So the answer to the title - Just don't show up? 

I had a student once demand to know where my PI (at the time) was.  Mind you she came up to us at a bar on a Saturday night.  And when we all could not tell them where she was (I'm not giving out home addresses to crazies at a bar...ever), they started screaming at us.  It was all very fun to watch the bouncers cart them off.

And people say science isn't exciting.

My PhD supervisor was one of those awesome PIs who all the undergrads were afraid of, he didn't tolerate any crap and it was always amusing to see him lay into a student who thought it was OK to pull something like this. Unfortunately it meant they would often come to one of us instead to avoid his wrath!

Oooh...I totally want to sign off with a winker on my next job app email! ;)

I hate emoticons! It drives me crazy when people use them for everything. Although my grandma just figured out how to add them to her emails. It's kind of cute when she adds them to every sentence just because she can.

The abbreviations don't bother me too much, unless they're used at an inappropriate time. In a text it's one thing, but in an email, write out the darned phrase! It isn't going to kill you to write out you or your. Those couple extra letters don't take that much time!

It never ceases to amaze me when people come to interview for a post-doc positions and have read little to nothing published by the lab. I just want to know what these people are thinking or if they are thinking. Of course, if they really like PCR, then who cares.

Surely these things do not happen!

You wouldn't go for a job interview completely unprepared at this level right?  I mean not showing up or knowing what the person does is fairly basic stuff.  I am often shocked at what people think they can get away with.

GR- awesome retort to the "sniveling little shit bag".

We had a med student who hounded my undergrad advisor for months to get a summer position with her.  She showed up the first day....and never showed up again!?!  Then when my advisor tried to contact her she wouldn't answer the emails!  Finally our post-doc was able to get in touch with her and the med student said that she didn't like it and didn't want to do it anymore....WTF?  I am still speechless about that one!?

We had a rotating grad student do that here. She wasn't happy that her project involved cell counting, so she just stopped coming in. It was ridiculous, and my PI gave her an earful.

Wait! Did I just do a 'kids these days' style rant? That's what happens when you're 20's are rapidly slipping into oblivion. Maybe this means I'm ready for kids of my own?

Wow, that's definitely two different ends of the spectrum, thinking about having kids vs thinking about spending a weekend with GRM and the donkey. Hmm, which way to go?!

Ha ha ha, 'there's poop either way', love it! I thought there was a news article recently that suggested I was OK to drink when preggers though so should be good there.

What the hell!? I get busy for a few days and my commenters spiral down into spending time with GRM + donkey vs. kids? *sigh*

And since when do folks in their 20s get to throw down "kids these days" rants?!??! You ARE still one of the kids! :-)

yep, that was my, using a smiley. Because I'm not asking for a job.

OK folks. Let's not get sloppy here.

Will-these things do, in fact, happen. Apparently they will be happening almost daily for the rest of my life.

Evie-I think that there are times that a cruise-by is a good idea. In general I wouldn't react so poorly. But this kid was stopping by because I had not responded to his email. And he had waited 3 whole hours!! Apparently it did not occur to him that I was not responding to his email because I was busy. As a fun add-on, he then sent me an email complaining about how it was not "fair" that I hadn't taken the time to talk to him. But I digress. If you have had interactions with a prof., there may be times that an unannounced stop-by would be OK. But don't get your feelings hurt if they tell you to scram, is all.

We had a postdoc like that in a mates lab. Bugged and bugged to join. Finally allowed in and realises she has to work more than 30hrs/week and quit! No fuckin lie. Demanded extra vacations, no weekends and no evenings, wanted a payrise to extortionate levels (like $60k) and then quit when told "no"

Fukken moron

@CPP, uh I mean Tideliar! Seriously, a grad student I can (sort of) understand trying to get away with this kind of behaviour, but a postdoc, wow, that's brave! There are plenty of other postdocs out there gagging for a job I'm sure, what a jackass!

@ Gerty-Z Sorry for the digression.  I'm only just in my 20's about to cross on over to the other side in a couple of months! But, point taken!

LMAO, thanks, I thinke...

And remember, thanks to the awesomeness of teh m3di4, 30 is the new 20, so you have another 10 years of carefree existence left! Like, I'm 25 again! It's awesome!

Please tell me you're making that story up! He really tried that?

DUDE!  ON MY LIFE!!!!  HE WORKED THEIR UNTIL HE GRADUATED!!!!   LOLOLOLOLOL

Either the PI had a serious sense of humour or he opened such a can of whoopass that he never put a foot out of line again!

Something I would like to add to the authors list though is answering a cell phone or texting during an interview!!!  DUDE!  My niece does that one (I'm embarrassed to say).  I had to tell her "dude? is a text from your friend about lunch that important that it can't wait till we finish our conversation?  I promise, its okay if they wait 5 min before you get back to them while I explain to you the concept from your Biochemistry class (of which I am a DOCTOR of) that you are presently failing!"  WTF?

Just as bad is the annoying vibrating noise when they don't answer the text. It just goes and goes. Just turn the phone off!!

I was Grand ROunds recently and all the baby medics had their beepers going. The presenter finally lost his shit and made a big stink about respect. "If you're on call switch your beeper to vibrate and sit near the door, if you're not on call then have some damned respect and turn the damn thing off. It's disruptive and rude!"

Awesome = 50+ red faced babydocs switching their beepers off.

I'd have given him a gentle shove and sent him outside to have a smoke before he was fully awake...

Ha ha! This brings back memories of undergrad lectures, back in the day when mobiles were first popular, people had really stupid tinny ringtones and there was no such thing as a vibrate setting.  We used to get yelled at by profs if our phones went off in lectures (understandably), so it became a bit of a game, see if you could embarrass your friends by calling their phone before they had switched it off!

Janede did you ever do that hum thing with your class and the teacher couldnt find out who was making the noise...that is hilarious!

it would freak them out if you started to hum with them!  then start the tune Mary Had a Little Lamb...the class would think you were awesome!

If it does, you have GOT to let us know how it goes!

Good one odyssey!

Not bad idea for a LabSpaces Serial blog post thing..

Good idea WaIdta ( cool username bTW)