x******n
发帖数: 14 | 1 在Scripps, FL做博后，早听说Chemistry Department有个叫Disney的老板很疯狂，最
近他们组有个白人干了5个月博后就quit了，然后就流出一封他写给这边博后协会主席
的信。转过来或许对想来这里做博后的人有所警戒。信很长，慎入：
Alex tells me that as the head of the SRF, you would like to hear about why
I decided to quit the Disney lab. I would be happy to. I started here in the
beginning of November, meaning I have been here for five months. In that
time I found Dr. Disney so difficult to work with I felt that I was forced
to quit.
Everyone in the lab is miserable. They all hate him, but the problem is that
since most of them are international, simply quitting is not an option if
they want to stay in the US under a work visa. Dr. Disney has been a PI
since 2005, and in that time has managed to graduate only one PhD student.
Every other graduate student mastered out. No post-docs have ever left the
lab on good terms with him, and as far as I know not one has left with a
letter of recommendation.
When I interviewed here, I got the impression that he was a little eccentric
, but his research was very interesting and Scripps is prestigious. I had no
idea what I was getting into.
Dr. Disney is rude, overbearing, a micromanager, and does not care at all
about his staff. I think it would be best if I listed these one by one.
1. He is a micromanager. He treats all of us like techs. He discourages
independent research in favor of simply performing the experiments he wants
us to do. If we argue, or suggest other approaches, he dismisses us. He
draws his own conclusions from our experiments and ignores our opinions. It
got to the point where I would do experiments, but just send him the results
without interpreting them since I knew he wouldn't care what I had to say.
Basically, he is the brain and we are the hands. He writes all of the
manuscripts since none of us have time to sit down and write them, and then
berates us for not pitching in enough with the writing. He will visit the
lab typically 15-20 times per day (And yes, we've counted), looking over our
shoulders and making everyone nervous and tense.
2. He is overbearing. We have group meetings at 9 am on monday morning. Each
of us has to present a quick report presenting ALL of the primary date we
obtained over the last week. These reports have to be submitted by 7pm on
sunday night. If he thinks we haven't done enough, or is not satisfied with
our progress, he viciously attacks us in front of the entire group, which is
quite humiliating. He expects us to generate publication quality data every
week, and gets angry when we do not. As you know, most experiments fail,
and so getting publication-quality date takes time, but he doesn't seem to
understand that. If an experiment fails, or is of low quality, it is as bad
as not doing it at all. I have attached the progress report guidelines. In
it, Dr. Disney makes the laughable claim that we should be presenting 20
experiments a week, most of which should be publication quality. In my time
here, no one has even come close to reaching that goal.
3. He is psychologically unstable, rude, and a terrible mentor. A couple of
weeks after I got here he threw a temper tantrum, complete with screaming,
cursing, and threatening to fire me. The cause? I had forgotten to order an
antibody for a western blot, which delayed my progress by two days. He
creates an atmosphere of hostility and misery in the lab. When you talk to
him, he seems like he is always about to explode. He has said to me, and
others, "I don't care about you, I only care about getting results". How
would you feel if your advisor told you that? I care about results too, but
I also care about my career, and if he sees me as only a tool to get
results instead of a young scientist, why am I here? He speaks ill about
pretty much all of his colleagues, here at Scripps and elsewhere. His Ego is
massive and is convinced he is the best scientist around. He even says
nasty things about my old PI ("Some shitty paper from your old lab came out
yesterday").
4. He is very, very cheap. When I interviewed here, I was under the
impression that Scripps, with it's reputation, would be well stocked with
the best equipment. Disney also has multiple grants, so I also thought he
had abundant funds. In reality, the lab is worse than my old lab, which had
only one R01 grant. I share a set of pipettmen with two other people. None
of us are allowed to have our own set. He is too cheap to order more. He is
also too cheap to have them calibrated, and consequently all of them are
inaccurate. He will lecture us that the most important thing is our time,
but not let us buy things that will save time. We cannot buy pre-cast gels,
nor any kind of chemical before first submitting a wetlab request. Our
shaking incubator is as old as I am and breaks down frequently. He refuses
to buy equipment that we use on a daily basis, opting instead to have us use
that of other labs, which is pretty embarrassing for us. Basically, he will
not allow us to buy even basic supplies that will let us do our jobs.
5. He has no trust at all in us, and doesn't bother to hide it. This last
one is more amusing than anything, but I think it sheds light on his
character. He thinks that if he is not here, we won't come to work.
Consequently he doesn't tell us when he is going out of town, or he'll tell
us, but lie about the dates. He parks his car in front of building C so we
don't know when he's here or not (Of course, it's not fooling anyone). He
watches us out of his office window and keeps track of how much time we
spend eating lunch. He takes to facebook and complains about us, apparently
not realizing that his privacy settings are on "public".
After I told him I was quitting, we had a long talk. It was calm, but he
listed everything he thought was wrong with me. He said I was lazy (I work
60 hours a week, but since a lot of my projects didn't pan out, I might as
well have not done them), immature (Because I argued with him), Didn't plan
my time poorly (A running theme - he says that to everyone, yet no one can
ever manage their time to his standards), and that I didn't care about the
research. This last one is true, but I find it hard to care considering my
role here is a PhD-level tech, and not a semi-independent researcher.
