Re: whine whine
- From: Russell <Russell.Martin@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:05:16 -0700 (PDT)
On Mar 27, 7:17 am, Antonio Huerta <ahue...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I have grown fat and lazy. Before, I used to worry a lot where to get
a new job while being unemployed or on a 1-year grant. But nowdays, as
I have recently realised, I have no motivation to do anything and I do
not do anything. This is because I am in a permanent position in a
govt lab where my work does not depend on me. The lab's management
appoints people to the good projects. If one is not appointed to any
project, then one does not develop any skills, and his career stalls.
That's the situation I am finding myself in now. As you might've
remember, before I happily reported that I got the duties of a project
leader and of a team leader, and that was what I liked to do, and
things seemed to progress rather well. But it was probably a fluke of
the management. About half a year ago, the managment pulled me off all
the responsibility for the projects. I was relegated to my "core
duties". This involves a low-level project. The manager of the project
told me to set up a new experiment; I ordered the parts from the busy
mechanical workshop, and they told me the parts would be available in
half a year. The project manager is OK with it. I have nothing else to
do. So I started to question my capability to do scientific work;
today I learnt about the term "imposter syndrome", and I think it is
applicable to me in some ways.
My only consolation is the thought that nothing is forever in this
world. We may well be restructured. (And I may be laid off.) The
current managers will be fired or transferred. The new young managers
will emerge who want to prove themselves, and will use my skills to do
the challenging work for their own advancement (as well).
Actually, recently I suggested an idea of an experiment the outcome of
which could be published say in Appl Phys Lett. My immediate
supervisor was excited about it and said that this was the kind of
work the department needed to have done and to have developed skills
in. He said he would lobby for this experiment to be included in the
next year lab's plan. The work would involve the extensive use of
somebody else's expensive facilities, and my supervisor recommended me
to approach those people. And that's where my proposal hit the
underwater rocks and sunk. Oh well.
A company I once worked for had one of those "we're
driven by our employees ideas" mantras and anyone
was supposed to be able to submit proposals for
new areas into which the company could expand. So
I wrote one. I didn't expect them to accept it and
suddenly make me a vice president, I didn't even
expect them to read it, but I hoped they'd at least
note that I was trying to contribute. When I went for
my performance review I mentioned it as one of my
accomplishments for the year. No one claimed to
have ever heard of it so I figured their system must
have been like the suggestion box that the janitor is
told to just dump in the trash every night, purely for
show.
Cheers,
Russell
.
- References:
- whine whine
- From: Antonio Huerta
- whine whine
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