I don't know if all labs are like this but we seem to have silent competitions around here about who works the most/longest hours. I admit to it, although I try really hard not to I do notice when people come and go, and I do measure that against my own time, but I don't comment on it to anyone. I don't openly play the game, shall we say. People will often tell me how late they stayed the night before or how long they were in lab on the weekends, and I shrug it off. I know in my heart of hearts that it doesn't really matter.
For some reason something one of my labmates said to me the other day though has been sticking with me. She said, "we're not coming in this weekend, for the first time ever". First off: BULLSHIT! I think that was a little obvious on my facial expression since she immediately corrected herself to say - well, unless we're out of town or something. OK, I know she just defended and is feeling some freedom right now and I'm really happy for her, but I know that her statement just isn't true. But it's the perception, which brings me to what I'm really interested in, how we are percieved based on our working hours.
For example, this particular labmate (and her pig boyfriend) generally come in around 11am and leave whenever. The pig plays on a sports team and leaves around 6pm 2x/week to go to practice. I know from experience that he returns ~8pm and they leave shortly thereafter. She stays in lab. They also take lunch and dinner breaks. Another labmate comes in around 9am and leaves around 6pm, taking her hour lunch. Lately she got in trouble and has been working longer hours, but I honestly don't expect it to last. The postdoc comes in around 8:45 and leaves around 6pm, she eats lunch at her desk. The last member is a first year, so he still has the luxury of coming and going as he pleases. I come in around 8:30am and leave around 6:30/7pm. I often stay later than that (especially recently where I have been here everyday - by myself on weekends mind you - and staying until around 9:30pm). I take a lunch only once a week and dinner once a week - otherwise I eat at my desk. We all do our fair share of internet procrastination, talking to people and non-work type activities. So how are we percieved?
Pig is considered the hardest worker. Although he probably works fewer hours than I do, because he will be here until 3 am (coming in at 2pm the next day and leaving at 6pm) people seem to think that he works sooo hard.
The one who works her requisite 40 hours is considered lazy and people don't think she does any work at all (in all fairness there is actually some truth to that).
I don't know where I fall in this spectrum, but it's interesting that just because I don't stay until 3am or whatever that people don't think I work hard.
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3 comments:
Always a fun topic of conversation. Who works hard and who works hard at looking and sounding like they work hard? But it's all about perception. And to most people, it's about the supervisors perception. My supervisor wants us all in by 930, as he's usually available in the mornings, but not evenings. And then we can leave from about 530 onwards, but that is not going to fly if we are not producing results, or at the very least, a long table of attempts. An to be honest, it's rare day when people leave before six at the ealiest.
Me, for the first few years of my PhD, I was in by 8/830am and never ever left before seven. I worked random weekend hours too. However, after a few repeated infections, I started taking it easy a bit more, meaning I was in by 915 at the latest, and still never left before seven.
I often worked (and still prefer to work) late in the evenings because the lab was quieter, no queues for rot evaps etc, and I could play my music and dance with no one watching :)
However, there is one girl in the lab in particular, who ensures she is in by 830 every day, and it would kill her to go home before nine, but in my opinion she does not use her time productively AT ALL! And she will reference to how she is in every weekend, however she often comes in to check one thing, go to the gym, come back, do one more thing, then go again. But because she's in, she's the best. And the rest of us are slackers. The others in the lab work in between hours. Which she feels entitled to comment on.
I'm of the opinion, if you use your time as productively as possible, then it is your perogative to work a shorter working day.
Especially now that I am trying to write my thesis, I often work very late into the night, so may not turn up till ten, will work very very hard (no breaks, lunch at desk) then leave by five or six, to go home and work on thesis some more. And to be honest I feel I am working more productively than I have in a while. At the moment I may not ome in till ten-ish if I have been at the thesis until the wee hours of the morning, but I have told my supervisor this and we have an understanding. And it is most certainly not every day.
Sigh. Stupid lab politcs really. That was far too long a comment really. But as there are people in my lab who seem to go to lengths to be in before the supervisor, and won't leave until after, i get annoyed. It's about productivity people!
Hear hear to your last statement!
Interestingly, this came up again yesterday when the same labmate who sparked the post initally informed me that I was not in fact in lab last Sunday. Couldn't possibly have been...they were here and I wasn't, I must have been mistaken.
I just love being told how hard I don't work. Gives me the warm fuzzies.
Oh time keeping is such a fun issue. The supervisor is away again this week, so people are not in till after ten and are leaving by four. Except for about five of us who are just working the same hours we'd do whether he was there or not.
The fun. The joy.
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