Do you have work-work conflict?
Hi friends of women in science,
I read with interest a recent news release from the Clayman Institute at Stanford on a new program at the Stanford Medical School called ABCC, Academic Biomedical Career Customization. The women there observed that, "average day for an academic medical faculty member at Stanford's School of Medicine, for example, may include preparing a grant application, meeting with coworkers, advising students, and grading papers for a medical course-all of which compete with lab work and clinical care. Faculty at the School of Medicine, or SoM, fit these competing responsibilities into work weeks that regularly total 65+ hours." They have work-work conflicts as well as work-family conflicts and choices to make. Optimizing this giant workload is by no means easy.
Rolling out in January, the ABCC program lets faculty work out flexible long-term plans by which tasks can be addressed sequentially rather than all at once. Each person's customized career plan lets faculty members vary the workloads and responsibilities over the course of their careers, and the faculty member creates the plan. Another part of the program lets faculty bank time-credits that they can use later for help with tasks, either at work or at home.
I like the idea of self-designed work shifting and compensation for overloading, but I wonder if they can manage it well? Where are they going to shift all those tasks that drove faculty to the 65 hour work weeks to begin with? Could anyone take on more than that? So the details will really matter. But I do hope it works well, because it could give us a model for coping with our life-complexities.
What do you think, is work-work conflict a part of your life too? How easy is it to manage compared to work-family balance?
cheers,
Laura
Hi Helen,
I've always wondered about medical writers, but then I'm tuned in to liking writing more than a lot of scientists. If a med writer assists you, do you still feel the paper is your own? Isn't it someone else's product in some sense, even though it's your data? Just trying to understand, not implying anything negative here. I can definitely see how it would free up a lot of time to do it this way!
cheers,
Laura
I have the similar experience to Marian. Work-work conflicts happen all the time and making time for the important things like mentoring the next generation of women behind me and getting my own mentoring time in with my mentors often takes a backseat to project deadlines and even prioritization exercises. You just deal with it and work when everyone else is in bed. For me that's my morning time from 6am-8am. I'm amazed at how much I can get done if I'm just left alone!
As for the Stanford approach, I am also intrigued as to how they are going to get all those tasks done for the faculty in question as many do require them to be directly involved, but I can see how some help would be beneficial.
For example, my company has contractors for medical writing who organize our figures into composites, proof-read and make sure that we are consistent with the journal's requirements. That saves me hours of time which I am happy to use for different activities!
Cheers,
Helen
Laura
For the most part, work-home decisions are no-brainers. Work loses. At worst, home has to accept a compromise.
As for work-work, welcome to the world of busy, successful people. I don't think there's a solution. When I find myself 'done' with work, something is wrong!
Marian
