I've been working for about two months now, so it's as good a time as any to make another post - 2/3 of which is me complaining about a supervisor. Work is (on the whole) not miserable and I get paid very well, so I can't really complain. So far, most of my time has been spent either proofing, printing things off, or finding and summarising research papers. All things I'm happy doing, but I have to wonder why they were asking for a master's degree (and preferring a PhD). I also get an office.
Most of the faculty has been very nice and accommodating, dare I say too accommodating. I understand the department had a burnout problem (especially with people taking on teaching) which might explain the apparent overcorrection. Again, I can't really complain about this but even though I only work 18 hour weeks I often find myself running out of things to do. That said, there was one very busy week where people seemed pretty desperate for my time and wanted to know the names of the other people who'd booked me.
It's been interesting seeing office politics first-hand. Everyone seems to get along, but it there is a very clear pecking order - if the research project with a bunch of senior professors on it wants me to proof their 100+ page report, I'm proofing that report, and emails will be exchanged to make that absolutely clear to other staff. Word travels fast in the office; I told one person I had a PhD offer and it seemed like everyone knew later that week.
The Print Saga
Partly because of this office politics stuff, I now believe that the lecturer I share an office with has it out for me, possibly in response to some perceived slight.
Anyway, one of the projects I was involved in required me to print things off on different coloured paper. Easy enough, the university's print shop is next door and they'll print everything off with a few day's notice. I was provided a copy of most things that needed printing in late February, and informed that I'd be told when they needed printing. A little over two weeks later I was told to print everything off for checking, so I placed an order with the print shop.
A few days later, I received an email basically calling me an idiot for doing it wrong, alleging that I printed off the old versions of documents. There's just one problem with that: I only have one version of those documents - the version she sent me. I replied to the email to explain what had happened and re-ordered one of the documents that got butchered during the .pdf conversion.
I come into the office on Monday. It turns out only one of the documents was the so-called old version. I tell her I only have the version of the documents that she sent, so she sends them to me again via email. I compare it with the version that was printed, it is the exact same document. I told her this. She would not believe me. As this was going nowhere, I decide to print off a fresh copy for her. "Perfect". After she leaves the office to teach, I compare it with the old one. It is an exact copy.
The next day I receive 3 emails from the print shop letting me know that everything's been printed off. 30 minutes later I get an email from her saying there was nothing at the print shop when she went. Realising that the project deadline was in a few days, I attach .pdfs of everything for her to check. She refuses to check any of the documents until they are printed and does not go back to the print shop that day.
The day after, I'm told that, although everything was printed correctly, the yellow paper was too yellow. I order another copy and ask that the paper be less yellow.
The next day is the deadline and I'm finally told how many copies of everything she wants printing off (20). I order them and go to the print shop to ask if they could prioritise her order over the 100 or so art students who need their stuff printing off. They say no. I hide in the office toilets for a bit while awaiting my crucifixion. She finally arrives in the office, I tell her that there's a complete copy for checking but the print shop won't print everything off at such short notice. She is not happy about this. She gives me a dressing down and asks what I'm going to do to fix it. I do not know how to fix it. I cannot do it the next day, as I'm proofing a 100+ page report with a very short turnaround.
Eventually I emailed the other research assistant that was hired with me to ask if he could help out tomorrow. He arrived in my office almost immediately, so she stopped chastising me as it would make her look bad. I then go to the print shop with him and talk to a different guy who, for some reason, prints everything off then and there after I explain what's happened. I think the other RA feels bad for me so he treats me to lunch. We spend the rest of the day sorting everything into envelopes. I leave him some Kinder Buenos on his desk for his help when I'm next in the office. Also there were a bunch of typos in the documents but I don't think she noticed.
The cynic in me thinks that she deliberately left it to the last minute so she had an excuse to reprimand me. Anyway, it's over now and she seems to have dropped me from the project in favour of the other RA. Hopefully she goes easier on him.