It has been a busy couple of weeks. For once, not because the kids are constantly ill (knock on wood!), but because my work projects have been time-intensive. I'm finishing off my project that I started early this year - which has, after a lot of ranting, gone surprisingly well the past weeks. Either it helped to be clear on what my colleagues can expect me to do in terms of "crap work", or I had simply front loaded all such work, and there's none left…
My next project is launching in early June, and there has been a fair amount of preparation going on. With the support of my funder, we are filming a launch clip this week, and I have been putting together the content, and coordinating a group of people who will participate. As the project is about families and careers, it has been important for me to ensure that the film clip is not just about me. I'm simply the coordinator, and trying to pull together different voices on the matter. It has been a lot of work, and I have a great team to keep pushing me to think about what story I really want to tell (at this point) - I therefore hope that it not only launches, but also takes off!
Thanks to all of you who have already contributed incredibly useful advice, contacts and thoughts. And thanks to all who have spent hours on end talking to me about this issue. In terms of funding, this project is currently a one-woman-only show (and even that not full-time), but so far, I have felt like there are really many people working and helping to support me - and most importantly - this project. Grateful.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
Life with a couple of jobs - simultaneously - and the luxury of vacation
A couple of months ago, life was somehow frustratingly empty. I managed - and enjoyed - to do the crossword in the paper each day! I asked for life to get slightly more exciting (I have low blood pressure, lack of excitement makes me lethargic). Now I'm juggling two rather time-consuming work projects, my normal life as a mom, and all the little tidbits and favors that I've been offering to people on the side, because I've had time to help. One way I notice I am busy beyond belief? I don't find time to blog regularly. I don't manage to read the newspaper. Forget the crossword puzzle.
I have managed to enjoy the Easter and May 1st breaks, though. This is the huge luxury of having quit a full-time office-based job. I may work full-time, but I can decide to take all of my vacation. All the bridge days, all of the time off that I want.
It's the biggest luxury in life. To have work, in order to have vacation. I am paraphrasing Pippi Longstocking, if you know the series where she decides to go to school, in order to have vacation…
I have managed to enjoy the Easter and May 1st breaks, though. This is the huge luxury of having quit a full-time office-based job. I may work full-time, but I can decide to take all of my vacation. All the bridge days, all of the time off that I want.
It's the biggest luxury in life. To have work, in order to have vacation. I am paraphrasing Pippi Longstocking, if you know the series where she decides to go to school, in order to have vacation…
Friday, April 25, 2014
Learning for Life - Visiting a PhD Colloquium
A few months ago, I was finally kicked out of my final PhD program. I had been enrolled in one program or another for the past ten years, but with the exception of my first attempt in London (on Nietzsche!), something else always came up (work-wise), and I remained a passive academic.
I visited a PhD colloquium of my former (Berlin) university yesterday, because they had invited also alumni to attend a talk by a PostDoc researcher on - tadaatadaa - compatibility of work and family. Most participants were PhD students, desperately trying not to nod off and draw parallels to their own work on regression analysis, dummy variables, or what not. Gender makes many people yawn - literally.
The paper that the researcher presented was really interesting, and having been trained in the US, the focus was quite quantitative (lots of data!). The findings showed that for 27 European countries, women work as much as men - although they may earn slightly less for the same work (the pay gap). However, with children, women work substantially less in all countries, and their pay falls drastically. There is no effect on fathers - there's often even a "fatherhood premium" in that pay increases when men have children (good old alphas!!!).
In countries with taxation systems that have a preference for married couples (see my blog on German Crazy German Ehegattensplitting ), women work and earn even less. But the biggest whopper is whether there is (affordable) childcare (with sufficient hours) on offer.
There's always so much to learn. I hope that I never stop being interested. And that even at the age of 70, I will visit a PhD colloquium.
I visited a PhD colloquium of my former (Berlin) university yesterday, because they had invited also alumni to attend a talk by a PostDoc researcher on - tadaatadaa - compatibility of work and family. Most participants were PhD students, desperately trying not to nod off and draw parallels to their own work on regression analysis, dummy variables, or what not. Gender makes many people yawn - literally.
The paper that the researcher presented was really interesting, and having been trained in the US, the focus was quite quantitative (lots of data!). The findings showed that for 27 European countries, women work as much as men - although they may earn slightly less for the same work (the pay gap). However, with children, women work substantially less in all countries, and their pay falls drastically. There is no effect on fathers - there's often even a "fatherhood premium" in that pay increases when men have children (good old alphas!!!).
In countries with taxation systems that have a preference for married couples (see my blog on German Crazy German Ehegattensplitting ), women work and earn even less. But the biggest whopper is whether there is (affordable) childcare (with sufficient hours) on offer.
There's always so much to learn. I hope that I never stop being interested. And that even at the age of 70, I will visit a PhD colloquium.
Monday, April 14, 2014
(Office) Room with a View
I spent a lovely long weekend with a friend - and her beautiful family - in Zurich. I can reiterate my post Being There for Friends.
While in Zurich, we visited a cafe with a (marvelous!) view. As the cafe is in an office building, I told my friend about my strategy to get a job not based on content, but simply on office location (see my post What to Do or Where to Do). She found it a great plan, and voilá, she now knows where she will work:
And here is where I will work (I unfortunately have not yet been invited to an interview, and cannot provide the top-floor view…YET, so follow this space):
What will your office view look like - or if you've fulfilled your dream, what does it look like?
While in Zurich, we visited a cafe with a (marvelous!) view. As the cafe is in an office building, I told my friend about my strategy to get a job not based on content, but simply on office location (see my post What to Do or Where to Do). She found it a great plan, and voilá, she now knows where she will work:
(Photo: private)
And here is where I will work (I unfortunately have not yet been invited to an interview, and cannot provide the top-floor view…YET, so follow this space):
(Photo: Ghetty Images)
What will your office view look like - or if you've fulfilled your dream, what does it look like?
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Ask for Thanks - get Thanks - and Tedious To Dos
Oh the loveliness of it. After a week of complaining that I'm working for nothing at the moment, not even for a thanks, I today got a document back from a colleague I am working with. It was red with changes and comments (a word document in correction mode). Now, having worked for ten years, and having "colored" many documents myself for others, I do not find making changes or comments bad. I often believe that content-related changes or simple typo-corrections make work better. One of my favorite bosses of all times, from whom I learned immense amounts, used to be such a "changer". Everyone can learn.
The funny thing about this document I received was that it was filled with comments with "thanks". But the "thanks" were preceded by large, time-consuming instructions to change things. Just to note here that the project I'm working on requires me to provide content-related expertise. But as everyone tries to shove off tedious admin-related work, or nitty-gritty "change these commas"-work to others, people try to shove as much of this onto me.
I'm too nice. I often do these tasks. It's wrong, and it's stupid (of me).
But I felt like I needed to correct a previous post. Thanks is not enough after all. Thanks, please translate this post into seventeen languages, change all "e's" in words with an "i" into "u's", and separate all consonants and vowels into separate documents - thanks.
The funny thing about this document I received was that it was filled with comments with "thanks". But the "thanks" were preceded by large, time-consuming instructions to change things. Just to note here that the project I'm working on requires me to provide content-related expertise. But as everyone tries to shove off tedious admin-related work, or nitty-gritty "change these commas"-work to others, people try to shove as much of this onto me.
I'm too nice. I often do these tasks. It's wrong, and it's stupid (of me).
But I felt like I needed to correct a previous post. Thanks is not enough after all. Thanks, please translate this post into seventeen languages, change all "e's" in words with an "i" into "u's", and separate all consonants and vowels into separate documents - thanks.
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