Putting YOU under the microscope

Scientists spend their time examining, testing, learning and analysing – well, we thought it was about time we did the same to them! In conjunction with Science World 2008 we have conducted the Laboratory News 2008 reader survey and the results have made for some interesting reading

Well the results are in - and it seems that life as a scientist in the UK is a mixed bag. While over 68% say you are satisfied or very satisfied with your job, a worrying 23% of you are anxious or very anxious about job security.

Let’s look at the good news first - nearly 70% of you said that life in your lab was good - and it seems that there are some interesting reasons for his happiness. Rather unsurprisingly being paid well isn’t among your top reasons for feeling satisfied with your job with only 5.7% of you saying that salary attributed to your job satisfaction. It may not come as a huge shock that scientists are not paid as well as their professional counterparts - however what is shocking is that it seems to have been accepted by the scientific establishment. This very point appeared to slip into the realms of the inevitable at the annual meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society this year when John Womersley, Director of science programmes at the Science and Technology Facilities Council, candidly summed up: “If you cared about money you wouldn’t be a scientist at all would you.” Insensitive? Perhaps, but not many raised their hand to take Womersley to task over his factual correctness.

That leaves the question - just what is it that you like so much about the laboratory? Well, good team spirit was the top reason that you sited for your level of satisfaction. You also like that your opinion matters and that it can influence decisions - but, perhaps surprisingly, the second most popular reason for laboratory bliss was that you enjoyed flexible working hours.

So what can we conclude from this? You are prepared to work hard and put the hours in – preferably with the support of your peers in an environment where you can use your expertise to influence the running and direction of your lab - but you like the time you spend at work to be on your terms. This of course works both ways - whilst you would like the freedom to select work hours to fit in with your life, it is also beneficial for your employers if you are allowed the freedom to run experiments to a time scale that produces the most efficient and insightful results. This may well mean that you need to be in the lab outside of the traditional 9-5 working day.

This is something that more and more laboratories are tapping into – and that can only be a good thing – it means that not only will your work be more productive and better for your career, but also that you can nip off and pick the kids up or make that all important round of golf. It would seem that for you, professional happiness is all about a healthy life/work balance. 
   
While the majority of you are happy in your work - it is pleasing to discover that nearly 78% of you also feel secure or very secure about your positions over the five years. However, it can’t be ignored that over a fifth of you feel anxious or very anxious about your future.

This - combined with the fact that nearly 40% of you say that it is harder to get funding for your work compared to five years ago - is fuelling fears that skilled laboratory staff are seeing working abroad as an increasingly attractive option.
It is an oft quoted media adage that the UK is in the midst of a “brain drain”, indeed there are statistics that suggest the largest number of UK professionals for 50 years are leaving the country. According to the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, Britain’s exodus is far higher than any of the other 29 countries that the organisation looked at with 1.1 million skilled university graduates leaving the country. Nearly a third of them were scientists or engineers – a sobering statistic indeed.

Universities have long been warning that some of the UK’s brightest science hopes are being lost to greater salaries abroad. It is thought that 62% of the worlds ‘star scientists’ live in the US, primarily because of the efforts made by American research institutions to attract them.

Professor Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society, is very aware of the link between quality of professional life and likelihood of emigration. “We are up against competition not just from the US but also from universities in the Far East. Unless we can compete we will fall behind, and unless in the UK we retain our competitiveness in these areas it’s bad for the economy in general.”
So do you want to leave? Well, recent research published by Toshiba (p11) suggests that three quarters of post-graduates in research and development would consider moving to another country. This could present a real problem for the economy, especially in its current state.

If the “knowledge-based” economy that Gordon Brown is so fond of is to get us through the recession that lurks around the corner, then the skilled personnel must be in place to posses the knowledge on which to base it in the first place. The government need to ask themselves what it will take to convince you to stay. They could do worse than look at funding needs and the salaries available.
Professor Swapan Chattopadhyay - director of the Cockcroft Institute at the Daresbury Laboratory near Manchester - was attracted to the UK as part of a reverse brain drain and now he’s thinking of going back. “I would like government and the research council to take a serious look at how they are generating their future vision for science, and whether the community of scientists at large are participating in it or whether what’s coming out is a quick response to a local fiscal problem.”

The scientists and laboratory staff of this country have been at the forefront of research and development for decades – and that is down to their hard work and dedication. It has allowed UK science to punch above it weight for many years – let us hope that conditions in this country for those in the lab can improve so that the talent and passion can remain here.

Thank you to all those who took part in our survey and to Fisher Scientific for their support in gathering data at Science World 2008.