I defended in September and started a postdoc in April. I absolutely loved my PhD lab. We didn’t really hang out outside of lab super often, but we were a family. I still talk to everyone often. We’d joke every day, we were super collaborative, and it was just fun. I’d sometimes stay in lab later than I needed to because we just couldn’t stop talking. The PI and I were pretty close and we got on extremely well scientifically and personally. I just started my new postdoc and I’m having a really tough time adjusting. It’s like I’m homesick for my old lab. I’m learning a lot of new techniques and feel like a gigantic burden, I keep putting things back in the wrong places, etc. I feel like I’ve already annoyed everyone. I’m also working with a staff scientist who has one foot out the door and views me as a worm in her way/seems to have taken a pretty strong disliking to me and has made me cry in lab, which can’t be making a good impression on everyone else. I really like the PI and all the lab mates are really kind/smart/helpful/friendly when we chat but also everyone is individually on their phones during lunch and I just feel incredibly lonely and lost. I get it because people may just want to decompress during lunch but I’m really missing the culture of my old lab. For new postdocs, how long did it take you to hit your stride? I’m worried I’ve already alienated people. I wish you could do postdoc rotations— it’s really intimidating the switching postdoc labs isn’t really a thing, in some ways it’s a bigger choice than the PhD lab. I also joined this lab because there was a very clear project direction which I thought would help me not languish for years in a postdoc but now I’m finding it’s not always the best situation to have to start by sorting through tons of old data when the PI already feels strongly about the hypothesis.
u/Heebopeebo
I defended in September and started a postdoc in April. I absolutely loved my PhD lab. We didn’t really hang out outside of lab super often, but we were a family. I still talk to everyone often. We’d joke every day, we were super collaborative, and it was just fun. I’d sometimes stay in lab later than I needed to because we just couldn’t stop talking. The PI and I were pretty close and we got on extremely well scientifically and personally. I just started my new postdoc and I’m having a really tough time adjusting. It’s like I’m homesick for my old lab. I’m learning a lot of new techniques and feel like a gigantic burden, I keep putting things back in the wrong places, etc. I feel like I’ve already annoyed everyone. I’m also working with a staff scientist who has one foot out the door and views me as a worm in her way/seems to have taken a pretty strong disliking to me and has made me cry in lab, which can’t be making a good impression on everyone else. I really like the PI and all the lab mates are really kind/smart/helpful/friendly when we chat but also everyone is individually on their phones during lunch and I just feel incredibly lonely and lost. I get it because people may just want to decompress during lunch but I’m really missing the culture of my old lab. For new postdocs, how long did it take you to hit your stride? I’m worried I’ve already alienated people. I wish you could do postdoc rotations— it’s really intimidating the switching postdoc labs isn’t really a thing, in some ways it’s a bigger choice than the PhD lab.