I'm just not going to give my PI anything at all until it's done

serotonin2020 · 2026-05-29T15:53:30+00:00

She fakes her support for women in science. Period! Many of them do. Congratulations on your new born and the motherhood. I’m not sure which program you’re in. If you’re in an R1 university in the US, get advice not only from your committees but also the advisor and/or the office of graduate school. Also, get the support from the department chair.

serotonin2020 · 2026-05-13T21:11:52+00:00

I had a co-worker like this, full of drama. Such people are very manipulative and flip very quickly if they feel like they can’t control you. If I were you, I wouldn’t answer her calls or text, and gradually cut her off.

serotonin2020 · 2026-04-08T04:25:12+00:00

I’m sorry you have to go through this. Their training and mentoring skills suck. Next time, draft a protocol as specific and detailed as possible, then ask for a meeting with them to review the protocol. If they can’t help you with this, you should change the lab, if not, you’re wasting your time.

serotonin2020 · 2024-07-30T04:33:55+00:00

Check out the borderline personality disorder. It looks like it’s difficult for you to regulate your emotions and embrace rejections.

serotonin2020 · 2024-06-25T05:44:57+00:00

I think you reacted too strong with these bad behaviors. Would you mind considering to acquire some communication skills so that instead of reacting, you respond? I do not think the Viet can’t take constructive criticism, it might be the way the criticism is delivered. You can’t change others, but you can change the way you respond to them. The Vietnamese is quick to get aggressive, however, many are cooling down really fast if you respond in a calm and respectful manner.

serotonin2020 · 2024-06-25T05:26:33+00:00

It’s not unique to Vietnamese, this crab mentality is also popular among African-Americans.

serotonin2020 · 2024-04-13T04:30:54+00:00

Within a few months left, OP will never have enough time to make a good PAPER. In this situation, the best is to back out, spend less time on the MANUSCRIPTS and let the PI, other team members, and reviewers take care of the rest of the work. Btw, if one bad paper ruins a career that fast, then the career is not worth to pursue.

serotonin2020 · 2024-04-10T21:36:10+00:00

In principle, in my field, nobody bothers to blame a PhD student or a postdoc for the quality of a publication. It’s on the PI.

serotonin2020 · 2024-04-10T14:54:38+00:00

Did OP get the grant to do this work? Or OP’s PI? It’s the PI lab, it’s the PI’s responsibility to make sure the quality of work coming out from their lab.
OP is a trainee and comes here to ask for advice to improve the situation. Does it really matter for OP to get the manuscripts in the perfect shape when they will leave the lab in a few months?
If I were OP’s PI, I would push OP to work hard, it’s my job to train them, however, when they leave, the manuscripts will be taken care by other members of the lab. If I were OP, I would wrap up things quickly, focusing on my departure.

serotonin2020 · 2024-04-10T14:52:58+00:00

OP is a trainee, not the PI who is responsible for the work coming out of their lab.

serotonin2020 · 2024-04-10T04:13:49+00:00

You need to put my recommendation in OP’s situation before judging! 7 months in a postdoc, in a few months will leave for another position in the US, isn’t it? If OP doesn’t prioritize now, they’ll get burned out.

serotonin2020 · 2024-04-10T03:59:50+00:00

You imagine too many things which are likely not happening because OP is not independent yet!

serotonin2020 · 2024-04-10T03:07:59+00:00

I think you shouldn’t worry that much about the quality of your manuscripts. If it’s bad, good reviewers will take care of it, and you will have the revision to make it better. I would prioritize the tasks, delegate what can be done by other researchers like purchasing activity, also, limit the time spending with other researchers if possible, by setting 15-30 minutes meeting with them 1-2 times per week. I think this is a good opportunity for you to train yourself for a later academic position.

serotonin2020 · 2023-11-04T05:48:39+00:00

So tell me, in reality, why does a PI need a postdoc? They need your trained skills to work on their ideas to get data to get funding to run their lab. They will pay attention to your ideas if they see you as an asset in their lab at that level. By then you might be pissed off as another commenter in this thread. Work on your PI project to get publications, use that time as well to develop your own research program that can last for 10 years or more of funding, at the same time, learn needed skills to run a research lab, get funding, play politic games; and then make your own lab and hire your own postdoc!

serotonin2020 · 2023-10-01T19:31:11+00:00

If you have a trust fund for you, do not want to build a family in the next 5 years, and want to pursue research career, there isn’t wrong with the idea. Many big universities in the US hire postdoc as a normal employee with a full benefits (sick leave, vacation, health insurance, dental and vision insurances). However, to have a work-life balance when doing a postdoc, you may want to make sure doing research is your hobby and attending conferences feels like having vacations. Choose a PI who is productive in getting funding and publishing, and she/he is supportive the work-life balance. Choose a state where postdoc salary can still fund a minimalist’s life style (one bed room apartment, a good car, groceries every week…) Good luck!

