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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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Date: 2001-02-01 08:33 am (UTC)