What do you find hardest about your job?

Josh Wolstenholme answered on 7 May 2020:

I do a lot of computer modelling, and it’s frustrating when the models don’t work properly either down to a box I forgot to tick, or the input data is slightly off, or the model is having a bad day! My models run for anywhere between one minute and a month or more, so it’s hard coming back and seeing it failed. But, you never make the same mistake again as it costs so much time so there’s a good learning curve.

Jon Noble answered on 7 May 2020: last edited 7 May 2020 9:14 am

I work in research, which means that I am doing science that no-one has ever done before. One of the hardest parts of this is that we don’t know whether our experiments are going to work or give the results that we expect.

Sometimes I can spend months trying to make an experiment work, and it can be very difficult to stay motivated and keep going when the experiments keep failing. But it’s worth it, because when they do work, you can say that you have done something completely new, that non-one else has ever done before.

Jacque Cilliers answered on 7 May 2020:

Interesting question….

The hardest things:
I find numbers difficult sometimes. I KNOW this is a problem and I have things that I do to manage this. But for me, numbers can be difficult.

Working alone can be difficult. I like people and I like working with others, so working alone can be hard for me.

I don’t like repetition. A lot of times we need to do the same things over and over again (like many other people in many other jobs). I do find this very difficult though.

Not eating enough cupcakes at work! Sometimes people just don’t bring enough cupcakes to work. Everyones KOWS I love cupcakes, and yet they forget to bring ME cupcakes…..This is VERY hard!! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Francesca Harris answered on 7 May 2020: last edited 7 May 2020 10:25 am

Competitiveness.. in research you are always trying to make the next big discovery, or find out something really interesting that hasn’t been known before. You want to make a name for yourself, and the more interesting and new things you discover, the more known you become.

The problem is, there are loads of people around the world trying to do the same thing at the same time! This can be difficult sometimes, as you’ll be reading through some new research and find someone has done something very similar to you – and it feels like all your work is wasted. It also means when you put your work out, it won’t be as well recognized, as it’s no longer “new”.

However, this competitiveness can also be a good thing, as it means you have to push yourself in your job, and ultimately the science that gets out to the public should be the best.

Poppy Cooney answered on 7 May 2020:

There is a lot of self-motivation required in novel research – doing a PhD I set much of my own schedule and while that can be great it can be a struggle to motivate to do tasks that you don’t enjoy. If an experiment fails it can be frustrating and difficult to motivate yourself to change it and redo it, but when things go well it’s an awesome feeling of achievement!

Ana Filipa Palmeirim answered on 7 May 2020:

Well, surprisingly every little thing that I do can be hard, and I am always remembering a music saying ‘nobody said that was easy…”. But once I can do it, then I have a really nice sensation eheh Anyway, the hardest thing I did was the fieldwork for getting my PhD. That was really hard because I was working with a low budget in a very remote area in the Amazon Forest. Sometimes people were getting in troubles. For example, once my student was bitten by a scorpion and we were very far from any help. Then, the boat I had was with some problem. Sometimes the rain was so strong that we could not do our work and I was running of time. Lastly, it was very hard to lead a team of field assistants in the Amazon, where women don’t even use to work.

Gareth Mason answered on 7 May 2020:

The weather – it’s hard to be motivated to look for anything when I am soaking wet or freezing cold! It can also be hard trying to persuade other people that the things that are important to me and the environment, should be important to them too.

Daire Harvey-Carroll answered on 7 May 2020:

In science we have to try to do things a hundred different ways before we find out what works. Failing every day is part of the job that you just have to deal with. It makes when you succeed all the better but I found it very tough at the beginning. Going to a cup of tea with my friends always helps though as they go through the same thing.

Emily Goddard answered on 7 May 2020:

Doing new things, that only you are working on. Imagine you’re wandering around a big dark room with only a tiny torch, so you can’t see very far ahead. As you do more experiments, your torch gets more and more powerful, and then you find a lightswitch and suddenly you can see everything! Occasionally you find a light switch, and it turns on a light in a different room, which is exciting, but not actually what you were hoping to do. It sometimes feels like you’ve been wandering in the dark for a very long time.

