If you look for advice on work-life balance in science online, the message seems clear: it\u2019s possible to fit a 10-hour work day around quality time with your kids and family as long as you\u2019re organized. Flexible hours of working in the lab help. Experiments don\u2019t mind when you do them, and can be postponed until your kids are asleep. But still, long hours are expected in order to be successful, and finding childcare during midnight experiments is not always easy if you don\u2019t live close by. So for many (including myself, a post-doc in my late twenties pondering the right time to start a family) the prospect of having to plan each and every minute of the day to be a good parent and scientist is daunting. This leaves promising young scientists everywhere feeling like they have to choose between family and career.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But should \u201cbe organized\u201d really be our best advice for anxious parent-scientists? Should we not rather try to promote flexible models beyond working 10 hours a day to keep highly trained, young scientists, who want to prioritize their families, in academia?<\/p>\n One option would be the much frowned upon part-time post-doc<\/a>. Only 2.5% of post-docs work part-time<\/a>, and many post-docs and PIs will tell you that \u2018part time\u2019 and \u2018post doc\u2019 just don\u2019t mix. But I haven\u2019t seen much opposition for shared post-docs, where two post-docs share the same research project. Two (part-time) pairs of hands would mean a project still moves along at a lively pace, whilst still allowing long experimental set-ups to be covered.<\/p>\n In addition to workload, two minds can only be beneficial in designing new experiments and approaches. From a PI\u2019s perspective, there also seems to be few financial downsides in hiring two part-time post-docs instead of one full-time post-doc<\/a>, and the concept of \u201cjob-sharing\u201d is already in use in companies such as BASF<\/a>. So why is this model nowhere to be found in academia? Surely it\u2019s not due to a lack of demand.<\/p>\n No. As a post doc myself, my guess is what\u2019s holding this model back is the stigma that if a scientist is not committed to working 50-60 hours a week they have no place in science<\/a>. I\u2019m not sure where this comes from, but I imagine that the pressure to publish high-impact first author papers, to be able to secure funding<\/a>, has something to do with it.<\/p>\n New open-access publishing strategies and assessments<\/a> based on smarter paper metrics<\/a> may start to decrease this pressure. But still, the bigger problem is our mindset, as grants are often awarded by peer-review. It is on us as a community to change our thinking when reviewing CVs<\/a> \u2013 part time work, shared post-docs and children should no longer be seen as a problem, or can we afford to let all these highly qualified people go?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ulrike is a post-doc at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg. Her research focuses on the development of immune cells in different tissues. Outside the lab she loves to travel and run, ideally combining the two. You can follow Ulrike on <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a> or<\/em> her <\/em>blog<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Suggested posts:<\/strong><\/p>\n 7 posts to help you find the right work-life balance with children<\/a><\/p>\n Work\/life balance: New definitions<\/a><\/p>\n A positive step for postdocs?<\/a><\/p>\n Parent, carer\u2026 #AndAScientist<\/a><\/p>\n Can scientists really have work\/life balance?<\/a><\/p>\n How to control your career as a female physicist<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Naturejobs journalism competition winner Ulrike Tr\u00e4ger. Read more<\/a> Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/files\/2016\/06\/IMG_9205_2-smaller.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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