Here is a summary of what an Adjunct professor is, because apparently RW people think they know all about it.

An Adjunct Professor is a contract worker, typically hired for 1 term to 2 terms on a per-class basis. They get paid per class, like piecework. A typical pay range is like USD$3,000/class per term.

A class takes about 15 hrs a week. It's a 15 week session.
So you make about $13/hr. Typically no bennies, no job security.

If you're lucky, you get 3 classes a term, which nets you a grand total of US$9,000, meaning you make USD$18K/yr.

But that's not what makes the job so bad. What makes the job bad is that it is temporary and is almost invariably a dead end. If you want to continue to be an Academic, you need to find a regular job.

How do you find a regular job? You publish. You make your colleagues like you. You do service.

When do you do that? In between working 45hrs a week. You do 15hrs research, 10hrs service, and 10hrs reviewing other papers MINIMUM. 80hrs work for 45hrs@$13/hr no bennies.

But it's worse than that. Your colleagues all know you're on the dead end clock. You are dehumanized on a daily basis worse than working in a sandwich shop. (I did that btw)

They will take every opportunity throughout your workday to make sure you know how worthless you are.

After 3 years of adjunct work, your chances of a tenure-track job are essentially nil. You can continue to move around the country, scraping together $18K/yr, but you will definitely run out of money soon. And then what?

People outside of Academia don't understand this. YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS. YOU DO NOT KNOW ANYONE WHO IS NOT AN ACADEMIC.

You will leave with no job references, no resume, an unintelligible set of job skills, and a sneering goodbye kick from your "colleagues."

And every Sessional/Adjunct knows this is all coming.

It's the constant sense of suffocating dread that makes Academia as an adjunct so awful.

Suicide is a reasonable alternative. I really mean that.

BTW: I actually beat it by getting a the #1 post-doc grant 2nd year out from PhD and then went on to get a tenure-track job.

So this isn't sour grapes. I beat it. Which is why I have the right to comment on it.

@FredNietzky This one's for you. Panda Power.