I am honestly blown away that there is even a conversation to be had about whether to send people to lab when your city has curfew. The answer is obviously no. If your trainees believe you value their productivity over their lives, you should not be a PI.
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I understand that a loss of productivity has the potential to negatively impact my trainees’ career trajectories. I also see it as my job to use my position fight against this and find creative solutions to help them succeed in the long run while staying safe now.
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In case the impetus for this tweet was unclear, I was responding to an earlier (now deleted) tweet by
@jenheemstra
that Emory has provided letters that students could presumably use as an excuse for being out past curfew in order to be in lab. My impression is that
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Jen has been informed on why this is a TERRIBLE idea and she and all Emory faculty as well as anyone in a city with a curfew will hopefully keep their labs open only during non-curfew hours (or better, keep them closed altogether).
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I will also say that my DMs are open - I mean it when I say I want to help.
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Just adding one more thing here that came up: if you have a diverse lab (good) but say “you can choose to stay home if you feel unsafe,” and your white students go in but black students stay home, you are adding to inequities in career advancement
#BlackInSTEM
already face.
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@doc_becca
A number of fellow graduate students I know at my institute are worried about their PIs doing exactly that, and they're concerned about burning bridges with the PI by saying they don't feel comfortable sharing that discomfort
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@doc_becca
Subtweeting colleagues without having the courage to address them directly? This is the kind of cowardice that allows toxic PIs to run amok, and gives many trainees zero faith that PIs will actually come to their aid in a time of need. Do better.
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@doc_becca
It is why we have trouble in science truly saying
#BlackLivesMatter
. We qualify lives based on what they produce for us, which is deeply problematic.
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@doc_becca
We *just* did this with The Covies.
It is the PI's goddamn job to ensure a safe work environment (including transit!). If PI won't/can't do it for fear of the risk, don't ask your subordinates to do it!
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