I have been busy with my trial plots for the whole week. I had to go to my trial plots around 8.00 am, finished collecting measurement for my research around 4.00 pm and continued processing some samples at home till 11.00 pm. I hardly recalled when was the last time I cooked for my other half, and he barely complained about getting in the last-couple-of-weeks-cooked-and-frozen dishes into the microwave oven. My cozy little one bed room apartment that I used to vacuum and clean on a weekly basis, now turns into a tongkang pecah. Well, this entry isn't about the house chores, but a student worker that worked for my supervisor.
He hired this guy early this summer, with an increasing urgency to get a helper for his project, since I am running my own now; me and Imran lend our hands to him last summer. His assigned working hours on the paycheck is from 8 to 5, but since my SV is a super nice guy, he allowed this mamat just to come to the lab or field if he has some works for him. Believe it or not, this mamat got a 2-weeks-paid off to watch the WC while my SV was busy with his research grant and thus spent most of his time indoor - no fieldwork. Sometimes he came to the lab around 10 am or 12 pm, but he still been paid the full working hours time.
Since he's jobless, my SV suggested me to take him to my trial plots, obviously to help me. In the first occasion, we started to work around 3.00 pm, and by 5.00 pm he was screaming into my ears that he needs to go home since his working time is only up to 5.00pm. I started to feel annoyed, because I know his leisure schedule in the lab. When I asked him to help me with my measurements, he quickly said he doesn't know. By the way, it is not a rocket science stuff, it is only holding straight a pole over plant canopies.Then, he sit in the truck for two hours, waiting for me to finish the work. My anger and rage started to bloom, but takpe, sabar dulu.
The next day, I asked him to come at 9.00 am, but only at 9.30 am when he showed up. The first question he shot to me is, can we go home early today, I have a doctor appointment at 4.30 am. I simply told him, we are NOT going home until my work is completed. After an hour measurement, he rested in his car in 15 minutes. In total, he took 2 hours and half to finish canopy height measurement (bukan susah pon, amek tinggi pokok aje, kerja baca pembaris, aduhaiiiii....) while it only required me an hour and half to do the same job. He was amazingly super slow, slower than the slowest person or animal that I ever known. I took leaf samples that I need him to run under an equipment, it only takes 5 secs to run a sample, but by the time I finished collecting all of the samples ( total: 400) he hadn't even finished 60. To cut the story short, I had to throw all the samples because there is a time frame that acceptable to run the leaf simple since it has been detached, due to his ridiculous slowness. Plus, he kept asking me, when we can go home. In all conscience, his quality of works is unacceptable, and his nightmarish inefficiency weighing me down.
I went back to my lab, with a greater degree of frustration. I cried out loud to my supervisor, he had his ears for me, but he was speechless. The very next day, I found out that the mamat was fired by my supervisor. It turns out that his post doc had the very same experiences. He is passionless, and anticipates for effortless money. Instead of being a student worker, he was acting like a student supervisor - supervising us. Hey, did I tell you guys that he received $11/hr while many others (once, including me) only being paid $8/hr.
For me, there is no relieve at all, even after the good news, because I have to redo all my measurements next week. Easily said, those measurements that I spent 6 hours on collecting them, are totally useless. Haihhh mana la saya tak balik melalak kat dinding bilik air selama sejam hahahaha
The take home message that I learned here, well, regardless how hard you work, you will be frustrated when someone mess up with your research. You can do very well in coursework, perfect straight A's by the time you wear the graduation robe, but when it comes to research, most of the problems are not even yours. I shared the experiences with my dearest Amelia - her supervisor even relocated her name as the third author of a paper that she, herself wrote, solely based on her works. It is not hard to understand that, people can be harsh to you, and change you fate. I guess I am totally right when I say that fairness never existed hahahaha
For those who never seen cotton, nie lah rupanya. Waktu dia dah berbuah karang barulah cantek sikit, putih2 seluruh alam. This is my significant half, he came to the field to spent his 1-hour break on helping me out. I never can thank him enough - pukul 8.00 am dia hantar saya ke kebun, lepas tu dia ke kelas dr 8.30 am ke 11.45am, pukul 12pm masuk kerja pulak, pukul 3.30 - 4.30 masa rehat dia tolong saya di kebun, lepas tu terus masuk kerja semula dan pulang ke rumah pukul 9 pm huhuhu. and him, being the greatest man for me, being Imran, never shout out a single complaining word. Haihh what a total opposite hahaha
Salam sayang,
Melissa
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