So I've accepted a postdoc position and as of December 1, I will no longer be in the lab from hell or under the feet of Satan, oops my PI. It's at my current institution and I accepted this one because frankly we have the best health insurance on the planet as long as you get treated there. Since I'm not done with my post cancer checkups etc and so far if I was in the real world, with real world insurance I'd have to sell my soul to pay the bills. My other acceptance I turned down because you have to pay out of pocket for state insurance (at least a portion) and I would not be able to afford it. So for the next 2-3 years I can really be a scientist and get a couple of papers. It's a new field and there are opportunities to collaborate (which never happened in my current lab).


So I'm happy, I have to cut my loses in this lab and focus on trying to get a paper out (they same paper that my thesis committee told my PI and I to write 4 years ago). He realized that it was an almost complete paper when he finally read the first draft of my dissertation. The same paper he said he had no interest in, is the same one we have to send out, it would have been a great paper if we had worked on it more but it's an okay paper. I just need a paper. Oh well I have learnt so many things in this lab mainly the type of person I do not want to be.

Many people have tried to figure out why my PI is the way he is, one paper in the last 5 years and he has no interest in publishing at all. One of the first people to join his lab when he joined this institution lost  his tenure because he hadn't published (no productivity) anything since 2006, he's never trained a student or even a technician and PI treats him like a tech. So from Assistant Professor to paid employee and our PI could care less, this man has a family and a kid in college. Do you guys see what kind of person I'm stuck with, but in a few months it will be no more. He has no regards for other peoples' careers or professional futures. In all honesty (putting aside my personal feelings) he is a very poor mentor, I do not know why he has a lab if he's not producing any work and have no regards for anyone. What I don't understand how come no one is holding my PI accountable for his actions or lack thereof. We all seem to be suffering from his ego or craziness. A couple of times people have speculated that apart from being crazy he may actually be racist, I've been there since 2004 and I've seen how people of one flavor even if their incompetence is slapping you in the face get treated better than people of other flavors who work tirelessly on crappy projects only to be verbally abused (me), mental/emotional abuse (me). Perfect example despite coming to lab and working through my cancer and chemo trying to get experiments done and samples sent off, 2 months after my treatment ends he comes to my desk one day and says, "I'm glad you're not sick anymore so I don't have to be nice to you". That was in 2008 and after that I lost all respect for him, I can't even be in the same room with him.


I basically timed out of grad school and was asked to wrap up and leave but he makes it seem as if I'm the one who wants to escape (yes I do) but he failed and he failed me.