It also seems like there are so many things PIs are expected to do outside of their job of actually being a PI (getting grants and mentoring trainees).
It felt like my PI was so busy and always being asked to do more. Constantly being asked to write review articles and obviously review papers for journals, but then also she became an editor of a journal or something? Then all the committees at the school and for different scientific organizations/societies and consortiums. And we were always getting undergrads to mentor when it felt like higher profile PIs would refuse to accept undergrads because it was a waste of time. So it just put even more burden on us/our lab.
Most of these things are all important for the scientific community to thrive, but I guess the biggest problem is there isn’t enough money to go around to support it. So PIs are basically doing a bunch of work for free and then have to squeeze in the job they’re actually paid to do when they can
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u/NarcRuffalo 2d ago
It also seems like there are so many things PIs are expected to do outside of their job of actually being a PI (getting grants and mentoring trainees).
It felt like my PI was so busy and always being asked to do more. Constantly being asked to write review articles and obviously review papers for journals, but then also she became an editor of a journal or something? Then all the committees at the school and for different scientific organizations/societies and consortiums. And we were always getting undergrads to mentor when it felt like higher profile PIs would refuse to accept undergrads because it was a waste of time. So it just put even more burden on us/our lab.
Most of these things are all important for the scientific community to thrive, but I guess the biggest problem is there isn’t enough money to go around to support it. So PIs are basically doing a bunch of work for free and then have to squeeze in the job they’re actually paid to do when they can