• Question: What makes you want to go to work everyday?

    Asked by anon-244085 to Pan-ngum, Natalia, Mick, Manjit, Filipe, Bruce on 7 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Natalia Brodaczewska

      Natalia Brodaczewska answered on 7 Mar 2020:

      For me there are a few things that make me like want to come to work:

      1) Learning new things – my work is cool in that I get paid to study and learn how to do things. I get to rotate between different labs and learn about different kinds of tests or techniques that we use in clinical science. I work in a big hospital so we also get many interesting cases with some unusual results that sometimes we have to think really hard to understand. And our lab is so busy that every day something new happens so it never really gets boring!

      2) The fact that if I don’t come in, we may not have enough people to do all the tests and the patients may not get their results on time. Imagine if you or somebody in your family were waiting for an important test result – I bet you would get quite upset if you’d have to wait very long, especially if it’s something like cancer which needs to be treated as soon as possible!

      3) People at my work are very nice and good to work with – this really helps to come in on days when I feel tired or just a bit lazy (scientists get lazy too!). We have some fun chats at work, people often bring cake or chocolates and sometimes we do things like secret Santa or going out for food after work.

    • Photo: Michael Schubert

      Michael Schubert answered on 7 Mar 2020:

      I love going to work because I never know what I’m going to be learning each day! Sometimes, I find out about exciting new treatments for diseases, or new ways of finding out how to help people who are ill. Other times, I might hear about new ways to clean up the environment, or even a brand-new dinosaur!

      Most of all, I love going to work because it means I get to help share all of these exciting new science discoveries with other people. It’s great to find new ways of explaining science and to see people understand just how fascinating it can be!

    • Photo: Filipe Richheimer

      Filipe Richheimer answered on 7 Mar 2020:

      This question had me thinking for a while 🙂
      As already mentioned by my fellow scientist here, it is a mix of things. When I leave work, I like to set goals of what I want to achieve the next day or what progress I want to make. Then, my will to accomplish these goals is what makes me go to work the next day.
      However, we are not robots, and some days we are more motivated than other days. On a day that I am not so motivated, maybe I feel a little ill, I didn’t sleep enough or the day before didn’t go well, accomplishing my goals for the day is not enough to make me want to go to work. On those days I like to think that even if I am not at my best, going to work will get me closer to achieving my long term objectives. These objectives can be finishing a research project, getting a qualification or understanding a new subject. Adding to that, the same way you might want to go and meet your friends at school, I prefer being at work with my colleagues than at home by myself.

    • Photo: Bruce Saleeb-Mousa

      Bruce Saleeb-Mousa answered on 9 Mar 2020:

      As the other scientists have mentioned here, the motivation for me is also the fact that, every day, we have the opportunity to learn something new. When I was at school, although I did enjoy my time, I didn’t appreciate how great it is to be taught something new each day. The aim of a scientist is to contribute to human knowledge and pass on information & research to other scientists. It makes me feel very lucky to have the opportunity to make a contribution to human knowledge and hopefully discover or make something which can be useful in the future. Many forms of technology and science which we benefit from in our day-to-day lives is thanks to the scientists of the past who have made their contribution. For example, even something as simple as brushing your teeth – scientists have carefully designed the toothpaste to help keep your teeth and gums healthy. Things like that are what motivate me in good and bad times.

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