“Science Doesn’t Have an Off Switch”: The Greedy Workplace and Early Career Retention among STEM Professionals

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Abstract

There is a large gender difference in occupational retention among STEM graduates during the early career phase. This project explores both anticipatory and realized career transitions out of STEM for Chemical Engineers, a field with a relatively high proportion of women and clear career paths into both basic science and applied jobs. Using three waves of annual in-depth interviews from a cohort of recent graduates from two large universities – a public flagship Southern university and a private ivy-league Northern university – we investigate the role of employment conditions and work hours for retention in STEM jobs. Our final sample consists of 51 Chemical Engineers, interviewed up to four times at yearly intervals. Nearly four in ten of our respondents engaged in overwork – regularly working fifty or more hours per week – though for some this was due to periods of extreme variability in work hours. Whereas women were more likely to experience extreme variation in hours worked, men more often reported engaging in overwork than women. Early analyses indicate that many respondents view long work hours as necessary in the early career stage, but also see them as a barrier towards achieving family desires. Flexibility, autonomy, and stability are all workplace components identified as ideal for long term viability in the STEM field but are often lacking for the Chemical Engineering graduates in their day-to-day roles. Variability in work hours, and the location of jobs, also were mentioned as challenges. Preliminary results suggest that both men and women express concerns over how to achieve a better balance between work and life outside of work; nonetheless, the dissonance between desires for family life and workplace expectations were particularly problematic for women, illuminating the connection between the “greedy workplace” and gender differences in retention for STEM graduates in the early career phase.

Authors

• Sharon L. Sassler, Cornell University

• Jennifer L. Glass, University of Texas

• Alexandra Cooperstock, Cornell University