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.
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
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! 🙂
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.
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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