Office Anxiety

There’s a new guy in the office. He’s a young pathologist who also works at the bench with stem sells. (Note, if you’re politically motivated in any way, this is not  the place to start raving about stem cells.) He’s just started this week, and he’s moved into a lab with a pretty well established flow. Naturally, there have been a couple of hiccups in the first week, but this is starting to get out of hand.

Now, a little background: I arrived here right at the end of May. I was fresh out of undergrad and very much wet behind the ears when it came to full-time lab work. I walked into a lab that worked fairly independently with very little interaction between the little worker bees buzzing around. I didn’t like it. I made a point to be social, and to make sure that everyone knew they could talk to me about home, work, or their kids’ homework if necessary. I’ve fallen into a nice little niche. It’s great, and I love it.

I’ve also seen 4 people added to this lab in the last six months. So that’s five additions in seven months, and now we’re pushing six additions. There are several things that are feeding into the problems we’re having with the latest addition, and it would seem that since I fell into this roll of den mother that I am going to have to mediate a lot of them. So what’s going on?

1. We have no space–The “office” space that is associated with my lab is a trailer that was stuck on the side of the building. It’s single wide, and with the exception of two rooms with doors on either end, we’re all working in little office cubbies. (I try desperately to avoid using the work cubicle.) We’re physically very close to each other and as a result, we spend a lot of time getting to know one another, talking about our work, and generally existing in a space (mostly) cohesive. However, as we’re rearranging furniture to make room for people, new and old, we’re only getting closer together, and there isn’t much room for any one or any thing else.

1. Thirteen personalities is too many–That’s right, I said THIRTEEN. With the exception of two people who are in another room in another part of the building, we all live in these two little rooms. (The third room I mentioned before is occupied by a multi-headed microscope.) We’re pushing the limits of how many people you can possibly put in a space and not have there be problems with personalities. And of course, just in case it doesn’t actually go without saying, thirteen is not a happy number. (Though, it is my lucky/favorite number.)
2. New guy has a complex–This guy thinks he has something to prove. He’s the new “Junior Pathologist,” and he works with (not for) three other full time pathologist. He’s “junior” only because of his lack of tenure and experience.  He is not, under any circumstances, of a lesser stature than they are, but you wouldn’t know it by talking to him. He’s just exceptionally uppity and walks with an air about him that I find frustrating on a number of levels. I suppose the most bothersome is that while I am certainly not as educated at as, there are four people in this office who hold equivalent degrees and they deserve his respect. I also deserve his respect, but he isn’t the first person I’ve run into who looks down on those people he doesn’t view as equal, and he certainly won’t be the last.
3. New guy does not realize he’s the new guy–He’s come in and moved into the small office space at the end of the trailer. There were already two people in this office, and he’s moving into another corner. In three days, he’s complained about the “conversation” interrupting him and disturbing his work space, and has decided that he and the existing people in the office need to rearrange so that he can have a cubicle of his own purchased and put in that room. Now, I see a number of problems with this, not the least of which is…YOU’RE THE NEW GUY. I feel it’s incredibly disrespectful to march into an office and demand that those people who have been there before you (be it 4 months or 4 years) start rearranging their established work environments because you don’t like yours. Asking questions and working with people is the way to go about this. Also, don’t shut the door when there are two other people sharing your office space. It’s horribly rude and inappropriate, because (1) it’s never been that way and (2) you didn’t ask the other two people who work in that space. Beyond that, cubbies are not sound proof, and nothing is going to change the way we all talk, because we all work together.

Anyway, it’s been a very trying day on new guy front. I suppose that we have all been incredibly spoiled that with few exceptions, previous additions to the lab have gone off without many hitches. We’ve all managed to fall into step with the rhythm and go on about our lives.

This guy seems to be perfectly pleasant, but he just doesn’t seem to understand that we’re laid back and more importantly, we’re a family. Sometimes, we sit around and just shoot the shit. Besides, I’m not sure how much of his workday I can really interrupt when he’s sitting on Facebook while I’m discussing work projects.