An experiment I’ve been trying for months has been failing from a technical standpoint (result looks physically bad, not that the data just disagrees with our hypothesis). I’ve been trying to troubleshoot it for months as well, reaching out to various labs on campus and in different countries to try and get some help. My PI is understandably frustrated with it, and has started accusing me of cutting corners and passing it off as me following the protocol. That isn’t true, so I offered to let him watch me do the entire 3-day protocol with him over my shoulder and I could even make a copy of the protocol so he can follow along with me. He said he couldn’t do that because of time, and I said okay, but lately these sort of accusations have been increasing in frequency and harshness. Like “How can you honestly say you’re following the protocol if it looks this bad?” and “Do you promise you’re actually following the protocol and not just trying to get out of here an hour earlier?”
We don’t have grad students or postdocs, I’m the senior member of the lab. My PI watched some steps when he had the time, and said that it looked fine. Obviously if those steps aren’t the issue then something else is.
The situation you describe happens ALL the time.
You're right, thanks for the advice. This is something I'm gonna need to work on now and in my PhD years, since ideally I do want a research-heavy career. I'm mostly worried that he'll tell other PIs that I'm lazy/cutting corners, which might prevent them from accepting me or might make them distrust me if they do end up taking me. While I haven't expressed how my boss makes me feel when he does that, I have offered concrete solutions to the problem, like having him chaperone me during the protocol and discussing the steps in the protocol that seem to be critical and how I might be messing those steps up. I've gone into his office with the protocol and we talked about every single step, and we've tried tweaking some steps to see if they have any effect. I've always started conversations off with "I'm not sure what I did wrong this time, can we talk about the result, what's good about it, and how to make it look better next time?" (or the gist is that). I have never said "I don't know what's wrong here, because I did everything right and I made no mistakes."
I wholly agree with what @sluox has said and want to add that, unless he is making a completely unprovoked statement, I would also think about why he is accusing you of being lazy/cutting corners. If this is a him-problem (i.e. it's a totally baseless claim; he has a reputation for saying these things), then I wouldn't be as concerned about what he tells other PIs since your next PI/PIs can also comment on your work ethic. If it's something that your next PIs also pick up on, then that would be a little more concerning.
As far as I can tell, he has no reason to be accusing me of this besides consistent failure that cannot be easily explained as a bad reagent or bad run. He is really good at communicating mistakes he sees, and has definitely made me aware of my own before, and this time it just sounds like he's out of ideas and is questioning if I'm telling the truth. That's fine, I understand it is frustrating, especially when he has to take my word alone. I don't have a history of covering anything up with him, and he knows I come to him whenever I make a mistake and admit to it. Nonetheless, I'll see if I can ask why he thinks I'm cutting corners (if he's noticed as a pattern, etc).
(disclosure, also an incoming MD/PhD student, but I've talked extensively with lots of PDs and mentors, etc.) I wouldn't worry too much, especially since you'll be an MD/PhD student and have the support of the admin as well. Also wouldn't recommend confronting about why he thinks you're being lazy/cutting corners (but that's just because, based on what you've written, I would probably just chalk this up to it being a PI thing vs. it being a me thing). I would, however, still confront him like how sluox suggested in step #5.
Okay, thanks. That’s a relief! Honestly my PI was very supportive and nice when I was an undergrad... but then it flipped when I graduated and became his lab tech. I guess his expectations are higher now, or something.
I mean, he probably did have different expectations between when you were an undergrad and now, after several years of experience. All that being said, sometimes science doesn't work out as expected. There is so much out there as published data that is not reproducible. It's unfortunate, but that's the way it is. It sounds like you've done your due diligence and reached out to others for help, but its quite possible (nay, highly likely) that the technique is not reproducible. I mean, people will literally only use 1 specific reagent or only perform experiments a certain time of year to achieve a result and even then, its not a slam dunk. You can't be faulted for that. If anything, it sounds like the PI has unrealistic expectations and frankly, doesn't seem that invested. I mean, if I had a grant or paper due and the experiment wasn't working as expected, I'd confirm it by doing it myself. After all, I'm the one applying for funding, not the trainee or tech. But they can't be bothered? Umm... yeah.
