General Observations
I no longer work with scientists; they are engineers, which is huge difference from what I am used to. I am the only scientist here. I was brought in to oversee the research and development side of things. Apparently the R&D people would continually talk over the engineers heads, and try to avoid oversight by saying the oversight people were not educated/or smart enough to understand what they are doing, enter me. Management thinks I am just as smart (or smarter than) as R&D and so now I can oversee them. So far it has proven true, my second day I was dealing with R&D and they tried to talk over my head, but I am physicist and have dealt with physicist my whole career and these people have no idea how to truly be an arse. The talk was definitively not over my head and I immediately asked the right questions that stopped the whole trying to talk over my head stuff. Hey, I have learned from the most arrogant scientists in the world. My boss was so pleased with the outcome of the meeting it was amusing.
Many of you might not know this but there is a pecking order in science, and physicists consider themselves the smartest. In fact most physicists do not even recognize biologist, botanist and such as scientist. Physicists are also hostile to one another. For example, when giving an invited presentation at a University or conference it is not uncommon for members of the audience to stand up and yell at you that your work is shit. In fact if they don’t, then your work is probably not considered important enough to comment. In DC I worked with some gigantic assholes, which had perfected the belittling and attacking form of communication. In comparison the R&D people here are down right friendly!
Many of you might not know this but there is a pecking order in science, and physicists consider themselves the smartest. In fact most physicists do not even recognize biologist, botanist and such as scientist. Physicists are also hostile to one another. For example, when giving an invited presentation at a University or conference it is not uncommon for members of the audience to stand up and yell at you that your work is shit. In fact if they don’t, then your work is probably not considered important enough to comment. In DC I worked with some gigantic assholes, which had perfected the belittling and attacking form of communication. In comparison the R&D people here are down right friendly!
posted by Spin_Doc1 at
11:15 AM
3 Comments:
girl,
you show 'em how it's done! ;) sounds like a very different environment from where you were before. i'm glad that things are going well. :)
By
Joy, at 12:10 PM
Trista,
I am still very afraid of the people around here. I am just waiting for the horns to appear!
Joy,
I love my new job! I know it is only the first week and aside from my personal life this was the best choice for me.
By
Spin_Doc1, at 5:11 PM
Spin - It's amazing what parallels we have on the workfront at the moment. I just started my new job 3 weeks ago. I was also brought in from a different, but related, industry so that I could talk-the-talk across the 2 industries and identify the bullshit. Yesterday in a meeting a client was bullshitting my colleagues and I very tactfully asked some questions that made him well aware of what my background was. He climbed right back into his box and behaved himself. After the meeting my colleagues were all "Wow! We're glad we've got you on board, we would never have picked up on that stuff."
Of course what they don't realise, and what I'm not going to broadcast, is that there is still a lot about their industry that is complete double dutch to me. I sit in some meetings and only understand about every 3rd word! I love a steep learning curve!
By
Imelda, at 7:03 PM
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