Protégés receive scant counsel on work–life conflicts.
Just one-fifth of US clinician–researchers report receiving guidance from mentors on achieving work–life balance, finds a survey (R. DeCastro et al. Acad. Med. 89, 301–311; 2014). The authors polled 1,227 researchers who received National Institutes of Health career-development grants in 2006–09. They found that although 52% of female respondents and 40% of male respondents were dissatisfied with their work–life balance, only 22% of all people surveyed received advice from a mentor on balancing the two. Researchers should not fear initiating discussions about such issues with their advisers, says co-author Reshma Jagsi, a radiation oncologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who adds that mentors may not be aware of their mentees' work–life conflicts. “This is not an illegitimate concern,” she says.
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Balancing act. Nature 506, 399 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7488-399a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7488-399a