Questions tagged [work-life-balance]
Questions that each member of academia may face during his academic careers, because of personal problems, and contradictions between academic life and personal life. These may include marriage, childcare, etc.
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Why is my mood dictated so much by how well my research is going?
I'm a senior PhD student at an American university. I have found over the course of my degree that my mood has largely been influenced by how well my research is going. If I make a small break-through ...
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Gender transition as a starting faculty member: a terrible idea?
I'm a computer scientist at the point in my postdoc where I will have to decide soon whether to apply for faculty positions this fall or go to industry, in the US/Canada/UK/maybe Europe.1
But I've ...
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Is it true that PhD students need to work 10-12 hours a day every day to be productive?
I hear a lot of people brag or complain about how many hours they have to work for their PhD. Is this the norm? And if so is this really a wise choice to make? Do students really 'work' during this ...
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Stay in academia or become professor without overworking, is it possible?
I am referring more to young scientists after the PhD than professors, although I am also wondering about people with a stable position.
I see many people overworking themselves, burning-out, being ...
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Can I slack off and get a PhD?
I am not a genius but I am a good test taker and a very practical person. I went through undergraduate school without studying much (skipping classes, doing homework, reading the books and doing some ...
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How to care less about teaching?
Fifth year math grad student as of this Fall. ABD, currently on target for six years in total.
I have very strong feelings about the way courses should be taught, graded, and organized. I have ...
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Is it normal for an advisor to expect >80 hour workweeks from PhD students, and threaten them with dismissal?
My advisor always keeps pointing out that I should have publications and I should keep working and stuff like that. Recently he's been saying that not all student will finish Ph.D. and you should be ...
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Points to consider when deciding whether to get married during a PhD
Marriage is a recurrent topic in the lives of most PhDs. The meagre pay and the burden of responsibility could make marriage in the middle of PhD look like a terrible idea. But on the positive side, ...
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Is it normal for professors to not have families or not spend time with their families over the holidays, due to pressure of work?
My sister is a professor. I was visiting her over Thanksgiving break and my father (who is also a professor) told me not to hang out with her because she had a grant proposal due. Is this normal for ...
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Is it reasonable to worry about lack of potential for dating in postdoc positions?
I am 25 years old, and in a few months' time I will have to decide whether to get a job in London or apply for a postdoc somewhere.
Apart from all of the usual pros and cons (eg. job security, ...
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How do I gain back my faith in my PhD degree?
I am 3 years into a PhD program at a top North American university in STEM. My daily routine includes working on my research and preparing for courses I am assisting. In general, I would say that ...
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Profs who have done a full year sabbatical overseas with a family: How did you make it work?
I'm curious to hear from any American professor out there who has successfully done a full-year sabbatical overseas, with his or her family along for the ride. How did you make it work for you ...
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As a PhD student, I want to limit myself to 40 hrs/week. How to maintain this boundary?
So I am considering a PhD position as it appears one opened up and I was contacted about it by a professor. I'm not desperate to get a PhD. I think it's a nice goal and I am interested in the subject ...
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Can one excel in graduate school with a demanding family life?
The essential gist of my question relates to what the real, unvarnished realities are of graduate, post-graduate, research, fellowship, and professorship attainment - when you aren't a single person ...
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How to avoid thinking about research in free time?
I work on research, trying to get grants and publish papers and the like, I really like my job, could not think about doing anything else. When the weekend comes, or just free time I have the problem ...
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How to get through the rigorous phase of PhD?
I am currently a PhD student working out research and also doing mathematics for my PhD research. Most of the time these days I spend on studying -- maybe 15 to 16 hours per day. I believe that I ...
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Tips for work-life balance when doing postdoc with two very young children and a one hour commute
I have a postdoc position in my dream lab with PI, who leads the field and has very cool projects for me. The thing is, I have two small kids (youngest is 3 weeks old) and I live one hour away from my ...
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Is it important to maintain a work-life balance as a PhD student?
My apologies in advance for asking such a trivial question. My concerns may not be as urgent or serious as some of the others on here, but I have been worrying about this for some time now.
My life ...
user126346
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Is it typical to work 60 hours per week as a PhD student?
I was wondering whether this was just a local phenomenon or it's the generally accepted status-quo around the globe.
Preface:
In my part of the world (German-speaking Europe), we have a terribly ...
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How to deal with constant stress and uncertainty in academia?
I know there are a lot of similar questions but most of them are related to stress/pressure from their supervisor. I am doing my PhD and I am in my third year out of four. Everything is going very (or ...
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How to have a fulfilling social life as an academic
I will be a postdoc in the coming academic year. While I have not decided on where I will be in September, it seems likely that I will be a research postdoc at a decent research university.
An aspect ...
user10269
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Is it permitted to not take Ph.D. students who have girlfriends/are married/don't come in weekends...? [closed]
As a professor, are you permitted to prohibit Ph.D. students from joining your research group if you know they have a boy/girlfriend, are married, don't come in on weekends, who don't stay late, etc......
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Overcoming depression and getting back on rails with PhD work [duplicate]
I'm a first year PhD student (computer science), and I've felt that I lost this year up to now due to some life difficulties. I'm getting no financial support and I was forced to teach to get some ...
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Separating academic identity from social identity
I would like to start publishing scientific papers soon. This issue pertains to the name I will use when publishing.
Basically, I would like to keep my personal and academic life separate and my ...
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How do academics with teaching responsibilities, etc. find the time to do research?
