Under new management
When my boss became seriously ill, and we had begun to ponder "grey" issues. We felt we could continue our research projects, but weren't sure if we would be able to. The University gets a heck of a lot of money in indirect costs from grants, could someone act in boss' name until the grants expired.
My boss finally admitted that he should try and think of the working stiffs interests. He gave our post-doc the same signing authorities that he had. He tried to arrange a faculty type position, so he could hopefully take over in case it was needed. By means, this was no guarantee - the funding agencies could still pull the plug.
But in the recent months, the post-doc complained about the lack of progress on the faculty position. He frequently said that if it wasn't for him acting in OUR best interests, he would have taken another post-doc position somewhere else. But he started to overall manage our projects, and start to take over the ones the departing grad students had left.
Then a person who graduated from our lab said that he was finishing up his post-doc, and wanted to explore the possibility of coming back to the lab as a junior faculty. His options are fairly limited because he wants the next step after post-doc, and needs to still work in Tucson.
I thought there'd be a turf battle going on. But if the graduate returned, it would be at the beginning of the year. Now if he does come, it'll be before Thanksgiving. The post-doc seems resigned to his fate. And I almost felt sorry for him (even though I knew he was tired of Tucson and wanted a job in California).
Then he called on his way out of town. "Could you take the poster down to get printed for Friday's poster session?"
Me: "You know they require two business days to print. It's 2:30PM, and there's no way in hell we'll get it in time for Friday AM. I thought this had been taken care of weeks ago."
Him: "Sorry, forgot about it."
Not to even mention our poster is in the wrong format and can't be quickly changed. And what about his promise to update the data.....
Any sympathy just evaporated. I know this would not have happened with the other guy. I hope he does come.
My boss finally admitted that he should try and think of the working stiffs interests. He gave our post-doc the same signing authorities that he had. He tried to arrange a faculty type position, so he could hopefully take over in case it was needed. By means, this was no guarantee - the funding agencies could still pull the plug.
But in the recent months, the post-doc complained about the lack of progress on the faculty position. He frequently said that if it wasn't for him acting in OUR best interests, he would have taken another post-doc position somewhere else. But he started to overall manage our projects, and start to take over the ones the departing grad students had left.
Then a person who graduated from our lab said that he was finishing up his post-doc, and wanted to explore the possibility of coming back to the lab as a junior faculty. His options are fairly limited because he wants the next step after post-doc, and needs to still work in Tucson.
I thought there'd be a turf battle going on. But if the graduate returned, it would be at the beginning of the year. Now if he does come, it'll be before Thanksgiving. The post-doc seems resigned to his fate. And I almost felt sorry for him (even though I knew he was tired of Tucson and wanted a job in California).
Then he called on his way out of town. "Could you take the poster down to get printed for Friday's poster session?"
Me: "You know they require two business days to print. It's 2:30PM, and there's no way in hell we'll get it in time for Friday AM. I thought this had been taken care of weeks ago."
Him: "Sorry, forgot about it."
Not to even mention our poster is in the wrong format and can't be quickly changed. And what about his promise to update the data.....
Any sympathy just evaporated. I know this would not have happened with the other guy. I hope he does come.
posted by Jenn @ 15:52
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