You just gotta love the juvenile behavior of grown men.

I’m having an interesting… dilemma with Dr. B, the guy I’m supposed to be doing psych research for. He has what he claims is a professional dispute with Dr. McKnuckleberry, and a couple of times in my discussion of The B*ll C*rve with Dr. B he has made barely-veiled ad hominem attacks against Dr. McK. That, and he seems to assume all students that have an opinion on The B*ll C*rve are simply regurgitating what they’ve been told by the professor that introduced them to it. Why even bother to have student researchers if you think they can’t think?

So I called him on it. I want no damn part in departmental politics, and I won’t work for someone that expects me to blindly support his view of everything.

His single-lined response was juvenile, addressed none of the issues I brought up, and was rather flippant. I’m evenly split between wanting to march down to his office and have this out in the open to clear the air, and just declining the research opportunity altogether, since he can’t be bothered to actually respond to what I have to say.

Maybe it’s just the fact that I chose e-mail to communicate, which, evidently, is not his preferred method of communication. I know he enjoys talking fast and loud enough to bowl over what other people are saying and to not let them get in a word edge-wise, which is why I chose e-mail. I’m not going to get into a screaming match with him simply to be heard–I’ll look irrational then, because his fight with Dr. McK is not with me, and he has never once directly attacked my ideas (wobbly as they are) on The B*ll C*rve. (Actually, he’s automatically assumed they were Dr. McK’s ideas, and followed up with a good “professional” bashing of his credentials. He justifies this by saying he has “strong opinions about [the book]”. No no no. You just have strong opinions about Dr. McK, guy.)

I am just becoming increasingly uncomfortable with his attitude. But I won’t actually be working with him–I’m working with Bridget, and using him as a resource for data and relevant articles for reading. Plus, working with him would be good experience for the future; more than likely, I won’t be stomping off in a hissy fit from a project just because one of my colleagues is being unprofessional. None of that.

So let him be a bastard, if he so chooses. We don’t need to be particularly friendly to work together. I’ve explained my problems with him clearly and succinctly (Bridget called the e-mail “eloquent”, but I wouldn’t go that far), and if the problem arises again, then action will probably need to be taken.

I feel better now. A good workout, a good venting, now for a good laugh…