“Oh, it’s only 5 pm. I still have time!” I caught myself thinking yesterday while I was running through the list of things I still needed to handle before I left the lab for the day. I remember when leaving high school at 12 was an early day. Then in undergrad, finishing at 2 pm became exciting. By grad school leaving at 4 pm was a luxury, but you took with it a guilt trip that meant you’d continue working from home anyway. Now, sitting in my office I felt relieved that at 5 pm it was still early enough to make a dent in my never ending To-Do list.
I’ve always worked pretty hard and definitely have workaholic tendencies – especially when doing something I’m passionate about. I’m a 120% kind of person so that comes with the territory. Despite working hard, I’m not sure I worked truly crazy hours until the end of my PhD where that finishing deadline was very, very real. But that’s what you have to do to get your PhD right?
Then I took up a Post Doc in America. Armed with my new title, I decided that 9-5 was a perfectly reasonable work day and that’s what I was exactly what I was going to be working (more or less; lab day dependent). This slowly slipped to 9-6 and occasionally 7. Never later. From the outside this looks like I’m working a full day. On the inside however, I’m of the first to leave for the day. I am the Slacker Post Doc. The one that leaves hours before everyone else does.
It’s been a very intimidating thing to come up against. No one I work with thinks that an 8 hour work day is enough. Many I’ve spoken to here consider a standard work day to be 10-12 hours at least and 6 days a week. Having also taken up lecturing this semester, I too have found myself joining the work train with 2 x 9 am-7 pm and 2 x 9 am-11 pm days this past week. I was not the last one out at 11 pm and there are still labs full of grad students and post docs alike toiling away – my Slacker Post Doc title continues.
I get that in science – and many other fields – to be noteworthy you’ve got to produce cutting edge work and to get that work published before anyone else has the opportunity to think up and publish the same thing. I also know that as a grad student just getting your degree is not enough – you need more to your name to move forth and prosper. You (and your boss) need publications. The race is on. Always. At what cost though?
Having Teaching Assistant’s has given me the opportunity to interact with a variety of grad students and it’s been interesting to see how the work hours are just accepted and are always followed by ‘it sucks but it’s just for now though’ when asked their thoughts. My words exactly several years ago. Now, sitting exhausted, staring blankly at my laptop I find myself wondering if maybe we’re doing academia wrong? Should we not be focusing more on ‘productive’ work time rather than work hours? Should we not be praising student’s who are achieving while maintaining a decent work schedule? Is it even safe to be working that level of crazy?
That last question in particular has continued to run around my head. I have often done some stupid things tired and luckily none of them have been dangerous. Most of them have just meant I’ve had to start from the beginning again – but this is more down to luck than skill in those moments. One late night definitely won’t break you but how focused can you possibly be after weeks of crazy hours?
Not to mention the unhealthy lifestyle this breeds. Working these kinds of crazy hours means that maintaining a healthy, balanced diet is near impossible. It makes regular exercise challenging. It makes housework and laundry permanently backlogged. The result – an exhausted, jaded 20-something attempting to be high functioning in a very pressured (and dangerous) environment. That’s even before looking at the toll it takes on relationships.
Just because you can ‘cope’ with these hours, should you be expected to? Moreover, is it fair to have that same expectation of others? I’ve really got to wonder if we can’t find a better way to go about obtaining career success? Surely being well rested would help you perform better, problem solve faster and be more motivated overall? A balanced diet and regular exercise make you healthier and result in less down time due to illness? What you put into your research directly dictates what you’ll get out of it, but are you going to be happy with what’s left of your life if you survive it?
Then again what do I know? I’m just the Slacker Post Doc.
(I’m very grateful to PhD comics for a never ending supply of comic relief on the realities of lab life)
Tales from the Fishtank 