, after all).

Current work routines - organization of work week in-between child care

There's been some back and forth with the organization of my work week as I have entered the second period of my parental leave. Changes include that 

• now and until March 15th, at least, I will not routinely work during the daytime at all when my son is at home. Except for during naps and days in which he is in kindergarten (without me accompanying him) during daytime, I am routinely only working after hours, after his bedtime. 
• But one day a week plus a further evening is relationship time (date with my wife).
• Thirdly, after a couple of evenings where I tried to put my son to sleep but he only cried himself to sleep (given the sudden absence of his ever-present mother) the first time and didn't sleep at all the second, I now take part in putting him to sleep EVERY evening yet for now leave the finish to my wife. As soon as he's truly calming down with me, I'll start putting him to sleep alone at times. With regard to work this implies that I get ca. 3 1/2 rather than 4 hours work time each working evening.
• In consequence of pt. 1 I do not plan for a full hour of email and incidental tasks in daytime plus a further full hour in the evening, but only 1 full hour whenever I am working. This occasionally puts pressure on my overall flexibility and ability to go through with all scheduled tasks.

See also:

Graded parental leave, part 2

Work and family life - a few new work routines

Working time, autumn 2013 - spread over 3 counties, daytime and evenings

This Spring I had a high percentage of parental leave combined with a 20% contract at University of Stavanger - though I worked long weeks even so, in combination with family life. The puzzle game is perhaps even more complex this autumn. My soon 1 year old son has started in kindergarten 3 days a week in Arendal, where my wife now teaches portuguese. Every second Thursday, when my wife is not working, I am taking him to kindergarten. I teach in Stavanger every Monday (first 9 weeks of the semester) and some Wednesdays (5), and also stay there every Tuesday.

Today I looked over my work weeks this autumn, and arranged tasks. The regular routine when I'm working from home, in Kristiansand, will be that I work 12-15 and then again 19-23. This results in a full work day, and maximises the time to be spent with my son (and wife). Every second Thursday I'll have the evening off, and every second Saturday my father is babysitting our son while my wife and I have a day to spend together. Sundays are workdays, given that I'm commuting between Kristiansand and Stavanger and teach Monday morning.

New rules for my work week

Last weekend I decided to change my rules of engagements workwise. In recent months my rules have been that I work six days a week, with Saturday or Sunday off, and aim at working until 6 pm on work days. My average work week so far in 2012 stands at about 63 hours. The new rules imply that I will have BOTH Saturday and Sunday off regularly (unless I am on a work trip), and that I will on weekdays aim at working either 8-18 or 9-19 or 10-20.

My motivation for these changes? A feeling of being overworked for the last three weeks in a row; a coming child, the worries of friends and family (My name is Morten Tønnessen, and I am a workaholic).

New work rules

While I revised my doctoral work this weekend with regard to what to submit as PhD dissertation, I also reworked my work habits.

As the two next figures show, I have worked long work weeks since 2009 (the last diagram displays the work hours so far in 2011 week by week).

The trouble with such long work weeks is, for one thing, that one risks blurring the difference between work and free time, if work is omnipotent. After having pressured myself lately, I have now introduced two new principles so as to self-disciplinize myself (and become a better husband):
1) At least one full day without work (as in duty) each week!
2) As a rule no work after 6 pm!