• Question: How many hours do you work a week?

    Asked by apse532cham6 to rosiewatts, niamhtopping, DrLukeF, Katherine, emilywalls, davidtaylor1 on 9 Oct 2025.
    • Photo: Emily Walls

      Emily Walls answered on 9 Oct 2025:

      i try and work from 9am – 5pm (with breaks for lunch and tea) every day from Monday to Frday!

    • Photo: Luke Fountain

      Luke Fountain answered on 15 Oct 2025:

      I mostly try to work 9-5 as well, but many scientists have to be flexible – sometimes my experiments and workload mean I have to work past 5pm or come in early, and I often have to come in on a weekend to tend to my plants or experiments – this is quite inconvenient because it takes me 45 minutes to drive to work!

    • Photo: Niamh Topping

      Niamh Topping answered on 20 Oct 2025:

      I usually work from about 08:45 until 17:00, but some days I finish earlier. As a PhD student I can be very flexible with my work, so I also work from home some days. Other days can be longer if I’m in the lab.

Comments

  • Photo: scottgriffiths

    scottgriffiths commented on :

    I work about 40 hours in a week, typically between 9-5 pm Monday to Friday. My work is quite flexible so I can change when I start and finish, which is great!

  • Photo: melissau

    melissau commented on :

    When I worked as a vet in clinical practice I worked long hours – weekdays were typically 8.30-5.30pm with no guarantee of a lunch break (typically eating in the car while travelling between appointments) and because vet practices are required to provide 24 hour emergency cover I was also on call one in three nights and one in three weekends, with no time off to compensate for these extra hours – as you can imagine, this is physically and mentally very tiring! Now that I work as a researcher for animal welfare charities my hours are more regular and mostly during weekdays with hardly any weekend working. But if I’m on a deadline for a project or doing field work for a research project I might work late into the evenings or over weekends to get something finished.