My boss is pretty awesome
Sep. 15th, 2004 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenI, on the other hand, am sucking something awful over these past 24 hours. For every accomplishment, small or large, I have managed to royally screw up something else or forget something important. Especially the forgetting. I forgot to find the name of the broker who got us our apartment and what speed my computer reads CDs at (anyone want to help me with the last one? It's an HP Pavillion zt1270 notebook)--both of which I was supposed to tell Ken. I forgot to do my dishes from last night, forgot sandwich stuff at the grocery store, etc etc.
Worse, I forgot to do something for a transfection yesterday which basically negates the day's worth of set up, as the cells are now dead. And, predictably, my boss chewed me out in her way, which wasn't explosive rage but more deciding I am not quite competant enough for her. Basically, she said I should write down what I do and make sure at the end of the day that it's all taken care of. That's what I do with my lab notebook, but I guess the key is to peruse the day's entry very carefully before leaving. But she's right. I have no defense on this. I was so excited about getting home early yesterday I forgot something that made yesterday morning a waste. Fortunately for me, it is not something that can't be repeated easily, it just will take time.
On top of that, I managed to let my frazzled nerves distract me and screwed up again. I put some tubes in the centrifuge, turned it on, turned my back, and was ready to leave the room when I heard the most awful noise ever. The machine, despite being huge and containing huge rotors, runs more quietly than I type, so any noise at all is a bad sign, but the grinding, groaning noise I heard filled me with dread. When I stopped it and opened the top, I found that two of the tubes had shattered completely, and the other two had had their ends warped from rubbing against the walls of the centrifuge which was turning at something 5,000 rotations/second. My heart fell out of my chest and to the floor, and panicky adrenaline surged through me.
This is where my boss became my hero. Of the two tubes that shattered, only one had sample in it (the other was the counter balance), and, as it turned out, it wasn't the one she wanted most, and we can make another culture of it and try again tomorrow. No big deal. She cautioned me as how best to rescue the warped tubes, watched me, seemed satisfied, and told me, repeatedly, just to calm down. I was lucky--the tubes she most wanted were the ones that survived. Despite having broken tubes pieces all over the rotor (which I cleaned as soon as I had a break), despite being sure that the whole thing was ruined, and so possibly was an expensive piece of equipment, I was talked down by my boss and just told to relax. Sometimes, that's all it takes. I was panicked, annoyed, frustrated, and defeated: I should have known better! I have done this before! Two stupid mistakes and I ruin two experiments. I can't make stupid mistakes all the time. I need to pay attention!
But she talked me out of it by just not being mad, being calm, and saying "It's okay, just take your time and calm down." It's the first time I've actually been hysterically grateful to this woman. I just hope the plasmid I'm collecting comes out okay now. If I failed at what was left of this experiment, I might just never recover.
Worse, I forgot to do something for a transfection yesterday which basically negates the day's worth of set up, as the cells are now dead. And, predictably, my boss chewed me out in her way, which wasn't explosive rage but more deciding I am not quite competant enough for her. Basically, she said I should write down what I do and make sure at the end of the day that it's all taken care of. That's what I do with my lab notebook, but I guess the key is to peruse the day's entry very carefully before leaving. But she's right. I have no defense on this. I was so excited about getting home early yesterday I forgot something that made yesterday morning a waste. Fortunately for me, it is not something that can't be repeated easily, it just will take time.
On top of that, I managed to let my frazzled nerves distract me and screwed up again. I put some tubes in the centrifuge, turned it on, turned my back, and was ready to leave the room when I heard the most awful noise ever. The machine, despite being huge and containing huge rotors, runs more quietly than I type, so any noise at all is a bad sign, but the grinding, groaning noise I heard filled me with dread. When I stopped it and opened the top, I found that two of the tubes had shattered completely, and the other two had had their ends warped from rubbing against the walls of the centrifuge which was turning at something 5,000 rotations/second. My heart fell out of my chest and to the floor, and panicky adrenaline surged through me.
This is where my boss became my hero. Of the two tubes that shattered, only one had sample in it (the other was the counter balance), and, as it turned out, it wasn't the one she wanted most, and we can make another culture of it and try again tomorrow. No big deal. She cautioned me as how best to rescue the warped tubes, watched me, seemed satisfied, and told me, repeatedly, just to calm down. I was lucky--the tubes she most wanted were the ones that survived. Despite having broken tubes pieces all over the rotor (which I cleaned as soon as I had a break), despite being sure that the whole thing was ruined, and so possibly was an expensive piece of equipment, I was talked down by my boss and just told to relax. Sometimes, that's all it takes. I was panicked, annoyed, frustrated, and defeated: I should have known better! I have done this before! Two stupid mistakes and I ruin two experiments. I can't make stupid mistakes all the time. I need to pay attention!
But she talked me out of it by just not being mad, being calm, and saying "It's okay, just take your time and calm down." It's the first time I've actually been hysterically grateful to this woman. I just hope the plasmid I'm collecting comes out okay now. If I failed at what was left of this experiment, I might just never recover.
