Two peeves and a pleasure.

[rivka]

I came into work this morning to find a "Congratulations, Doctor!" sign on my door and a "Ph.D." appended to the nameplate beside the door. Also, the "while you were gone" note from our research assistant managed to work in the phrase "Dr. Wald" three different times. Yay, Lydia and Javi.

Now for the peeves:

(1) You should not ask someone with a new Ph.D. whether they're going to do a postdoc or take a "real job." As people working 60+ hours per week at their postdocs can surely attest, a postdoc is a "real job" in every sense of the word.

(2) It is unlikely that someone who has just spent eight years of her life earning a Ph.D. will be amused by the idea that Ph.D. stands for "[shit] Piled Higher & Deeper." Which part did you mean, the congratulations or the insult?

Okay, maybe I'm oversensitive, but sheesh.

Comments

[jenett]

Bah to people who have no clue.

You have done truly nifty and huge amounts of work. And will, I'm sure, keep doing it.

People who don't get that, or don't get that insults do not generally make good congratulatory compliments... well, have no clue. Their loss.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

The people who told that joke are showing kindness to the elderly.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Nice touch with the PhD appended to the nameplate.

As for the two peeves... some people just don't have a lick of sense. Y'know?

[minnaleigh.livejournal.com]

If my play job left me any free time, I'd come up there and hold people's head into my high, deep pile until they begged for mercy and swore to change their peevish ways!

[redbird]

You are not oversensitive.

And yes, Yay Lydia and Javi.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Now is the time for a hearty Mazel Tov!

Very classy :)

[eeyorerin]

Sometimes I will make the Piled joke about myself, but that's usually when I'm referring to the stacks of books and papers in my office. :) But when other people make it to or about me or other people, I don't find it funny.

I had to tell one of my partners to stop making "do you want fries with that?"-related comments about my being on the academic job market for positions in liberal arts this fall. He thought those jokes were hilarious. I thought it was pretty darn rude to imply that I've spent six years of my life at a "play job" training to work at minimum wage.

So. Um. Not just you.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Post-docs are real jobs, effort- and results-wise... If only they paid like real jobs. Most are just a step above grad-assistant-level wages, at the same 60+-hour level of effort.

Still, as a sort of practicum or internship, they're invaluable in some fields. A postdoc with one of a field's leading-lights is probably worth the investment.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Enjoy the recognition! I really liked that. I also liked noticing later that I was starting to take it for granted that my mail would come with Dr. on it - somehow in there it had sunk in that I deserved it and they wouldn't take it away again.

Ooh, I agree with you about those other comments. Clueless and inconsiderate. You're not oversensitive.

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

Dr. Rivka, of Dr. Rivka's Journal fame, deserves to be treated with a modicum of adulation. Stupid boring jokes aren't a good example of proper behavior.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i have a terminology question, then. what should the category that isn't labelled "postdoc" be labelled? i've been known to ask that very question of people (although not of you, because i assumed you'd be staying where you are...), and it's not because i mean to be insulting, it's because i don't have the words, i think.

Yayboo

[ororo.livejournal.com]

Yay to Lydia & Javi.

Boo to idiots telling old, cheap jokes. You worked your ass off for that Dr. at the end of your nameplate.

Release the stompy boots of behavior enforcement!

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

While I wouldn't say "real" job, I was wondering if you were going to change jobs, and if so, what you were looking into.

[ailbhe]

Not oversensitive at all. Other non-real jobs include parenthood, full-time-carer-of-adult, etc. They tend to have longer hours than real jobs. And less pay. I think that's how you can tell.

[starstraf.livejournal.com]

"real job" is only 40 hours a week with benefits and more money - IE cushier and less work then a "slave job" of GTA/GRA/Postdoc

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I think there are some people who want to spoil other people's pleasure in achievement, and I think some of them can be found on usenet.

If Omega had said that to me, I'd have gritted my teeth, rather than asked for clarification, because I think she was just being clueless -- it mostly would strike me as off because it's what you say to someone starting a PhD, not someone achieving one -- or as various people have said, it's what people say themselves in the middle of one. It's out of season.

The problem with asking for clarification is you get what was said afterwards, and that was spiteful and mean spirited and the more you say the more it appears you can't take a joke -- which is why joking isn't funny unless it's consensual.

The problem with *not* asking is that you sit there being miserable -- that's what happened to me on usenet when my first novel came out and you may remember what happened to the possibility of my innocently squeeing over it. People get so into scoring points they forget other people are people.