On a recent weekend, I ran into some fellow grad students heading into the building as I was heading out to watch football. They (semi) jokingly chided me for leaving work so early on a Saturday (in our department at LargeU, the average work week is ~65 h/week, but in my particular area it's usually more like 75, getting in the upper 80s during grant time).
I (semi) jokingly replied, "No one in my group has to work weekends anymore, now that we have tenure."
"'We?' So you all get tenure once The Boss does?" They grinned at what they though was my misspoken pronoun.
"Well, yeah, actually. We all got The Boss tenure. So we are all tenured now!"
And don't you think that's only fair? We all stressed, pushed, and bled for The Boss to get the publications out in time for the tenure packet review (culminating in 12 papers submitted in 3 weeks, thank-you-very-much!). I bribed students in a class of The Boss with pixie stix and put in extra office hours to ensure high teaching marks. We all endured three submission rounds of The Biggest Grant ever, requiring 14+ hour days (for two weeks straight) to get data analyzed and figures made in time.
So yes, just like men often say "we're having a baby," I'm going to proudly proclaim, "WE just got tenure."
Unfortunately, I don't think that's something I can list on my CV, huh?
