The danger of feeling undervalued as a Postdoc is that you start to think: "why bother?"
For instance, if no one notices that I'm responsible for ordering half of the things we need in the lab, then I should start hiding what I need for my experiments and let everyone else fend for themselves, right?
My boss routinely enters the lab and speaks to one of 2 postdocs, rather than stopping by each person's bench. I concede that these 2 are pregnant, and will soon be leaving the lab on maternity leave, but I'll be leaving the lab soon too, as I intend on publishing and getting out of here before the coverslips have dried for my last experiment. Evidently, I have to get knocked up in order to get his attention.
He insists that the reason we don't communicate well is because I don't "stop by his office". Well, the only time I've seen him today was when I ran into him in the hall and he asked me where favorite #1 was.
And then there are stories like this, that are just--totally demoralizing.
I found out from favorite #2 that a visiting professor was giving a talk nearby, and my boss had scheduled a special meeting with her, himself, and the favorite postdoc. I asked my boss if I could attend the meeting as well, since I know a postdoc in this lab is working on the same mouse as I am, and we're friends, in fact. He said, "No, I don't want to take the focus away from (#2's) project". I found out that during the meeting my boss discussed not only the project on skin of favorite #2 who attended the meeting, but also the project of favorite #1 which is totally unrelated. My project was not discussed, though it is more closely related to the visiting scientist's interests.
It sounds like he is not interested in my studies at all, doesn't it? But I can't publish this paper without him. There's the rub. And this is how the world of science turns. There is no honor, no fairness, only the motto, "She who publishes first is the better postdoc, it's self-evident".
