• Question: What do you feel is the hardest part about your job?

    Asked by anon-216051 to Robert, Olly, Nicola, Jasmin, Dennis, Caroline on 15 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Robert Dempsey

      Robert Dempsey answered on 15 Jun 2019:


      For me, whilst I like having a variety of tasks in my job, because there can be so many demands on my time I have to make sure that I don’t burn out, get overly stressed, and that I look after my own mental/physical health. Sometimes that means that I have to say ‘no’ to certain things, which isn’t always easy. I know a lot of people working in academia as lecturers/researchers feel the same – so I think the hardest part is managing ourselves and our workload so that we don’t take on too much.

    • Photo: Caroline Brett

      Caroline Brett answered on 15 Jun 2019:


      The hardest part of my job is juggling the different tasks I’m expected to do, and keeping on top of everything. There are a lot of demands on academics and sometimes we are expected to do things in a very short space of time with minimal support. As Rob says (we’re in similar roles!) there are times when it can be very easy to take on too much, or there are certain times of year where the workload is very demanding, and it can be difficult to look after our own mental and physical health. Personally I try and keep my weekends and annual leave clear but sometimes it’s just not possible as there is too much to do

    • Photo: Dennis Relojo-Howell

      Dennis Relojo-Howell answered on 15 Jun 2019:


      I’m a mental health blogger (among other things). So if someone’s asks me what I do, I often get the impression that it’s not a proper job. I think that’s one of the hardest part.

      But in truth, I work as hard as everyone else. And I earn about the same as people with regular jobs. The only difference is that I work in my pyjamas, while listening to a YouTube playlist! 🙂

    • Photo: Nicola Johnstone

      Nicola Johnstone answered on 16 Jun 2019:


      Being confident that what I want to say is true. In science, we use evidence to talk about new things and I worry a lot about getting this right.

    • Photo: Jasmin Moon

      Jasmin Moon answered on 17 Jun 2019:


      It is always hard when supporting someone who is really struggling with their mental health and they start saying some worrying things. There are specialist mental health teams who can help someone when their mental health is very bad but I still worry about that person a lot.

    • Photo: Oliver Clabburn

      Oliver Clabburn answered on 17 Jun 2019:


      I find the biggest challenge having so many different plates to juggle! I may have interviews to conduct, data to analyse, reports to write- all in one morning. Sometimes flipping between each of the tasks can be hard and finding the motivation to move on to something else when you’ve just started the previous thing can be frustrating!

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