150
votes
Should I make my research students' pay contingent on completion of tasks (such as reading/summarizing papers)?
Do not do this. At best, you will appear merely stingy; at worst, perhaps financially abusive. (I also suspect your university would not even allow it, but I think that's not as important because it ...
- 135k
87
votes
Coworker hiding and stealing lab material
Escalate to your PI or the relevant ethics officer
This is quite a serious situation that involves both loss of university resources and also hampering multiple researchers from their learning/...
- 73k
85
votes
Strange Sign on Lab Door
I notice that the sign:
Doesn't quite match the other signs for scale or style
Isn't obvious in what it's communicating (unlike normal warning signs)
Looks like a monster (apparently "We Must All ...
- 191k
84
votes
Accepted
Should I be honest with postdoc candidate about awful lab working environment?
The general rule in these situations is that being honest is okay (though consider that it can be risky if word of your honesty makes it back to the boss), but it's important to stick to facts and to ...
- 135k
47
votes
What to do when being responsible for data protection in your lab, yet advice is ignored?
There is a trove of documents from Microsoft with advice on GDPR compliance, such as "Windows and the GDPR: Information for IT Administrators and Decision Makers" and has a pretty thorough explanation ...
- 27.9k
42
votes
Coworker hiding and stealing lab material
I strongly recommend to escalate this for the following reasons:
If you do not escalate, this partially becomes your responsibility, too, i.e., if your supervisor or the university find out, they ...
- 65k
36
votes
Strange Sign on Lab Door
tl;dr- It's ManBearPig from South Park. In the future, you can look up stuff like this with a reverse image search, like this one.
If you find a strange indicator on a lab door, it may be easiest ...
- 6,275
36
votes
Accepted
What to do when being responsible for data protection in your lab, yet advice is ignored?
Edit: I think I should add a little more background. I am in a PhD position actually hired for doing research. Yet due to my background in computer science, I am 'officially' responsible for ...
- 13.6k
31
votes
Coworker hiding and stealing lab material
Is the person stealing, or keeping a secret stash? There's a big difference. The difference might not be obvious as both types of behaviors prevent access to materials. But there is a difference, ...
- 14.1k
26
votes
What to do when being responsible for data protection in your lab, yet advice is ignored?
Your university should have some sort of data privacy compliance office. You absolutely need to talk to them. Well-meaning advice from strangers on the internet is great for giving you an idea of ...
- 34.2k
25
votes
Accepted
Co-supervisor comes to the office to help her students, which distracts me
I'm not sure if I would use the word "unprecedented" here - I have definitely had my supervisor come into my office to explain stuff (or just chat), and I have also done the same with my own students. ...
- 138k
24
votes
Should I be honest with postdoc candidate about awful lab working environment?
Yes, you should be honest, but you may be able to do it without jeopardizing yourself or assigning blame to individuals. You can also answer "no comment" to questions that you think would ...
- 400k
16
votes
Co-supervisor comes to the office to help her students, which distracts me
Talk to your advisor about it, politely.
You can simply ask: would it be possible to to have regular discussions in a separate space? I find the noise a bit distracting.
There’s no need for ...
- 28.3k
15
votes
What to do when being responsible for data protection in your lab, yet advice is ignored?
Make sure your advice is actually based on solid facts, and consider which are the most likely ways the data could leak out. Find out exactly what Windows 10 could report to Microsoft, and whether ...
- 1,222
14
votes
What to do when being responsible for data protection in your lab, yet advice is ignored?
The way I read your question is that you are not responsible for data protection but responsible for setting up Windows PCs. In that case I would share your concerns in an email to your group leader ...
- 3,236
13
votes
Should I make my research students' pay contingent on completion of tasks (such as reading/summarizing papers)?
Not a good idea, and here's a take from a behavioral point of view, taken from this article
In Haifa, Israel, there were a bunch of day care centers, about a dozen of them, and the kids came in the ...
- 263
12
votes
Should I be honest with postdoc candidate about awful lab working environment?
In this situation, I believe in being a tactful truth-teller but not a complainer.
You are entitled to describe your opinions and feelings (truth) but not those of others (gossip).
Example
Q: What's ...
- 4,766
10
votes
Is it ethical to put a surveillance camera inside a lab
This largely depends on disclosure --- in cases where you record employees at work there are ethical and legal obligations relating to notification and disclosure. The legal rules depend on your ...
- 73k
10
votes
What to do when being responsible for data protection in your lab, yet advice is ignored?
What to do when being responsible for data protection in your lab, yet advice is ignored?
If you are really responsible, and if you live in a jurisdiction where data protection has "teeth" (i.e., EU/...
- 4,307
9
votes
What should I do about a professor who got in my face and yelled at me?
It sounds like you were the victim of a (relatively moderate) kind of abusive workplace behavior. I would not seek to handle this through the department-level chain of command but rather through the ...
- 132k
9
votes
Accepted
What are the disadvantages of having postdocs or visitor in the lab?
This can vary a lot from professor to professor or even school to school. Some ideas:
Cost. This varies heavily from school to school. At some schools, tuition is waived for graduate students but ...
- 1,616
9
votes
Should I make my research students' pay contingent on completion of tasks (such as reading/summarizing papers)?
Beware of setting targets. If you set a target, and an incentive for reaching it, then meeting that target becomes the most important thing.
Graduate students should be doing research, writing papers ...
- 451
9
votes
When do STEM academics learn how to manage funding?
As with many parts of becomes a group leader and teacher, this is just something you are expected to be able to do. I was never given any training, it was just expected that I was clever enough to ...
- 43.2k
9
votes
Accepted
What is a good rule of thumb for the cost of a Postdoc, in the US at an R1 university
This differs significantly by country. In some countries, it will also be different for each university.
In the US, each university shows the government what its additional costs for supporting ...
- 26.5k
8
votes
Theorists facing tenure track faculty interviews
If you don't need lab equipment or space to do your research then just say so and explain what, if any, support you do need to conduct your research (e.g. travel funds, a desktop computer, a ...
- 37.8k
8
votes
Accepted
Is it acceptable to use a microscope in the office and not in the laboratory?
I see three main potential issues in the use of a microscope informally in an office, rather than in a laboratory environment:
Safety: some samples might be potentially hazardous to a person handling ...
- 191k
8
votes
Should I make my research students' pay contingent on completion of tasks (such as reading/summarizing papers)?
In theory it sounds fine, but I think you will encounter a number of practical problems.
By paying for summaries you are incentivizing students to skim the paper and whip up a summary with minimal ...
- 3,006
8
votes
Etiquette concerning Lab Findings / Results
Assuming you simply emailed the presentation to the professor before using it: A reasonable professor would not be angry. They might give you advice on how to better prepare the presentation.
Ask ...
- 100k
7
votes
Accepted
What are the time demands on a PhD student who is helping set up a lab?
From what I have seen in general for molecular biology labs, there is generally a risk. Some of this risk is connected to the PI and some of it is connected to factors outside their control. I am in ...
- 595
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