The profession that isn’t
Posted by Thomas Butts, on 10 September 2011
This post was my contribution to Science is Vital’s latest campaign on science careers. If you haven’t done so yet, I warmly encourage to get involved with the movement.
THE PROFESSION THAT ISN’T
As I enter the last 6 months of my first postdoc, I am confronted by a number of issues with having chosen (and continuing to choose) science as a career that I suspect apply quite broadly:
1. The UK has cut science funding in real terms significantly, and will likely continue to do so. Obviously, I think this is misguided, and the economic arguments in a knowledge economy in 21st century Western Europe are well worn, so I will not re-state them. It is, though, worth contemplating that not every country is adopting this approach, and I fear that our medium and long term competitiveness as an economy, not to mention as a health service, will struggle in comparisons with countries such as Germany that are taking the opposite approach to their science budget.
2. I am an average, middle class, married, soon-to-be 30-year-old, and have a close-knit family. My regular 12-hour days and weekend working are not very sustainable.
The arguments surrounding about point 1 are well worn, as I say, but point 2 needs significant re-statement in the corridors of power. Elaborating on my, I suspect typical, situation I hope will be informative.
I am fairly normal. In my more self-confident/self-indulgent moments I think I might actually be quite bright, with much to contribute to science, though I should point out that I am more often of the opposite opinion. But then, it isn’t like I spend my professional life on the lookout for incorrect conclusions not based on reasonable evidence or anything.
Seriously though, whether or not I as an individual am any good, I do not bear comparison as a scientist with people in other professions at my stage of career. The contrast with my wife is stark. She is a civil servant working for her majesty’s government in London. She is better paid than me, has a permanent contract, and is encouraged to pursue a balance in her life between work and leisure/family. I also like to remind her that she is less well educated than me, but I will humbly ignore that for now. In contrast, I know academics (and quite a few of them) who are of the opinion that a good work-life balance involves having a weekend off. Sometimes.
For those of us not in a position to drop everything and move to Boston for 5 years, it seems that science and life are not compatible, and are becoming even less so. At best it is like we have all the negatives of the private and public sectors with none of the benefits of either. At worst it is as if we are participating in a career structure that is fundamentally undermining of one of the UK’s truly outstanding endeavours. It is an issue that needs addressing.
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Thanks for sharing, Thomas. For other UK researchers interested in supporting this, the call for stories is here. The feedback will be passed on to David Willetts, the Minister of State for Universities and Science.
The backstory of Science Is Vital is mentioned in this previous Node post by Jonathan.
Dear Thomas:
I share with you all your concerns. I have been following the UK’s situation quite close. I am working in an advocacy initative similar to Science is Vital here in Chile. We suffer almost the same problems here: low payments for scientists, long working hours (even receiving often the speech about “your life as a scientists must be 24/7”), a denialism for science in government and the citizenship, poor equipment, and a competitiveness performance falling fast when compared with Argentina, Brasil, Peru and other South American countries. I can understand this in countries less developed as mine (Chile), but I am scared of reading so often these claims about UK science. I have been looking forward to do a post-doctoral stay in your country, considering myself well trained and with good skills for science, but I am worried about the reality depicted by young scientists.
I was thinking about writing here regarding this same topic, and I am glad nonetheless to see that this is an important issue for young researchers.
Pablo
Nice post, very honest. I think this discussion is very difficult to have, many people I’ve talked to think we’re just being negative and ‘poor me’ when we try to talk about these issues but they are really important. Particularly the work life balance, a career in science shouldn’t demand every moment of our waking lives.