Worst lab experience ever

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ovenmitts

ovenmitts

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So I'll start this off by saying that this is a rant. It's going to be whiny and I'll come across as a baby, so if you're not into that kind of thing, then this probably isn't the thread for you.

Anyway, I was with a PI for about 3 years, so I decided to expand my horizons and try another lab for this summer. My new PI is really nice and extremely ambitious, BUT HE'S JUST SO DARN BUSY. He's a physician as well so he has clinics pretty much everyday so I literally never see him. I've only seen him twice since I started on May 1st. What makes it worse is that he doesn't reply to e-mails. I mean, I get you're busy, but how much effort does it take to reply to an e-mail? Heck, I'll take a one-liner if it means a reply. So the situation now is that I have had no contact with my PI for weeks and I don't have any direction in the lab. I still haven't started the project I'm supposed to be working on this summer and we're almost half way into June. My days are spent staring at the computer screen waiting for the day to pass because I have NOTHING to do. And it's only me in the lab, so there's no one else I could help out with pipetting or washing glassware. So I am getting paid to sit at my laptop and stare at the computer screen. What gives?

Next part of this subpar lab experience. My PI has an admin assistant to take care of his secretary work. But I feel like I have been verbally sexually harassed by this guy. He makes creepy comments like "is your Skype name 'Sexy Lady?'" and "guess what we can measure with this ruler, I'm decently packaged." He's told me if he wasn't married he'd take me out to the bar. He's offered me a bottle of scotch. He has even asked me how far I would go with my boyfriend. Talk about unprofessional. AND he has my cellphone number and he texts me everyday and when I ignore his texts he gets all "why didn't you reply? It takes two people to text." His comments make me feel uncomfortable. Is this guy just overly friendly or is he a creep? I'm leaning towards the latter.

Anyway, that's my rant. Do I have any right to feel like this is a bad lab experience? Should I be working with what I've got or is my bitterness warranted? I totally regret leaving my old lab for this one.
 
ovenmitts said:
My days are spent staring at the computer screen waiting for the day to pass because I have NOTHING to do. And it's only me in the lab, so there's no one else I could help out with pipetting or washing glassware. So I am getting paid to sit at my laptop and stare at the computer screen.
Click to expand...

Basically just described my dream job.
 
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GoPelicans said:
Basically just described my dream job
Click to expand...

:laugh: You don't understand how boring this is. 8 hours. EIGHT HOURS of doing NOTHING. Except SDN. And Facebook. This was supposed to be an intellectually-stimulating experience and I'm begging to wash glassware.
 
I would leave the lab and report the admin guy--that's totally inappropriate. Could you return to your old lab?

Most profs/ physicians get hundreds of emails a day. You wouldn't want to read that many emails a day, so some are bound to get ignored-- mostly the ones from 'unimportant' people like undergrads.
 
I just don't know how to report this guy. Or at least tell him he's crossing the line. I don't have the balls to.
 
ovenmitts said:
I just don't know how to report this guy. Or at least tell him he's crossing the line. I don't have the balls to.
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Contact HR. That's blatant sexual harassment.
 
So if I contact HR and report him... he would obviously know it was me that reported him, right? And so would my PI?
 
ovenmitts said:
Next part of this subpar lab experience. My PI has an admin assistant to take care of his secretary work. But I feel like I have been verbally sexually harassed by this guy. He makes creepy comments like "is your Skype name 'Sexy Lady?'" and "guess what we can measure with this ruler, I'm decently packaged." He's told me if he wasn't married he'd take me out to the bar. He's offered me a bottle of scotch. He has even asked me how far I would go with my boyfriend. Talk about unprofessional. AND he has my cellphone number and he texts me everyday and when I ignore his texts he gets all "why didn't you reply? It takes two people to text." His comments make me feel uncomfortable. Is this guy just overly friendly or is he a creep? I'm leaning towards the latter.
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Please report him to HR, and then to his mother:

http://awesomephilia.com/post/52543419782/aheartbeatchanged-attention-*******s-dont
 
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ovenmitts said:
So if I contact HR and report him... he would obviously know it was me that reported him, right? And so would my PI?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I would only report him if you're ready to find a new job. It will likely be an awkward atmosphere if you stick around after getting somebody senior to you fired. If you are serious about contacting HR, make sure you have copies of all his texts if they are lewd.
 
ovenmitts said:
So if I contact HR and report him... he would obviously know it was me that reported him, right? And so would my PI?
Click to expand...

