My lab partner is a gunner

Time to grow up and confront him. It's never fun or pretty, especially if you're shy and quiet by nature, but you have to pull him aside outside of class and tell him what you think. If you don't intervene, gunners will walk all over you. When all else fails, physical violence should be considered.

I had this problem when I first went back to college a few years ago. Being an older student I didn't want to appear rude so the others would not accept me. I finally had to just tell my lab partner that I was not there to be his slave and I certainly wasn't his mother because my children were taught better manners so if he wanted somethng done he could ask me politely or do it himself. I also mafe sure he knew I wasn't there to clean up after him or to be treated like an idiot I also told him I was quite capable of handling the material on my own so he could save his usless lectures for someone who needed the help. From that day on I never had another problem and we actually worked quite well together.

I hate those people. I'd ignore him as much as possible.

I am by no means a gunner, but I do tend to become the "leader" in a lab group. Usually it's only because I understand what I'm doing more than the other person, or the other person is just lazy. However, I do try to delegate tasks to them so that we both share an equal effort in the project.

If he told you to label the test tubes while he did the synthesis or reaction, maybe you just took it the wrong way. This was the case once for me. I understood how to do the reaction and my partner did not, so I tasked him with labeling the tubes and setting them up for collection.

Maybe this is what happened?

i can sympathise with you...but gunners are people who are cut-throat about grades. Your lab partner is blatantly inconsiderate--an evil that is different. I'm not sure which is worse. Ah well some silver bromide around the lips of the goggles might do the trick.

Best way to handle that kind of situation is to make a subtle pass at you lab partner. Say something like, "I wonder if the TA works out, those jeans are really tight on him", or "man, biochemistry can be really sexy... all those long test tubes and such" then wink at your partner and smile.

With any luck, he might avoid you at all costs from then on out.

Originally posted by JKDMed
If he told you to label the test tubes while he did the synthesis or reaction, maybe you just took it the wrong way. This was the case once for me. I understood how to do the reaction and my partner did not, so I tasked him with labeling the tubes and setting them up for collection.

Maybe this is what happened?

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"But this lab was an individual lab, with everyone doing the lab on their own."

Originally posted by Fenrezz
Best way to handle that kind of situation is to make a subtle pass at you lab partner. Say something like, "I wonder if the TA works out, those jeans are really tight on him", or "man, biochemistry can be really sexy... all those long test tubes and such" then wink at your partner and smile.

With any luck, he might avoid you at all costs from then on out.

Click to expand...

Although this commonly works for Fenrezz at our school, I wouldn't recommend this approach - it gets people talking.

Originally posted by tkim6599
"But this lab was an individual lab, with everyone doing the lab on their own."

Click to expand...

Guess I missed that part. Just kick him in the nuts with no explanation. After a few conditioning trials, he will avoid you.

Talk to the lab partner...tell them that while you appreciate their knowledge, on individual labs you want to figure things out on your own. If you need any assistance, you will let them know and would be appreciative at that point of any help they could be. As well, let the dude know he needs to clean up his area because it is bad lab etiquite and you didn't want him to look bad or lose points, you did it as a nice gesture but one you would rather not do. Try starting with that...


The TA may have just wanted someone to clean it all up, and did not care who cleaned it up as long as it got done.

Besides, your lab partern must be getting out before you since he left and you were still there - your lab partner should be the one helping you out with labeling junk, not the other way around.


Whatever happens...you need to stand up for yourself, because no one else will. You don't need to be jerk, but you need to be assertive & friendly (you'll be working with this person for the rest of the quarter/semester). If you do it right, you'll get everything you want and an apology.

Another idea you can try is to write him a letter on a school computer. Don't address the letter to anyone and don't sign it with your name, just write something like "one day when your back is turned I'm going to inject you with a small syringe filled with anthrax." Then hand him the letter somewhere in school other than the lab. Make sure you have a very serious look on your face when you give it to him. For added effect you can walk away right after and let him see a syringe hanging out of your back pocket.

