The Results Are in: Scientists Are Workaholics

Far from academia being a cushy and lazy lifestyle as sometimes portrayed in fiction, researchers know that science is an around-the-clock endeavor. Well, we now have some quantitative data to back this up.

In a recent study, a team of scientists in China examined the time of day when paper downloads occur from a scientific publisher's website. Controlling for the time zone where the request originated, they were able to see how hard scientists work overall by examining the downloads for a period of a little over a week. But even more than that, they explored the patterns in their work habits, as well differences between scientists in different countries.

The upshot is that scientists work late at night and on weekends. We have a clear difficulty distinguishing different parts of our lives. But it's more interesting than that. Chinese and American scientists have somewhat different patterns of workaholism. American scientists work late at night, but still recognize that weekend as a time of rest (at least a little). Chinese scientists, on the other hand, don't work late at night, but work almost as hard on the weekends as on the weekdays. And Germany is somewhere in between:

Furthermore, Chinese scientists also stop work for lunch and dinner, which the researchers ascribe to "the habit and institution that China’s dining halls provide food at regular time every day."

Overall, scientists do not have a good work-life balance. The conclusion of the paper is quite clear:

Scientific achievements are accompanied by intense competition and pressure, which requires a large supply of time and efforts. On the other hand, the demanding assessment from the institution makes the working atmosphere even tenser. Scientists today are spending much more time working than initially intended. They are deprioritizing their hobbies, leisure activities, and regular exercises, which negatively influenced their mental and physical health. Meanwhile, engagement in scientific research after work directly leads to the ambiguity of the boundary between home and office. This investigation on scientists’ timetable may in some ways call attention to the unwritten rule of working overtime in academia. As is generally agreed, research is not a sprint but a marathon. Balance in scientists' life is needed.

It's time we start heeding this in the sciences. But not only should we work to make changes in traditional academia (which will take some time), we need to create new structures that can allow for a more balanced life. One possibility is that of the independent scholar or even fractional scholarship.

But no matter what one chooses, balance is necessary. And it's time universities grapple with this in a serious fashion.

Top image:Rob Campbell/Flickr/CC