What Every Postdoc Needs to Know by Liz Elvidge Carol Spencely Emma Williams

Author:Liz Elvidge Carol Spencely Emma Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: epubor.com

The stresses and strains of being new

A new postdoc position may bring the following changes:

A new project to grasp.

A new boss.

New colleagues.

A new research group/institution.

A new city.

A new country.

A new culture.

A new home.

The list could continue — food, currency, politics… This much change can be exhausting! Relocating takes you away from past support mechanisms (family, friends, peers). Settling into a new place takes a concerted effort. Some suggested actions to help you better manage this change can be found in Chapter 3.

It is also worth thinking about how change affects you. The work of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in the 1960s provides us with a useful model to think about change. There are typically five stages (some models have more) with no fixed or equal timescale for each one. It may well be that people cycle through all the stages again with varying intensity of feeling. Some people who embrace change quickly may flit through the process. Others may dwell on a particular stage. Let’s consider the example of moving institution:

Denial — You may not believe this is happening (even if it is a good thing — “This can’t be happening to me”). Trying to maintain strong links to previous place without engaging in current location.

Anger/frustration — You may experience frustration at the new institution’s systems/methods of working in relation to how you have done things in the past.

Bargaining — You may well try and bring some of your old methods of working into the new environment. Or may think “It is ok, I could go back if I …” or say constantly “in my old research group we used to do this ...”

Depression — You realise that this change needs to be lived through. There may be a lack of self confidence and the feeling that you made a mistake in moving.

Acceptance after experimenting/deciding — You settle into the new environment having tried new things, made new friends and deciding on a course of action.

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