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Jan. 31st, 2001 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonwiseBusy day today keeping the boss happy. Every once in a while, the reality of being a senior student smacks me in the face, and today was one of those days. There is a company in Massachusetts that is trying to use one of my compounds as a drug to counteract some of the damage done during a stroke or a heart attack, and both my advisor and me are hard at work with them to figure out whether the compound is clean, whether it is all one thing, etc. etc. We have to do a lot of spectroscopy and such, and my boss was peeved because I hadn't looked at everything he'd asked me to. He was grilling me nonstop, then relented and admitted that he was edgy because this whole thing was frustrating. It was good to hear that he wasn't entirely cranky with me.
It was a very out-of-character thing for my boss to say, though, because he has a rep for being grumpy and arrogant, though every once in a while the facade breaks and you can see that there is a human being in there. I wonder if it has anything to do with our secretary - a few weeks ago he really laid into her, and she got so upset that she went into the bathroom and sobbed. She thinks that my boss heard her, because he came by later and apologized. Maybe he is trying to be less cranky with the girls.
It was also one of those days when I wonder what the heck I am doing in grad school, because there seems to be some very basic drive to do nothing but science that I lack. There are many students and professors whose lives revolve totally around their labwork, and it's because they love it, not because of the money. Why is it that to be successful these days, you need to be married to your work instead? Is it still OK to think of a job as something you do so you can have enough money to enjoy the real part of your life? I wonder about that a lot.
It was a very out-of-character thing for my boss to say, though, because he has a rep for being grumpy and arrogant, though every once in a while the facade breaks and you can see that there is a human being in there. I wonder if it has anything to do with our secretary - a few weeks ago he really laid into her, and she got so upset that she went into the bathroom and sobbed. She thinks that my boss heard her, because he came by later and apologized. Maybe he is trying to be less cranky with the girls.
It was also one of those days when I wonder what the heck I am doing in grad school, because there seems to be some very basic drive to do nothing but science that I lack. There are many students and professors whose lives revolve totally around their labwork, and it's because they love it, not because of the money. Why is it that to be successful these days, you need to be married to your work instead? Is it still OK to think of a job as something you do so you can have enough money to enjoy the real part of your life? I wonder about that a lot.
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Bosses and work
Date: 2001-02-01 06:02 am (UTC)Sounds to me your boss was trying to be more human than previously by apologizing afterwards. At least he is trying to be more considerate.
I guess there is a lot of prestige and money going in that project, so no wonder he was tense about it. That was the Squibbs-Myers thing you mentioned in the chat, right ? I guess, when the job and the projects take up such a large part of your life and you are so dedicated to the job as profs are, it's really difficult to avoid getting tense about the seriousness of it all.
Sometimes it really feels like you have to be obsessive about your job to be successful in it. I don't really see it as an ideal situation that people become that one track minded, it must affect the quality of life in a negative way. Hang in there, though. I think you've got plenty of the enthusiasm and knowledge it takes to finish up and then some. It's just the one track minders who lose out on important other aspects of life.
Will we see you on Friday's chat ?
I'm tempted to want to use the DALnet server again as esper.net has been somewhat unstable this week. I don't know how it behaved on Wednesday, though.