DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Work problem

Hello Everyone,

I am writing to get a little help with a situation at work. I have a job that pays well, and has amazing benefits, but I have no responsibilities whatsoever. I know the perfect job for millions of people.

I am looking for the best diplomatic ways to ask for more responsibility and respect in the work place without causing my boss to realize that I am absolutely not needed.

I should have known that I was a lame duck, the first day when I was told that HR wanted my lab to hire two people, because they needed to spend the grant money or risk losing it.

I am the second research assistant in the lab, and if I was allowed to run the lab I could finish all of the experiments by myself in less than 5 hours, but this work is spread over two people.

My main tasks being Washing dishes, hauling carcasses, and getting all of the supplies.

I have become a 24 year old Dishwasher with a double major in biology and chemistry. What a waste of 4 years and 120,000 dollars. We had a sophomore in high school intern in our lab last year and I taught him to do my job. You don’t even need a GED to do this job.

The worst part is that my Boss believes that even though we are salary, it is not a full work week unless we are at work until 4 or 5. Which means that we both have to spend four hours surfing the internet to fight off the boredom each day just so that he can sleep better at night.

I am sure that most of you will just say that i should leave the job, but To do that I would take a 10,000 dollar pay cut and lose between 4 to 5 weeks of vacation.

I have been searching for the past couple months and there is nothing comparable out there in the desert that is Iowa City. I cannot move, because my wife is in grad school here so that i am tied to this area.

So my question to all of my Dawgs is how do I broach the subject that I feel like the lab is not using my talents and that I need more responsibility, without my boss realizing that my job is not needed and I lose my job?

Thanks for all of your help.

Well the part about a full work week is correct, for you to be a full-time employee and receive benefits and such you must put in between 30-40 hrs per week, documented, in most states.

As for how to solve your problem.

Maybe just approach your boss and tell him you feel you are ready for more responsibility, like xxx or xxx (whatever it is you think you would like to do.)

Without letting your boss know that you have nothing to do, just tell them that you want to expand your responsibilities and gain more experience.

That is how I moved up in my company. Do more work at the same pay and you will get rewarded.

You gain experience and you get noticed by the big-wigs.

Typically to a person who feels underutilized I would advise them to take the initiative and just start taking more responsibility.... that's what works around my office, you don't ask for more, you just take it, you handle it, they notice... I'm not sure that's possible in your situation...

This is what I would do: Don't go in and ask them what you SHOULD do. Go in and give them 2 or 3 ideas of things you want to do. Show them how your specific talents can help them in area X or Y..... Be proactive, if you go in and tell them you have a bunch of free time and don't know what to do, the boss isn't going to have time to figure out how to utilize you.... So you do the leg work. Go in and tell him Option A, I'd like to begin research work on such-n-such a topic, these are the supplies I'll need, this is how much time it will take, this is how much it will cost, these are the results that I hope to find, and this is how it will benefit you.... This is Option B:... same thing..... It's going to be much easier for him/her to pick from your well developed list than it is for him to take the time to invent something for you to do...

thanks Florida fan.

I have reached the point that I have to talk to him. But it is how to phrase it that I am struggling.

I don't want it to come out as an attack, and I am blaming them for not using my talents.

The snag I keep running into is this.

"Len, we need to talk. I feel that there are some issues in the lab that we need to discuss. I am bored, and I have no responsabilites that make me feel like i have accomplished anything at work, is there any way that I could get more responsabilities?"

Then I have to give my suggestions for the way I see it can be fixed.

Niether of us have enough work to do, and If I ask for what Len is doing, I am just goign to switch the responsabilities from him to me and then he will be left with even less to do.

The only suggestions that I can come up with don't involve my lab. If there is a way that i could work in another lab in the afternoon, or the hospital cath lab.

But all of these scream to me that I am not needed in my lab. Which is true, and if I ask for these i am afraid that I will just lose my job.

Be creative and subtle. This is not a situation where the direct approach works real well, IMO. Of course, it all depends on the kind of boss you have, but when I was working my way up I would just start doing some things on my own (without stepping on toes) and engaging my boss in conversation about how to improve things, etc. Just my opinion but, it worked very well for me and it just seemed to happen naturally from then on out.

Sometimes, you have to move on, to move up.

Sad but true

Well as DC said, never says "I have nothing to do" or "I don't have enough to keep me busy" Always accent the positive "I think I'm capable could do more while I'm here, maybe I could take on the task of xxxxx as well".

Or if it wouldn't be stepping on toes, just start doing an additional task, it will get noticed.

Just be careful not to sound like you have nothing to do, but rather you feel you have more talents that can be useful to the job, and you would like to display them. Some places hire people to do mundane jobs just to see if they will push to go above and beyond, or if they will milk it.

Blade,

I understand what you are saying. That is what I did at my old job. And it worked out well.

The problem is that i am not in industry anymore. My lab consistas of three people and there is no room for advancement.

DC

I understand what you are saying that I need to be proactive, but I have struggled with thinking of things that I could do. We do large animal surgery, research and each experiment is quite expensive. So doing more animals will be out of the question. It is heart research so I could try to analyze the blood and tissue samples using molecular biology techniques, but the lab is not set up to do that, and I would need close to 50,000 dollars worth of equipment.

