- Stephen Knox Jones Jr. never felt he could take a break while pursuing a science career in the US.
- He felt guilty taking a vacation and his work-life balance wasn't ideal.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Stephen Knox Jones Jr., a 37-year-old scientist who lives in Vilnius, Lithuania. It's been edited for length and clarity.
Growing up in New Hampshire, I never questioned the strenuous 16 years it would take me to pursue my passion for biotechnology.
I earned my PhD in Rhode Island and completed my postdoctoral research in Texas. Between those different career stages, I never took a vacation because I felt guilty about taking time off.
I would always be at the next position within a week of leaving the previous role because that was the expectation.
No matter how good you're doing, there's always this push to do more and be more. That's not to say that this pressure is everywhere in the US, but that's been my personal experience.
After Texas, I moved to Europe, and have significantly less stress.
I'm a full-time biotech research group leader and principal investigator living and working in Lithuania. Here, people recognize the value of having time away from work for well-being — and now I don't feel guilty anymore when I take time off.
People often ask me, "When are you moving back to the US?"
I just don't even consider that right now. I've had great experiences in the US, but I feel like this fits my lifestyle better.
I get to take my dog to work and I have a guitar in my office that I play nearly every morning. Spending some time writing and playing music helps me get into a creative space for my research. I appreciate being able to do that here.
I could probably do these things in the US too, but I think the difference is that here, it's understood as part of maintaining my well-being, rather than just being the weird guy.
Stephen decided to move to Europe during the 2020 US election
When the 2020 US election came around, it made my wife and I think hard about our personal values around how society is set up, how people are valued, and the support structures in place.
That's when we started looking at Europe.
We realized that our values aligned better with Europe than the US regarding society-wide healthcare, food quality, policies aimed at well-being and not necessarily profits, public transportation, and prioritization of privacy and limits on data sharing.
We settled on Lithuania because the institute I work at partners with a very large research organization called the European Molecular Biology Laboratories, which was a name I already knew well because of its reputation for scientific excellence plus decades of productivity in my research field, gene editing.
Stephen thinks the quality of his research is better than it would be in the US
When I was looking at full-time jobs in academia in the US, they came with very heavy teaching loads in addition to focusing on scientific research and publishing regularly. Don't get me wrong, teaching is important, but it's hard to be great at everything.
One thing that's nice about academic jobs here is that, while many people choose to do both teaching and research, there's the option to focus on just one.
Like me, for example, I'm more focused on research. That's why I think the quality of my research is better in Lithuania than it might be in the US.
Because I'm less stressed, I have some breathing room to make sure my research is going in the right direction and that my researchers have what they need, which helps us take our science to the next level.
That's important to me because, at the end of the day, my research is funded by people's tax dollars, and there is an implicit trust there that we're going to do our best with the resources that have been given to us to improve the human condition.
Sometimes getting certain products can be a bit more challenging here. The bureaucracy around buying scientific equipment produced in other parts of the world can make companies second guess if it's worth the hassle.
I also have a hard time finding corn masa flour to make tortillas at home and certain vegetarian products like seitan.
I may not be here forever but at this stage of my life, it's really good.
Jessica Orwig is reporting on career pursuits in the sciences. Are you currently, or were you at one time, on this path? Did you move or change careers because of personal values or something else? If so, I'd like to speak with you. Please email me at jorwig@businessinsider.com.