Science is not a 9-5 job. It can't be viewed in the same light as an ordinary career. You literally must drown yourself in your work in order to push the limits of human knowledge just a little further. Only certain kinds of people are cut out for this.
This woman characterized a TF that acts as an oncoprotein. That's not insignificant. It probably took her more mental, repititious, laborious effort than most people output in their entire lives. That said, when you burn out it is time to let someone else carry the flame. We can't waste precious, finite research funding on people who can't give 120%.
And now that she's done, we should throw her by the wayside and abandon her, leaving her to slowly fade away instead of putting people in the situation to properly guide her to a new useful place in the world. I mean so what that she provided something huge that could have a pretty important impact beyond her salary. There is not a better way to go about it at all right?
Further we should just go ahead and let douchenozzles like yummyfajitas talk as if she was a waste of air since she only provided useful research in the past and not currently.
She might want to go into teaching the next generation. (Undergrads, if she no longer has a lab.) I would do that if I were in a similar position.
There are plenty of useful, fulfilling things to do with the knowledge and experience one has accrued as a researcher. Why not travel to a different place and teach?
This woman characterized a TF that acts as an oncoprotein. That's not insignificant. It probably took her more mental, repititious, laborious effort than most people output in their entire lives. That said, when you burn out it is time to let someone else carry the flame. We can't waste precious, finite research funding on people who can't give 120%.