> I have mixed feelings about this because sometimes I have heard people dismiss aspects of work they're not good at as not important. E.g I have had sw engineers claim they solved the problem in their head and writing it down and communicating it to others is not important. At large organizations is just as important unfortunately.
Yeah, I get that. I guess when I say "important" I mean that we have hundreds of years' worth of examples of people doing great research and teaching without doing the kind of bookkeeping tasks that my dad couldn't keep up with (I honestly don't remember what they were, but it wasn't communicating—he's an avid writer).
There's no question that that part of the job isn't an inherent part of the researcher skillset, and to the extent that we need it to happen there's no reason it couldn't be either automated or done by a different group of people who have that skillset. For example, I often wonder how much we lost when having a secretary or executive assistant stopped being a available to anyone but the highest level employees.
Yes. I think is key to re-assess assumptions about what a job or role profile "should be" and make the requirements and expectations flexible to make room for those differences.
Yeah, I get that. I guess when I say "important" I mean that we have hundreds of years' worth of examples of people doing great research and teaching without doing the kind of bookkeeping tasks that my dad couldn't keep up with (I honestly don't remember what they were, but it wasn't communicating—he's an avid writer).
There's no question that that part of the job isn't an inherent part of the researcher skillset, and to the extent that we need it to happen there's no reason it couldn't be either automated or done by a different group of people who have that skillset. For example, I often wonder how much we lost when having a secretary or executive assistant stopped being a available to anyone but the highest level employees.