Yea he'd probably know it was you, unless he does this to other people, in which he might not. But who cares?! You shouldn't be afraid to face him (maybe even in court). His actions are totally out of line, illegal, and inappropriate for any setting (work or social). Report it to HR. Literally the worst thing that could happen would be for you to lose your job. But there are two points here that I'd like to make:

1) You actually can't legally lose your job because you report the guy.
2) It sounds like you don't like your job, anyway.

The best thing that could happen is that you get this guy fired (or make sure he learns his lesson) and you're never bothered again. Reward>>>>>Risk.
 
Yeah please absolutely report this guy, not only for what hes done to you but for your future safety. You can send your PI a heads up email but you should never have to deal with this level of harrassment.
 
This lab experience is a joke. Report that creepy dude and quit. Find another PI who has grad students/postdocs in the lab who can mentor you and teach you the necessary skills to do science. Most PI's are too busy and do not work in the lab themselves.
 
ovenmitts said:
So I'll start this off by saying that this is a rant. It's going to be whiny and I'll come across as a baby, so if you're not into that kind of thing, then this probably isn't the thread for you.

Anyway, I was with a PI for about 3 years, so I decided to expand my horizons and try another lab for this summer. My new PI is really nice and extremely ambitious, BUT HE'S JUST SO DARN BUSY. He's a physician as well so he has clinics pretty much everyday so I literally never see him. I've only seen him twice since I started on May 1st. What makes it worse is that he doesn't reply to e-mails. I mean, I get you're busy, but how much effort does it take to reply to an e-mail? Heck, I'll take a one-liner if it means a reply. So the situation now is that I have had no contact with my PI for weeks and I don't have any direction in the lab. I still haven't started the project I'm supposed to be working on this summer and we're almost half way into June. My days are spent staring at the computer screen waiting for the day to pass because I have NOTHING to do. And it's only me in the lab, so there's no one else I could help out with pipetting or washing glassware. So I am getting paid to sit at my laptop and stare at the computer screen. What gives?

Next part of this subpar lab experience. My PI has an admin assistant to take care of his secretary work. But I feel like I have been verbally sexually harassed by this guy. He makes creepy comments like "is your Skype name 'Sexy Lady?'" and "guess what we can measure with this ruler, I'm decently packaged." He's told me if he wasn't married he'd take me out to the bar. He's offered me a bottle of scotch. He has even asked me how far I would go with my boyfriend. Talk about unprofessional. AND he has my cellphone number and he texts me everyday and when I ignore his texts he gets all "why didn't you reply? It takes two people to text." His comments make me feel uncomfortable. Is this guy just overly friendly or is he a creep? I'm leaning towards the latter.

Anyway, that's my rant. Do I have any right to feel like this is a bad lab experience? Should I be working with what I've got or is my bitterness warranted? I totally regret leaving my old lab for this one.
Click to expand...

I would literally stalk my PI so that i can get at least 5 minutes to talk to him. Talk about needing work then talk about the sexual harassment. If he brushes off the sexual harassment, contact HR IMMEDIATELY. You should feel safe at work. You don't know what this guy is capable of.

Be Safe
 
Thank-you all for your responses. I really appreciate it.

So is it better to contact HR directly or talk to my PI about it first? Talk about an awkward conversation, gahhh.
 
ovenmitts said:
Thank-you all for your responses. I really appreciate it.