Other than that, probably the washing up! Experimental chemistry involves a lot of time at the sink with your rubber gloves on, and my beakers and vials tend to be quite dirty.

Sylvia Soldatou answered on 7 May 2020:

Sometimes I get frustrated with the amount of time lost doing administrative work . For example, if I need to buy a new equipment for the lab, there are a lot of forms that need to be filled out, sent to many people, approved by others. This process can take significant amount of time…

Charlotte Walker answered on 7 May 2020:

Great question LillaP!

I find the competitiveness of my job the hardest. There is so much exciting science to be done but there is only so much money available to pay for it. As scientists we have to win the money for our ideas and then we can do the experiments if we are successful. It is very challenging, competitive and sometimes stressful.

Rehemat Bhatia answered on 9 May 2020:

I’ve only been in my current role for just under a year, so am quite “new” and still feel like the “new kid”. I miss my friends from my last job a lot, and the workplace culture at my new job isn’t as social, so I have found it hard to settle in and I feel quite isolated. Sometimes this means my productivity is lower – even if I am enjoying what I am working on.

I was always quite independent during my previous jobs in research, and didn’t mind being on my own for long periods of time, but I also had a really good support network in my workplaces, and my family nearby too – so this helped me a lot.

Kirsty Pringle answered on 11 May 2020:

I think the hardest thing is when I get stuck on something – with science we are often doing something that no one has done before, so if you don’t know how to do it there isn’t always someone that you can ask that would know. If you feel like you aren’t making any progress then that can feel really hard.

But one of the best things is the community of people I work with, so while they can’t always fix the problem, they will always have a try, or at least listen to me while I have a moan about it!

Jessica Gomez-Banderas answered on 11 May 2020:

Good question! I think the hardest part for me is all of the decision making… I’m not the best when it comes to making decisions because I fear that I’m going to make the wrong choice!! However when it comes to science, sometimes you can’t be sure if your choice is the right one since a lot of experiments are based on trial and error so you just need to be brave and do what you think is the most logical and sensible thing to do!

Emily Cheek answered on 11 May 2020:

In my organisation there are lots of time pressures so we are constantly working to deadlines and some of these can be very short. We also have to be quick to respond to work other than our main research so you never know what your work day will look like. As we do lots of research things are always changing so it is important to be able to adapt to these.

Jolanda Cameron answered on 13 May 2020:

I work in quite a small lab so I’d say the hardest thing in my job is getting a new analytical service approved. If I identify a new analysis technique that the lab can offer to clients then I have to check things with the business department of my company. From there, my colleagues will have to take into account the cost of all the new lab equipment required, how much money will we make from clients when we offer this new analytical service, etc. They can sometimes take a long time to come to a decision!

As an example, at my work, we’ve been waiting for over 3 years for management to approve of getting a new gamma spectrometer for the lab which will measure radiation levels in water. The cost of this machine is incredibly expensive so I do have to understand that it is not a simple decision to make.

Rachel Meacock answered on 18 May 2020:

I deal a lot with stakeholder management, and this is very difficult to balance. Stakeholders are all the people and groups who have an opinion about how the work you do will affect them. Listening to everyone’s opinion and views and trying to come up with an outcome that works for everyone can be very difficult, especially when people’s lifestyle and livelihoods are at stake.

It’s a common problem for those who work in conservation. For some people, even though the science says one situation is best, it’s a situation they don’t like and they will do everything they can to stop it from happening. This slows down progress and causes a lot of problems.

Ultimately, progress only happens when everyone is happy! So when stakeholder issues arise, it’s best to listen, learn, and work together to get the best outcomes for everyone.

anon answered on 5 Jun 2020:

It’s sometimes hard to get people to pick the option that is best for the environment when it might not be the cheapest thing to do. You have to try and show people that helping the environment is the right thing to do and actually saves money most of the time if you look at it over many years.

Question: What do you find hardest about your job?

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