Sunday, July 1, 2012

Seven Days

That is how long my boss gave me to write a book. A book with several chapters and tables and graphs. I'm not kidding. I guess I should be grateful. At first she said three days and then changed it to seven days.

This occurred during lab meeting last Tuesday, after I handed her the document with some templates and forms that needed to be done for some workshops at the end of July. She said she had been expecting a book from me. But, she had never told me that she wanted a book. She started criticizing me and telling me that what I did was worthless and that I had seven days to write a book.

I can't write a book in seven days. I don't think it's possible to write a book in seven days. So, I am feeling a lot of anxiety over this situation. I have to give her the book this Tuesday and I don't have one to give her. And she will yell and criticize me again in front of my fellow labmates. I wish I could quit this job, but it is my only source of income. I would be glad to hear any suggestions that anyone might have on how to handle this situation.
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Did she give you an extension to write the book after last Tuesday? I don't know if I would have handled the stress any better or not, but I may have approached it from a flattery standpoint and praise her good points (i.e. you are always know just what to write and have vast experience,etc, etc) and explain that you would one day like to get to that point, but you do not have the experience and skills to get there and ask for her advice. You are a postdoc after all but have not written a doctoral thesis. If she knows that you want to provide excellent work for her, she may give you more time and steps to get there. If she going too fast or you don't understand, just say that what she is saying is really good, but you want to grasp all the details. I know you are not a big fan of writing and neither am I although I do a bit of writing in my job. I'm just not shy to ask for help.

July 10, 2012 at 1:57 PM
Shadow said...

Hi Unknown, She gave me a 2 week extension to write the book, but she said she wanted it to be 300 pages with tables, graphs, pictures, references. I tried the flattery method, but it didn't quite work. She yelled at me saying that the work I did was terrible, it was all wrong, and that she was going to write it instead of me. The past 3 weeks have been a nightmare.

July 22, 2012 at 7:34 PM

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