Technician or Post baccalaureate Expectations - GremerLab/Resources GitHub Wiki

Please review the general Gremer lab expectations. This document will provide additional information specific to graduate students in the lab.
What Jenny expects of you:

  1. Be an engaged member of the lab and contribute to our collaborative and inclusive lab environment. Welcome new members to the lab. Treat each other with respect and courtesy. Pay it forward with sharing information, knowledge, and ideas. Provide feedback on each other’s ideas, experiments, presentations, and drafts. Contribute to lab tasks and activities.
  2. Communicate your academic and career goals, both short and long term. We will discuss these when you join the lab and revisit these at regular intervals (often annually in the fall, or every 6 months).
  3. Discuss work schedules and priorities with me. There can be flexibility in your schedule as appropriate. Schedules will depend on the nature of your position or project. Provide ample notice of any planned time away. I have a policy of allowing (and encouraging) taking time off, as long as tasks and responsibilities will be taken care of while you are gone, so communicate this early and often with me.
  4. Use your meeting time with me well. Come prepared to talk about priorities, accomplishments, and next steps as well as trouble shooting and/or planning for future activities. Make an agenda for our meetings, share it with me, and we can fill in notes and action items together in our meetings. Google docs is a great way to do this, and we can have a shared document that we add to.
  5. Keep both the short- and long- view in sight. We will discuss priorities and timelines at our meetings, but you should make sure current tasks are moving forward, while also preparing for future steps.
  6. Let me know when things go right, and especially when they go wrong. I recognize that mistakes happen, but it is best to document and remedy mistakes (if possible) as soon as possible, as well as discuss alternative ways forward. Cultivate this attitude with others in the lab, including students and employees.
  7. Take initiative about safety considerations and protocols. Discuss with me if approaches need improvement or adjustment. Stay current on all lab and safety trainings, maintain safety documents and materials in the lab.
  8. Document everything! Take careful notes in meetings and trainings. Record your activities and methods for every project or task you work on. Document activities in the relevant google calendar. Share draft protocols or methods with me, then update those documents with what was actually done. Pay attention to details. Notice when methods are working, or not, and communicate that to me. Be observant of patterns in experiments, in the field, in the lab.
  9. Maintain general lab supplies, as well as those specific to your activities and projects. Communicate with me about purchasing and budgets for supplies.
  10. Supervise undergraduate students. Depending on the nature of your position or project, this will be a major or minor component of your job. Organize schedules and clearly communicate expectations and discuss how to do so with me. Let me know when conflicts or issues arise. Document performance and progress of undergraduates, ideally at the end of each term you worked with them. Communicate with me who is meeting or exceeding expectations, and discuss how to help others improve. Delegate responsibly: make sure that employees are well-trained and that tasks are being completed in a timely fashion, while also managing time so that you can accomplish higher-order functions such as project management.
  11. Assist me with references for students and employees, or act as a professional reference yourself. Depending on the type of reference, it may be best for you to be the reference (e.g. talking to a potential future supervisor) or for us to both act as references (e.g., co-writing a letter of recommendation for graduate school applications, awards, or fellowships). Documenting performance (see 10 above) will help immensely with this.
  12. Be present and contribute to the lab community. Attend lab functions when you can.
  13. Engage with constructive criticism and feedback. Be open and receptive to feedback from me and others. Provide constructive, supportive criticism to others.
  14. Provide timely notice of when you need feedback and when you need a reference or letter of recommendation. Remind me a week in advance of deadlines. If I haven’t written you a letter yet, make sure to give me at least a month notice.
  15. Adhere to rigorous data management. See data management guidelines in the general lab expectations document.
  16. Follow all lab protocols and procedures, including safety protocols, equipment check out and care, etc.
  17. Contact me immediately for anything urgent, unless it is an emergency, in which case you should contact the appropriate authorities.
  18. Practice self-care. If you would like some extra support, UC Davis has great resources for physical and mental health, as well as work-life balance and stress management. Let me know if you’d like help connecting with resources.
  19. Departing the lab: Before you head off to your next steps, make sure you have provided clear documentation of your data, analyses, and samples. Clear out any of your personal belongings and leftover samples/supplies/materials. Discuss any lingering manuscripts or projects with me, as well as next steps on them. Make sure I know how to contact you in the future!