What do scientists actually do when working from home?

Recently I saw an article in a German newspaper on the question what people actually do when they work from home. The headline said: Six employees are speaking their mind.
It was an interesting read - but one that shocked me. In the six interviews the employees were actually talking about doing their home work: cooking, washing, mowing the lawn ... things like that. And THAT got me thinking: What do my colleagues do when I see a note on their office door: WaH.

WaH, "work at home" or as we call it in Germany "Homeoffice" and I mean this literally. This is not a translation. We do say in Germany Homeoffice, when we work from home. This was something that was mostly unheard of before the Corona years. When I look back, I only knew one person from family, friends and colleagues alike who was mostly working from home. He is a programmer for an IT company and had always had slightly strange working hours. But apart from this one person, everybody else was doing their work ... well, at work. Where else?
But then the government came and decided that one Corona measure should be banning more or less all employees from working at their respective companies. For many people here in Germany that was a problem; a rather huge problem. I think it is clear: Not everybody can work from home.

Imagine you are a cook and your restaurant is closed. Well, you can cook at home, but not earn money like this.

Imagine you are a barber and your hair salon is closed. Well, you can cut the hair of your family, but you are not earning money.

Imagine you are a salesperson and your shop is closed. Well, you could spontaneously open an online shop, but it won't be easy.

So, many of these employees or shop owners stood in front of a huge problem. And what about all those people working in an office? Actually, it was not that much easier for many of them. Not that many employees had a small office at home or at least a fitting table and a computer. So I heard horror stories from people sitting eight hours at their kitchen table on a kitchen chair in front of a laptop trying to get work done, while next to them their kids should learn on their own. This was totally not good for their health or family life. Of course, some companies have offered a lot of support such as helping their employees to set up a small office desk with everything needed. Other companies didn't.
Then again, if you are thinking about researchers, you may not have someone like me on your mind. I'm an expert on computational materials science, which means that I'm usually trying to transfer physical processes observed in experiments into numerical or analytical models. Hence, you are more likely to find me sitting in front of a computer than a microscope. But of course, many scientists work in labs - not just in physics but also in biology, in chemistry, in medicine, in engineering and much more. Now I wouldn't recommend taking home all the chemicals you need for your PhD thesis and use the kitchen. But for them work at home is as fruitless as it is for a cook.


I still remember that it didn't take long for the first rumors and stories to spread: People were caught on camera during online meetings in their PJs; others without pants. And I remember the story of a guy who had his microphone still switched on when going to the bathroom. You can imagine the sounds that his colleagues were getting. And there was the story of a young female student who was sitting in front of her computer with a bowl of pasta when the lecture started. What she had not realized was that her camera was on and streaming her munching away happily. But that was not the main problem ... she was simply naked. Oh boy.

Of course, over time people have gotten better with working and studying from home. And nowadays the Corona measures are finally gone. I had a small celebration at that day.

But compared to five/six years ago, more people are working from home on a regular basis. Personally, I like the idea that I have the chance to have my office at home. And there is more than just one reason for it.

  • Firstly, I have indeed a small office at home. It is very compfy and quiet. No one just barges in and interrupts my train of thought. Nobody spontaneously wants something that is oh so urgent. And especially when I'm in an online meeting, I really appreciate the peace and focus that working at home offers me. And don't get me wrong, I really like my colleagues and talking to them as well as the spontaneous exchange at work, but when I just want to get stuff done, I love the peace and quiet at home.
  • Secondly, speaking of online meetings: When I'm having a consultation or giving guidance I just know that at home nobody listens in unintentionally. This is really important to me and my mentees. They can be sure that whatever we talk about stays between us. At the same time, me talking will not bother anybody at home, whereas in our shared office, it may be irritating to my colleagues.
  • Thirdly, I like having the freedom to plan my day as I wish. There are days, when I have a private appointment, maybe an appointment with my dentist or I'm expecting a parcel, and then I find it easier to plan my day around it when working from home. I can take a break, also a longer one, when needed and continue my work later that day.
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And what does my personal day look like when working fom home?

