Oh I totally agree, although where I'm at now comes close to the benefits of working in the VA, minus the federal holidays. Health plan is half of what I paid as a VA intern for federal BCBS, with 85% of the premium paid by the employer. We also get 10 paid CME days and a generous CME fund, which can be equivalent to one or two "working" vacations. The downside is that they try to work everyone like a dog. One of my supervisors recently had an inpatient stay related to a "mild cardiac event," and was given a laptop so that he could work during his admission. In general, I think the VA has a better culture with the work-life balance thing.
VA appeal
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Ouch, that's rough. Are they trying to give the man another heart attack? Yeah, when 4:30 rolls around, I am done. I do some after hours work at times, but it's usually when I'm trying to get a manuscript done or something else research related.
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Yeah, not a huge deal for me personally. In the end, you have to find what works for you. Plus, all of the other perks make up for the downfalls for me. Although, if someone out there finds a job that has generous paid annual and sick leave, paid paternity/maternity leave, paid conference travel, a pension, excellent insurance benefits, matching retirement benefits, paid federal holidays, and protected research time, you let me knowI'm happy with just most of those benefits if I can't get all of them.
Well, that would be academia - lots of flexibility and benefits but you gotta love the work because you'll be doing it a lot more hours than at a VA.
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Well, depends on which institution. Some universities don't have stellar insurance for faculty (even R1's), and it's hit or miss concerning the pension. But yeah, I sort of miss the flexibility I had in grad school and academia, but I don't miss the 60-70 hour weeks.
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Well, it's not impossible to get conference funding, but the process is certainly more complicated than it used to be, and getting funding is less of a sure thing.
You're more likely to get funding if you're working with a department or research group that has money for travel, but you still have to jump through a lot of hoops, and you may face limits on the number of people who can get funding as well as the dollar amount that is available. I'm just spoiled because back in the day, the director of the (well-funded) VA program where I worked would just put together a list of employees who wanted to attend, the travel office booked our flights, and we got reimbursed for registration, (shared) hotel rooms, and sometimes a per diem. Those days are over!
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Yeah, not a huge deal for me personally. In the end, you have to find what works for you. Plus, all of the other perks make up for the downfalls for me. Although, if someone out there finds a job that has generous paid annual and sick leave, paid paternity/maternity leave, paid conference travel, a pension, excellent insurance benefits, matching retirement benefits, paid federal holidays, and protected research time, you let me know
Yep, I do get every single one of those things, actually.
Go R2 academia with a side of clinical work!
The "summer off" for me really is if I want it to be. I do a little part time clinical and research work and work about 16-20 hours per week in the summer months. I take a month off for the holidays. I also get sick time, paid paternity, paid conference leave, course releases for research, paid conference travel, a pension, excellent insurance benefits, matched retirement, etc...and I only have to be on campus for meetings, office hours, and actual classes.
I will say that I had to put in longer hours initially. But now that I have courses prepped, an established research program, and no more learning curve, it's much more of a breeze. with the part time clinical work, I'd say I only put in 50 hours max per week nowadays. I do a lot of it from home.
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Yep, I do get every single one of those things, actually.
Go R2 academia with a side of clinical work!
The "summer off" for me really is if I want it to be. I do a little part time clinical and research work and work about 16-20 hours per week in the summer months. I take a month off for the holidays. I also get sick time, paid paternity, paid conference leave, course releases for research, paid conference travel, a pension, excellent insurance benefits, matched retirement, etc...and I only have to be on campus for meetings, office hours, and actual classes.
I will say that I had to put in longer hours initially. But now that I have courses prepped, an established research program, and no more learning curve, it's much more of a breeze. with the part time clinical work, I'd say I only put in 50 hours max per week nowadays. I do a lot of it from home.
Sweet!
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Just a little sidebar/reality check: I don't know of very many employment institutions that allow "paid maternity leave" in the U.S. I took maternity leave twice as an employee prior to graduate school and both times (working for a large AMC), I had to accrue my "maternity leave" time from vacation & sick time and used all my time once I delivered - that was 4 weeks total...then I asked off for another 3 months unpaid so I could stay home with my butterbeans until they were 4-months old. And the Family Leave Act held my job...as well as my awesome supervisor/past mentor who was in agreement with my timeline. It was really ideal, but I think only some dream jobs at Google may give you paid "maternity leave"...but not in our field. Again, I am an N=1, but I know many, many working families and have been discussing this issue of maternity leave amongst them for a long time.
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I'm hoping to take WCL (World Cup Leave) in June…though I'm not sure it'll fly.
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Many companies offer paid time (both maternity and paternity). In the case of maternity leave, usually STD covers you at some percentage of your salary (sometimes 100%) for 6-8 weeks. Some organizations (both private and public) supplement that time with some additional paid weeks.
Yeah, Google might give you 6 months paid, but that is an outlier. There are a lot of paid maternity (and even paternity) opportunities out there. Check those things out if you can while job hunting.
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Man, my friends (in reference to the many families) & I had it rough then - we all had paid maternity time but from accrued hours, not supplemental (extra) pay. Thanks for sharing. When I was responding, I was thinking about U.S. vs European nations that offer the same as Google (just kidding), but their maternity & paternity packages are much sweeter for the average bear.
Alas, I am done with maternity leaves. My family is complete and the only babies being welcomed into our house will be non-human (i.e., puppies, kittens, cheetah cubs, when the time comes). However, my next big baby to deliver is my dissertation!
The VA benefits seem general, but also site- and position-specific. It all looks good to me and I'm happy to stay in the VA system for as long as they will have me.
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