I’ve recently been offered a leadership position. It comes with some (rather small) salary benefits, but it’s a position with specific deadlines, plenty of busy work, and a lot of cat herding.
Objectively, I know I shouldn’t take it. The position doesn’t require a PhD, just someone with decent organizational skills, but the same can be said for most institutional service and leadership positions, and much of undergraduate teaching.
Pro: I would probably do a good job at it, likely significantly better than my predecessor, which is why I was tapped for it
Con: I am afraid it will obliterate my research program. Not that I am not already suffering from mid-career malaise, including boredom over revising the umpteenth manuscript or writing yet another grant. I’m cheering myself up with my creative extracurriculars. But if I end up having to do more busy work, I am afraid I will end up even more disengaged from my technical work, and I’ve got grants to write and students to feed. (If I were someone who no longer wrote grants or advised students, the position might be a godsend as it’s undoubtedly important for the functioning of the department; however, that’s not where I am right now.)
Pro: Whoever else ends up doing the job might do a crappier job and that might be a disaster for a lot of people
Con: I would end up no longer engaged in some service tasks, which, while being labor-intensive, do require technical expertise and accumulated institutional knowledge I now possess, and I happen to find them important and meaningful
Pro: It’s a challenge, and I love a challenge. I (unhealthily) crave overwork (those yummy elevated levels of adrenaline and cortisol), then obviously bitch and moan about being overworked. That last sentence is probably more of a con
Con: It will reduce my available time for my beloved extracurriculars, and will hinder my multiyear plan to achieve world domination (i.e., serious fiction sales)
What do you say, blogosphere? How have you wrestled with possible or actual service or leadership obligations? Have they been worth it (the time, the money)? Have you regretted them? Any words of wisdom?
Happy Independence Day to US readers!
xykademiqz 
Sounds like you’re getting tapped for program accreditation, haha! Is the appointment “permanent”, or is it fixed-duration? Weighed against what you would give up (or scale back), especcally the “beloved extracurriculars”, and the futility of cat herding, permanent may not be worth the salary bump.
Happy 4th of July!
Looks like you want it; otherwise, there was no pros and cons discussion, so just go for it. You will figure out the rest. More importantly, you will enjoy it, I think, given your boredom from writing another manuscript or proposal. At least, it will provide some change in your routine.
LOL it’s not accreditation (that role seems to be literal hell and the colleagues who do it are not shown anywhere near enough gratitude, monetary or otherwise), but does have some similar elements. Happy 4th!
Only you can answer this question for yourself. I am glad that I figured out via taking low-key leadership positions that I definitely do not want to be IN CHARGE of shit…
My revealed preference was that I tried for it, but I have been getting a lot more academic rejection than you have lately. But also I’m not heartbroken that I didn’t get the job (though if the person from another college that they tapped for it does a crappy job, that is going to make my life much more difficult).
Agree with RS: it does sound as though you’d like to try it, so why not? Sometimes that extra adrenaline juices up other areas of research or whatever.
I see very little downside. If you don’t like it you can always do a half-assed job which should leave you plenty of time for other stuff.
I feel a little more scared for you than some of the other commenters. Seeing something done poorly and knowing you could do it better is a strong motivator for me too, but it has also led to a lot of work that I don’t necessarily enjoy. I live in a world that uses a lot of structured decision making, so I’d want to know what your objectives are before getting to the pros and cons 🙂
Can you negotiate a postdoc or lab manager or something to help keep your research program running? That’s what our dean did, and it’s the only thing keeping her research program active right now. I’m at the end of my first year as dept chair, and I happened to be able to bring in a grant to hire a postdoc last year, and she has also been a godsend for keeping me research-active while I deal with my first (and hopefully only) significant administrative role.
I’m sure you’d do a great job, and I think there is something to be said about taking on new challenges mid-career — it does break some of the drudgery (I also find the yet-another-manuscript-and-grant-proposal stuff to be mind-numbing and have appreciated some novelty this year, even though it definitely doesn’t require a PhD to handle). But I think you’re right that your research will take a hit. Tough decision… let us know what you choose and how it goes, please!