Faculty life is much, much busier than postdoc life. Yes, there are obvious things like teaching, mentoring, and setting up a lab to do, but there are also more responsibilities: Committees; emails; hosting of visitors; making personal connections; being available to students, your colleagues, and anyone else who might need your input. Being present.
Every task takes up a little bit of your attention, and every bit of attention takes a little bit of your energy. With enough little things to address, the day is done before you know it. How do you get anything done? As it turns out, on nights and weekends.
Working "overtime" nowadays is actually something I look forward to. I find myself craving the clarity that the solitude provides because it may be the only stillness this young assistant professor gets amidst the cacophony. But stillness, too, is fragile: Adult responsibilities pile up. Proposals, papers, and grant reports pile up. The list of hot new restaurants to try—passes you by.
People call me a workaholic. I may be, but sometimes, working when others are not around is the only thing that sustains me. Some of you, I'm sure, understand the feeling.
Like the song says, everybody's working for the weekend. I'll be in the lab.