Meghan Duffy, an ecologist at the University of Michigan, eloquently
discusses the myth in academia about the 80 hours a week workload. She believes
that the idea that you must work 80 hours a week to make it in academia is
damaging and causing very talented individuals to be deterred from the academic
setting because they think that tenure track positions will require such
extensive hours of work. Duffy suggests that the main reason why this myth has
endured is that people are just flat out bad at recognizing how much they
really work. The article also points out that the key to success in not only an
academic setting but in any career is efficiency. It is not how many hours you
work that is important, but rather how much working is getting done during the
hours that you’re working.
Kelly
Clay, wrote an interesting article in Fast Company on reasons behind why career women in today’s
generation are burning out. Only 11% of women leave the workplace permanently
to have children so the other reason for this gap may be traced to high
pressures that companies place in “always-connected” work environments. It is
incredibly tough to not check email when you’re not at work since access to
internet and email is so readily available on our mobile devices these days.
Also, this article points out that work comes in at all hours and it is quite challenging
to set boundaries and allow yourself to renew and rest when you are not at the
office. Unfortunately, it can be especially hard for younger women to say no in
competitive industries where they can be easily replaced. Women are known to
have significantly higher rates of “role overload,” and feel that they can’t
finish their assigned duties in time.
Alison Abbott, wrote a nice article in Nature News Features on the pioneering role of Emmanuelle
Charpentier’s in advancing the CRISPR-Cas9 technique. Charpentier is not a fan
of the academic limelight and is not getting nearly as much recognition for the
“CRISPR Nobel” as some of her male colleagues. However, she is quite successful
in the field and just published a Nature
paper on the mechanisms of a CRISPR system that may be more efficient than
CRISPR-Cas9. This article coves Charpentier’s personal and professional
background and describes how resourceful she is at starting her labs and her
thirst for making scientific advancements.
