One of the stereotypes that definitely rings true for New Zealand is that everyone is much more relaxed than in Europe. I had heard this rumour before moving over here, and I thought, well, science is science=stress, no matter how relaxed the country. However I did immediately notice that my colleagues, although they work hard and stress constantly, are much much much more relaxed than any European scientist I’ve ever met. There are of course people working from 6 am to 9 pm and on weekends, but I have a suspicion that has to do more with certain arrangements at home. Most people literally work 9 to 5, and although many surely read papers before going to bed and wake up in the middle of the night to write down brilliant research plans, they also take long weekends to go tramping, or a day off to go somewhere with the kids, and all have hobbies such as goat-herding or rock climbing or organic gardening at which they spend considerable amounts of time (in a certain scientific manner).
With summer drawing dangerously close, and lots of 25C+ days, it is not unusual to see people get together with a bottle (or 2 or more) of wine on a Friday afternoon. 2 weeks ago one of the postdocs brought wines from his families wine-estate for us to taste and this Friday the other science team in my building put together a little “meeting over something important” with lots of wine and nibbles. I was invited as “guest speaker” and so was the rest of my team and everyone else who happened to wander in. After many bottles of wine we decided we would rotate between the teams to have “team bonding/company strengthening/cooperative assessment” every week or so. Someone offered he could donate his spare barbeque and we decided that we would beg the facility manager for more picknick tables and benches.
After the earthquake there was all this talk about how we are a “family” at work and blablabla, which at that point felt very comforting I must admit and I did really feel cared for by work. But with things like this I realize it is also true in day-to-day life, and it is a great bunch of people to work with and to hang out with.
With summer drawing dangerously close, and lots of 25C+ days, it is not unusual to see people get together with a bottle (or 2 or more) of wine on a Friday afternoon. 2 weeks ago one of the postdocs brought wines from his families wine-estate for us to taste and this Friday the other science team in my building put together a little “meeting over something important” with lots of wine and nibbles. I was invited as “guest speaker” and so was the rest of my team and everyone else who happened to wander in. After many bottles of wine we decided we would rotate between the teams to have “team bonding/company strengthening/cooperative assessment” every week or so. Someone offered he could donate his spare barbeque and we decided that we would beg the facility manager for more picknick tables and benches.
After the earthquake there was all this talk about how we are a “family” at work and blablabla, which at that point felt very comforting I must admit and I did really feel cared for by work. But with things like this I realize it is also true in day-to-day life, and it is a great bunch of people to work with and to hang out with.
