• Question: Are there any negatives to your job?

    Asked by 849sprg29 to Stephanie, LauraAnne, Katy, Helen, Emilia, Dan, Andrew on 7 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by Katty.
    • Photo: Helen Hanstock

      Helen Hanstock answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      I think most jobs have a few negatives and it’s totally fair to ask and talk about them!

      I think a lot of scientists tend to be perfectionists and want to do the best work they can all the time. Sometimes when you have a lot of work to do it can be hard to do all of your work to the best of your ability. So for me that means I can work very long hours sometimes because I want to my work to be the best I can do. It can sometimes be hard to find money to do my experiments too – I spend quite a lot of time writing applications to persuade government agencies and companies to give me money to perform my experiments when I would rather be in the lab!

    • Photo: Katy Griggs

      Katy Griggs answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      I agree with Helen most jobs have negatives. As a scientist hours can be long, it definitely isn’t a 9-5pm job. Hours of work change daily especially when testing. But this also means the job is varied. Plus it is sometimes hard to get permanent work with many researchers working on contracts typically from 6 months – 5 years in length. But again this also allows people to get to do research in different areas.

    • Photo: Dan Gordon

      Dan Gordon answered on 8 Nov 2016:

      As with any job there are negatives. There is never enough time to do everything you want, especially when you have deadlines. The need to attract funding for research is also a fruitless task at times and can get demoralising when you don’t get the money. However the positives far out weigh these:
      Get to work with inspiring students
      Get to publish your findings
      Get to work in great laboratories
      Work and effect athletic performance
      Travel the world

    • Photo: LauraAnne Furlong

      LauraAnne Furlong answered on 9 Nov 2016:

      I’d like to have more time to do more of my favourite things to do, like more data analysis, but you get very good at time management and prioritising things that need doing in science. The hours can be long especially when you’ve got lots of things on that need to be finished, and days in the lab can be very tiring when you test lots of people at the same time. However, there’s so many benefits they outweigh these negatives, and I can’t imagine myself doing any other job!

    • Photo: Emilia McAllister-Jepps

      Emilia McAllister-Jepps answered on 13 Nov 2016:

      Being an athlete is an incredible job, I couldn’t do anything else and feel the same passion or level of satisfaction on a daily basis. However it does require a lot of energy and focus. There are many things that you have to think about outside of training in order to make sure you are at your best each day, this can include not being able to go out and celebrate birthdays with friends, or going on holidays regularly. But in general I don’t really notice or feel like I am sacrificing things as I really do enjoy my job.

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