Work-Life Balance My two cents… Martine Ceberio Associate Professor of Computer Science Anything about your own experiences, maintaining the work-life-balance as a professor and during the tenure process, and whatever else you think advanced graduate students would find valuable would be perfect.  

Why Work-Life Balance? Because we need / want (?) to attend to both Because we feel time-conflicted Why Work-Life Balance?

Certain job and career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningfully engaged on a day-to-day basis with a young family It's up to us as individuals to take control and responsibility for the type of lives that we want to lead. If you don't design your life, someone else will design it for you, and you may just not like their idea of balance. We have to be careful with the time frame that we choose upon which to judge our balance. A day is too short; "after I retire" is too long. There's got to be a middle way. We need to approach balance in a balanced way. The small things matter. Being more balanced doesn't mean dramatic upheaval in your life. Some interesting points http://www.ted.com/talks/nigel_marsh_how_to_make_work_life_balance_work/transcript?language=en

Take Control Pick a career that will make you happy You need to know what you want Set your priorities and do your best to stick to them There are all sorts of possible priorities Take Control

Be Realistic There is no perfect day There is no need to postpone hope of balance until retirement Example: When I travel, there is no balance Just like on vacation, there is no balance either But over time, you can achieve it Be Realistic

How about an academic career? As was said earlier, it depends on your career… It depends on what you want I am going to focus on what I know: Being a professor at a university With 2 children (almost 6, and 7) How about an academic career?

Good things about this job Flexible Run by passion (of research, of teaching) So that helps with “taking control”, doing what you like  Good things about this job

Challenges for Work-Life Balance On the tenure track (and possibly beyond  ) Pressure to produce scholarly work, to obtain funding Challenge to balance Research / Teaching / Service Trips away from home and family Challenges for Work-Life Balance

What people say and some do 80-hour weeks ~ 11-hour days, 7 days a week… 80-hour weeks before children Doable but consistently? I did it before children but did not make me the most interesting person  80-hour weeks with children Has happened but was very exceptional Impossible in the long run, for me What people say and some do

How do I address that? I set my priorities Family first: my children Resist pressure: e.g., tenure-clock stop I yearn to achieve balance over time Weeks are my time-frame Some days are harder than others How do I address that?

It is possible! My experience My tips Had my two children during tenure track Tenure-track lasted 8 years (stopped the tenure clock twice) Took a summer off for my first child, an FMLA for my second child, another FMLA for my mother’s illness Had health issues Stopped working 80-hrs 3 years in My tips Do what you like: resist pressure Stand for your values You do not want to get tenure on a job you do not like, at an institution and with colleagues who do not share your values It is possible!

Questions?