Biophysical Society Bulletin | September 2024

Career Development

How to Achieve Work-Life Balance as a Researcher

“Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans,” the saying goes. Although research is about hard work and persis- tence, circumstances can change in unforeseen ways, and one needs to be flexible to take time to deal with personal matters. In many cases, projects will still be there or the interruption is a sig nal that it is time to chart a different course. Ideally, we would all like to be “in the right place at the right time,” both professionally and privately. Ultimately, we can at least to some extent contrib ute to what this reality is or should become. Life, including in research, is (hopefully) long. Some early stag es (of those 15–35 years of age) are often hyper-competitive, but even for those who are 35–50 or more, it is not too late to change your field or employer, work towards a new degree, obtain different skills, embark on new relationships, start a family, etc. Compromises or trade-offs in your own mind and especially with a partner may be necessary. Then, there is the professional life cycle, which affects quite a few researchers as they pass their “mid-career” peak. The academic community is starting to adapt to and accommodate this realty—for example, transiting to a bigger interdisciplinary team. Time for hobbies, family, and friends is important, but many academic researchers closely identify themselves with their work and are driven by unrelenting curiosity. Again, this can change over a lifetime, but when the urge to explore and the ingenuity to solve problems fades, then research really becomes hard work. Sometimes I have thought that, on one hand, I’ll have my hobbies in retirement (I’ll really get going then!), and on the other hand, sometimes I think that maybe I should quit research and make my hobby into my job! Both are fanciful dreams: once retired, there might not be enough time or energy, and converting one’s hobby into a job is risky at best. I thrive in the flow of doing experiments, analyzing and discussing data, writing papers, and doing presentations. I am reasonably well paid for it. So why give up on something you are already very good at? Hobbies, family, and friends are different—they bring enjoyment, but also require constant engagement, in both quantity and quality of time. For very good reasons, including the beauty of personal boundaries, these are usually different from professional work. Finally, I have interviewed undergraduate applicants at a top US university for many years. One of the questions I have posed is: “Imagine you had 25 hours in a day: what would you do with the extra hour”?” In a way, it’s a trick question because the 24-hour day (168 hours per week) is a relatively arbitrary unit already. Some candidates perhaps revealed more about their lives, including their level of satisfaction with how they manage their work-life balance, than they had planned to. As mentioned above, ultimately, key aspects of a person’s life journey are under their control and they need to be accountable to themselves how they spend their time. In my opinion, finding a work-life balance is challenging, but no institution or corporation or regulation should try to do it for you. — Molly Cule

Times have indeed moved on, and many European and US academic institutions as well as companies are now focusing on work-life balance as a key to enhanced productivity and employee physical and mental well-being. Many articles have been written on 10-step programs or other strategies to accomplish a sense of work-life balance, yet even the most self-driven research scientists, particularly

academics, find the goal challenging to attain. Perhaps in a few decades we will wonder how anyone sane worked more than 25 hours per week, but here, rather than repeating mostly com mon-sense pieces of advice, I will reflect on personal experience in becoming a leading researcher. First, time is not linear and research is often unpredictable in its outcome and the effort required. There is typically a strong cor relation between engagement, focus and effort, and the results obtained, and extraordinary results usually require well above average “proof.” Publishing high-level papers is one demonstra tion of outstanding insight and dedication; however, “burning the candle at both ends” is only sustainable for periods of time. Crunch periods are inevitable, and some researchers thrive on them, while others prefer when efforts are spread out more evenly. Many principal investigators, such as myself, emphasize output over time needed in the lab, and I have even sent co-work ers home or on a vacation to recharge if they seemed to be over working. I’ve done the same for those who have accomplished much efficiently—including sending them to a conference, which is a reward for those who like to travel. Yet, I also remind my coworkers that graduate and postdoctoral research training and accomplishments will set them on promising tracks for their longer-term careers in science: “Work smarter, not (just) harder.” There are likely competitors somewhere in the world, working on a project similar to yours, who are doing both. “Cookie cutter” approaches don’t work. Every human being is an individual and generally the worst mistake you can make is to assume that others should think and act like you do. Teams and organizations thrive with the individuals’ strengths and they can only make so many allowances for someone’s weaknesses or quirks. Thus, conversations between a mentor and coworkers need to happen on the topic of work-life balance and preferred working styles in a very honest manner. Nevertheless, it is the lab director’s prerogative to shape their team by enforcing common activities and standards with respect to the research products that leave the lab.

September 2024

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