You should always be blunt and honest with your supervisor. Your supervisor cannot help you if s/he doesn't understand or know about the problems you are having. You should strive to develop an open and honest relationship with your supervisor.

One can be honest without being blunt.

One can also be honest without needlessly and deliberately sabotaging a colleague..

My advice would be: Just don't take any extra work. It is not your business if the post doc is supposed to take care of a student and doesn't do his job. The student will eventually go to the supervisor and notify him/her of the lack of supervision and the supervisor will have to take care of the issue. I see no reason why you should get involved in the student issue.

Hollis, it reads as if there are more than one messy issue here all rolled into the one tangled ball, which can make it hard to know what to do. I'm with the others regarding NOT informing your supervisor regarding the post doc's lack of support for others (unless you were directly asked by your supervisor for your opinion-on the supervisor's initiative-not yours).

However, I don't see why it wouldn't be okay to let your supervisor know that the post doc wasn't providing any instruction in specific lab techniques (for yourself), if that is actually what your supervisor is expecting that is and your supervisor has directly said this to you.

Rather than having a blunt (and perhaps angry) conversation, can you have a clarifying and polite conversation with your supervisor that just confirms what you are responsible for in your role and the lab, and what your supervisor expects of others. Don't make it about the post doc, make it about your own need to have clarity around your own responsibilities and role and then, as others have suggested, keep focusing on your own work and data-as really that is your main priority. You could do this just as a way of getting feedback regarding your own progress and role in the lab.

Understand completely the need to have an anonymous or private vent about it. If the post doc is shirking their responsibilities, this would be a frustrating experience to have to live and work with.

However, I don't see why it wouldn't be okay to let your supervisor know that the post doc wasn't providing any instruction in specific lab techniques (for yourself), if that is actually what your supervisor is expecting that is and your supervisor has directly said this to you.

Rather than having a blunt (and perhaps angry) conversation, can you have a clarifying and polite conversation with your supervisor that just confirms what you are responsible for in your role and the lab, and what your supervisor expects of others. Don't make it about the post doc, make it about your own need to have clarity around your own responsibilities and role and then, as others have suggested, keep focusing on your own work and data-as really that is your main priority. You could do this just as a way of getting feedback regarding your own progress and role in the lab.

Understand completely the need to have an anonymous or private vent about it. If the post doc is shirking their responsibilities, this would be a frustrating experience to have to live and work with.[/quote]

Thanks for taking the time to read through my emotive posts! Yes there's several issues at play.

1. The post doc telling us to take on the masters and undergrad students he has been assigned when we have our own.
2. The post doc was specifically hired to teach us an aspect of our project that was providing some trouble. He tells our supervisor he will teach us but tells us he won't. As a result we're not making as much progress in this area as we should. I paid out of my own pocket to go to a workshop on the lacking area.
3. My supervisor's under the illusion that the postdoc is teaching us the technique and we're not listening.

Sorry for the rant it's all very frustrating.

Hollis, how well do you know your supervisor and do you have an established sense of 'trust' with them? I ask because reading your very last post, if I were the employer, I would want to know if what you describe was occurring with members of my team so that I could either provide some support or work through some strategies with you.

I ask about the trust because my in my role (Assistant Principal of Secondary College or 'Assistant Head' in the UK), it wouldn't be uncommon for people on my team to come to discuss problems with their work or with other team members sometimes, and the conversation would go no further than my office. What we would do though is work through the issue and find solutions-usually from a 'no blame-solutions focussed' model. I think, or like to think, that most people work like this, but not all do and so it would be important to have some form of trust relationship with your supervisor, so that you can have a conversation that provides some answers or options and you don't just feel like you are complaining or trying to find fault with a colleague.

Having said this, I wouldn't think that the option would be to punish anyone, just to sort things out so that things were working productively again.

The best option in all cases is to actually have the conversation openly with the post doc himself and try to resolve things but this can depend on the personality of the person as well. When having difficult conversations, with anyone, it is really important to be calm, not to blame, use 'I statements', and listen to the other person (even when you believe you are in the right).

What on earth? You sound psychotic. Have you read Hollis' posts above? The postdoc is clearly at fault and the supervisor needs to be made aware of the situation.

In fairness to the poster I failed to inform the thread that it was the post doc in question telling me to take up the slack for his lack of action. I just said I had to take up the slack. Saying that I do think the poster is being a bit dramatic about his crucifixion threat,

Oh I know, I read through the whole thread trying to understand why that poster is so angry and vitriolic, but it's no excuse for that language. That is a really bizarre post - "your life simply would not be worth living", etc.

Plot twist: he's the postdoc.

What on earth? You sound psychotic. Have you read Hollis' posts above? The postdoc is clearly at fault and the supervisor needs to be made aware of the situation.[/quote]

In fairness to the poster I failed to inform the thread that it was the post doc in question telling me to take up the slack for his lack of action. I just said I had to take up the slack. Saying that I do think the poster is being a bit dramatic about his crucifixion threat,[/quote]

Oh I know, I read through the whole thread trying to understand why that poster is so angry and vitriolic, but it's no excuse for that language. That is a really bizarre post - "your life simply would not be worth living", etc.

Plot twist: he's the postdoc.[/quote]

Ha ha maybe. I don't buy into the never question attitude. I think it belongs in the past and I'm certainly not putting my PhD in danger to cover for a lazy postdoc.

Blimey. I think that after being accused of being psychotic, angry, vitriolic and threatening I will back out from giving further advice on this. hollis, you have been given a range of advice. Personally I think your poor attitude is the root of your problems and until you sort that out nothing is likely to improve. I dont think you came on here for advice, you came on to gain validation for your rage. Good luck with moving forwards in any case.

... and then proceeds to give more advice ;)

Hi pm. I don't think it is good advice to suggest my attitude is responsible for the post doc's behavior. The post doc is a) lying to our supervisor, telling him he has been teaching us and his project students and b) telling us to cover for him. Now this covering up is interfering with my PhD and general stress levels. I was seeking a solution to think but I have principles and I don't believe letting someone use me to cover for their lies and laziness fit my principles. If you think this is a poor attitude then I suggest you examine your other attitudes. Attitudes which suggest you would "crucify" someone and "make their life not worth living" if they had the audacity to refuse to cover up for a post doc.

Indeed. Advice/abuse. Either way there has been progress on this issue. The other PhD in the lab told our boss everything that has been going on. The post doc has been told to take on a project student and told us not to take up his slack. Apparently he wasn't kept on in another group at the uni for the same reason (why hire him then?). The post doc will be kept on but we're getting a new post doc which is great.