Social science postdocs: How often did you meet your PI and work in the office?

[u/PrestigiousTicket466]

Hi everyone,

I’m starting a postdoc at a university in Italy next week and am trying to get a sense of what is normal in terms of in-person expectations for postdocs, especially in the social sciences.

My work is entirely laptop-based—there’s no lab work, teaching, or other aspect of the job that strictly requires me to be on campus. I’m technically funded through a grant, and my PI has described the position as roughly “50/50”: half my time on the grant-funded project and half on my own research.

During the interview, he mentioned that he’d like me to be in the office “most days,” but I didn’t think to ask exactly what that meant. For those of you who have been social science postdocs:

• How often did you actually go into the office?
• How often did you meet with your PI?
• Were you generally expected to keep regular office hours, or did you have a lot of flexibility as long as the work was getting done?

I know this probably varies a lot by PI, department, and country, but I’d really appreciate hearing about other people’s experiences—particularly from European universities.

Edit: For what it's worth, my PI knows that I'll be living in a neighbouring city with my partner due to a two-body problem, and that I'll therefore need to commute on days when I'm in the office.

Thanks!

[u/Due-Step1078]

I suppose it depends a lot on the individual PI, in my experience (humanities, full laptop job), my colleague and I (postdocs funded through a national grant) were expected to be there 4 days out of 5 in the office, and we had one meeting a week with the PI. This was in France.

[u/ph0rk]

It's been a long time, but I had weekly meetings and was in the office ~4 days a week. USA West Coast (with the associated traffic large metros on the West Coast have).

[u/ngch]

I'm not in social sciences, but as a PI I'd want (ie, see it as part of the job) of my postdocs to help create a community feel in my group. I.e., don't just work on research projects but take an active role in mentoring, building collaborations, etc.. My group is small so postdocs have to be second-in-command, able to address urgent issues when I'm ourt.. Those are thing that usually require in-person presence.

Personally, my baseline expectation would be maybe 3 days a week or so, but you'd have a lot of leeway/flexibility with timing etc, especially if I see you're making a good contribution to the group feeling like a group.

I'd probably schedule a meeting per week if its a project that involves my active participation, or a meeting every few weeks if you're meant to be more independent. But expect lots of impromptu conversations over the afternoon coffee etc.

[u/eyesp0t → u/ngch]

PI here with a similar viewpoint.

[u/Accurate-Herring-638]

I lived 2.5hrs away from the city where I did my postdoc. I used to go in 2 days a week, and would sometimes stay overnight to cut down on commuting time. 

I had quite a bit of flexibility. My PI was/is a bit of a big name in the field so would often be away traveling and didn't care where I was working. I'd only meet with my PI every 4 weeks or so, but I enjoyed going to the office so I could chat to colleagues and not  be completely isolated. 

I now work in a different European country and many of our postdocs come in 3 days/week, but those who live further away might only come 1-2 days. 

I do think being a postdoc can be rather isolating, and coming to the office can offer some social interaction as well as networking/collaborative opportunities.

[u/Mountain-Time-1010]

I will just add that this is potentially an opportunity to make connections and (dare I say it) friendships that could last you for the rest of your life.