• Question: How many days do you work a week (how commited are you to your work?)

    Asked by Rhianne to Kylie, Matt, Bex, RobB, Sam on 12 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by _georgia_xoxo.
    • Photo: Rob Brass

      Rob Brass answered on 12 Jun 2016:

      5 days, Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours 🙂

      I often do more than this though. I don’t get paid overtime but I can take the hours back on another day if I want an early finish or late start. I’m lucky in that my hours are usually quite flexible! I’ll also sometimes need to work late or go in on a saturday to make measurements as it’s the only time the machines are available!

    • Photo: Kylie Belchamber

      Kylie Belchamber answered on 12 Jun 2016:

      Normally Monday to Friday, so 5 days a week.

      I do extra work on the train on the way to work some days. And sometimes if I am mega busy, then I’ll do more work when I get home, but not every day 🙂

      My boss is very flexible so I don’t have an exact time to be at work, and to leave, and I can work from home if I don’t have experiments that day. It’s great to be able to control your own time, even if I do more than 40 hours a week sometimes!

    • Photo: Sam Briggs

      Sam Briggs answered on 12 Jun 2016:

      Hi there Rhi,

      It varies depending on how well things are going in the lab, some weeks I work six or seven days, the others just the normal five, but I tend to come in at nine and leave at around six. Or at least try to. That way I can work on other things I’m passionate about too. I think it’s really important not to be consumed by just one thing in life, as we normally have many demands on our time from many different people or things! But I’m very committed to my work, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend every hour spent on it – sometimes you can burn out and then that’s even less productive. Balance is key.

      Hope that helps?

    • Photo: Rebecca Thompson

      Rebecca Thompson answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      I mostly work Monday-Friday, but work weekends perhaps once a month (of my own free will- not because my boss asks!). My hours are flexible, normally 9-6.30 but sometimes end up working a bit later (especially if the electron microscopes aren’t behaving!)

      The advantage of working flexibly is sometimes I take a random day off to make up for the extra hours, or take a long lunch with my friends around the university!

      Overall, I love working flexibly, although I perhaps work more hours than someone in a ‘9-5’ job, the flexibility more than makes up for it. Having said that, I have friends who work strictly Monday-Friday 9-5, so its sort of up to you depending on your job/lab group how you structure your day!

    • Photo: Matt Dunn

      Matt Dunn answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi Rhianne and georgia,

      I try to work Mon-Fri, 9-5 as much as I can, but because I work with cells sometimes I need to pop into the lab for half an hour on the weekends to replace the cell’s food and keep them alive!

      My work is very important to me, but my life is even more important, so it is vital to remember than you work so you can live, you don’t live so you can work. Having work that helps many people is a bonus!

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