I will soon change of lab, moving from a PhD student position to post-doc position. During the last months of my contract as a PhD student, I tried to finish everything I started but I still have a few projects in progress. These projects include collaborative paper with other groups, so I am not the only one involved.
I was wondering what was the general agreement when changing position with unfinished project. I see three main possibilities here:
- At the beginning of the new contract, I spend all my time finishing the previous project so I do not have to worry about them for too long (but I do not start right away to work for my new boss)
- I spend one day per week (for instance) working for the past project and the rest for the current one
- I do not work at all on the previous project during office hours, but rather after work and during the week-end (which I would prefer not to do)
I have to precise that my future boss is not involved in the project I would need to finish. I also plan to ask him the question directly when I start the new position, but I thought a little background about what is commonly done could be beneficial before starting this discussion.
NB: this question is different from this one since it does not concern the ownership of the research, but rather on how to spend the time in the lab.