The fallout
Mar. 5th, 2007 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenOf course, re-reading my earlier post, I sound like a hysterical ninny and wish I'd waited to post until I was just a tired, worn-out, sick one.
Predictably, the Spanish PhD didn't take the firing well. He went the angry route, to which he is perfectly suited given his defensive, passive-aggressive, self-righteous behavior over the year he's been employed. He came out of the meeting with V (the admin lady) and my boss yelling about how V was being duped by my boss and just going along with her whack-a-doodle conspiracy to get him thrown out over some perceived slight. V, to her credit, played bouncer on the guy and stayed firm. Compassionate, though not emotional, and not willing to take the brunt of his frustration, V told him not to raise his voice to her and that she, as administrator for our department, is employed by the primary investigators of the department. As such, she works for my boss, and my boss says he has to go, so V has to get him to leave. The threat of getting security to take him down and out of the building got him to stop ranting quite so much about my boss being out to get him.
He tried to make the point that he has to, as he searches for a new job, make mention of what he was doing at the old one, an acceptable, established process known to resumes and interviews everywhere. V called bullshit on him when he said that was all he was doing with the info; she explained to him that my boss had that project listed on her grants and, from what she has seen of his application, he is copying it verbatim for his own use. This is illegal, and if he persists, bad things happen. For now, she said she just needed him to go. He took his time clearing out his desk and cleaning up the photos and info and such he had on his computer. I was employed to spy, and he testily said not to worry, that he wasn't going to steal anything, and I, caught, just denied it. I'm not involved, whether I'm watching out for our stuff or not. I think he wanted to either take some agitation out on me or else get me to sympathize, call my boss a name or something. I wasn't committing either way, so I just stone walled until I could meet up with Liz M for lunch.
Lunch with her was a god-sent relaxation period, complete with midday mimosa. She seemed shocked, but she had some good points to make about how it isn't all that unusual for departing lab members to take info or research and adapt it to new positions they go to. Of course, for that to fly, the PI should know about, and she clearly did not. The letting go of both the post-docs our lab had was similar in that both weren't released under the best of circumstances, but the terminations were nowhere near conspiracy-level in planning. Roman, the post-doc who'd left already, left because the commute was eating his time and money like crazy. He determined his severance date and then helped move it up a few weeks by not getting the okay from my boss before he went on vacation even though he was leaving three weeks later. That whole thing was a mess, but, to be fair, my boss did tell him not to go on vacation because a) he was leaving anyway, b) she was out of the lab when he went, so she couldn't stop him or bargain with him, and c) he needed to finish up what he was doing before he left. It was pretty shirty on both sides, and stupid, but it wasn't a contrived excuse to fire anyone as the Spanish guy seems to think.
He wanted names and numbers to speak to people to rectify this (did I mention he was self-righteous?) and V explained to him that the relevant people he could talk to were her, my boss, and the department head. The department head talked to my boss Friday and told her she should fire the guy. Other people he might contact are apparently out of town, but V eventually gave him a list when he calmed down. She checked in on him periodically to be sure he was actually making good to leave, which was helpful. Various folk the Spanish guy was friends with seemed shocked at his dismissal, but no other noise was made.
Then, on my way out the door to lunch, I found him doing that laugh-that-means-he-can't-believe-you're-serious shit to V. He wanted to just hang around on the other side of the lab with the guy in the other lab who is Spanish and, I dunno, badmouth my boss for being a crazy, paranoid bitch; me for being a spineless sycophant; and V for being afraid to upset my boss and doing her dirty work (would be my guess--I honestly didn't ask if that's what he intended to do). Probably also wanted to hang around, see about raising popular support or just taking over the other Spanish guy's desk for his job search. V, no-nonsense and awesome, just told him that he really needed to go. No, it was not fair that he should be prevented from hanging out with his friend or whatever, but today was not the day. He could call Alex, the other Spanish guy, later or arrange to meet him elsewhere. Right now, he needed to leave. V is my hero.
