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Fed up and burnt out: 'quiet quitting' hits academia – Nature.com

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Nikki Forrester is a science journalist based in West Virginia.
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When Isabel Müller became an assistant professor in 2021, she started working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. Although nobody expected her to work this much, she says, she couldn’t find a way to fit all her research, teaching and mentoring efforts into fewer hours. But as the first term progressed, Müller realized her pace was unsustainable. She needed to set boundaries if she wanted to continue working in academia: “It took another term, but now I try to stick to some rules.”

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Nature 615, 751-753 (2023)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00633-w
Collection: Time management
Stop the peer-review treadmill. I want to get off
Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?
Three-quarters of researchers say yes to meeting-free weeks
Why four scientists spent a year saying no
If you want something done right, do it yourself: the scientists who build their own tools
Career Feature
How high-impact papers from Indian researchers are shaping science
Spotlight
How to make data open? Stop overlooking librarians
World View
How Dark Souls and Darth Revan helped me to make sense of my professorship
Career Column
The postdoc experience is broken. Funders such as the NIH must help to reimagine it
World View
Research prizes are opaque and rife with bias — it’s time to shake them up
World View
How an AI-powered lion became a teaching tool
Career Column
Why 2023 was a bittersweet year for Brazilian science
Spotlight
How research managers are using AI to get ahead
Nature Index
At the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bonn, the position of W3 Professor for Clinical-Molecular Cardiology is to be filled on a permanent…
53127, Ippendorf (DE)
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität
Young, modern, research-orientated: Founded in 1991, the University of Potsdam has firmly estab­lished itself in the academic landscape and has dev…
Potsdam, Brandenburg (DE)
Universität Potsdam
Two full professorships, a junior group leader position and a lab head of a DNA biofoundry. Employer Heidelberg University Location Heidelberg, Ger…
Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE)
Universität Heidelberg
Young, modern, research-orientated: Founded in 1991, the University of Potsdam has firmly estab­lished itself in the academic landscape and has dev…
Potsdam, Brandenburg (DE)
Universität Potsdam
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health(GIBH), Chinese Academy of Sciences

Collection: Time management
Stop the peer-review treadmill. I want to get off
Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?
Three-quarters of researchers say yes to meeting-free weeks
Why four scientists spent a year saying no
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Nature (Nature) ISSN 1476-4687 (online) ISSN 0028-0836 (print)
© 2023 Springer Nature Limited

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