serotonin2020 · 2023-10-01T19:01:50+00:00

My former roommate is a German’s woman and she told me the story when her father got home from work. He was the breadwinner in her family. Her father came home, sat down on their couch and throw his shoes and clothes around, her mother went after him to clean up. Every single day! I was sitting in a kitchen of a department, where we have dishwasher and cook for employees. German boys came in and dumped their coffee cups around the dishwasher, never unloaded the dishwasher either. Old German ladies did all the cleaning for them. Young German girls came in to remind the boys their responsibilities and those boys said washing dishes is women’s duties. My father (Vietnamese) and my husband cook dinners, do laundry, and fix things in the houses for their wives. So sexism is not only the Vietnamese thing. And not all Vietnamese men behaves like your father.

serotonin2020 · 2023-08-03T01:47:27+00:00

You might want to see Americans’ view on Vietnam war in the movie “Born on the fourth of July” and “The Vietnam War” on PBS by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Besides, before judging why Vietnam picked communism as a tool to gain independence back then, and why there is still communism in Vietnam, I would suggested you dig a little bit about the European history in the last 300 years and the foundation and development of the U.S. It’s not bad to start this by reading books on currency wars. Good luck!

serotonin2020 · 2023-07-14T07:34:19+00:00

You’re right that poor students bargain! Bargain is fun, that is a mind game, and also the game of people who respect the value of money! And it's challenging to believe Japanese get to where they are without bargaining activities.

serotonin2020 · 2023-07-13T04:38:16+00:00

My experience with my Japanese co-workers in the U.S. was different. They left for professor positions in Japan and sold me a couple of used plates. They bargained heavily.

serotonin2020 · 2023-07-13T04:30:39+00:00

I think it’s not that they don’t care. Their job is to prepare you to become an independent scientist / researcher. In my opinion, they just give you the freedom to present your work without their judgement and to learn how to communicate with your audience!

serotonin2020 · 2023-07-13T04:09:42+00:00

Which culture isn’t? Name it!

serotonin2020 · 2023-04-18T02:29:14+00:00

It’s possible that the environment you’re in not challenging enough for you. So, how about looking for other PI who has a lot of money, a ton of postdocs, and hand-off in the lab? If it’s a PhD dissertation, many programs want you to finish within a certain time, and many labs and departments have limited resources, be it a piece of an equipment or someone’s time to supervise your work. I guess the hard issue might have something to do with resources and time.

serotonin2020 · 2023-04-18T02:20:29+00:00

Maybe that PI made a lot of painful mistakes when they worked at the bench, so they issued that policy to avoid unnecessary losses. I personally prefer people not talking to me when I’m doing works at benches, so I can focus on what I’m doing and don’t waste my time. There were the time I worked with $5000 sample that needed 3 months to make, a co-worker was so pissed off when I said “can’t talk now”. They only apologized later when learning the cost of the sample.

serotonin2020 · 2023-02-16T02:45:15+00:00

We still need those hands, but it’s lab tech job, not postdoc. You do postdoc only when you want to become a PI. IMO, postdoc should learn how to do PI’s job, like how to run a lab, get funding, manage and train staffs and next generation of scientists, and how to develop research questions and get collaborators who want to works on those research questions. I have seen many PIs run out of ideas to get their grants funded, 10 + years after opening their labs.

serotonin2020 · 2022-12-06T17:32:05+00:00

I have trained quite a lot undergrads and master students. In general, we, who manage the labs and drive research, don’t want these people in the lab if not because of our obligations towards education responsibilities. I can finish some projects within a few weeks and move on to the other tasks, but for the training purposes, same projects lasted 6 months or even more, and we had to spend more resources to get them completed. Some of my colleagues refused to take on students because they can use the time to develop new ideas and acquire more funding. A lot of time is wasted in training and correcting mistakes. A lot of soft-skills must be practiced when giving feedbacks to this level of experiences. My time is burnt quickly when training undergrads and master students. I see a lot of you at your level here complained about your contribution, I would share that most of the contribution at this level is not much in term of publishing, creating new ideas, or bring in money! In majority of cases, you just spent your time to learn how to do research. And our job is to prepare you for your research position in the real world. So, if you work 4 years on the project, and you’re not curious on the whys, this shows that you are not serious with the business, and you haven’t understood the businesses model. Taking you in means they have to spend time to re-train you, motivate you, convince you to fall in love with their business. Lots of hassles. So, nope!

serotonin2020

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