Marianne Mandrin regularly goes for a walk with her mother and dog, Jacky.
45 kilometres away, at around the same time, Marianne Mandrin – assistant to ETH Rector Sarah M. Springman – is driving her 79-year-old mother home from a doctor's appointment. Marianne has taken today off. “The great thing about ETH, and Sarah in particular, is knowing that I can go home straight away if there is an emergency, that I can come in late sometimes or take time off at short notice if necessary,” says Marianne. “Family first!” is the Rector's motto. Marianne has also been able to reduce her workload in order to support her mother who has been recovering from major back surgery.
There is a feeling in some quarters, however, that there is much less awareness at ETH of the demands of caring for relatives other than one’s own children. Renate Schubert and Lukas Vonesch are now putting their heads together to tackle this issue. They want to encourage managers and employees to discuss such situations with openness and trust in order to find efficient solutions together. “This issue affects many ETH members. But unfortunately it remains something of a taboo subject and I understand that that can lead to uncertainty. We are going to redouble our efforts to tackle this issue, because being able to combine family with a career is about much more than just childcare,” says Schubert.
“Top research is like competitive sport”
And ETH already has everything it needs to bring about an improvement in this area. “As long as your work remains up to scratch, ETH offers a huge amount of flexibility in terms of working hours and locations – I have never seen anything like that in the private sector,” says Marianne, taking her mother's walking frame out of the car.
Physics professor Renato Renner agrees that this flexibility is a key factor when it comes to combining family with work. The current
ALEA Award
winner has lots of parents in his research group and tries to respond to the different needs of his employees and doctoral students with as much flexibility as possible.
For the 43-year-old, becoming a father for the first time while he was a doctoral student at ETH was the best decision of his life. But, he says, it is important to ensure that female doctoral students in particular are not disadvantaged during their maternity leave – they need to be kept informed of everything that is going on and should be able to work on important projects when they return to work. Furthermore, evening meetings should be avoided as far as possible. “Parents often work more efficiently because they have to organise their time more carefully,” says Renner, although he does add: “Top research is like competitive sport. If you take too long a break or reduce your workload too much, you don't stand much of a chance against the enormous international competition.”
Constantly improving conditions
According to Renate Schubert, the greatest challenge comes when both parents want to maintain a professional career. “We are continually improving conditions at ETH in order to help our members combine a successful career with a fulfilled family life,” says Schubert. In order to do this, the university needs feedback from the ETH members themselves.