So is it better to contact HR directly or talk to my PI about it first? Talk about an awkward conversation, gahhh.
Click to expand...

If things are as bad as you say, with those texts and comments verbatim, I would definitely report. That's beyond out of line. The skype thing could be a joking/flirty thing. The rest of that is pure harassment. It shows he has boundaries issues and could escalate into something worse for you.
 
This is all just so stressful. A part of me just wants to keep quiet and take it so I don't create any problems in the lab.
 
ovenmitts said:
:laugh: You don't understand how boring this is. 8 hours. EIGHT HOURS of doing NOTHING. Except SDN. And Facebook. This was supposed to be an intellectually-stimulating experience and I'm begging to wash glassware.
Click to expand...

I had a summer research job like this and it was horrible. Everyone always says sitting around would be so nice, but it makes the day go so slow and gets boring very fast. If you can't/don't want to leave then you'll either have to really stalk the PI or just suck it up.
 
I understand you don't want to burn any bridges and upset people -- but if the situation is really how you described it, it sounds like sexual harassment to me. I've never been in such a situation so I don't know the exact protocol/rules, but you do NOT need to put up with that.

It is not your job to reprimand him directly and it sounds like you have done your part in not bringing the flirting/comments onto yourself (ie: not responding to his texts). Contact HR and get their advice. When in doubt, follow official protocol.
 
You're not going to create problems in the lab and it doesn't sound that productive anyways. If you're doing this for experience then you're going to want to be able to talk to ADCOMs about more than how you were sexually harassed. Report the guy and find a new project.
 
Doctor Strange said:
As for the secretary or whatever, CONTACT THE HR DEPARTMENT.
Click to expand...

SilverCat said:
I would leave the lab and report the admin guy--that's totally inappropriate.
Click to expand...

cerno said:
Contact HR. That's blatant sexual harassment.
Click to expand...


doritos4lyfe said:
Yeah please absolutely report this guy, not only for what hes done to you but for your future safety. You can send your PI a heads up email but you should never have to deal with this level of harrassment.
Click to expand...

Noggin said:
This lab experience is a joke. Report that creepy dude and quit. Find another PI who has grad students/postdocs in the lab who can mentor you and teach you the necessary skills to do science. Most PI's are too busy and do not work in the lab themselves.
Click to expand...

+1 to everything above. Get the F outta that lab and report that dude. That is beyond ridiculous. Save those texts too as a sign of proof.
 
ovenmitts said:
Next part of this subpar lab experience. My PI has an admin assistant to take care of his secretary work. But I feel like I have been verbally sexually harassed by this guy. He makes creepy comments like "is your Skype name 'Sexy Lady?'" and "guess what we can measure with this ruler, I'm decently packaged." He's told me if he wasn't married he'd take me out to the bar. He's offered me a bottle of scotch. He has even asked me how far I would go with my boyfriend. Talk about unprofessional. AND he has my cellphone number and he texts me everyday and when I ignore his texts he gets all "why didn't you reply? It takes two people to text." His comments make me feel uncomfortable. Is this guy just overly friendly or is he a creep? I'm leaning towards the latter.
.
Click to expand...

This is absolutely unacceptable behavior from this AA. Do not let it go on or it could escalate to another level (stalking, physical harassment, ect.). Contact HR or the appropriate upper levels immediately.
 
Sometimes I find sexual harassment claims to be bogus, but this one is clear. I would tell him to back off, and if he doesn't, report him.
 
If you think that's bad, my PI has literally been sleeping with the senior most PhD student who he allows to treat everyone like sh!+. His wife, or ex-wife now, is actually faculty and his son recently graduated in the middle of this affair and their divorce. Talk about an awkward and unprofessional work environment. THis girl and the PI are constantly having secret meetings, and he even allows her to blow up and go ape-sh!+ on people because it's almost like she is in control of him and his grant money. I'm just so glad I'm finally getting the heck out of here.
 