How do academics manage to do research when they are lecturing and running courses, helping students, writing up assignments and tests, marking assignments and tests, supervising graduate students, ...
Samuel
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Is it possible to have a healthy work-life balance as a professor?
I am an MSc student and one future direction I have been thinking about is the potential of pursuing a professorship after I do a PhD. Why do I want to be a professor? I enjoy the back and forth of ...
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Is it more difficult for teetotalers to develop academic contacts?
I see a number of answers in this site where building contacts over a glass of beer is encouraged. Moreover the cream of academia belongs to the Western world, where beer culture is common. ...
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How to prevent physical/psychological health side effects of workaholism in academia and research?
As a research student, I spend most of my time working on my research career, even when I am at home, I am awake until 3 or 4 A.M just doing my research-chores.
As a matter of fact, long-term having ...
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Strategy for revealing pregnancy to new department/department chair
I am a new tenure-track assistant professor who is expecting a baby in January (just after spring semester starts). I will be arriving on campus in the next couple of weeks and need to tell my ...
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Is it common for people in academia to experience prolonged lack of sleep and how to deal with it?
Stuck in the lab again, for the third night in a row. I have never done three in a row I think I might just break a record. I cannot sleep, because the lab is super crammed and uncomfortable and I am ...
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How much patience is needed in a PhD?
I am a PhD student who works in theory. I have been patient but nowadays I am losing my temper, patience, etc. Many publications have been rejected as well as my proposals for grants. I have submitted ...
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Does one invite adviser / cohort / lab to one's wedding?
For a PhD student getting married in the middle of the degree, is there an established etiquette for invited your peers and/or your adviser to the wedding?
Obviously, circumstances of the wedding ...
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How common is it for women to drop out of graduate school because they have children?
I am a 29 year old female. I want to go back to school. I have been told that I have a very good chance at getting into a very good graduate computer science program (machine learning, AI, robotics, ...
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Feeling bad about taking time off
So I'm a first year PhD student in the UK working on an applied mathematics project. Excluding weekends I put in about 37/40 hours a week of work which leaves me pretty tired to say the least.
...
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Advice for having children during graduate school
My wife and I just found out that we're having our first child. While this is a wonderful thing, it also concerns us a bit. Particularly because we're on limited funds (TA & RA combined salary) ...
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How to finish PhD and get through the academic job market as a new mother and primary caregiver?
I am a female graduate student in a competitive phd program. I recently had a baby. Although this is a planned pregnancy, and I thought I had thought through the complications having a baby would ...
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How to efficiently plan holidays in academia?
It is holiday season, so I thought of re-considering my ways of holiday planning.
As a student, holidays in academia are somewhat shaped by the semester breaks and the lecture-free period. Working ...
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Balancing empathy and deferring to the syllabus in teaching responsibilities
Questions of similar topics have been asked here for the situation of instructing a course and here and here for the situation of 'no late work' policies. Additional questions about balancing teaching ...
user97709
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Can I live off post-docs?
I'm currently a theoretical/mathematical physics PhD student in Brazil. I still have little more than a year until my PhD finishes, and as far as tradition goes, it's soon time to look for a post-doc ...
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Ways to manage something like a 'work-life balance'?
According to a recent international study on work-life balance within academia
"a majority of researchers and scientists had conflicts between their work schedules and personal lives at least two ...
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Gap year before post-doc?
I have been in a rush to accomplish academic goals since I remember myself. Started my PhD right after undergrad and did my Masters on the same time. Now I am about to submit my thesis and feel kind ...
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Are reduced working hours in a PhD a reasonable idea?
I live in Germany. I've just recently finished my M. Sc. in computer science and I'm now thinking about pursuing a PhD. I've been offered a full-time position on a topic which I'm quite interested in (...
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Getting a pet during a PhD
There are questions on here about getting married, having kids, and other major time commitments during graduate school. But one thing that I haven't seen posted -- but that I've seen come up with ...
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Will people think negatively of owning a nice car in grad school?
I graduated from college 5 years ago, and I was very fortunate to graduate with no debt. For the 3 years after graduating I worked hard, had solid employment, and saved very carefully. This afforded ...
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"Taking summers off" and the impact on tenure decisions
Assume there is a young tenure-track professor on a 9-month salary who is a good instructor and manages to get research published at an appropriate pace during the school year for tenure consideration....
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Developing meta-cognitive and emotional skills during PhD?
I am convinced that I possess sufficient "cognitive skills" to succeed doing my PhD. Reflection on myself, however, confronts me with the fact that my "meta-cognitive" (time management, mental ...
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How does having baby affect tenure track offer or tenure track success?
I am a PhD candidate with one child (18 months) and one year left in the PhD. My husband and I want at least one more child. I am trying to learn about the relative pros and cons of having a child ...
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How to explain a life as a researcher to friends, family and partners who aren't?
My friends, family, and partner often mention that they worry about my life as an researcher/academic mentioning how I work too much (I love my job!) am never satisfied (I want to go great work, and ...
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How much involvement should my advisor have in deciding my availability and actions for me? [closed]
I worked in the industry for a few years before starting my PhD and learned many do's and don'ts in the workplace for how you guide subordinates to attend meetings and do things you want them to do. I'...
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Why are small distractions impacting my day so much?
During the pandemic, at least the premier institutes of my country are operating in work from home mode. Since this lessens the physical activity of going around labs and classrooms daily I tried to ...
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