Unfortunately mental work is not considered as a heavy one compared to a difficult manual work, so a manual worker can obtain his/her pension around 60 years old while a hard working academic must wait until 67.

People has not accepted that a mentally working human suffers sometimes more than somebody who works in a coal mine for example, thus I am not optimist.

Maybe if epidemic researches show the drastic decrease in quality of life for academics after some years, then maybe society will take proper measures.

In my biased opinion, there are several factors that lead to this self enforcing pattern:

1) The academia during the past decades has turned into a factory instead of knowledge centers where society looks to to solve their problems. Currently society does not look towards academia but looks towards X company to solve the problem with technology (technology in its broadest sense to include medicine treatments, chemicals, IT devices, etc.).

Based this degradation of academia as a merely a "factory", where "workers" are viewed as non essential and easily replaceable. This is sad and we must change this perception at all levels starting with academic administrations.

2) The priorities of those who do research in academia are sometimes so distant from the lay person that it just not important to most lay people and so the lack of valuation. We must become not just good researchers and academics but also be able to reach out to not just our usual audience but a broader audience.

3) Most academics view intellectual property with prejudice and shun other opportunities which might be funding opportunities. In this point academics must realize that they are confusing an incentive with the final goal which is to make information public.

It is within our power to change these three points but it requires will and perseverance to do it.

Thank you Demetris for your contribution - indeed, it seems that the MENTAL exhaustion is not considered, and there are examples of that - I have nothing against other careers - but, it seems that academics are not being given their value and not treated fairly.

Thank you Arturo - great suggestions - but can we compose some practical steps that can become a framework for the academics and academia in general to look beyond today and near tomorrow into the future and become a force of change in our ever-changing and developing world... looking forward to your further contribution.

I have received a message from one of the readers of this question that I wish to share here

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Thank you for sharing this article. - All adjunct professors in the World have my humble support, Theodore. Could we create a journal to support you all?, pass the Word Please ...

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Your thoughts about this suggestion. Thank you!

Theodora,

The approach would be for academics to reconceptualize their role in society and become more active with industry and government:

1) Think as an entrepreneur. New ideas can become products. whether is a new psychological therapy or a new device, there are business opportunities that can be channeled through the unversity's tech transfer office or similar program

2) Evaluate critically your ideas. You may use Steve Blank's evidence-based entrepreneurship, SWOT analysis, etc.

3) Collaborate or be part of industry. Take an active role in the transformation and evolve with the times. While research and consulting for the private sector imposes new constraints on time and resources, it will help you become a better researcher and professor.

It will also help fund your own interests.

4) Bring the fundamentals of the idea back to the classroom to create a unique environment that provides enrichment to the class and makes it a unique experience. This way each professor can teach the fundamentals but at the same time bring his own practical perspective into the matter.

Thank you Arturo for the elaborate and informative response. Much appreciated. Will pass this along - hope something will happen... some universities are very active in this arena already.

Thank you Theodora for generating this important and timely discussion.

From my experience, adjunct academics I know play a vital role in supervision of doctoral candidates, where specific expertise is needed, and in providing professional consultancy advice when this is sought for projects such as the creation of new courses. They receive no benefits other than an email address at the university and access to the library. They have mostly retired from the paid workforce and have good retirement incomes and so just want to contribute and remain connected within an academic community. This of course makes them vulnerable to exploitation but for the people I know in this situation, they are also sufficiently assertive to reject this.

The ones who get completely exploited by being grossly underpaid are the casual academic staff who are completing PhDs while lecturing and marking for poverty line hourly rates. They appear to lack both the assertiveness skills to demand fair pay for their efforts and the collective power to take any action because of their isolation, rarely interacting with other casual staff in the same situation. They seem content to just grumble about their situation when talking with them about it. Any suggestion of taking action, such as talking to the union which has an office on our campus, is rejected as potentially jeopardising their employment and somehow not vocationally appropriate.

Much of this situation is symptomatic of a wider malaise in our society, articulated so well in this speech by former foreign correspondent and academic Chris Hedges: https://youtu.be/Ycuw9Cvh6W4

What can be done?