SO 1. report the creepy guy

2. You could quit the lab OR you could pick a project and run with it. Start with a question you want to ask try framing the paper you would write to address it and then start doing those experiments. Then show up at your PIs office and show him (thats what i do with mine)
 
ovenmitts said:
This is all just so stressful. A part of me just wants to keep quiet and take it so I don't create any problems in the lab.
Click to expand...

If you don't do anything about it he will probably go on and do it to someone else.
 
ovenmitts said:
So I'll start this off by saying that this is a rant. It's going to be whiny and I'll come across as a baby, so if you're not into that kind of thing, then this probably isn't the thread for you.

Anyway, I was with a PI for about 3 years, so I decided to expand my horizons and try another lab for this summer. My new PI is really nice and extremely ambitious, BUT HE'S JUST SO DARN BUSY. He's a physician as well so he has clinics pretty much everyday so I literally never see him. I've only seen him twice since I started on May 1st. What makes it worse is that he doesn't reply to e-mails. I mean, I get you're busy, but how much effort does it take to reply to an e-mail? Heck, I'll take a one-liner if it means a reply. So the situation now is that I have had no contact with my PI for weeks and I don't have any direction in the lab. I still haven't started the project I'm supposed to be working on this summer and we're almost half way into June. My days are spent staring at the computer screen waiting for the day to pass because I have NOTHING to do. And it's only me in the lab, so there's no one else I could help out with pipetting or washing glassware. So I am getting paid to sit at my laptop and stare at the computer screen. What gives?

Next part of this subpar lab experience. My PI has an admin assistant to take care of his secretary work. But I feel like I have been verbally sexually harassed by this guy. He makes creepy comments like "is your Skype name 'Sexy Lady?'" and "guess what we can measure with this ruler, I'm decently packaged." He's told me if he wasn't married he'd take me out to the bar. He's offered me a bottle of scotch. He has even asked me how far I would go with my boyfriend. Talk about unprofessional. AND he has my cellphone number and he texts me everyday and when I ignore his texts he gets all "why didn't you reply? It takes two people to text." His comments make me feel uncomfortable. Is this guy just overly friendly or is he a creep? I'm leaning towards the latter.

Anyway, that's my rant. Do I have any right to feel like this is a bad lab experience? Should I be working with what I've got or is my bitterness warranted? I totally regret leaving my old lab for this one.
Click to expand...

You have the right to feel whatever emotions you would like. :nod:

But seriously, that sounds awful -- I would try to find something else to do this summer, before you lose an entire summer and end up not producing anything.
 
ovenmitts said:
My PI has an admin assistant to take care of his secretary work. But I feel like I have been verbally sexually harassed by this guy. He makes creepy comments like "is your Skype name 'Sexy Lady?'" and "guess what we can measure with this ruler, I'm decently packaged." He's told me if he wasn't married he'd take me out to the bar. He's offered me a bottle of scotch. He has even asked me how far I would go with my boyfriend. Talk about unprofessional. AND he has my cellphone number and he texts me everyday and when I ignore his texts he gets all "why didn't you reply? It takes two people to text." His comments make me feel uncomfortable.
Click to expand...

If there is any type of HR, report this guy!!! It's really for your own protection. Not that you'd necessarily get assaulted, but to prevent any form of grievance from him. Be sure to save all the texts: type them up, and copy them. Then, write down all the comments he has made, when he said it, what he was doing, what you were doing, and what you may have said before he said anything. Keep a daily log. Once you have all that ready to go, tell your PI, and expect to see some action. If nothing happens (no one interviews you, he's still there, etc.) then go to a higher-up person in HR. Be sure to keep a written record of everything.

Hey, if nothing else, your lab experience would have taught you something!
 
So just to update the situation: I didn't end up reporting him to HR. I know, I know, I went completely against the advice here, but I was really reluctant to cause a ruckus in the lab.

