Hi everyone,
I'm a first year PhD student. I know that what I'm going to write is not important for the PhD itself, but for me, person, it is important.
Basically, I've the feeling that my PI doesn't trust/respect me.
First of all, in the beginning of my PhD I was supposed to do a very interesting project on my own but then he gave it to me + a post doc. And this was the first clear signal. I was really really disapponted, and I still am for this.
Then now recently the project was stucked but luckily I figured out that the post doc had made a mistake by distraction. I was happy to have spotted the problem and so I updated my PI (even if the post doc didn't want me to let him know) but then my PI went to speak to him and apparently the postdoc made up a different version of the story (I was not there but this is what I understood by what the post doc told me!!)
Even if I know I'm in the right, I'm worried that my PI won't trust me just because I'm younger than the postdoc.
On one hand I don't care, because I just love my projects and science. On the other hand, I'm a human being made of blood and flesh, and this makes me very disappointed. I think it would be really nice to work with a PI that respects you. Even more because I work and study 13 hours per day (I'm basically addicted to science) and I'm aware that in the last 15 months I've been working well.

What could I do to improve this unpleasant situation and to gain some trust from him?

I already feel better after writing this!
Thank you in advance!
E.

I am not sure if I got this right, but I would never put the blame on a lab colleague when talking to the PI if there is no need for it. The project was stuck, you got it back on track. There was no need for telling the PI, as he/she anyway doesn't care as long as its running again. Things like that make you look overambitious, uncooperative and it definitely creates a bad atmosphere in the lab. I hope I understood "updated" right and did not make a wrong assumption.

You can't really do something about that. Jut keep up with the good work :)

I waited one week before updating him! Then I thought that updating my PI doesn't mean only to show the new results but also to update about spotted problems, which is equally important for the projects to proceed. Moreover even if he's very busy he spends his time to guide me and give me feedback so I think it's important and helpful on my side to keep him updated about how my projects proceed. The purpose was not, of course, to blame people of the lab (who are nice with me) and I made sure to explain this to him.

Thanks for expressing your opinion, yes I will just keep up the good work! I think I was just overthinking yesterday night

Well, in my personal opinion there is a difference between spotting the problem and the update. It was obviously just "human failure". You did not improve the methodology or anything so I don't really see how that is important to the PI. Who tells his/her PI every mistake he/she makes in the lab? Of course he/she then completely went into defense mode. If a PI confronts you with the fact that a colleague spotted your sloppy work as the problem then this does not look good at all and as a post doc you completely rely, for example, on the recommendation of the PI in terms of job search. As long as he/she does not fuck up constantly everything in the lab I would not tell it to the PI. Yor intention might be okay but things are received differently from person to person. Not saying that it was wrong to tell him but in my eyes unnecessary and if I would be the post doc I would be definitely pissed. But maybe that is just me.

What? You wouldn't want to work with someone who went running to teacher every time you did something wrong? ;)

Sometimes it can be hard to win your supervisor's approval, especially if they have worked with the postdoc longer than you. Think what it is about the postdoc/other people they seem to like, and then try to be like that.

Agree on the first sentence Treeoflife!
No I've never been interested to resemble the others, I don't think I will start now :P
Thanks!

It seems you are very confident about yourself. So I guess you must be a very smart, studios and knowledgeable student. This is great. :)

What TreeofLife was saying is not necessary about resembling others but being flexible and trying to fit in the culture of your lab/group. So every one else enjoys and benefits from working with you. This is a good way to gain respect. Also later when you are about to finish you too will benefit from this when you need recommendation letters.

That's what I meant Mathcomp :)

Yes. The reed that will not bend... will be broken.

Best of luck!

By the way guys, just to conclude, I don't think I was mean speaking to my PI also because this mistake that he made is just the cherry on the top: this post doc is completely disorganized. Today he was driving me crazy. Christ, I plan everything and I'm paranoid about everything, indeed I need to have everything under control when I do experiments. I need to have my things planned by time and well organized, in this way I can keep all the parameters constant reducing ideally to zero any potential variation between one replicate and the other and I also neither forget stuff nor make mistakes. There is just me, my thoughts and my experiment, maximal concentration, I enjoy what I do, it's a sort of "ecstasy".
Instead he does things at the last minutes (even if the previous 60 min he's not doing other experiements so he's not justified) in a rush which I believe increases the probability to make stupid mistakes and indeed today I stopped him on time from making another mistake! He's so messy.
Maybe you're right I'm not flexible and what I did was not obljectively nice, but I think that experiments are very "personal" and that I work well alone and he's a living mess!

Wow, you sound like a joy to work with...

The trick is to learn to live with other peoples habits. As long as they are not directly interfering with your experiments (used up last bit of reagent and didn't reorder it for example), its his right to do experiments his way - as it is your right to do experiments your way.

Just speculating, but if your post doc is a "wing it" personality, your approach could look like a huge waste of time in his/her eyes.

The challenge is to make teams with different characters work and get the best out of them. Thats normally the job of your PI. Because at the end of the day, you need both types of people in your team:

The one that can wing an experiment at the last minute and offer nice data that you urgently need for a presentation AND the one that generates very robust and reliable data that you will need later on for publication.

So, normally its live and let live ;-)

You're all adults, so sort things out with the post-doc rather than go to the supervisor to settle things - I take this is your first real job? Learning how to deal with situations like this is all part and parcel of the apprenticeship.