That about does it. I think I've covered most of it, but I'll mail you again
if I think of anything else. There is honestly so much It's hard to fit in
one email. Please feel free to email me with any questions, I would be happy
to answer them. Also if you would like to talk in person, me and my
labmates have many more stories featuring his bizarre behavior.
After speaking to my labmates, I would like to add a few more things about
Dr. Disney. I have also cc'd them on this email in case there is anything
else they would like to add.
Disney apparently incorporated a company in 2011 in order to develop our lab
's compounds into drugs. It has the dubious name of "Smart Therapeutics" http://smart-therapeutics.com/. The odd thing is that he has never mentioned it to anyone in the lab. We had no idea it existed until one of the graduate students googled his name and the company came up as a hit. The company claims to have 15 drugs in the pipeline, but all of their advertised progress has been done entirely in our lab. They have a physical address in Winter Springs, FL, but a google maps search shows it to be located in a shopping center near a Panera Bread. Their phone number has a New York area code and their fax number has a Pennsylvania code. They claim to have $9 million in funding, but their funding sources seem to be the same organizations that fund our lab (The NIH, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, etc). We speculate that one of the reasons that we can't spend money is that Disney is diverting it to pay for the business. I doubt he did anything illegal, but I think it very unethical to develop these compounds for commercial purposes without informing us, the researchers working on them, of what he's up to.
Another factor that makes our lives miserable in this lab is the presence of
his wife, Jessica Childs-Disney, as a staff scientist. She is helpful
enough, but she acts as his spy when he is not around. She lectures us on
not working hard enough, yet works about 6 hours a day on mon-wed, 3 hours
on friday, and not at all on thursday. She claims to "work" at home, but who
really knows? Not bad for being paid twice as much as us post-docs. She is
also responsible for approving orders. Everything is scrutinized. I once had
to explain to her why I wanted to order a $20 bag of sterile eppendorf
tubes for tissue culture. It makes us feel like children to have to explain
the need for basic research supplies. One would think that, having earned a
PhD, we would be qualified to determine what we need to do our jobs. She
also sometimes delays approvals/disapprovals of badly needed supplies for
days, resulting in not only experiments not getting done, but also us
catching hell from Disney for not doing them.
Dr. Disney is rabidly irritated by our administrative assistant, Margaret (
Peggy) Harris. He complains and says derogatory things about her all the
time. His chief complaint is that she doesn't do enough. I don't think he
realizes that unlike us postdocs, he cannot order her to work long hours for
no extra pay. In my dealings with her, she was always kind and professional
, and I think my labmates would agree.
Disney once put on a interesting spectacle describing his thoughts on her.
In the lab, he grabbed a screw-cap lid and dropped it on the floor.
"This is me." he said, thumping he chest. "That's Peggy", referring to the
lid.
He then kicked the lid across the room, and explained, "She goes in whatever
direction you push her in"
He then repeated the example, this time referring to his foot as us post-
docs and again kicking the lid across the room.
While I was amused by his behavior at the time, it was extremely
unprofessional and frankly, half-crazy.
I am trying to convey that the reason I quit the lab after only 5 months is
due to his awful management and torrent of unprofessional behavior. That,
combined with the fact that no one has left the lab on good terms led me to
question why I should sacrifice a year or two of my life here only to leave
at the end with no letter of recommendation. Better to just cut my losses
and leave before I become too entangled with him.
Nevertheless I wasted five months of my time with him, for which I am
somewhat resentful. I think that Scripps should be embarrassed to have him
onboard. I twice went to HR asking if there was anything they could do. They
were sympathetic, but the policy essentially dictates that the PIs can run
the labs as they see fit as long as they do nothing illegal. I think it is
very irresponsible of Scripps to allow a man like that to operate here, and
feel there should be some sort of warning to potential post-docs and
graduate students. Joining that lab is likely not to help your career and at
worst, hurt it. | A******y
发帖数: 2041 | 2 Scripps post-doc do like email bomb! | c******n
发帖数: 16403 | 3 不管怎么说， 现行制度确实让advisor权力太大了点。 随便一个小p叫兽， 对手下的
人可能起不到什么正面作用， 但是想摧毁手下的人的career path可能不费吹灰之力。
研究生还好点， 至少有个program起到些保护作用， 本质上身为雇员的后狗要是遇人
不淑就遭殃了。
叫兽、学生/后狗之间利益一致的话好办， 但是很多时候真不是一致的， 这种时候后
狗的弱势地位就叫一个惨。 尤其是想呆在美国发展的, 纵有万千怨恨， 又岂能象这
个洋薄厚一样潇洒的拍屁股就撤再狠咬一口
【在 A******y 的大作中提到】
: Scripps post-doc do like email bomb!
| y*****s
发帖数: 1047 | | w****e
发帖数: 18 | 5 Matthew D. Disney is...interesting... | h**c
发帖数: 1979 | |
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