Green Intentions June - Sustainable Employability by Anna Janssen

In this category, you usually find blogs on sustainability in research and tips on how to go greener in your lab/department. While in April we discovered the energy consumption of data storage, the focus of this blog is another source of energy: your body and mind. It is June, so you are probably already looking forward to your summer vacation. Are you feeling totally happy? Or are you feeling stressed thinking about all that work that needs to be done before you can really go on vacation? Maybe even considering working a little during your holiday… Well, let’s take some time to reflect on the “unsustainabilities” in a research working environment and look for solutions.  

Let’s face the elephant in the room: Burnout is rising in academia. Symptoms of feeling stressed, angry and fatigued doubled in 2020 compared to 2019. In the Netherlands, work pressure was already considered to be (far) too high before the Covid pandemic, resulting in 75% of employees working more than the time of their contract and 65% experiencing physical and/or mental complaints.  

Burnout refers to burning too much energy in too little time. A waste of worthful resources (namely: your health and well-being), also, your productivity, creativity and happiness suffer. Recovery is difficult and time-intensive.  Do you see the parallels to the climate crisis yet? Ensuring health and well-being for every individual is therefore one of the sustainable development targets of the United Nations. In developing countries, the problems are about hunger, poverty and water shortage, but the health challenges in the highly educated academic world are totally different. Researchers seem to have all the knowledge and resources to care for themselves. But why don’t they? 

Let us have a look into where the gigantic fire begins to burn. We light the match: researchers often have a perfectionistic and idealistic personality. Okay, let’s put some paper and wood into the fire: their work is never finished, and there is no control on how many hours they work. Here comes some gasoline: the funding system of research by applying for grants contributes to a highly competitive, soloistic work environment. Interpersonal relationships suffer in a culture that is fact-oriented and chronically out of time. Is there a deeper meaning in that the word deadline includes dead? Anyway, another cultural problem is that we miss role models: PhD candidates learn that stress and overwork are normal in academia. Apparently, everyone in higher positions works in evenings and weekends. Worthful lifetime which is spend behind the computer instead of sporting, sleeping or with family and friends.   

The nationwide fire is burning fast, but what about the situation in the Radboudumc? To find out more about that, I talked to Albert Witjes from human resources. He told me that in the research departments Primary Care (ELG), Health Evidence (HEV) and IQ Healthcare, in the last 12 months, the sick leave of employees did not increase, there was even a trend towards a decrease. So, no problem in Nijmegen? “What we see is that the sick leave numbers do not reflect how research staff experiences work pressure. We also can’t see the reasons for sick leave due to privacy laws.” It might be that researchers choose to not take sick leave but to compensate for their work during evenings and weekends instead. Especially since we are mostly working on remote, this has become an easy practice.  

I have the gut feeling that also in the Radboudumc burnout is a hidden threat to research staff. Not visible at the first glance, but if you dig deeper, you will find some hints. Again, a parallel to the climate crisis. Luckily, awareness is increasing. In its sustainability policy, the Radboudumc aims at creating a healthy and vital working environment for their employees. Albert told me about the various health initiatives that the Radboudumc offers. There are programs for PhD candidates, post-docs and more senior researchers. “We have many programs, it just seems that not so many employees use them yet. Maybe it is because they don’t know about it or don’t dare. Even though a lot has changed in the last years, talking about mental distress can still be a taboo.” I asked Albert what to do if you just feel like everything is getting too much. “The first step would be to make an appointment with the Radboudumc counselor. These are social workers that talk with you about your problems and help you seek solutions. They are there for every employee. Besides that, PhD candidates can also contact their mentor. And if you feel it is possible, it is always good to talk to your boss or supervisor.” 

At the departments ELG, HEV and IQ healthcare another program was started and promoted during the Covid crisis: the recharge point. After having some days off in April, I returned to work with a deep dip in motivation. So much work to look up to. All these people in research that work so much, all the pressure. Is this really the right environment for me? Do I really fit here?  A colleague advised me to make an appointment with the recharge point. I hesitated. Recharge point… Am I an electrical device? I don’t know what I can expect from that! My curiosity finally pushed me to make an appointment. The day before, I had to answer some open questions in a survey. Then, I had an online talk of 25 minutes with a psychologist. It helped me realize that I want too much at one time, being enthusiastic about many things and in the end not having energy anymore. The psychologist provided me with practical tips about what to do immediately when I felt overwhelmed again and would doubt my whole PhD trajectory. It’s so easy but it’s true: It always starts with taking a break, getting physically active and doing relaxation. Albert told me the recharge point served as a role model for other departments which want to take over this accessible program, too. 

Talking about role models: To really guarantee a vital and sustainable health of researchers, a cultural change is required as well. The work environment needs to change from competitive to team working, inclusive and supportive. First steps for this change are being taken by the implementation of the reward and cognition program. Furthermore, a culture in which bosses support us in taking breaks and making physical activity part of our working day would contribute to our sustainable health. Some departments, like IQ healthcare is already experimenting with this: colleagues were given online bootcamp and yoga sessions during lunch breaks. The uptake was varying. The number one reason for not attending: no time.   

Culture change will take time. What you can do now, is to put self-care on your agenda: take breaks during your working days, move regularly and sleep enough. Sounds simple but seems to be complicated to apply. There is no one size fits all, but from behavioral science, PLANNING is a successful method. Means: plan blocks for breaks and physical activity into your agenda. Think also about a back-up: what to do if your day goes different than planned? When will you take a break and be active then? Social control can also help and might even contribute to the role model development. Make an appointment with your colleagues to go out for a lunch walk or doing exercise together, for example. And don’t forget to make use of the resources that are already available in the Radboudumc. To go back to our usual type of sustainability discussions: Have you ever calculated how much electric energy you can save when you work 36 instead of 50 hours? Or if you fully leave the computer off for 2 weeks of holiday? Why not start thinking on how to marry different type of sustainability practices like this? 

Please visit the page 'A vibrant Workplace' to see all the support initiatives Radboudumc is offering.

Blog by Anna Janssen

Editing by Özlem Bulut and Estel Collado Camps