Health and Wellness

Work-Life Balance and Boundaries

The CNERG community values the health and wellness of all of its members. The biggest way that we support each other’s health and wellness is by establishing healthy work-life balance and boundaries. While each member of CNERG is free to work at any time, including initiating communication with others, responses (on all platforms) are only expected during reasonable business hours. In addition, routine meetings will always be scheduled within reasonable business hours.

Occasional exceptions to this can be arranged through mutual discussion, but every member of CNERG is empowered to question whether the exception is necessary.

Emotional Health

Many graduate students experience periods of stress during their time as students, often with an impact on their overall emotional/mental health. You should recognize that this is a common part of the graduate student experience and that a wide variety of support mechanisms exist to help you. Nevertheless, it is your responsibility to recognize if/when you need to seek out such support.

First and foremost, you are encouraged to pay attention to your work-life balance and ensure that you have activities in your life that help you take both an emotional and intellectual break from your work as a graduate student. Exercise has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on emotional health, but many other activities are valuable in this regard (e.g. art, music, meditation/mindfulness, spending time with friends, reading, cooking, spending time outdoors, etc.).

If you feel that you need professional support for your emotional health, you are encouraged to make an appointment with University Health Services for either one-on-one or group support. They have staff with professional skills and training to assist you that your advisor doesn’t have. Your emotional health is a private matter and you have no obligation to discuss it with your advisor or any other member of the CNERG community. However, if management of your emotional health can be facilitated by a change in your academic environment or duties, it is your advisor’s responsibility to provide a welcoming environment for a conversation on these topics, while retaining your right to privacy on such matters.