WOMEN IN PLANT BIOLOGY

Balancing Life and Career

	At Plant Biology 2005 in Seattle, Jennifer Henry enjoyed a relaxing foot massage at the ASPB membership booth.

It’s nearly midday, the “ding” from my computer is telling me to change for yoga, and I want to finish writing to three authors who have been waiting a week too long to hear about their manuscripts. I need to get an annotated manuscript in the post for 2 p.m. Another ding. I change into my yoga clothes, then remember to pack my bike helmet and lock, and my daughter’s official vaccination record, so I can pick her up from child care after yoga and take her to the local Maternal & Child Health Centre for her vaccinations during my lunch hour. Can I do that in my yoga gear, or do I need to pack work clothes? I’ve only been back from maternity leave for two days, and already I’m planning three activities (and sets of clothes) in advance.

We constantly hear stories like these about women juggling career and “other” work, but how do we achieve this balance? Australia recently celebrated the 150th anniversary of the workers’ “8-hour day” victory. A monument celebrates the concept of eight hours sleep, eight hours work, and eight hours play. However, how many of us really work only eight hours?

I believe that, much as things expand to fill the available space, we fit as much work as possible into the available time! Conversely, I also believe that if we limit the amount of time we spend at work, we can squeeze any number of jobs into that time. A commitment to leaving work at a certain time ensures that we keep working efficiently in the time available, before we leave for our “other job.”

The balance between career and “other” life (outside paid work) can very easily be lost, particularly when the pressure is on. Deadlines are tight, the head of department wants his or her pound of flesh and, as women, we are extremely good at running around trying to please everyone! It is not until we come down with a cold, repeated migraines, or the flu from all the stress that we might acknowledge that we are at our limit. (My signal is when I find myself kicking the gate that jams, or slamming a door—WARNING! Time to take action and de-stress!) We must then opt out altogether to have a few days on the couch with a box of tissues and some DVDs to recover! Who else has a hard time admitting that they are ill and need to take time out?

So how do we keep life in balance? How do we preserve those all-important family relationships but still keep it together when the pressure is on at work?

Whether you have children that need to be collected from child care, dinner to cook, pets that need to be walked, or an after-work hockey game, it is important to be firm with yourself that you are going to leave work at a set time and to stick to that commitment. The only way that your colleagues will take you seriously and realize that you can’t run one more PCR, send one more e-mail, or read one more paper is if you are firm with yourself. I am happy to work at 110 percent all day, but when the clock ticks around to 5 p.m., I try not to open just one more e-mail or check on those cultures one more time. Luckily, I now work in a family-friendly environment where departing at 5 p.m. on the dot is not seen as lazy, uncommitted, or otherwise slack. If you work consistently hard all day, every day, then occasionally need to leave early to witness the cutting of your son’s birthday cake at child care, no one has grounds on which to accuse you of being uncommitted.

Although our feminist upbringing taught us that we can have it all, I disagree. I believe that we can have it all, but not all at the same time. All aspects of life (workloads, family relationships, health, household budgets) come under stress at various times and enjoy greener pastures at other times. Picture a lighthouse whose beam falls on one aspect of your life at a time (the few days or weeks when your workload seems under control) while other aspects are in the dark (the car is long overdue for service). Try to keep the under-control area calm by not inviting more work onto your plate (such as putting your hand up for an extra project), which should help conserve your energy to book that car service. At other times, the car, home, and pets will be fine, where extra effort is required at work. I am not suggesting that you lessen your ambition, but rather that you learn to work smarter so that you don’t have to cope with many areas of stress simultaneously. That is often when we fall ill. When most of the tasks in your life are running smoothly, then one aspect “falls over” (e.g., your daughter breaks her arm at day-care and you need to take her to hospital), you will hopefully find yourself with the energy to cope with that single crisis without bursting into tears!

Strategies for Reducing Stress at Work

• Make a commitment to yourself to take a lunchtime walk outside at least once a week.
• If you can’t leave the building, at least eat your lunch away from your desk (elsewhere in your office if you have no lunch room). Just get away from the in-box and chew slowly.
• Constantly look for ways to be more efficient. If you are responsible for taking minutes in a meeting, take them directly on a laptop rather than handwriting and typing later.
• Hang a whiteboard in your office for jotting down those small or incomplete tasks, so they don’t fall off your list.

Strategies for Reducing Stress at Home

• Find yourself a housekeeper—it’s worth the investment! You instantly regain two hours or more of your own time to spend as you choose.
• As good at multi-tasking as we are, try to work out what chores really can be left until after dinner. Although it would be great to have the laundry in the dryer, the cat fed, and the dry cleaning collected before dinner, doing these tasks all at once may leave you with a headache! Streamline where possible, and defer the non-urgent chores until you have a little more breathing space.
  

Finally, don’t expect that achieving work–life balance is something that you attain with smooth sailing from then on. Situations constantly change: Departments merge, children grow and change schools, partners move jobs, our parents age. Try to accept that the only thing constant is change, and keep on top of the rolling ball!

Jennifer Henry
Managing Editor, Functional Plant Biology
jennifer.henry@csiro.au