Office Hour

Here I am sitting in my office, wondering what to do without any needy students stopping by to discuss their academic-writing woes. Then the thought came to me: yes, indeedy, write a blog post about what academics actually DO during their office hours.

I use my office hours to take an hour-long mental break. I eat my lunch, check my email, write emails to my million friends, and walk around the building looking for other people I can visit. Office Hours are the least academic thing about academia. In fact, it's much like a private lonesome happy hour.

We might appear hard at work, hunched over computers, squinting over the tops of our heavy-framed glasses, shuffling papers around the desk, etc., but the truth is we're shopping on Amazon.com for the latest Sara Moulton cookbook or a Keane CD. Or, even better, we're sending nasty notes to colleagues about other colleagues. Yes, all academics are gossip queens at heart.

Especially part-timers, like me.