Onion Face

Saturday, Mar. 11, 2006 @ 3:02 p.m.

It's been quite a while since I've used this diary to bitch about a specific person. And boy, do I have someone to bitch about.

Alright, so I work at a lab, and my job is to basically help out the professor-in-charge and the graduate students. Recently, a post-doctoral person joined the lab - he's occupying a paid position to do some further research. I'm gonna call him Onion Face because that's what his head reminds me of - big and round and hideous.

Apparently, Mr. Onion Face thinks that the undergraduates are slaves. Not just slaves... HIS slaves. He somehow thinks that just because he's a Ph.D. and is now part of the lab, all undergraduates are automatically his underlings and should bow down and worship him. When the professor-in-charge asks him to do something, he ALWAYS pushes it on to the undergraduates. And it's not like he needs our help because he's busy with his work. Nope. All he does is tinker around with the computers, disconnecting them, messing up with the network, and just making way too many unnecessary changes around the lab.

So we're running experiments on animals. When an experimental trial ends for one subject, we have to switch the animals, i.e., take the animal that's done out of the test chamber, and put in the next animal to be tested. So one day, he's just sitting around the lab, doing gawd-knows-what. I walk in, and he asks me to help him out by changing the animal. So I get ready to do so, but he tells me that it's not quite time yet - the previous animal won't be done for another 15 minutes. First of all, it's not my study, and it's not my responsibility to do these changes. Second of all, it's different if he's busy with something, and needs a hand. But NOOO... he's doing NOTHING, and he's actually SCHEDULING his responsibility-shirking AHEAD of time. And lastly, it would've been different if I respected him and liked him as a person, and he asked me to help him out. I would have done it without hesitation in that case. But Onion Face hardly took the time to get acquainted with any of the undergraduates (he thinks he's too good for our level), and immediately started bossing us around. Naturally, I feel an overwhelming urge to oppose whatever he's asking us to do. He doesn't just do this to me, he does this to all the undergraduates.

Last week, he requested a new computer in the lab just for himself. The professor-in-charge approved, and he went on to order it online. He later discovered that it would be cheaper if the computer was picked up in person (it would save the shipping and handling charges). When he discussed this option with the professor-in-charge, it didn't take long for him to bark out "Maybe one of the undergraduates can go pick it up, pay for it, and get reimbursed later". It rained fire and brimstone in my head. It's YOUR own damn computer that you asked for, go pick it up yourself!!! And not only did he expect "one of the undergraduates" to pick it up, he actually expected us to pay for him upfront!?!? Granted, he doesn't have a car to get around LA, and picking it up would be a challenge... but he DOES have money at the very least. That's just no friggin' excuse!!!

Like I mentioned before, things would have been different if he was someone I respected and cared about. He basically just waltzed into our lab one day, thinking that he had assumed all command over us "underlings", and proceeded to boss us around with an imaginary crown on his big ugly head!!

I'm not having him treat me this way. I volunteered in this lab because I wanted to work with the professor-in-charge and a few of the graduate students. I didn't sign up to be his flunky. And most of all, I'm an unpaid volunteer, which implies that I have the right to not do anything that I don't want to do. HE'S the one that's being paid around here. I showed resistance a few times he tried to boss me around, and I think he got the signal... he's appeared to have started targeting the other undergraduates instead.

Don't mess with me, Onion Face. Go do your own damn job.

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