My lunch smoothed over a lot of the silly freaking out I was doing, as did the well wishings and general shakings of fists at the guy, so thank you all for that. Really, I feel totally ridiculous for spazzing out. It's not something I do, like ever. When we let go of the other post-doc, I was so agitated by the passive-aggressive pullings on each side--"I am mad at him, don't talk to him, just let him leave" "Hey, is she mad at me? What's going on? Why would she be mad?"--I took an early lunch and bugged the hell out and got over it over some Dynasty Warriors. This time, the Spanish guy was making a fuss, shouting about discrimination, et al. and deliberately provoking everyone to either have to defend the fact that they were not the screw up here, or else get them to side with him. My agitation was not helped by a) not really sleeping well the night before, and b) realizing I'm starting to come down with the dreaded whatever that knocked out so many people on our side of the lab. Being caught in the middle is just not fun, even when I'm not really in the middle; I just have to pretend to be uninvolved lest I attract wrath on my head (which is what was giving me conniptions, no doubt--the fear he'd turn his vindictive self-assurance on me as the traitor).
So, I'm at home early, writing this, hoping to hell to leave it behind tomorrow, and just take it easy in case I really do get sick. I'm still distraught at the idea that this guy seriously wanted to steal from us and that he doesn't think he was doing anything wrong. I cannot believe he is so dumb or that he would throw his career away so carelessly. I will keep up on my boss to get her to be sure the people he was applying to know that he was doing so with stolen material. This feels vindictive, especially since I know how final "outing" a plaigerist will be, but really, what choice do we have? Let him get away with it, and he could scoop us (not bloody likely, given his lack of work--or any other type of--ethic) or continue to do shit like this to others. I'm sorry that there's not a second chance for people--I could easily imagine someone as paranoid as my boss taking something lesser out of context and hurting someone substantially--but that's how it has to be such that we can trust the integrity of our science: by maintaining a watchful eye on the integrity of our scientists.
I want to believe in that time that will come where this will be a joke, but I can't find anything funny about someone so recklessly throwing their life away like this. And denying it, blaming anyone and everyone else for it. That's a sad fucking existence.
Predictably, the Spanish PhD didn't take the firing well. He went the angry route, to which he is perfectly suited given his defensive, passive-aggressive, self-righteous behavior over the year he's been employed. He came out of the meeting with V (the admin lady) and my boss yelling about how V was being duped by my boss and just going along with her whack-a-doodle conspiracy to get him thrown out over some perceived slight. V, to her credit, played bouncer on the guy and stayed firm. Compassionate, though not emotional, and not willing to take the brunt of his frustration, V told him not to raise his voice to her and that she, as administrator for our department, is employed by the primary investigators of the department. As such, she works for my boss, and my boss says he has to go, so V has to get him to leave. The threat of getting security to take him down and out of the building got him to stop ranting quite so much about my boss being out to get him.
He tried to make the point that he has to, as he searches for a new job, make mention of what he was doing at the old one, an acceptable, established process known to resumes and interviews everywhere. V called bullshit on him when he said that was all he was doing with the info; she explained to him that my boss had that project listed on her grants and, from what she has seen of his application, he is copying it verbatim for his own use. This is illegal, and if he persists, bad things happen. For now, she said she just needed him to go. He took his time clearing out his desk and cleaning up the photos and info and such he had on his computer. I was employed to spy, and he testily said not to worry, that he wasn't going to steal anything, and I, caught, just denied it. I'm not involved, whether I'm watching out for our stuff or not. I think he wanted to either take some agitation out on me or else get me to sympathize, call my boss a name or something. I wasn't committing either way, so I just stone walled until I could meet up with Liz M for lunch.
