I'm long winded.

The cool thing about my job is I get to meet different kinds of (pleasant) people and I must say I love it! And the culture and values that the company hold have been really instilled in the staff. Help I need are readily available and people responds very quickly. :D

Recently 2nd PI (I have 2 projects now, long story) assigned a clinical research manager to help me in the data collection as he wants me to submit an abstract for a conference due in end June.

Then I assumed that the manager didn't know anything and explained every detail to him, even took him to the medical records office and show him every bit of the patient's data. Haha! He is a manager who already knew most things but was humble and patient enough to listen to every single word I said.

And later in the email he said, "Thanks for the informative tour." 

Hahahahaha that is a pretty nice way of saying that I'm long winded. 

To say the truth, I'm not an easy person to work with cause I'm always using alot of time to explain something and always micromanaging lol.

My 2 PIs are enthusiastic about research and their passion for research was the reason for my hiatus from this space. And these are medical doctors, not research phd doctors. They are geriatricians and to be able to provide care for the elderly, they are slow paced, long winded and have the tendency to correct everything. Sounds like someone you know? Sounds like me right? Lol. If I have an intellectual capacity like them, perhaps I'll be a geriatrician too. Haha. It's very comforting to know that you are worth 3 hours of your PI's time for each meeting (also cause we are both so long-winded) and he made sure that you understood everything he said before he moved on. Geriatricians have the habit of having u repeat their advice so that they are assured that you understood them lol. I wanted to go for an analysis course and when I seeked his permission, he said, "Don't need to ask me la pls, as long as you don't stop doing research cos now they are really looking into a lot of research on the clinical side..." Lol. Yea, I think other than caring for the elderly, their next major interest is research.

I'm now a confirmed staff after 6 months' probation! Appraisals are times where your boss convey to you his/her honest opinions to you and they are the times where I get pretty nervous about cause I'm really not ascertain if boss (the operations manager, not the PI) knows what I'm doing lol. The first question boss asked me was, "How? Did you enjoy working here the past 6 months? Do you see yourself working here for the next 5 years?" 

They say, when u meet a good boss, follow him wherever he goes lol.

Then he went on to explain what you have done well, what's on target and what needs to be improved. 

And under the section "Develop self and Others", he said I needed improvement.

"Don't be shy to say what you think. I want you to give your opinions, whether personal or professional, to help the team. Give your advice from a view of a researcher to improve the team efficacy. 6 months is no longer a newbie... So many new people are coming in and they need your help. In 2-3 years' time, if anyone needs advice on evaluating a program, I will tell him/her go and ask HJ. I want you to be that person who gives advice to others."

"Develop your own character."

And he said, after going through each point, "Yes, of course I'll confirm you." I found a leader who would spend one to two hours with every employee (from admin assistant to manager level) to talk about his/her development. I found a leader, not a boss. :))) 

Love my job and love my leaders. :)))