Horrible graduate student in my rotating lab

[ScaryGoose]

I am currently in a rotation where not the PI but a 4th year graduate student is making my life difficult. You get them in all shapes and sizes. The great thing is that I don't particularly like the research so my decision to not choose this lab for my graduate studies has already been made. It's just a matter of learning different techniques at this point.

Have any of you all experienced something similar? The way I'm handling it is just ignoring the problem.

[Azarashi1]

I've had a similar experience (but in a Master program and in a slightly different context).

And the problem was not just on a personal level (i.e., the way this person constantly treated me like crap): I also felt that since this person was very unorganized and ignorant about the research we were supposed to be carrying out, I suffered from an academic point of view, too.

Have no idea why this person was acting like that. If I had to guess I'd say it was more out of carelessness and insensitivity than pure meanness. Or maybe because everybody loves to 'wield power' whenever possible.

However, I was NOT in a position to complain to the PI or someone else, so I just suck it up. I really hope it's not the same for you, and I'm glad you don't like the research anyway .

Edited December 12, 2012 by Azarashi1

[Gary in CA]

I had a Turkish Princess whose English was limited who refused to wash her lab glassware.  About the only time she tried, she put a nitric acid reaction mixture into the alcoholic KOH bath and blew brown gunk up the wall, across the windows, and all over a 14 foot ceiling.  Then I had a Greek post-doc who refused to dispose of her toxic waste.  She ran everything down the sink with hot water and gassed the lab with pentachlorocyclopentadiene adducts, about like breathing Chlordane.  My solution, using the Cypress model was to lock the Turk and the Greek in the same room and let them kill each other.

 

Seriously?  Work nights.