To be honest, not much different to a day at the university. In the morning when I'm having breakfast I'm already checking my planned appointments for the day and my e-mails on my tablet. The very urgent mails - if there are any - will be answered right away. Instead of going to work I will do some excercises, do some stretching. Then I will switch on my computer and will catch up on the remaining e-mails and check the to do-list. Usually I have planned my daily activities in advance. This is something that I do on the previous Friday before I leave for the weekend. Of course, during a week new points may be added to the list from time to time. I may have a Video call planned for the day or a phone call comes up spontaneously, but apart from that you will most likely find me at my computer reading, typing and thinking about my work. And here it doesn't even matter whether I'm doing research or research management. I have done homeoffice in both positions and for me there is no big difference working at home compared to working at the uiniversity. I'm even making more or less the same breaks to get something to drink, relax my eyes and have lunch.
All in all, I suppose it sounds pretty boring.

But, reading this newsarticle that I mentioned initially made me wonder:
What does working at home mean for other people working at a university or research institute?
So, I got curious and started my very personal "study" just asking some colleagues.

Before I will unpack the "indecent" stories, let me assure you that many colleagues told me they are not working from home at all and others that are working at home at least from time to time told me that their day - just like mine - is not so much different from a day at university.

And the rest?
Let's just say, I had the time of my life.
I have picked three stories; three really outstanding stories that I want to tell.
All three stories that will come now, I'm allowed to tell - of course, without mentioning any real names. Not everybody works at my home university, and I will tell everybodies stories such that you will not find out who they are and where they work.
Naturally, I cannot prove that those people told me the truth. Then again, I don't see a reason for disbelieve.

  • Let's call him Michael. Michael is a postdoc working in an engineering field, where he uses simulation software. So, it seems like he would be the perfect guy for working at home. As a postdoc he has already enough experiences on doing research on his own. He shouldn't need strict supervision. And you may think that he wants to achieve something; get on with his career, right?
    Well, then you are sadly mistaken.
    All he wants is more time for himself!

    A normal day in Michael's life when working from home looks like that:
       08:00 a.m. get up, get dressed and have breakfast
       09:00 a.m. switch on the computer and check e-mails. If nobody wants anything that needs attention, he continues with checking the news.
       10:00 a.m. picking up the book he is currently reading and Michael really loves reading. In case he dosn't feel like reading he is persueing is second hobby painting. And don't get me wrong: I have seen some of his paintings and they are really good. But it is a hobby!
       11.50 a.m. letting his colleagues at his institute know via WhatsApp that he has been oh sooo busy for hours with searching for errors in the simulation code, but he found the problem and solved it!
       noon = lunch break
       01:30 p.m. finally getting started with his reaerch because he really has to prepare some data for a conference that's coming closer
       04:50 p.m. feeling good because he really managed to get some results and a couple of nice images that he sends to his co-workers and boss
       05:00 p.m. calling it a day, grabbing his sports bag he goes to his gym
    Now, apart from the fact that this does not make up a regular working day with eight working hours, I was speachless when he told me. Absolutely speachless, because I had always been thinking that he of all people wanted a career in science, wanted to explore something and discover something new. Turns out he is doing the bare minimum to get results just enough to present them at a conference or get them published in a scientific journal. On the contrary, he spends half of his daily working time with painting and reading books - and not science books. Don't get me wrong: Of course, reading a scientific book during work hours is 100% alright. It is part of your job as a scientist to educate yourself on advances in your field and also to think outside the box and read something from neighbouring fields. But SciFi novels are really not on the to do-list. But Michael claims else he doesn't have anough spare time.

    Personally, I have always felt like I had never taken enough time for reading science books and journals. But I have never been reading a book that I liked privately during my working hours. Never.

