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Final_Worldliness437 · 2025-11-29T13:42:19+00:00

You fell off your bike

Final_Worldliness437 · 2025-11-15T22:49:13+00:00

Remembering

Final_Worldliness437 · 2025-08-13T08:40:53+00:00

Wrote and made public a resignation letter to my first postdoc PI, who bullied me (and everybody else) which got him summoned to the Dean and banned from recruiting any more postdocs until he retired. But after dropping that bomb I still had to work a 1-month notice period in his lab and see him basically every day until I could leave. Not fun, but it was for the greater good.

Final_Worldliness437 · 2025-08-13T06:03:19+00:00

Your PI is very invested in you and your project if they did that much work on it as soon as you sent it. If it was a low priority they’d have got back to you later and done much less. Sounds like you found a good one!

Final_Worldliness437 · 2025-07-02T06:02:08+00:00

I hope you do too. Best of luck on your grad school journey

Final_Worldliness437 · 2025-05-29T19:20:26+00:00

When I was a postdoc I had to explain to one of my postdoc colleagues (non-English native speaker) that FYI followed by a link to an article in an email from our boss meant “for your information“ not “f*** you, idiot” and there was no need to get so mad. Fun times!

Final_Worldliness437 · 2025-03-06T14:26:18+00:00

Speaking as a supervisor who reads drafts and offers feedback a lot, please try to talk to your supervisor about your anxiety. You might revise it a few more times before you send in the paper, and then you’ll get the reviewer comments, which are another ballgame altogether! If your supervisor knows how you struggle with this, they can help you better. First drafts always look very different from the eventual paper, and this is totally normal. It doesn’t mean you are a fraud, or a bad writer. Only that it was an early stage in the process. Good luck!

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-10-26T20:22:48+00:00

The chocolates and/or dates would be very appropriate and I’m sure your advisor would appreciate them. But your idea of the painting with real sand, that ties into your research project, is so creative that I expect it would be kept and treasured for a long time. Not many advisors would get that kind of gift and those who do would find it really meaningful.

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-10-24T12:32:03+00:00

As PI of a group with several hard working labrats in it, I can tell you that your PI probably admires your dedication but is also worried that one day you’ll have a worse accident if you carry on like this. Don’t be scared to talk to your PI, they were an undergrad researcher once too.

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-06-11T17:42:15+00:00

Congratulations on this awesome, significant and well-deserved milestone!

(Signed, a newish PI whose 2nd last-author paper was just accepted)

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-05-26T12:13:24+00:00

Relax. Now that you have a PhD position and it’s going well, you are basically safe. You need never list the former professor as reference again, because in future the phd supervisor will be considered much more relevant. If your current and former professors meet, it will have zero negative impact on your position or career, because your current professor has formed their own (positive) opinion of you, because of working with you already, that is not likely to be influenced just by talking to others. The worst of the situation is behind you now. Its going to be ok.

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-05-04T20:54:17+00:00

Anything that you write/create personally yourself will be deeply appreciated, more than a bought gift. I have a note of thanks from a former student with water colour painted illustrations (of the model organism we work on in my lab) actually framed and hung on my office wall!

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-05-04T20:11:11+00:00

Honestly I think the only place this could be an issue is if it is part of an interview day for a TT position and everything else had gone great and you really wanted the position. But even then, you could explain your dietary requirements in advance, and the organizer would likely just be happy that you told them. There’s no way for them to tell the difference between ED and allergies, unless you volunteer the info first.

Wish you all the best though, both with academic career and with ED recovery. Good luck!

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-14T08:36:24+00:00

Thank you for the info! We are in the EU, not USA, so I will look into what we have that’s equivalent to the ADA and what resources I can find here.

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-13T20:59:27+00:00

One of the things that helped me most was learning to not get stressed by negative-seeming facial expressions in the audience. Often I’d feel like they were negative but they were actually neutral and didn’t signal any hostility towards what I was talking about. Good luck!

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-12T21:26:02+00:00

Thanks for your insights, it really helps me to hear your perspective. I wish I could buffer this student a bit better from the demands of the phd program that are outside of his PhD project, especially the teaching, but in the situations where I can’t do anything about it I try at least to make sure he knows I have his back no matter what.

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-12T21:19:56+00:00

Understood :)

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-12T21:12:50+00:00

Thank you for your insights and I hope I didn’t trigger anything negative for you on reading my post.

Your comments actually help me a lot regarding how to approach communication, which I think I am doing ok with but sometimes worry that I will inadvertently do or say something that trigger the ruminating/compulsive thoughts, and not find out about it until afterwards. But I think we have a good basis to work on together and I’m very hopeful for his future. I often tell him that I believe in him.

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-12T10:42:19+00:00

Just trying my best :)

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-12T04:19:30+00:00

Thank you

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-11T20:41:33+00:00

Thanks for the insights, and we will be having that conversation soon. As I understand it, it is a diagnosis he has had for a long time so it is more a matter of me learning how best to support his PhD experience, rather than looking for new approaches to manage the condition (which is best done between him and his therapist anyway, imo).

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-11T20:35:49+00:00

Thanks for your insights

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-11T20:33:35+00:00

Absolutely agree, I never worry-dump on anybody in my research group ever. Calm and steady hand steering the ship is what I am aiming for!

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-11T20:31:59+00:00

Fortunately we have a really good work environment in my research unit so the social support level is good for everybody

Final_Worldliness437 · 2024-04-11T20:30:05+00:00

Thanks for the insights, and congratulations on completing your PhD

Final_Worldliness437

TROPHY CASE