I've had some tough conversation with colleagues (esp. junior PIs) over past few weeks that prompted me to write this. My intention is not to offend but to draw attention.

I'm proud of colleagues who pivoted to Covid19 research & published many amazing papers over past year. 1/

But I'm also proud of colleagues who showed kindness to their labmates & tempered expectations about productivity in an already difficult funding climate. Their focus on mental health of their lab is something to be commended. 2/

Especially now, the scientific enterprise needs these voices at the table. But a year (or more) of lost productivity can be fatal for tenure/ promotion decisions, grant funding decisions & the survival of these labs. Many departments have responded by extending tenure clocks. 3/

But ask yourself, how will this help really? How do you make up for all the lost time and lost momentum. How will a no-cost funding extension help if you still had to pay salaries over the past year? In many ways, this is simply postponing the cliff 4/

Yet, most of the ultimate decisions are often dependent on us as senior colleagues. We write the tenure letters. We review the grants. Now granted, we are also overwhelmed. But we can take the time to write a few more tenure letters, and especially highlight the challenges 5/

that are faced by our junior colleagues. I hope this will also lead to a slight reset of expectations, both at the level of departmental decisions and for funding agencies. Else we risk making this crisis much much worse for us all. /6