The Year in Science
I am enjoying some time off my work email. As much as I love my job, it’s pretty stressful some times. Since I don’t have family living nearby, my husband and I are on our own with kids that are rarely asleep before nine pm (I know … we’re working on it.) I don’t have a cleaner, and we don’t outsource any of the housework except for window cleaning. We have to do this since our windows only open towards the outside, and we’re on the first floor.
Starting on Day 10 of Sparrow’s life, barely a week went by without me either doing a little bit of work or dealing with stuff via email or participating in a meeting. I realise that this is just the nature of the game - academic work is ongoing. Should I fall pregnant again (which is highly unlikely - we definitely want to stop after this one), I would take at least one month post-partum off work entirely, including email, and start back at work once the child is 3-4 months old, returning for two mornings a week. This is much, much better and more sanity preserving than trying to juggle a beautiful baby boy, a lovely daughter, a husband, housework, and work work while pretending to be on “maternity leave”. Hah.
A short list of what I’ve done between 31/3/2008 and now:
Paper writing: I wrote a first-authored four-page conference paper and a first-authored 10,000 word journal paper. I also edited a conference paper, a conference abstract, and co-wrote a second lengthy journal paper. I generated new statistical results for all papers except for the edited conference paper, where I only edited an accepted paper for the final submission. I also co-wrote the body of a further journal paper that will be submitted once Sparrow is in child care. I substantially revised an accepted journal paper, and implemented minor revisions in a second accepted journal paper. I hope to resubmit both before Christmas. Was originally hoping for this to happen much earlier, but see above.
Grant writing: Worked on two grants where I am a researcher co-Investigator. This means I get some kudos if the grant is funded, but I’m not the head honcho, and the grant will pay my salary. A grant that got rejected was resubmitted; I did some edits and pulled our local contribution together. A second grant is still in the works; there were at least three rounds of edits during the past nine months.
Project work: Edited the lay summary for a project I was principal investigator on, helped organise, did statistical analyses for, and helped write up project report for another project where I am co-investigator. I was also briefly consulted for one of the two projects that pays my salary. Mercifully, I was spared most of the actual project work. I will be eternally grateful to the three people who picked up my slack.
Teaching: My oh my. I am co-supervising two students, none of whom are easy. For the first, I provided two rounds of feedback on first year research proposal draft and took part in a couple of supervision and supervision related meetings, the second required quite a few meetings (and emails) as well, because there were major wibbles.
When? Meetings, one-handed emails during naps, DH looking after the kids at weekends for 2-4 hours at a time, Scottish Parliament crèche for 2 hours at a time. One EXHAUSTED perceval. Also, nominally, I’ve been back at work since October 1, but work have been letting me work from home, so to speak, as a recognition of the fact that I was doing stuff that either had to be done or was highly desirable to get done.
Lesson to be learned for the next year, when I will be writing grants and papers, co-supervising students and doing project work for the grand total of TWO DAYS a week: How to say no. Nicely. I wanted to prove I could still hack it as a mother-of-two, and all it got me was back to the counsellor’s comfy chair. Wish me luck!
Starting on Day 10 of Sparrow’s life, barely a week went by without me either doing a little bit of work or dealing with stuff via email or participating in a meeting. I realise that this is just the nature of the game - academic work is ongoing. Should I fall pregnant again (which is highly unlikely - we definitely want to stop after this one), I would take at least one month post-partum off work entirely, including email, and start back at work once the child is 3-4 months old, returning for two mornings a week. This is much, much better and more sanity preserving than trying to juggle a beautiful baby boy, a lovely daughter, a husband, housework, and work work while pretending to be on “maternity leave”. Hah.
A short list of what I’ve done between 31/3/2008 and now:
Paper writing: I wrote a first-authored four-page conference paper and a first-authored 10,000 word journal paper. I also edited a conference paper, a conference abstract, and co-wrote a second lengthy journal paper. I generated new statistical results for all papers except for the edited conference paper, where I only edited an accepted paper for the final submission. I also co-wrote the body of a further journal paper that will be submitted once Sparrow is in child care. I substantially revised an accepted journal paper, and implemented minor revisions in a second accepted journal paper. I hope to resubmit both before Christmas. Was originally hoping for this to happen much earlier, but see above.
Grant writing: Worked on two grants where I am a researcher co-Investigator. This means I get some kudos if the grant is funded, but I’m not the head honcho, and the grant will pay my salary. A grant that got rejected was resubmitted; I did some edits and pulled our local contribution together. A second grant is still in the works; there were at least three rounds of edits during the past nine months.
Project work: Edited the lay summary for a project I was principal investigator on, helped organise, did statistical analyses for, and helped write up project report for another project where I am co-investigator. I was also briefly consulted for one of the two projects that pays my salary. Mercifully, I was spared most of the actual project work. I will be eternally grateful to the three people who picked up my slack.
Teaching: My oh my. I am co-supervising two students, none of whom are easy. For the first, I provided two rounds of feedback on first year research proposal draft and took part in a couple of supervision and supervision related meetings, the second required quite a few meetings (and emails) as well, because there were major wibbles.
When? Meetings, one-handed emails during naps, DH looking after the kids at weekends for 2-4 hours at a time, Scottish Parliament crèche for 2 hours at a time. One EXHAUSTED perceval. Also, nominally, I’ve been back at work since October 1, but work have been letting me work from home, so to speak, as a recognition of the fact that I was doing stuff that either had to be done or was highly desirable to get done.
Lesson to be learned for the next year, when I will be writing grants and papers, co-supervising students and doing project work for the grand total of TWO DAYS a week: How to say no. Nicely. I wanted to prove I could still hack it as a mother-of-two, and all it got me was back to the counsellor’s comfy chair. Wish me luck!