Time for the working hours debate
As universities reopen, academics should make time to take breaks
There are some events even a pandemic cannot stop. Yes, it’s time for the annual debate about academic working hours.
The trigger for the debate is a classic: the 1996 letter written by Erick Carreira castigating a postdoc for not working every evening and weekend and for requesting some vacation time. It seems to do the rounds of social media every year or so, this time prompted by the announcement of Carreira as the new editor in chief of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Carreira has since shared a statement via the JACS Twitter account explaining that the letter doesn’t reflect his current leadership approach, and that he thinks a healthy work–life balance is vital.