A colleague of mine is going through an 11th-hour tenure decision reversal (we think), and it's making the rest of us on the probationary track uneasy. Believe me, you don't want to go through six years of hard work--during a major recession, no less--only to find that what seemed like a sure thing has crumbled.
My poor colleague has started going to the school shrink for help. He has three kids and a stay at home wife, and is underwater in his mortgage. It is awful witnessing this. It can destroy your soul.
I'm starting to build my armor, as almost everyone gets hazed as they go through the final probationary years, whether they are worthy or not. For some reason, the committees can't seem to resist poking any bruise, no matter how small. I know I'm going to get whacked for abandoning some projects that seemed futile or boring to me, but hopefully, the committees will acknowledge that overall, I've done a hell of a lot of work for the school on a lot of different fronts. And I've done most of it pretty well.
Hopefully, things will hold for the next four semesters!
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I remember my dad going thru a very tense, doubtful pre-tenure period way back when..(I think it was partly that whole "publish or perish" principle, and the fact that he couldn't really be bothered to publish..) In comparison, you seem to be quite the professorial dynamo (and have obviously published), so I'm not too worried about you!
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