clinical researcher. 3 days in the hospital building, 4 days at home. the math of focus work has gotten weird.

i do clinical research at a teaching hospital. the kind of research where you write protocols and read papers and synthesize methodology. focus work, basically.

the hospital wants me on site 3 days a week. tuesday wednesday thursday. the dean called it “collaborative anchoring.” nobody else uses that phrase. i think she made it up.

monday and friday i work from a small home office with a window facing a maple tree i’ve been watching for 4 years. that tree has seen me through 2 dissertations. i can do 5 hours of deep focus work between 8am and 1pm with that tree in the corner of my eye.

the hospital office is a shared room with 4 other researchers and a printer that prints once and then jams. average focus work time per hospital day: maybe 90 minutes. the rest is interruptions, the bad lighting making my eyes tired by 11am, the chair that was apparently picked by someone who hates spines.

monday papers i can read deeply. wednesday papers i skim because someone is on a zoom call 4 feet from my desk. the tree at home does more for my research than the entire hospital wing.

the dean said this week that we may move to 4 days in office in q3. she called it “deepening our shared culture.” i smiled at her on the call and went back to the maple. it was just starting to bud.

i’m not updating my resume. i’m also not pretending the office helps. little adult cosplay