Make sure your lab partner's name is not in the letter so that no one can be sure who the letter is meant for, or who wrote it. He'll either stay away from you, or show the letter to someone in authority, at which point you deny you wrote it, then ask to be transferred to another lab partner as your current one is clearly an unstable paranoid.

Since Direwolf hasn't been assigned to me as an OMT lab partner yet, I haven't had a chance to give this idea a test run, so let me know how it goes.

.just write something like "one day when your back is turned I'm going to inject you with a small syringe filled with anthrax."


haha--omg i'd advise against that. But i'm brown--so i always make sure i'm not implicated in anything like the afforementioned. Just appeal to their inner-gunner--say something like, "dude, our TA i saw her make a black dot next to your name in our roster...i think its' because of the 5 point final grade deduction if you don't clean up." But be nice. If they start crying just tell them you were kidding. Then punch them in the shoulder really hard with your knuckle for trying to ride you like that

Well for me its simple.

Its the beginning of the year. I'd take him aside the next lab and have a nice heart to heart. About respect, about lab, about duties, and about how I wouldn't put up with slackers. (that statement should get gunners)

If it persits, I'd go to the TA. If the Ta doesn't back up..then its the professor..you get the point.

When I was a senior at tennessee I had a partner (who was a friend) in a molecular biology journal club. She was cool but blew me off when we were suppose to meet and get our semester long project done. She decided she liked having senioritis. Hell, I love having it but when projects are due...projects are due.

Well, after getting blown off the 4 straight time I called her cell and said we must meet his week so we are prepared for class or I'll have to do this project on my own. Never heard a word. Shocker to me. So...when she didn't call in that week I set up an appointment with the professor. I explained my case and he asked me to try and work together since it was a team project. I tried for another week and a half and this time the girl skipped class for that week. (she had done so previously a few times as well) That was it...the professor reluctantly agreed and gave me my own project and had a talk with her. Man was she pissed at me but had no choice but to go on.

In the end I got an A and my presentation rocked and she went after me was unprepared and uninformed and I am sure she didn't get an A with that presentation and missing so much class. I know this is an extreme but it shows that even with the best efforts teamwork is hard to do sometimes.

Next time say loudly, "can you stop talking to yourself so loudly, some of us are trying to work here"

my condolensces on having an arsehole partner. just remember, humor owns all, and nothing hurts a gunner more than a whole class of people siding with you as you laugh at him.

I know you don't want to...but you gotta confront him. I had a similar situation here at work. I only started about 5 months ago but the guy who was already here is just the biggest s**t bag alive. Our job has practically no supervision so he would just leave half the time or not even show up at all. But, of course he was still getting paid. We work for a biotech company and do diabetes research so its not like we're working at McDonalds. After 4 months (just like you, I didn't want to confront him si it took me a while) I finally had a talk with him and was pretty blunt about it. He won't even leave to go to the bathroom without telling me now. Telling your TA won't do anything. If the TA already made you clean up his mess why would you expect him to care about the situation. Confront him!!!! Good luck!

Next lab, ask him to label your stuff. See if he returns the favor, and ask him to clean your area after this lab after explaining about the mess he left last time. If he gets an attitude about it or doesn't do it, then you have a problem. In that case, the only things to try are either ignoring him or beating him at his own game. Study the lab a lot beforehand, know it cold, and take control of the lab. Good luck...I've definitely been there before...and I'm sure I will be again. That's the nature of this path we've chosen...there are some pretty scary people out there with over-abundance of pride/ambition, and severely lacking concepts of social acceptability...

Here's a question: What "lab" are you doing in biochemistry? Biochem at Western is heinous enough. If they included a lab with it, I would self-immolate.

He doesn't sound like a gunner to me. He sounds like a pompous jerk.

Personally, I wouldn't let it go past the first session. I would use sarcasm ("Hey, if you need for me to dust off your car tires, let me know"), or ask him to do twice as many things for me, or totally ignore him, or threaten him with severe, repeated wedgies.