Work life balance even in graduate school and the role of Emotional Intelligence
Christina Testa UA’ 23 ‘25 and Jim Stellar
As CT continues to grow in her master’s in public health degree graduate training program in epidemiology as we have tracked it in a series of past blogs (e.g. one on her graduate internship), she has run into a classic professional issue now that she is working in the field. It is work-life balance.
CT has just finished her fall semester in her second year of graduate school at the College of Integrated Health Sciences at the University at Albany. She is continuing to study Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology. During this fall 2024 semester, she had the opportunity to be a Student Intern at the famous Wadsworth Center for the New York State Department of Health as a lab assistant for the Bloodborne Viruses Lab.
During her time as a lab assistant, she conducted research for COVID-19 using something called a Neutralization Antibody Assay. Her job required her to be present in the lab to test blood spots using the NAB to determine if different variants of COVID-19 (Wild-Type and Omicron) can be differentiated using the assay. This work required her to be in the lab 20 hours a week to finish the project by the end of the fall semester. She also was taking a full schedule of classes for her graduate program at the same time, one of these classes being an Epidemiology PhD level graduate course she took as an elective. She knew this past fall semester was going to be very busy, keeping up with both of these time consuming commitments. She knew it would challenge her work life balance skills and determine if she can pass being put to the test. She did and discovered whether or not she could navigate this new-found challenge. So the question is how did she do it?
CT was able to overcome a stressful semester in a few ways. First, she planned out her schedule to be in the lab every week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays so as to reach her 20 hour per week requirement by the graduate program. Second, she planned those work days around her class schedule where she could go to the lab in the mornings because her classes were in the evenings. A challenging class for her was the PhD level Epidemiology class. Before the semester started she knew she’d need extra time in the week for that class. Preemptively, she planned to not go into the lab on the days that the Epidemiology class meets so she had time dedicated to the workload of that class and so she would be able to see her professor for office hours when she needed to. CT kept to this general weekly schedule and used the extra time she had in the days to do school work, go to the gym, and see her friends. One thing she knew she wouldn’t have time for as much this past semester was reading. Reading is one of her favorite hobbies and de-stressors, but she quickly discovered reading was something that could not be prioritized for the time being in order for her to keep up with school and her internship. This schedule was oftentimes demanding, but she kept up with all her responsibilities and was able to successfully complete her internship project and did very well in her classes.
What CT discovered that could apply to professionals in general (like she will become) is that her ability to learn how to navigate this demanding schedule in her life is very much related to emotional intelligence and maturity. It takes discipline, responsibility, conscientiousness, and personal understanding to be able to find the best way to schedule and keep up with the demands of life while also being able to be successful and still put in 100% effort into anything and everything you’re working on.
A definition of emotional intelligence (EI) by Maldonado and Márquez (2023) is described as “an array of non-cognitive skills, capabilities, and competencies that influence a person’s ability to cope with environmental demands and pressures.” It is more than just being able to read people’s emotions and be in touch with your own. Furthermore, according to Sharma and Tiwari (2023), individuals who have high EI are better at managing pressure and are more self-aware. This definition and research describes how CT has felt about the demands on her ability to navigate the environmental demands and pressures in her life as a full time student on top of being a part-time working student intern in the lab. It has been noted that EI is linked to organizational success, according to the Maldonado and Márquez report mentioned above. This research also states awareness of our own emotions, awareness of others emotions, and our understanding and ability to manage our own emotions and others are theoretical foundations on how we control and manage emotion, according to Salovey and Mayer (1990) in a classic article. Having this awareness is the key to professional development. As written by Kaur (2024), those who have those foundational competencies tend to have strong interpersonal connections and are more resilient to stress.
An important skill we learn that is related to EI is resilience. According to a paper by Rao et. al (2024), research has shown EI and resilience have been found to be positively correlated. These individuals are more capable of dealing with adversity. High levels of emotional perception and facilitation lead to being aware of one’s emotions and thus being able to adapt one’s behavior and thoughts to communicate properly. Self motivation and satisfaction are key factors of EI individuals that aids their resilience. Rao et al. expressed that in the figure below.
In other places in this blog series, the amygdala and prefrontal cortex have been found to play a role in emotional perception and in emotional regulation. The interactions between these two regions in the brain are likely associated with the success of emotional regulation in an individual. For example, one recent blog focuses extensively on a specific pathway between the frontal cortex and the amygdala, the thickness of Uncinate Fasciculus, that has been implicated as we discussed in another blog about the type of people who are non-clinically a bit more chill vs. those who are a bit more anxious. Being chill could be a useful trait for a manager or for someone seeking work-life balance.
We believe the combination of EI and the practiced skills needed to obtain it, such as resilience and emotional perception, could be the key to becoming a professional. And there may even be some brain structural manifestations here.
