Tag Archives: work-life balance

Lessons in leisure for scientists

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The scientific pursuits of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill and King George III can teach today’s scientists about the importance of life outside work, reports David Payne.

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill at his desk in 1939: a prolific writer, he covered scientific topics as diverse as evolution and fusion power.{credit}Getty Images{/credit}

 

In October 1939 Britain was just weeks into its prolonged fight against fascism and Nazi Germany when Winston Churchill, then part of the wartime Cabinet, penned an essay about alien life. Astrophysicist Mario Livio’s analyis of the lost essay, published in Nature  last month, garnered global media coverage. According to physics professor and science writer Graham Farmelo, the lost essay reveals a “dazzzling scope of inquiry” that shows he was an “even greater public figure than we thought.” Continue reading →

Children’s hour

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As a scientist, you’re juggling so much already.childcare

You’re managing your research programme, trying to publish, writing grants, and, depending on your career stage, looking for a postdoc or permanent position or supervising and mentoring junior lab members. Plus you likely have teaching obligations, are serving on a committee or three and have to give a big talk soon.

How do you cope with all of that when you have a family? You can’t just put baby in the corner as you race off to the lab in the morning, or rely on the babysitter every single night for three weeks straight because of that thing that keeps happening with your cell culture.

It isn’t easy. But we’ve rounded up a few ideas for you from other parent-researchers that might help smooth your way. One possibility, if you’re about to do a postdoc or are doing one, is to ask your principal investigator (PI) about shared postdocs. While this idea hasn’t taken off (yet) like wildfire, it’s worth bringing to the table, especially if your PI knows that you have young children at home or are planning for one. The risk is minimal, and you might be pleasantly surprised. Remember: no ask, no get. Continue reading →

Balancing act

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How do you find work-life balance as an early-career scientist?

You can barely keep up with your own research programme, let alone grantwriting obligations, publishing and staying abreast of literature, news and other information. Is there such a thing as a 40-hour week, or is it as extinct as an 8-track tape?

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Balance: Can scientists really have work/life balance?

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Do we need to choose between life and science? No. If we learn to delegate and lose our perfectionism, we can have it all.

Naturejobs journalism competition winner Judith M. Reichel

Science is a balancing act. There are experiments to be run, grants to be written, manuscripts to be published, students taught, and conferences to attend. It’s not surprising then that the life of a scientist is a balancing act as well. But how can we balance it, and can we “have it all”?balance-716342_960_720

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Have you ever had to compromise your personal life?

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We ask speakers at the Naturejobs career expo, San Francisco, if they’ve had to compromise on their personal life to make it in academia.

https://youtu.be/3oRQWv30XN0

Can scientists really have work/life balance?

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To be a top performer you need to be happy – something academics tend to forget.

Naturejobs journalism competition winner Elisa Lazzari

Scientists spend a lot of time trouble-shooting. Every day we work on our protocols, and if something doesn’t work, we try again and again, until we fix it. We keep track of all the factors and accurately measure all variables, to find the perfect combination of parameters that work. If there is one thing we can claim after getting a PhD, we’re definitely great at problem-solving. Can we also trouble-shoot our way out of the everlasting dilemma on how to find work/life balance?

Elisa Lazzari

Elisa Lazzari

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Parent, carer… #AndAScientist

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Researchers can thrive whilst combining their career with life outside the lab, says Ottoline Leyser.

{credit}Ottoline Leyser{/credit}

Guest contributor Ottoline Leyser.

Science needs diversity.  Solving complex problems is more likely if there are diverse people, bringing diverse perspectives and diverse skills to bear on them. The imaginative and interesting people science needs find inspiration in the most unexpected places – both inside and outside the lab; in their personal and family lives and their other responsibilities and commitments.

Working environments that embrace diversity are exciting and creative. They can also be challenging and uncomfortable. While it may be reassuring to work with people who agree with you all day long, you’re much less likely to come up with anything new. It’s unfortunate that such a large part of science is done by a homogenous group of people who all look like each other.  This state of affairs is maintained in part by the positive feedback that comes from unconscious bias, where appointments and promotion committees disproportionately select people similar to themselves. Continue reading →

7 posts to help you find the right work-life balance with children

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We put together a few of our favourite posts on helping scientists manage their work life balance with their families.

{credit} Yaskii {/credit}

1. Work–life balance: Lab life with kids
Time management and organisation is essential to keep your lab life ticking over and your home life running smoothly. But it can be done. As Jens Schuster, a molecular biologist at Uppsala University, Sweden, says, “cells don’t care if you come in at midnight or noon to take care of them.”

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