I DID confront him about it though and let him know that many of his comments were out of line, unprofessional, and inappropriate. Of course he went on to ask for examples and told me that I have to admit he's "taken care of me and had my back." He said we should go for coffee one day and talk about it. He apologized. And since then, it's been extremely professional the way it should be. If he tries anything else then I'll HR his ass.
 
Please be careful. A lot of guys will get scared when they actually get confronted, but it's usually only a matter of time until they revert back to how they were. Like some of the others have said, this is unlikely the first time he's pulled stuff like this, and unless he gets caught and humiliated/fired, he's likely to try it again once you're gone. This should be one of those no-tolerance issues. Good luck.
 
GoPelicans said:
Yeah, I would only report him if you're ready to find a new job. It will likely be an awkward atmosphere if you stick around after getting somebody senior to you fired. If you are serious about contacting HR, make sure you have copies of all his texts if they are lewd.
Click to expand...

This is some of the worst advice I've heard on this forum. Report his ass.

If you are worried about the atmosphere being awkward, ask yourself is it not awkward now?

Edit: Ok, just read your update. While it's good you confronted him and that he has begun to act professionally, the problem with this is that once you leave, there is nothing to stop him from acting the same way with the next unsuspecting person, as also pointed out in the post above. The behavior is inexcusable and you are likely not the first person he has treated this way. He really should be reported, despite how much he has tried to placate you after you confronted him.
 
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Wow sounds like what I am going through. So I emailed a professor at my state school to research this summer, she replied almost instantly, told her assistant to set up an interview, and I met up with her about a month ago. She really wanted me helping out in her lab, so she showed me what they researched and introduced me to people in her lab. So at the end of the "interview" she told her assistant in front of me to email me the papers needed to be processed by HR in order for me to be in the lab. So the day after the interview I got all the papers and filled them out, and returned them to her the same day. So a month passed by and I only got an email from the actual school saying a affiliation ID number and college account/college email address has been created for me. I emailed her about 10 days ago asking if everything was processed and how everything was looking and she said, "I will contact you asap regarding you in the lab". So today it has been a month since the interview and I haven't even been in the lab since. I am kind of disappointed. I am going to wait another week and see what happens, if nothing, I'll probably just say I will intern/volunteer next summer. Cause I would practically only have 3-4 solid weeks of research this summer after training at this point. I don't know what to do. I don't want to be an annoying student who keeps emailing the assistant. 🙁

The first part at least, not the creepy dude.
 
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Here's a bit of awful, but probably true, advice from a blogger named Penelope Trunk:
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/11/02/dont-report-sexual-harassment-in-most-cases/

In essence, she says that you shouldn't report sexual harassment because you're setting yourself up for (at best) retaliation and (at worst) firing. When you report harassment to human resources, they need to go into full-out cover your ass mode. That means removing the source of the problem, both the offender and the accuser. If you're not lucky, HR will see you as a liability because you complained.

If you aren't fired, the friends and higher-ups who worked with the accuser will probably make your life miserable.

Working life sucks and people suck. I do wish you the best of luck.

(As for email turn-around time, students are waaayyy down on a professor's to-do list. Sorry.)
 
ovenmitts said:
So just to update the situation: I didn't end up reporting him to HR. I know, I know, I went completely against the advice here, but I was really reluctant to cause a ruckus in the lab.

I DID confront him about it though and let him know that many of his comments were out of line, unprofessional, and inappropriate. Of course he went on to ask for examples and told me that I have to admit he's "taken care of me and had my back." He said we should go for coffee one day and talk about it. He apologized. And since then, it's been extremely professional the way it should be. If he tries anything else then I'll HR his ass.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, the naivety of youth.
 
