Had a mild case of gastric just now, and after eating some porridge I could not fall asleep at all.
I have done lab for many years now, and I have done them with many people. But never have I once felt so highly irritable during experiments like now. Of course I understand that lab partners come in different shapes and sizes so we've got to be accommodating to others' mistakes just like how others have been tolerating my carelessness - don't get me wrong, I really do understand and if you ask me, I think I'm pretty easy-going and chinchai during lab.
But this, THIS, is really beyond me.
First thing, we are supposed to be PARTNERS, which means we are supposed to be WORKING TOGETHER to get things done. Even if the experiment appears to be an experiment from hell, the onus is on us - as the experimenters - to figure a way to make sense out of that, is it not? By coming every time and telling people you don't know this don't know that, I don't see any efforts from you as a PARTNER at all. There is supposed to be communication and mutual work delegation, which means collaboration and synergism. But you are asking about everything, down to the smallest detail which can be easily answered by common sense. Not only do you not contribute, there is minimal initiative from your side. And what actually drove me up the wall is that you stay there and expect instructions and directions. I don't like calling shots; nor am I your boss!
(Honestly, if you're gonna bring that attitude to work and expect your boss to tell you explicitly every single task for the day, you're gonna have to change bosses every now and then)
So never mind if you like being told what to do and what not to do. Then at least, when you're told to do something, you jolly well make sure you get it done. Others not only have to spend extra time telling you explicitly what to do next (which is completely unnecessary if you've got common sense and SOME situation awareness), everybody have to spend more time waiting because you can't execute what you've been told.
And I reiterate, my tolerance is usually not this low.
Every lab day I walk into lab telling myself to be accommodating yet every lab day you challenge my limits.
This Monday was the ultimatum. Like I mentioned earlier, you came into lab emphasizing on how you left your brains at home, and then during preparation we had to spend time looking for a dropper because you did not wash it when I have explicitly told you to do so before I went on to get other apparatus. Yet when everybody was halfway through their preparation you wanted a SWAP? Hello excuse me do you know how inefficient that is? Time had to be spent AGAIN telling you what has happened, what's happening and what's going to happen. And it has to be repeated to make sure it gets into your head, because it's serial dilution and any mistake at the later stages would mean repeating everything right from the start again.
Girl, you want a share in everything, but you can't even do anything properly! If you have problems completing your tasks at hand, why go around making lives difficult for others?
After every lab with you, I actually feel that time could have been better spent, and we could finish earlier. I have never felt like this before with anyone else - that's a first.
