Hi all, long time lurkers here. Just had to vent a little bit, hopefully I don't violate any rules. I work in a research lab at a prestigious university and now I understand why researchers in UC are going to strike wholeheartedly. I already froze all my cell lines before the break so I could thaw them and resume my experiment next Monday, but my colleagues (three people, including me, working in a lab with annual funding of 1 million, everyone works 3-4 projects because boss is too stingy to hire more people , go figure) might have left some cells in the incubator. Boss wrote a thousand-word essay saying it is unethical to let cells overgrow and die because they are living things and also mentioned that we should avoid freezing cells because that would be wasting time for cells to resume growth. She already asked us repetitively and I do go every weekend WITHOUT PAY and with 1 HOUR commute to take care of stuff. I even worked through labor day, but I had made other plans with my family for the thanksgiving holiday so this time I chose not to kneel. So basically she sends an angry email to all of us during thanksgiving break and asks us to go to work during a federal holiday with no pay. And just before the day before thanksgiving she yelled at me for 20 min asking me to go above and beyond after I have finished what I am supposed to do. Thanks for ruining my mood before thanksgiving and during thanksgiving. Take my advice, if you ever want to work in academia because it sounds “cool” to be a scientist. DONT, because cells are living things but me, and my colleagues, who are human beings capable of feeling and suffering, are not living things that deserve a life outside of work.
edit: typos