BrainOnFire said:
Here's a bit of awful, but probably true, advice from a blogger named Penelope Trunk:
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/11/02/dont-report-sexual-harassment-in-most-cases/

In essence, she says that you shouldn't report sexual harassment because you're setting yourself up for (at best) retaliation and (at worst) firing. When you report harassment to human resources, they need to go into full-out cover your ass mode. That means removing the source of the problem, both the offender and the accuser. If you're not lucky, HR will see you as a liability because you complained.

If you aren't fired, the friends and higher-ups who worked with the accuser will probably make your life miserable.

Working life sucks and people suck. I do wish you the best of luck.

(As for email turn-around time, students are waaayyy down on a professor's to-do list. Sorry.)
Click to expand...

Yep, ESPECIALLY in the academic world, my PI is literally sleeping with a PhD student and anybody who has said something mysteriously gets kicked out of the lab.
 
Arbor Vitae said:
Yep, ESPECIALLY in the academic world, my PI is literally sleeping with a PhD student and anybody who has said something mysteriously gets kicked out of the lab.
Click to expand...
That's pretty crazy lol.
 
Arbor Vitae said:
If you think that's bad, my PI has literally been sleeping with the senior most PhD student who he allows to treat everyone like sh!+. His wife, or ex-wife now, is actually faculty and his son recently graduated in the middle of this affair and their divorce. Talk about an awkward and unprofessional work environment. THis girl and the PI are constantly having secret meetings, and he even allows her to blow up and go ape-sh!+ on people because it's almost like she is in control of him and his grant money. I'm just so glad I'm finally getting the heck out of here.
Click to expand...

Did you go to my grad school? Ours was the same deal, which culminated in the wife (one of our best scientists), hauling ass down to Columbia to escape this bull****.
 
BrainOnFire said:
Did you go to my grad school? Ours was the same deal, which culminated in the wife (one of our best scientists), hauling ass down to Columbia to escape this bull****.
Click to expand...

nope, ex-wife still works here, it's super awkward
 
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ovenmitts said:
So I'll start this off by saying that this is a rant. It's going to be whiny and I'll come across as a baby, so if you're not into that kind of thing, then this probably isn't the thread for you.

Anyway, I was with a PI for about 3 years, so I decided to expand my horizons and try another lab for this summer. My new PI is really nice and extremely ambitious, BUT HE'S JUST SO DARN BUSY. He's a physician as well so he has clinics pretty much everyday so I literally never see him. I've only seen him twice since I started on May 1st. What makes it worse is that he doesn't reply to e-mails. I mean, I get you're busy, but how much effort does it take to reply to an e-mail? Heck, I'll take a one-liner if it means a reply. So the situation now is that I have had no contact with my PI for weeks and I don't have any direction in the lab. I still haven't started the project I'm supposed to be working on this summer and we're almost half way into June. My days are spent staring at the computer screen waiting for the day to pass because I have NOTHING to do. And it's only me in the lab, so there's no one else I could help out with pipetting or washing glassware. So I am getting paid to sit at my laptop and stare at the computer screen. What gives?

Next part of this subpar lab experience. My PI has an admin assistant to take care of his secretary work. But I feel like I have been verbally sexually harassed by this guy. He makes creepy comments like "is your Skype name 'Sexy Lady?'" and "guess what we can measure with this ruler, I'm decently packaged." He's told me if he wasn't married he'd take me out to the bar. He's offered me a bottle of scotch. He has even asked me how far I would go with my boyfriend. Talk about unprofessional. AND he has my cellphone number and he texts me everyday and when I ignore his texts he gets all "why didn't you reply? It takes two people to text." His comments make me feel uncomfortable. Is this guy just overly friendly or is he a creep? I'm leaning towards the latter.

Anyway, that's my rant. Do I have any right to feel like this is a bad lab experience? Should I be working with what I've got or is my bitterness warranted? I totally regret leaving my old lab for this one.
Click to expand...

Wow. Why would you even leave the PI you were with for 3 years? Are you insane?! That's close to an excellent paper/LOR in itself.

As for that creep get away from him and report him to HR or the cops. This can get worse.
 
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