WIBS met today to discuss work-life balance, a topic that was of great interest to many members. John Jaenike kicked off the meeting by presenting slides (link) on the challenges of academia, symptoms of imbalance and burn-out, tips for a balanced life, and UR policies and programs relating to work-life and especially work-family balance. We had a good discussion about family leave issues and came to the conclusion that there should be better support for people in the department – especially grad students – who want to have children. As a first step, we decided that information about family leave needs to be communicated more explicitly to people in the department at all career stages. WIBS members will work to find out what family leave policies apply to graduate students and other researchers and will make this information available on the WIBS website. In addition, several faculty members of WIBS suggested adding the information to the graduate student handbook and the new faculty handbook when these are next revised.
After the presentation, we held open discussion. An important issue that came to light was feelings of guilt for not working all the time. Members shared strategies for working more efficiently instead of longer, refocusing on non-work parts of life, and forgiving ourselves for taking the time to do things other than work.
The next WIBS meeting will be in January, likely on the 28th (the last Monday of January.) We will celebrate our successes and failures in the last year and do some champagne and chocolate toasts!