Research Essentials

Glancing through this blog, I realised that it had the tagline “perspectives on an academic environment” and I thought that perhaps I had neglected this aspect somewhat so heres some perspectives and maybe a little perspective too

Summer is a funny time in academia. Everybody seems to disappear. Having moved to an open plan space with 14 desks, I have often had the space to myself, or sharing with a maximum of 4 others. I suspect that this could be partly due to conferences and partly because academics get huge long holidays

I’ve discovered this titbit by trawling for post-doc jobs on ResearchResearch and other such websites. Holidays seem way higher than in business. In my last job in the software industry, you got 20 days per annum plus 3 days over Xmas plus bank hols. After 10 years service, this entitlement would rise by one day per year up to a maximum of, I think, 30 days.

The ads I have read for Post-doctoral research posts, lectureships and similar seem to offer 30 days per annum, plus the Xmas and bank holidays. That’s 10 days more than I was getting before. No wonder everybody heads off during the summer hols. Also seems to make it a fairly family-friendly workplace.

Now we’re in September, I’m waiting to see how the place fills up. Along with my fellow final year students, Rebecca and Anesa, we too have been away for much of the summer; attending conferences (Anesa) or just family holidays (Anesa, Rebecca and me). We’re all back now, so it will be interesting to see how the Jennie Lee Building fills up.

by Gill Clough