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The tandem pull of the sun and the moon
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wFriday, March 28, 2003 |
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TGIF.
My sticklebacks are very happy today. I hatched up some brine shrimp eggs for them. They ate like lil prickly pigs. This is a good thing. I think they were suffering from poor food... they really like live food apparently. Their water is clearing up as well, thanks to the new filtration product I'm using. No more nitrates (biological filter had failed last January, I believe...).
I got audited yesterday by the QA manager. Its part of the company's regular policy to send her around to make sure you're doing everything you're supposed to. I did well. There's a couple of things we need to change-- things the department has been doing (not my fault), but overall I got a very positive report. So I'm going to take it and wave it in the face of my manager and the lab director.
"Hire me, dammit." (no I didn't bail last week. I just nudged 'em hard.)
Fun weekend ahead. I'm glad its almost here.
Better go work to make it come faster.
posted by
Just Mary at 11:19 AM
5 comments
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wWednesday, March 19, 2003 |
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Trout Week
Discovery Channel has nothing on my lab.
Today I had to move some 35 very small trout (20-40 mm) in with some not so small trout -- 4 inch to 6 inch Polerands. I was getting a shipment of 500 trout hatched 2/24, and I needed the room.
I suppose, being a biologist type, I should have forseen what was gonna happen. But when the feeding frenzy started, I was a bit shocked.
Yes, gentle reader; they were all EATEN.
I swear the biggest one looked at me afterwards and burped.
posted by
Just Mary at 1:05 AM
11 comments
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wSunday, March 16, 2003 |
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The good part of last week: I went up to my friend Rose's house and played music. I'm so glad I went, but what a dope I was to not bring my guitar.
I'd been feeling down that morning and didn't think I'd have the energy to go -- to drive an hour north after work and an hour home after. But after calling my friend and talking to her, I decided it was what I really needed. So I went and tho' I sucked cuz I haven't been playin much, I had a great time. Was good to see everyone, great to get all the hugs and see people who are happy to see me. The scotch was good medicine and playing music, as always, is a balm for the soul.
Woo hoo for SoulBalm.�
I wish I lived closer.
posted by
Just Mary at 4:02 PM
3 comments
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My new job is a challenge. I do testing of water and soil using organisms. Fish, specifically. I have to perform these tests according to rather detailed EPA rules.
I'd been washing glassware at this company for like, 6 mos. I'm sure my readers will recall my bitchin about the toxics. I kept that job because being unemployed scares the heck out of me, and it gave me the flexibility to TA at the university.
When this job opened up, I went after it. I'm perfectly qualified for it. The previous analyst, as well as several other lab employees, recommended me for the position. The company, while expressing suprise to a coworker that I had a brain, decided to give me a chance. The lab director told me "we'll try you out for a couple of weeks and then make you a permanent offer with a salary adjustment." So after two weeks, I went to my manager and asked about the permanent offer. He informed me the lab director told him they would evaluate after two months.
I was floored. I didn't react well, I got upset. (Goddamit I hate that when I get angry I get teary. ) I kept my cool as best I could. I told my manager that I didn't understand why they were hesitating. I told him I was originally told "a couple of weeks." He replied that they really couldn't tell if I'd work out with just 2 weeks. They needed two months. I told him I thought it was inappropriate for me to work at this job at a dishwasher's wage. We went back and forth a few times, then he said it was all up to the lab director anyway.
So I went to see him.
I told him that I thought it was inappropriate that they were paying me as a dishwasher (my temp agency, really) when I was doing the work of an analyst. I told him that I thought there was sufficient data to decide whether they wanted me as an employee or not -- I'd been around the lab for 6 months. I didn't understand why they needed to keep me in temp status, when making me an employee with a probationary period would give them the same flexibility they desired (to cut me loose with no repercussions) if I didn't work out. I told him I'd quit one job in anticipation of a salary adjustment as we'd discussed, and that I simply couldn't live on the wage I was making and I couldn't do the new job justice while working 2 jobs.
So we agreed that we'd wait 2 more weeks. What swayed him was the argument that I couldn't live on one job at dishwasher wages. Seemed to me the other arguments should stand on their own merits, but they didn't.