I think the easiest thing to do would be to have a partnership with another lab in the univeristy and help them out in the afternoon when our experiments are over. The problem is that i have few contacts in the other labs to establish and idea for one of these. The one lab that i do have a contact with, does there experiments in the morning. Which means that they would have very little for me to do in the afternoon as well.

I am technically part of the Cardiology department and Internal Medicine at the Hospital and would gladely help out in the clinic, Cath labratory or Echo labratory. This is one of my suggestions but I am not sure that I am Legally allowed to do this.

The other suggestion that I have is if I could reach an agreement where I volunteer my services outside of the hospital.

But I have a hard time finding stuff to do in my labratory. I guess I need to just search harder.


Thanks you guys.

Hey Mr. HungryHound.....

This grant money that will run out pays your salary...does it pay his also?
He realizes that there isn't enough direct work to fill your days but my guess is that he is aware of this and coasting.
Talk to him and ask if you can share some of his duties and how to apply for future grants to "continue the good work" that he has overseen at your lab.
If he says" NO!" begin a general dialogue with his supervisor and ask about future opportunities or if you may assist him...after your work is completed at the lab.

Ralphie,

Yes the grant money pays both of our salaries. I am not sure that he is coasting, but the problem that all grants are tied to his boss our PI. Our PI allready has in over 35 years of experience and is over 70 s far as I can reckon. I doubt he will be hanging around for another 5 year RO1 grant.

My supervisors boss is the above PI. As a cardiology Dr. I cannot help him with most of his duties.

You need to tell them how busy you are and a new computer will sure help you out. Then you can get paid to surf the net and talk on message boards all day

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You need to tell them how busy you are and a new computer will sure help you out. Then you can get paid to surf the net and talk on message boards all day

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I allready have. I even got them to throw in a 19 inch moniter.

Utimate Bet.com ....make money while you make money. Simple.

Oh and for all of the people who bust ass for 8-10 hrs a day ....Shut the hell up !!!

The more you know about doing your job and the jobs around you, the more irreplaceable you become to them.

Exactly. Start asking questions about other duties, even if it is boring and you don't give a crap, act like you do At first they weren't sure how I was going to work b/c I never took notes on our computer system or reports or anything. But I didn't feel I needed to and caught on and started asking what other people did and how we do this and that and waited my time and advanced a little bit. Now I audit our sales and if anything goes wrong with that I cost the company some cash, so it made me feel good that only after 6 months I got that job over people that had been there 6 years

Or....to have a different viewpoint from almost everyone else. Realize that most jobs kinda suck. I think most people work because they have to. As long as you don't absoluttely hate life every morning you wake up I'd advise just keep doing what you are doing....which sounds like cruising the internet, finishing/starting some labwork, and just being there. Sounds like millions of americans. I know where you are at. I got my BS in microbiology and thought I shoudl get some great job I loved and do good work. I found a job totally outside my expected jobset, and then got another, and another. I would say that most people think I'm successful, but my job is boring. I don't have ties to it like you do (your wife) and so one day I'll quit. Until then I'll be bored, I'll be here b/c it's my job, I'll do whatever it is the boss wants as best I can, until I wake up and decide I can't do it anymore...just like most people. I say just keep plodding along until your wife gets her degree (Can't take THAT long) then pick something/somewhere you'd enjoy.

AKbrownsFan,

I understand that sentiment. That is what I have been doing for the last year and a half.

The biggest problem that i have is that my previous job( in ohio so no chance to go back) I was respected, and was challenged. It was a completely great job that I loved. I was respected and I was on a path for advancement.

It is the culture shock of being completely the opposite. I am in acadamia where everything goes so much slower and there is no chance for advancement.

I also think the problem that I have with this mindset is that this is the first job in my entire life that i truely hated and did not feel apreciated. It doesn't help that it is way beyond my interests in biology.

I also think that I could stand to just show up and do it, based on what i have told everyone on the board. But there are deeper issues.

Like I learned today that my coworkers had a lab meeting last friday and never told me about it. All 3 of them.

Or the fact that when I do voice my opinion my PI ignores it, and says it wont work, but when my supervisor says it 5 minutes later, my PI decides it is a great idea and that is the direction our lab is going.

I guess to make a long story short. being bored I could live with, but not being taken seriously and getting no respect I cannot.

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"Len, we need to talk. I feel that there are some issues in the lab that we need to discuss. I am bored, and I have no responsabilites that make me feel like i have accomplished anything at work, is there any way that I could get more responsabilities?"

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I agree with Jules on this. This type of direct approach is sure to cause some hard feelings. Use a little more tact. Frankly there is no need to really even bring up the negative parts of this. Feeling underutilized and bored etc etc. Just use the you want to do more part and leave out the you dont like the way it is now part. It would be almost impossible to go wrong by bringing only the positives to the discussion.

Ok, I read your reply and here is what I think. Jump, and jump now to something different. I work in Acedemia and totally agree with your assesment. Me? I'm putting in time till I jump to something different. I've jumped jobs about 5 times and have never regretted it. Was it stresfull? You bet. Did I have fallback plans? to a point but not really. Did it all work out? So far so good. Even if you leave the field for a little while you may be happier in the end. We are grant funded and out PI is on some other campus. I'm getting tired of the funding uncertainty and the monkey show that goes along with getting grants. I can always go do fieldwork for the fed or the state (that is my [censored] fall back plan), but for now I'm ok with what I've got. Still my co-workers don't have meetings without me (unless I deliberately skip them) Good luck.