When should you help your colleagues?
Assisting trustworthy co-workers can pay dividends for your career and wellbeing
A 2015 study by researchers at Yale University confirmed what philosophers have known for a long time: being kind and helpful is good for your mind. In particular, if you assist other people, you protect yourself from the adverse impact of everyday stresses.
Benevolence is important in the scientific community too. Science thrives when scientists help each other out. Most researchers readily lend their reagents to other labs, consult each other on study design and lend a helping hand to junior faculty. And as Jennifer Heemstra, an associate professor of chemistry at Emory University, points out, helping each other is essential for solving the world’s biggest problems, such as infectious disease and climate change. ‘These complex problems require complex solutions that will only happen when people with a diverse set of knowledge, experiences and ideas collaborate,’ she says.
But the competitive nature of science means you might hesitate to help when a colleague asks for a favour. Maybe you’ve had a bad experience in the past. Maybe you were trying to help someone by bouncing around ideas – and they went ahead and set up a study using your suggestions and didn’t invite you to collaborate. Or perhaps they didn’t publicly acknowledge your voluntary contribution to their project.
Identifying trustworthy people who deserve your support and who you can reach out to when you need a helping hand is key to having rewarding experiences.