Monday, June 23, 2008
Drip Drip Drip
Although work is going well at the moment it's all a bit depressing around here. In the past month or so I have found out that 3 of the soundest, friendliest and brightest people I know in the group have decided to leave permanently. The first person had just been awarded a massive fellowship and originally left for a long sports holiday between finishing his contract and starting his fellowship but the current news is he is now working full time for a company and not sounding like he's going to to come back with the fellowship.
Another friend (who specialises in the same technique as sporty fellowship boy) is also leaving after being offered a great post doc elsewhere with opportunities to use some new shiny equipment and really exciting cutting edge technical/method development. I'm really pleased for him as it's a great opportunity but he will be really missed in the group as he is so laid back and relaxed and helpful and damn good at experiments.
The third, and saddest leaver is one of the PhD students. As far as I knew she had been getting on really well, she had completed a paper at the end of her first year and was really confident and working hard and doing quite different stuff to the rest of the group. Unfortunately it seems like she had a total breakdown in her relationship with her main supervisor and ended up quitting. From the sound of things she threatened to quit and no one made any effort to persuade her to stay. After 2 years of effort and with plenty enough results to fill a thesis it seems such a shame. It also really highlights the poor and/or peculiar management styles that go on around here. It has really struck me over the past month or so since I have been thinking about future careers and doing the odd development course how much I need positive encouragement and constructive feedback to bring the best out of me. This is probably a huge generalisation but I think women tend to get more paranoid about their place at work, probably a hangover from bitchy schooldays (I'm sure this is where it comes from for me) and need much more positive help especially from people in authority, otherwise we end up self doubting mentalists putting on a huge 'I can cope' front with everything crumbling behind. There's plenty more I could say on this topic but that's probably best saved for another post.
Another friend (who specialises in the same technique as sporty fellowship boy) is also leaving after being offered a great post doc elsewhere with opportunities to use some new shiny equipment and really exciting cutting edge technical/method development. I'm really pleased for him as it's a great opportunity but he will be really missed in the group as he is so laid back and relaxed and helpful and damn good at experiments.
The third, and saddest leaver is one of the PhD students. As far as I knew she had been getting on really well, she had completed a paper at the end of her first year and was really confident and working hard and doing quite different stuff to the rest of the group. Unfortunately it seems like she had a total breakdown in her relationship with her main supervisor and ended up quitting. From the sound of things she threatened to quit and no one made any effort to persuade her to stay. After 2 years of effort and with plenty enough results to fill a thesis it seems such a shame. It also really highlights the poor and/or peculiar management styles that go on around here. It has really struck me over the past month or so since I have been thinking about future careers and doing the odd development course how much I need positive encouragement and constructive feedback to bring the best out of me. This is probably a huge generalisation but I think women tend to get more paranoid about their place at work, probably a hangover from bitchy schooldays (I'm sure this is where it comes from for me) and need much more positive help especially from people in authority, otherwise we end up self doubting mentalists putting on a huge 'I can cope' front with everything crumbling behind. There's plenty more I could say on this topic but that's probably best saved for another post.
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