- Joined
- Jul 28, 2007
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I'm between first and second years of medical school and I'm doing summer research in the surgical department, and it involves about 30 hours/week of research and 10 hours/week of OR shadowing. It's me and another girl in my class.
Now let me begin by saying that this girl is pretty annoying in the first place. I usually get along with just about anyone, but she embodies many of the stereotypes that people have for female medical students. You just can't have a normal, friendly conversation with her. For some reason she thinks everything she touches is gold (except her exams, apparently, since she skated through first year with high C's/low B's). Every little snag is a huge crisis to her (complete with excessive sighing while at the computer). It's apparent she's probably never had a real job in the working world, and knowing her background she's been coddled a lot in the past. We're working together on several products, and it's like pulling teeth trying to collaborate with her. We work together in a small office, and she'll ask me a question, and when I answer it for her she'll just ignore it and keep doing what she's doing.
I know these are just a few stupid examples, but it's hard to really express what the dynamic is like. But add to all of this the fact that she's trying to make this into a 3rd year rotation and it gets even worse. She'll intentionally try to find out what time I'm going to come into work so she can get there a few minutes early (our schedule is pretty flexible and often up to us as long as we're putting in the time), and she'll come in early and end up staying until 8 or 9pm to scrub in on cases on a regular basis (some days we do all research all day, some days we do surgery in the morning and research in the afternoon, that kind of deal). She'll be in the middle of a conversation with me in our office and one of the surgeons will walk by and she'll just run out of the room midsentence and start brown nosing til the cows come home.
This is a summer research position and I'd love to make the most out of this opportunity, but not at the expense of everything else. I know she's going overboard with the whole "putting in 12-14 hours a day" deal, and I don't intend to follow suit, but I feel like this is probably making me look bad by not going "above and beyond" like her.
On the one hand, I'd like to leave a good impression with the surgeons I work with. On the other hand, I'm not a douchebag. Thus the conundrum.
Now let me begin by saying that this girl is pretty annoying in the first place. I usually get along with just about anyone, but she embodies many of the stereotypes that people have for female medical students. You just can't have a normal, friendly conversation with her. For some reason she thinks everything she touches is gold (except her exams, apparently, since she skated through first year with high C's/low B's). Every little snag is a huge crisis to her (complete with excessive sighing while at the computer). It's apparent she's probably never had a real job in the working world, and knowing her background she's been coddled a lot in the past. We're working together on several products, and it's like pulling teeth trying to collaborate with her. We work together in a small office, and she'll ask me a question, and when I answer it for her she'll just ignore it and keep doing what she's doing.
I know these are just a few stupid examples, but it's hard to really express what the dynamic is like. But add to all of this the fact that she's trying to make this into a 3rd year rotation and it gets even worse. She'll intentionally try to find out what time I'm going to come into work so she can get there a few minutes early (our schedule is pretty flexible and often up to us as long as we're putting in the time), and she'll come in early and end up staying until 8 or 9pm to scrub in on cases on a regular basis (some days we do all research all day, some days we do surgery in the morning and research in the afternoon, that kind of deal). She'll be in the middle of a conversation with me in our office and one of the surgeons will walk by and she'll just run out of the room midsentence and start brown nosing til the cows come home.
This is a summer research position and I'd love to make the most out of this opportunity, but not at the expense of everything else. I know she's going overboard with the whole "putting in 12-14 hours a day" deal, and I don't intend to follow suit, but I feel like this is probably making me look bad by not going "above and beyond" like her.
On the one hand, I'd like to leave a good impression with the surgeons I work with. On the other hand, I'm not a douchebag. Thus the conundrum.
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