Earlier today I was working on a critical task at my computer. I could not afford to lose my place and I was focusing very intently. This sort of thing happens in laboratories. Most people have the good sense not to interrupt, or, upon realizing that they have interrupted, to wait for a better time to converse. Some people do not.
AA: [typity typity type type type click *shit!* ctrl+z typity type...]
Labmate: (shouts from end of bench bay) Hey AA!
AA: (without looking up) [type type type *fuck!* ctrl+z] Yes?
Labmate: (louder) HEY! AA!
AA: (without looking up) [type type type *goddammit!* ctrl+z typity type] Yes, Labmate??
Labmate: AA! *snaps fingers*
AA: (without looking up) [WTF!?!?!!??? type type *fuck!* ctrl+z type ] *snarl* DO NOT snap your fingers at me!
Labmate: (still not getting that the center of universe is elsewhere) Well, you have to look.
AA: (without looking up) [type type type *sonofabitch!* ctrl+z] YOU have to have a little respect for other people around here. I am in the middle of something. If you cannot be bothered to tell me what is so godalmighty important that I must stop what I am doing right this second and lose my place to see it, then it is not that important. [typity type] I am not a dog. I do not respond favorably to people snapping their fingers at me. It is incredibly disrespectful, as is your interruption. If there is something that you want me to see, it will have to wait until I am done with this, or at least at a good stopping place. [type type type *shit!* ctrl+z]
Labmate: (storms off in a huff)
I still have no idea what Labmate wanted to show me. Huh. I guess it wasn't that important.
About Me
- Ambivalent Academic
- Ambivalence - a state of having emotions of both positive and negative valence or of having thoughts or actions in contradiction with each other, when they are related to the same object, idea or person (for example, feeling both love and hatred for someone or something [i.e., grad school, or academia]).
What people are saying about Ambivalent Academic:
Recent Comments
Subscribe To
Posts
Comments
Recurrent Characters
- Better Half - My sweet and charming significant other, also a very talented scientist.
- DangerDog - My contribution to our fur family. He is adorable and hyper-excitable and would probably be easier to live with if Ritalin were approved for dogs.
- GrAdvisor - My well-meaning PI/graduate advisor. We have our differences, but I can chalk most of them up to disparate communication styles, which makes it easier to live with the fall-out of our communication-fails.
- New PI - So far an awesome mentor. Needs a moniker. Will take suggestions.
- Thing 1 & Thing 2 - BH's cats. Actually, I'm not sure if they really are cats or some alien life forms bent on world domination.
Dispatches (10 Most Recent)
...and the science gets done...and we get cake!!
This work is protected!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. If you want to use material from this site, you must attribute it or you can email to ask permission. I will most likely say yes, but no guarantees.
Sitemeter
14 comments:
What the frig!?!?
Srsly
I love it when people get upset over shit they clearly cause and then act like it's 100% your fault.
Oh and the snapping. Fuck a bunch of that shit. That is NOT how you get someone's attention.
Someone snaps there fingers at me, they'll have 8 fingers and two beautiful stumps when I get done with them.
Rough. I've never had a lab mate be that rude, but I do have one who likes to sit at the table beside my desk and just sort of stare at me until I notice him and look up. He then proceeds to chat at me for 20 minutes while a gel runs or some cells incubate or something. And what I can't figure out is, doesn't he have something else he could be doing with his time? Because I almost never have 20 minutes that I couldn't fill with something productive.
A postdoc in my grad school lab snapped his fingers at our technician when he told her the lab had run out of 50 ml conical tubes and that she had to order more.
He was an utter asshole.
See? Other people seem to instinctively understand that finger-snapping is excessively rude. I can't think of a single context in which it is not. Labmate didn't seem to share this common understanding.
Amazing. Truly. Labmate wanted a rehash today of the finger snapping incident in which ze explained *why* ze was snapping hir fingers at me. "I wanted you to look at me but you weren't - you just kept staring at your computer when I called your name."
Here's a clue - if I am responding to you verbally but not looking at you it is because you are interrupting me while doing something that I cannot take my eyes off of. I get that you wanted me to look at you. I couldn't do it right then. Snapping your fucking fingers at me is still the height of rudeness regardless of what *you* wanted from me.
I told hir as much (again) today. Get this - *ze* wanted an apology from *me* for being so rude as to be focused on my work while ze interrupted me. Labmate struck out.
Labmate sounds pretty douchey.
Snapping fingers indeed! Snap them *off*, more like it.
Gee, why does this turn of events not surprise me?
AA. I guess labmate wouldn't understand why a whistle would be rude either?!
and no, I wouldn't see an apology from you either. I have less patience with people who think they can interrupt jsut because the assume THEY are the center of the universe.
then again, I got the "hah, beat you to it" yesterday from a fellow scientist in the lab when s/he took the hood and skipped the line. S/he was further surprised when I got annoyed and didn't want to small talk with them after.... really?!
MXX - I know, I know. Assholes, they're everywhere. In other news, wanna do happy hour somtime next week? I should be finished with a MONSTER of a figure by then and will definitely want to do a little celebratin'.
chall - Do we work with the same person?
I am all over getting together for a happy hour w/you and your BH. Let me know when it's time to celebrate.
AA, I think we might work in the same place, with the same person traveling through space-time. Not good. I sympathize completely.
Post a Comment