32 replies to this topic

[toejam]

i wouldn't mind taking out his pcr tubes if he had asked me. instead he asked how long was i staying in the lab, since i said not late he asked the pi .
i guess i'm annoyed with this person, not only because i think he's irresponsible, ignorant about lab safety, lazy, impertinent and snotty but also because he's not interested in science at all and wants to get people to guide him through protocols, which is fine...until it is every single time!!
just like the time he left the waterbath on and called me asking me to turn it off, i asked him "where are you now?" and he said "i'm just out of the department....." well!! get your @$$ back to the lab and turn it off yourself!! instead he called one of the postdocs

[leelee]

Fair call, toejam- he sounds like a PhD student we once had. In which case, I feel your pain and feel free to rant incessently in future with only my full support
Always needing help for EVERYTHING and needing cleaning up after.
He said he was only doing a PhD so that he could get a better job back home (China), and that he chose Biology because "it is easy, and research in Australia is not very good, so I will finish in 1 year".
Needless to say, he soon quit- we then found out that we were the 3rd lab he had tried to do a PhD in (got fired from one previously and quit from the other). Apparently the uni gave him ANOTHER chance, and he is now doing the same things in his new lab............

[toejam]

this guy doesn't look Chinese, but he might as well be the twin soul to your ex labmate.... hopefully he won't be around much longer (fingers crossed)
anyway....he wasn't even able to realize the modem on the computer he tried to use was off, then had to switch to a different computer

[casandra]

hey hombre......didn't we have this line of discussion before or something quite similar? Must I remind you of the universal rule: there has to be a jerk in every lab and in your previous lab you were so lucky to have two...so now you're almost an expert in dealing with them. Besides, the problem will most probably take care of itself. If he's not so interested in science nor in doing lab work, he won't last for long. Meanwhile, take it easy then ......

[vetticus3]

does he insist on using the new shiny equipment, even though it has nothing to do with the project he's supposed to be researching?
does he not attempt to do any quality control before jumping headlong into a big experiment? ("why bother checking the quality of the DNA or RNA?")
does he spend all day chatting up the girls in the other lab (or looking at stuff on the net) instead of actually doing work?
does he not look at the lab protocols?
5 minutes before he does an experiment on new equipment he has never used before, does he then ask how to do it?
does he then look completely suprised when he realises that it takes longer than 2 minutes to set everything up?
does he casually mention that he was in on the weekend working (even though it was to just check on some cells) when the boss is around?
controls?  what controls?
read papers?  what papers?  ("V, i couldn't find any papers on mfg, could you find some for me?")
does he look completely stressed out when his great big experiment doesn't work... and has a heart attack (metaphorically) when his little experiments also don't work?
does his experimental data suddenly change when it's pointed out to him that it was not what we expected to see?  (ie, we wanted to kill some cells.  Friday, he saw that all the cells were alive... come Monday, his Friday's observation has changed to seeing 70% cell death.  or a dose dependent curve: cells originally increased at 2X.... at the second look, they increased 4X)
have you found your stuff on his bench?  ie a wrack with MY name on in, but it's turned around so my name's hidden?

'cause if he does... i think he's just joined my lab.

actually, just a quick rant.... he was treating some cells, on a glass cover slip.  anyway, he said the cells looked fine.  i checked up on them, they were mostly dead and floating.     anyway, he kept the chemicals on them for far too long (days after i checked on them!!), and then stained the slide.  he looked out for the one or two cells that had survived, and then said it was typical of the entire slide.    no, that's not the way you do it.  either do it properly or not at all!! end rant.

V

Edited by vetticus3, 27 September 2009 - 09:03 PM.

[gebirgsziege]

so these people are round worlwide  

we have one that is not able to fill a protocol sheet (like date, starting time of exp., duration of exp., fungi used....) we designed to avoid him thinking what might be important or not....he did five times now and one of the info is missing all the time ("For sure I remember which fungi I used, it was something with Tri....." the problem here is we have three different genera with "tri..." in the exp.)

[toejam]

they seem to be all over the place! Sorry to hear about the people in your labs, and it's not possible that it is my labmate in australia because he's still around, although he hasn't got to the point where he wants to use the new shiny rt-pcr machine and I'm sure we won't see him in during a weekend.

[gebirgsziege]

I have never seen any of them on weekends (besides at the bar, cinema, parties...). Luckily they do not have a very long shelf life......most of them vanish after two months, come up again app. half a year later because they want to finish their thesis, disappear for another year, come back and tell you they have worked so long (and hard) now for their thesis and start writing now......some are really a pest and come back again one or two more times.....   

So the only way to deal with them is a big beer after work (of course without them )

[vetticus3]

the guy didn't really bother me too much until my wrack went missing.  we have a stack of new ones in the cubboard... why take the one with my name on it?  is it too much to walk to the end of a bench and open up a door?  really, is it that hard?

anyway, i've just had to describe my work to a newbie in the lab.  he started yawning.  my work is not boring, it is very interesting.  don't people know anything anymore?

to everyone who has people like this in their lab... you have my sympathy.

i think the beer is the best option.  pity i don't drink.  never too late to start.

V

[swanny]

Hey V,
This lab member would happen to be a medico trying to do a lab PhD?

[vetticus3]

the yawner or the wrack pincher?
neither are medicos...  though, i'm beginning to suspect that wrack pincher should have been doing a MD rather than a PhD... he has the social skills for it.

i need a holiday.

V

[gebirgsziege]

vetticus3, on Sep 29 2009, 07:05 AM, said:

the guy didn't really bother me too much until my wrack went missing.  we have a stack of new ones in the cubboard... why take the one with my name on it?  is it too much to walk to the end of a bench and open up a door?  really, is it that hard?

anyway, i've just had to describe my work to a newbie in the lab.  he started yawning.  my work is not boring, it is very interesting.  don't people know anything anymore?

to everyone who has people like this in their lab... you have my sympathy.

i think the beer is the best option.  pity i don't drink.  never too late to start.

V

maybe he had to drink as he was away with the other guy??????

Easy to say (but difficult to do): take a deep breath and try to ignore them.....they are not worth worrying.

[toejam]

one more to the list: in the lab we're sharing computers, so each lab member has got a personal account. this guy NEVER signs out after he's done. I'm really tempted to do something nasty, particularly because he leaves even his email account open....  

[AussieUSA]

If I had my way, these type of people (lazy, incompetent &^%%*) would become human lab rats (i.e. we inject and study them).

I know every lab has one, at least every now and again, but why do we tolerate them? They have no concept of safety or show no respect to their fellow colleagues. Precious lab resources (like money) just gets wasted and bosses/lab managers just go ... "oh well". And after 20 years in science, I can vouch that not everyone like this leaves science ... they just find labs that leave them be.

I like the idea of emailing them about the issues while cc'ing the boss. Then if nothing changes, you can send a copy of the emails to the next person in the hierarchy etc. until the message gets across.

I also want to ask ... is this really an "MD" and/or "Chinese" thing? I agree that it is but is it really that universal?

Keep sharing Toejam  

AussieUSA.

[swanny]

toejam, on Oct 6 2009, 12:09 AM, said:

one more to the list: in the lab we're sharing computers, so each lab member has got a personal account. this guy NEVER signs out after he's done. I'm really tempted to do something nasty, particularly because he leaves even his email account open....  

You can be benign, or you can be nasty (the choice is yours, but benign might be better to start with...). Send emails to his email list (or even just to the boss), explaining that you are a colleague. Ask them to get him to log out, or else you might do something not so friendly...

Edited by swanny, 05 October 2009 - 05:26 PM.