Erica Korb
BIO
Assistant professor of genetics at University of Pennsylvania (USA) and mother-of-two.
Twitter: @KorbLab
Erica Korb
“I try to be very diligent about what goes on my to-do list for both work and family.”
I feel incredibly lucky to be a scientist and I consider it a privilege to run a lab, even if it can be a juggling act with having a family. I’m an Assistant Professor of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania and have 2 kids.
I had my first when I was finishing up a postdoc position. In some ways, it was great timing as I gave birth 2 days after my final paper was accepted. But it did mean I had to go on the job market with an infant at home which was exhausting and made that first year of parenthood pretty stressful. However, I am incredibly lucky to have a very supportive partner and we both have amazing parents who have stepped in to help many times over the past years.
After starting my lab, I threw myself into the job and gave it everything I could. It can be hard not to feel guilty about working long hours but I try to remember a few things.
First, I remember seeing my own mother have both a career and family and because of that I grew up thinking I could do the same. I want my daughter to grow up knowing that as well.
Second, I felt that if I was going to ask my family to move to a new city so I could start a lab and if I was going to take one of those few lab head positions available in science, I owe it to both my family and my lab to do my absolute best as a scientist.
A year after starting my lab, the pandemic hit and another year later I had my son. The early days of the pandemic were of course really tough for all the reasons it was tough for any working parents. But I try to remember some of the positive things to come out of it. Now, when work seems stressful, I remind myself of how much harder it was to do this job when also trading off kids and work hourly with my husband. In comparison, a ‘normal’ workday as scientist with regular childcare seems quite manageable!
My husband and I also learned a lot about how to tag-team parenting as efficiently as possible. When one of us is particularly busy and wants some extra weekend time to catch up on work, we can always go into pandemic parenting mode and trade off times and tasks to carve out a few extra hours.
I try to be ruthlessly focused on my to-do list. I start working on papers and grants often months in advance, a goal that the pandemic has reinforced. Even if I just have a free half hour in the day or time after the kids are in bed, I pick a grant that I’m hoping to write soon and put together some data figures or start to write a section.
Having even a little bit already done when I sit down to work on it later is incredibly helpful and even gives my brain a little extra time to think through ideas in the background. During the pandemic, when at any given moment we could lose childcare for a week or more, this strategy became invaluable.
Even now with more consistent childcare, life can throw up roadblocks at inconvenient times so I still try to set all my own deadlines several weeks in advance of the actual due date. It helps me avoid the stress that comes with a last minute scramble and if an emergency does come up, I have a little runway I can use.
I also try to be very diligent about what actually goes on my to do list for both work and family. For non-work stuff, I focus on spending time with my family.
My 3-year-old doesn’t know or care if I stay up late after they’re in bed to bake homemade cupcakes for their school birthday. So I pick up the cheap cupcakes at the grocery store and use that time for work so I can spend more time actually playing with them on their birthday.
I say no to school events where I’m not actually spending time with my kids and I avoid conferences that I don’t have much interest in and will require a lot of time away from the family.
Admittedly, I still wind up needing a lot of coffee to find the energy to keep up with both work and family. But I wouldn’t change either one for the world.