  • Let's call her Lisa. There is this woman working in the management of a university. Lisa is taking care of working contracts. As a consequence she is also working at a computer most of her time and is a perfect candidate for work at home using a secure connection to her university's server.
    When I asked her, what a normal day in her life is like when working from home, she told me that she loves being at home and working from home. Interestingly she didn't continue by telling me what she does but gave me a reasoning why she is doing what she is doing.
    Turns out, her boss has been treating her badly in recent months.
    Lisa feels that her superior is always putting more and more work onto everybodies desks and doesn't do anything herself but wants the credit. Naturally, when a colleague retires you need to hire someone new or re-distribute the workload. In Lisa's case her boss did the latter. So, the work that had been done by three people in the previous year is now distributed onto two shoulders. One of the results is a huge amount of overtime hours: almost 80 hours in Lisa's case, which makes up 10 full working days; that is technically two additional vacation weeks! She has already been begging her boss to ask her superior for an additional co-worker. But nothing has happened. I felt like Lisa was getting really frustrated and almost close to tears when telling me about it.

    So, when Lisa got the chance to work from home for two days a week, she grabbed this chance and started to arrange her schedule at home accordingly.
    Around lunch time she sneeks away for a longer break when her son comes home from primary school. Her computer is still on and she would hear whenever an e-mail or a call would come in.
    But if everything is quiet, she takes the time to prepare a nice lunch for her son and herself, eat together, have him tell her what happened at school and then settle him down for a short nap.
    Lisa claims that these one or two hours two or three times a week make her feel so relaxed and happy and they make her feel like a better mom. Her son seems also much happier than staying in the school nursery five days a week. And her boss? Has not noticed anything yet. Of course, Lisa's workload is not going down, but she doesn't care. There are more improtant things than work. She says.

    Personally, I agree with her. There are indeed things that are much more important than work: Family, friends, ... But I have to admit that whenever I take a longer lunch break, I will work longer that day or possibly on another day of the week. Nevertheless, I can totally get her.

  • Last but not least, let's call him André. André is a senior scientist/lecturer. He has a permanent employment contract, which means that if he doesn't do anything stupid, his university will not throw him out. He is still 15 years from retirement age and could perform interesting research in the years to come.
    Well he could - but is he?
    Apparently the answer is no, else I wouldn't tell his story. But he is neither overworked and wants to take it slow like Lisa, nor is he a lazy guy working only half-time like Michael. And yet, André is totally happy to work from home most of the time and he is working full-time at home.
    When asked, why he wants to work from home, he claims that he has a sensitive health and catches a cold easily. That could be, but once you know that he has his own office at his institute, it seems a bit like an excuse.

    When asked what his day in home office looks like, André gets really excited! He is indeed working full-time at home.
    He is not doing laundry.
    He is not going shopping.
    He is not doing sports.
    Now, you really may ask: Why is he on my list? Well, he is writing a book. It is even going to be a scientific book based on his previous research. So, you may that this sound great. However, that is not was he was hired for. He should prepare and give about 14 hours of lectures and seminars each week, prepare exams, stuff like that. And in the remaining working hours he should focus on research related to his institute. But it turns out that André thinks the research he should be doing is oh so boring. So, instead of doing something together with his co-workers he writes his personal book. The problem is that this book is based on his previous research, and while he has expert knowledge on that, he was not hired for it. In the end, André is planning to publish the book and has already an agreement with a publisher. He claims, this is alright, as he will publish it as a private person.

    Personally, I find it problematic as to me it looks like he is doing two jobs at once: The one at his institute that he is paid for and doesn't really like (and doesn't really do) and the one for the publisher, for which he will get money later.

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    • What do you think?

    Can you understand Michael who wants to have more spare time?
    Can you understand Lisa who is fed up with her boss and feels like a better mom sneeking away for a long lunch break here and there?
    Can you understand André who hates his job and simply takes up a second one that he loves?

    And what about you: Are you working from home? If yes, is your work day at home just like a normal working day?