Find Laptop

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Thursday, 26 September 2013

On motivation in the lab

Posted on 10:28 by Unknown


Without going into too much detail about the state that our lab is in due to the economy and sequestration, there is a great lack in motivation in some people in the lab. This is not new, as I have written about this before, but it does make me wonder what PIs do to motivate people in their lab. How do you make sure people stay enthusiastic about doing experiments and if they’re not, how do you try to help them? Personally, I find that it helps to associate with people that are working hard and are trying to be productive rather than to hang with the people that seem to have given up hope to get experiments done and papers written. But other than that, when I am in the position to mentor someone (like an undergrad, summer student or tech) I find it hard to find a balance between giving someone the freedom to schedule their experiments and plan their time for them for example. How do you go about motivating the people in your lab? Or do you feel that’s not necessary as people should come with enough intrinsic motivation?
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in experiments, life in the lab, mentoring, procrastination, role models | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • About academic culture and reward/bullshit ratio
    Dr. Isis’ blog was the first science blog I read when I was in grad school. I was always impressed by her upbeat way of writing about combi...
  • Is it okay to watch Netflix in the lab?
    Because of the success of my last question; Is it okay to cry in the lab? , here’s another one: Before I moved to the US I thought that most...
  • 2012: the year I started to blog
    This year, I decided to start blogging for a number of reasons. First, I felt that I needed some more practice writing. English is not my f...
  • Musings on pseudonymity
    Today I got an email asking if I wanted to write for the Guest Blogge at Scientopia , and I was really excited about that. I haven’t been b...
  • Things I did while pregnant: grow a baby
    I think by now we all now that Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo is pregnant . On twitter, this started the #ThingsIdidWhilePg hashtag, in which ...
  • Is it okay to have a baby before tenure?
    Last Friday, there was an interesting discussion over at DrugMonkey  where people were rehearsed the same discussion about whether postdocs ...
  • Kissing and hugging etiquette
    Back in the home country, it is normal to kiss each other on the cheek three times (left, right and left again). You kiss when you see peop...
  • When talking to students and post-docs
    Dear senior investigators, When you are invited to give a talk somewhere, and are thus scheduled to have lunch with students and post-docs...
  • Guest Post: The Pregnant Post-Doc Search
    Today, my fellow blogger and electrophysiologist (and soon-to-be mom!!) The Cellular Scale and I are swapping blog posts. I am over at her...
  • On delusional academics
    The other day, I was talking to transitioning out of academia with a couple people in my lab. One of the grad students had just...

Categories

  • absurd
  • academia
  • addiction
  • advice
  • attachment parenting
  • authorship
  • baby
  • babywearing
  • birth
  • blog carnival
  • blogging
  • books
  • breastfeeding
  • bureaucracy
  • clumsy
  • co-sleeping
  • collaboration
  • cultural differences
  • cycling
  • daycare
  • decisions
  • disgruntled postdoc
  • doping
  • doula
  • drinking
  • eating
  • efficiency
  • electrophysiology
  • ethics
  • experiments
  • feminism
  • finding a job
  • food
  • funding
  • giving a talk
  • graduate student
  • grant writing
  • guest post
  • guilt
  • homeopathy
  • ideas
  • imposter syndrome
  • in the news
  • introduction
  • IWD
  • K99
  • lazy
  • leaving academia
  • life in the lab
  • managing people
  • marriage
  • maternity leave
  • meeting
  • mentoring
  • migraine
  • money
  • negotiating
  • networking
  • neuroscience
  • NIH
  • observations
  • outfit
  • parenting
  • pharmacology
  • photograph
  • playground
  • postdoc
  • poster
  • pregnancy
  • pride
  • procrastination
  • Pub-Style Science
  • publishing papers
  • pumping milk
  • recommendation letters
  • relevance
  • review
  • role models
  • safety
  • science
  • Scientopia
  • sequestration
  • SfN
  • sleep
  • smartphone
  • society
  • sports
  • summer
  • Sunday morning musings
  • talking
  • television
  • tenure track
  • thesis
  • toddler
  • tour de france
  • toys
  • travel
  • twitter
  • update
  • vacation
  • women in science
  • word
  • work
  • work-life balance
  • working mom
  • worrying
  • writing

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (65)
    • ►  November (4)
    • ►  October (6)
    • ▼  September (6)
      • Do I suck at feminism?
      • On motivation in the lab
      • The suckiest part of being a scientist and a mom...
      • If I stand for too long I faint
      • On finding mentors
      • When do you stop pumping milk at work?
    • ►  August (6)
    • ►  July (6)
    • ►  June (4)
    • ►  May (6)
    • ►  April (5)
    • ►  March (8)
    • ►  February (6)
    • ►  January (8)
  • ►  2012 (92)
    • ►  December (6)
    • ►  November (10)
    • ►  October (11)
    • ►  September (12)
    • ►  August (8)
    • ►  July (9)
    • ►  June (8)
    • ►  May (9)
    • ►  April (9)
    • ►  March (10)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile