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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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 ...
Danilo M. Oliveira's user avatar
68 votes
9 answers
29k views

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 ...
CentAu's user avatar
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36 votes
7 answers
5k views

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 ...
enthu's user avatar
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23 votes
5 answers
5k views

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 ...
Anonymous Poster's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
399 views

Decision about getting a job while completing MSc Studies

Last year I got accepted in a full time informatics MSc. During that period I also had a fulltime job as a software developer in a startup and I was trying to make some publications with my thesis ...
user avatar
24 votes
2 answers
8k views

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 ...
JKR's user avatar
  • 343
16 votes
9 answers
18k views

What are the goals and benefits of doing a PhD?

I'm a master computer science student in a German university and I will be graduating soon. I'm in a situation between accepting a PhD position or leaving academia to start looking for job. This is a ...
Jack Twain's user avatar
  • 4,002
43 votes
4 answers
4k views

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 ...
user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
907 views

How can I throw other ideas from my mind while doing PhD?

I have started doing PhD 3 months ago and I still don't have that much progress. What I found is that I spend more time on learning about web development, which I can choose not to do, and this will ...
Sameer's user avatar
  • 351
27 votes
2 answers
6k views

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) ...
Paul's user avatar
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48 votes
5 answers
4k views

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 ...
vector_unknown's user avatar
48 votes
6 answers
4k views

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 ...
Open the way's user avatar
  • 2,194
67 votes
7 answers
35k views

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, ...
Bravo's user avatar
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37 votes
6 answers
2k views

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. ...
user's user avatar
  • 387
20 votes
3 answers
1k views

Should someone who wants tenure (or a research position) have hobbies totally unrelated to their work?

Or in Sean Carroll's words, is it true that "you are better off if your hobbies are nothing like your work"? Carroll, Sean. "How To Get Tenure at a Major Research University: Cosmic Variance." ...
InquilineKea's user avatar
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24 votes
3 answers
2k views

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 ...
Michael's user avatar
  • 341

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