Name:
AAPS 2023: interviews from the floor with Priya Muralidharan
Description:
AAPS 2023: interviews from the floor with Priya Muralidharan
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T00H06M41S
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Upload Date:
2024-01-22T00:00:00.0000000
Transcript:
Language: EN.
Segment:0 .
[MUSIC PLAYING]
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN: I'm Priya Muralidharan, I work as an Associate Principal Scientist in AstraZeneca [in] inhalation product development. I work on developing inhalation products like dry powder inhalers, metered-dose inhalers. I also lead [the] Women in Pharmaceutical Sciences community within the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.
Segment:1 Can you elaborate on the specific challenges women encounter when trying to achieve work-life balance?.
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN: One of the specific challenges I think about is realistic expectation. Work time is 8:00 to 17:00 or 9:00 to 18:00 while kids school also starts at 8:30 in the morning and ends at 15:30. At the same time, if you have to run errands, go to a dentist, go to a doctor, they are open from 9:00 to 17:00. There's only so much you can squeeze between that time frame. So, the reality is that trying to meet this timing during the day is a huge challenge on women. It continues to force women to feel insufficient in achieving all the things that they want to do. I think that's one of the biggest challenges that women face these days, irrespective of the field we are in.
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN: The second challenge I think is knowing yourself, knowing what you want at this phase of life at this current moment. So work-life balance is a little bit different for me versus my colleagues. When I say balance, what do I want to balance? Do I want to balance the time more at home or [the] time more at work or achieving deadlines regardless of where I am? So that helps if you know what you want, knowing yourself, understanding yourself is another challenge at this time because we get influenced by what others are doing around us. [We] get influenced by our peers, our friends, our neighbors and celebrities. We want to match up to everything that everybody is doing. The reality is, again, we have to know what we want to do with our life at this time.
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN:
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN:
Segment:2 What are some of the tools that women can use to maintain work-life balance, particularly in scientific roles?.
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN: We call this the four pillars of work-life balance or work-life harmony. The first one is managing your time. Understand where you spend your energy and time on. Look at your calendar and see if there [are] any recurring meetings that you go to more often. Are you benefiting from that meeting? Do you have to go every week versus every other week? Understand where you spend your time and how you spend your time. The best way to manage time is also to mark your calendar for focus time so you can focus on working. No one can send you meeting requests or things like that. You can manage your time-- your calendar is yours. Manage it efficiently so you don't feel stressed about it.
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN: The second pillar is limiting your distractions. There's so much going [on] around us. Limit your distractions and focus on what you want to do. For example, cell phones are a constant distraction in this generation. There are great apps on the cell phones that help you to be focused and make [the] best use of your time. A lot of phones have digital well-being apps. When you turn that mode on, it takes you-- it will limit any distractions. You go into a do-not-disturb mode, or it turns into a black-and-white mode where you will not be tempted to do mindless browsing. There is also a social media limit that you can set on your phone. You can see how disciplined you are with using those apps. Those are some tools that can help us be focused on what we want to do and achieve that balance.
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN:
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN: And then the third pillar is be flexible and also say no. Women are very flexible with things. They tend to be very flexible in doing a lot of things. But at the same time, we also need to say no to things. We should learn to say no to things. At work, what does that mean? When you get an additional project, be willing to discuss with your supervisor to drop another task to take over this and prioritize what is important to you versus what is important to who is presenting it to you.
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN:
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN: From the home perspective, there are some tasks that can be outsourced. You can hire somebody to clean the house. You can hire someone to drive kids to school or extracurricular activities. It doesn't have to be you who does everything. The focus should be more on getting things done versus who is doing it. As long as you establish your expectation and seek out support and help, that is achievable where you can say no and also get things done.
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN: The fourth pillar is coping strategies. Life is always going to go out of balance at different times, so it's not a question of if it's going to happen it's a question of when it's going to happen. So having a strategy planned out will always help. For example, seeking out a mentor. Find a mentor both at work and outside of work. Seeking out a mentor when you feel like you're losing that balance. Taking a wellness day off. Every company offers paid time off. Are you making best use of that time? It's not only for your sick day or your family's sick day. It's also for your mental health, so take a wellness day to recoup yourself from any accrued imbalance you feel in life. Having your own emotional circle outside of work would also help. Getting the perspective from someone outside of work on how you deal with work is also a great support system to have like your friends or any common interest that you go to, a hobby you spend time on. Make a circle there and get perspective from people outside of work on how you see work.
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN:
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN:
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN:
Segment:3 What final message would you like to share to support women in taking ownership of their work-life harmony in scientific roles?.
PRIYA MURALIDHARAN: Know yourself. Know yourself and know what you want from life at this time. Life always ebbs and flows. To understand what is important to you at this time is more important to focus all your energy on. [MUSIC PLAYING]
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