• Question: How many hours do you work a week and has it affected your life or carer?

    Asked by 857bsmf33 to Ellen, Elliot, Hazel, Rupesh, Thomas on 13 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Elliot Jokl

      Elliot Jokl answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Thanks for the question!

      The good thing about my PhD is that as long as I keep up a good pace with the experiments I am doing, I can come and go to and from the lab whenever! Obviously, my supervisors make sure I am still working hard and not hiding away somewhere! But it means I can be very flexible with my time so if there is ever a family problem or anything like that, I can reorganise my work life around that.

      I usually treat it as a full time job, though, and work 9ish to 5ish on weekdays, and I sometimes have to pop in for a few hours on a weekend to check on an experiment.

      Some people doing PhDs are not so lucky and have supervisors who are very strict, but thankfully mine are very understanding!

    • Photo: Ellen Gill

      Ellen Gill answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      I work 37 hours a week, and my office has flexible hours so I usually only work til lunchtime on Friday. Working for private companies means you tend to do a nice stable 9-5 job, unless there’s a really urgent project on. I’m lucky that my company has a director that really cares about work/life balance so I can do *all* the things outside of work with no problem.
      And this too!

    • Photo: Thomas Biggans

      Thomas Biggans answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      I work 37.5 hours a week and they tend to be Monday to Friday 9-5. There is the odd occasion where I’ve had to come in early or stay late so that I can use the scanner out of hours for experiments. Some physicists take turns to be on call which means they have to be available to come into work if they’re needed.

      In terms of my life I like the regular hours because it means I can plan ahead if I’m going away etc. and if I need the day off I can use my holidays they’re quite flexible with how I use my holidays but they still have to be approved in advance. In terms of my career as long as I get the work done on time then everybody is happy.

    • Photo: Rupesh Paudyal

      Rupesh Paudyal answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      I work about 40 hours a week and my timetable is flexible. I usually plan my work in advance and since I have more experience at planning it affects my personal life less now than it used to before when I would be naive at planning and thought experiments would take short time. They always take twice as long as you think!

    • Photo: Hazel Garvie-Cook

      Hazel Garvie-Cook answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      I work 37 hours a week. By working a bit longer hours Monday to Thursday, I get to leave at lunch time on Friday, which is a real bonus! That means the weekend feels much longer, and I have the time to travel to see family and friends.

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