So the end of that second week -- a month since I started in the position -- will be this coming friday. If they won't make me an offer, then I see no recourse but to leave. That's scarey. I have no financial buffer. But I can't stay in a situation where I think I'm being taken advantage of. And I can't undersell myself.
And while I'm at it, let me add the following:
There has been no one to train me. There's a 21 year old analyst in the wet chem department who's taught me one or two things about the tests. She learned a little bit from the previous bioassay analyst before he left. (The lab's original plan was to make her do bioassay and all her regular wet chem jobs...) She doesn't know the procedures tho. I had 2 days with the previous bioassay guy until he left, and as I find the time to read through the regs, I'm finding that some of the things he taught me are inconsistant with the regs.
So, I have all this procedure related stress around this job, and no time at work to read the procedures. I have to apparently sway my employers that I'm more suited to bioassay analysis than I am to glassware/lab support work, and I'm being underpaid and taken advantage of. My manager when I talked to him mentioned they wanted to make sure I was efficient, so I'm trying now to not work overtime, which means I'm not taking any breaks, and I'm not doing anything but what's essential each day. I'm working my ass off at a place that apparently thinks I'm a big dopey old woman.
So while the work is better, the situation is not. It was a big mistake, I'm seeing, to take a job - the glassware /lab support work -- beneath my skill set for money and to allow me to try TAing. Not that I'd be farther along if I hadn't, but I really undermined myself by staying at it as long as I did.
Sometimes I really wonder what the fuck I've done with my life in trying to move into science work. Even tho' I was growing to hate my work before, I had financial security. Now I'm back to needing to prove myself all over again, living paycheck to paycheck and staring at my paltry few options.
Sucks to be me. Still.
posted by
Just Mary at 2:51 PM
2 comments
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wThursday, March 13, 2003 |
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I just finished up my last TA section in the Genetics class for the quarter. I'm kind of sad to see it end. Its been a lot of fun and I've enjoyed working with the students. Feels all sort of anticlimatic.
moo.
Off to play with fish now...
posted by
Just Mary at 11:49 AM
5 comments
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wSunday, March 02, 2003 |
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Crickey. I really like that word. Hummer uses it a lot and I always hear it with an aussie accent when I read it, just like that croc guy. Somehow, that seems to fit my impression of Hummer. "Crickey wouldja lookit the size of that mouth on 'arry, he's gonna shove the whole kitchen init..."
heh.
So crickey I've had a week. (hmmm...doesn't work as well for me...) Put in close to 60 hours at the lab this week (plus another 10 or so at my TA gig...) I have 560 test organisms in various stages of different tests and I'm behind. Would be better if about 200 more -- 20 more tanks for 4 more tests -- were set up and running but I just couldn't do it. I worked 12 hours friday and another 12 sat and I still couldn't do it. sigh. It will have to happen monday, along with the other work I have to do on monday.
I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I've learned since the old guy left that things are in a bit of disarray...things he should have taught me to do, he didn't, so I'm struggling to find the documentation (there isn't on the things I need) and figure things out, all while I've been slammed with samples to test. A lot of samples.
One of the bacteriology analysts told me she's never seen this many tests up and running, when I told her how many I wanted to have set up before sat night. Well, I didn't get that many up and running, unfortunately, because I was struggling with a method. It also takes me a long time to do something the first time, and I had to make test water. Also, all my samples were soil samples, which have to be weighed and sonicated -- where you blast them with sound waves to break them up -- before being put in the test water. Everything is just taking me longer than anticipated.
Whine whine whine, bitch bitch bitch. Its still better than what I was doing before. And as I work with the test organisms, I actually feel a little bit like a biologist, which is pretty nice. And I feel a bit of affection for my fish.. I know, I'm weird. But they are cute, trout fry especially. At the same time, I'm seeing the potential for burnout, as there's always a ton to do, and never enough time to do it (that's the historical case for this department, according to the previous guy...). So I'm going to have to watch that. I'm also going to have to continue to move forward on my other plans and not let my life sink into this job.
I'll need to keep reminding myself of that.
posted by
Just Mary at 2:23 PM
3 comments
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