Lunch with her was a god-sent relaxation period, complete with midday mimosa. She seemed shocked, but she had some good points to make about how it isn't all that unusual for departing lab members to take info or research and adapt it to new positions they go to. Of course, for that to fly, the PI should know about, and she clearly did not. The letting go of both the post-docs our lab had was similar in that both weren't released under the best of circumstances, but the terminations were nowhere near conspiracy-level in planning. Roman, the post-doc who'd left already, left because the commute was eating his time and money like crazy. He determined his severance date and then helped move it up a few weeks by not getting the okay from my boss before he went on vacation even though he was leaving three weeks later. That whole thing was a mess, but, to be fair, my boss did tell him not to go on vacation because a) he was leaving anyway, b) she was out of the lab when he went, so she couldn't stop him or bargain with him, and c) he needed to finish up what he was doing before he left. It was pretty shirty on both sides, and stupid, but it wasn't a contrived excuse to fire anyone as the Spanish guy seems to think.
He wanted names and numbers to speak to people to rectify this (did I mention he was self-righteous?) and V explained to him that the relevant people he could talk to were her, my boss, and the department head. The department head talked to my boss Friday and told her she should fire the guy. Other people he might contact are apparently out of town, but V eventually gave him a list when he calmed down. She checked in on him periodically to be sure he was actually making good to leave, which was helpful. Various folk the Spanish guy was friends with seemed shocked at his dismissal, but no other noise was made.
Then, on my way out the door to lunch, I found him doing that laugh-that-means-he-can't-believe-you're-serious shit to V. He wanted to just hang around on the other side of the lab with the guy in the other lab who is Spanish and, I dunno, badmouth my boss for being a crazy, paranoid bitch; me for being a spineless sycophant; and V for being afraid to upset my boss and doing her dirty work (would be my guess--I honestly didn't ask if that's what he intended to do). Probably also wanted to hang around, see about raising popular support or just taking over the other Spanish guy's desk for his job search. V, no-nonsense and awesome, just told him that he really needed to go. No, it was not fair that he should be prevented from hanging out with his friend or whatever, but today was not the day. He could call Alex, the other Spanish guy, later or arrange to meet him elsewhere. Right now, he needed to leave. V is my hero.
My lunch smoothed over a lot of the silly freaking out I was doing, as did the well wishings and general shakings of fists at the guy, so thank you all for that. Really, I feel totally ridiculous for spazzing out. It's not something I do, like ever. When we let go of the other post-doc, I was so agitated by the passive-aggressive pullings on each side--"I am mad at him, don't talk to him, just let him leave" "Hey, is she mad at me? What's going on? Why would she be mad?"--I took an early lunch and bugged the hell out and got over it over some Dynasty Warriors. This time, the Spanish guy was making a fuss, shouting about discrimination, et al. and deliberately provoking everyone to either have to defend the fact that they were not the screw up here, or else get them to side with him. My agitation was not helped by a) not really sleeping well the night before, and b) realizing I'm starting to come down with the dreaded whatever that knocked out so many people on our side of the lab. Being caught in the middle is just not fun, even when I'm not really in the middle; I just have to pretend to be uninvolved lest I attract wrath on my head (which is what was giving me conniptions, no doubt--the fear he'd turn his vindictive self-assurance on me as the traitor).
So, I'm at home early, writing this, hoping to hell to leave it behind tomorrow, and just take it easy in case I really do get sick. I'm still distraught at the idea that this guy seriously wanted to steal from us and that he doesn't think he was doing anything wrong. I cannot believe he is so dumb or that he would throw his career away so carelessly. I will keep up on my boss to get her to be sure the people he was applying to know that he was doing so with stolen material. This feels vindictive, especially since I know how final "outing" a plaigerist will be, but really, what choice do we have? Let him get away with it, and he could scoop us (not bloody likely, given his lack of work--or any other type of--ethic) or continue to do shit like this to others. I'm sorry that there's not a second chance for people--I could easily imagine someone as paranoid as my boss taking something lesser out of context and hurting someone substantially--but that's how it has to be such that we can trust the integrity of our science: by maintaining a watchful eye on the integrity of our scientists.
I want to believe in that time that will come where this will be a joke, but I can't find anything funny about someone so recklessly throwing their life away like this. And denying it, blaming anyone and everyone else for it. That's a sad fucking existence.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-06 12:17 am (UTC)