Job Woes

I'm not sure I like having a job dependent on grant money. Something big happened today. All of the PIs (Principal Investigators) at my job found out that they were all turned down for the big NIH grants, called RO1's. Not one of the PIs (6 of them) were given these big grants so everyone is going to have to fire people, including my boss. Apparently the economy is making Congress cut way back on the money set aside for research. My boss is letting go 55% of the lab within a few months with potentially more to follow. I'm not sure of the time-table yet, but they are all leaving relatively soon too. I am not being let go, yet.

Things are pretty shaky. My boss is not sure how he will pay his own salary, or run his lab on the money he has now. If most of the lab goes, I'm not sure what I will be doing anymore either. I am sure if we lose over half the lab, my job description may change a little. So this is pretty huge. I am kind of in shock that all of these people that I admire and love working with are going to be gone soon. Apparently, things have been bad for 6 months but my boss has been waiting to let people go until he heard about the grant reviews due out today. And the worst of it is, even my boss's boss is losing his grant money and if all of the PI's labs shrink, Legacy may close down the Dow neurobiology labs altogether. I am not sure if this is really possible, but everyone is talking about how Legacy is nit helping out the PI's and giving internal grant money. Some of the people in my lab think my boss may be forced to go somewhere where they give the PI's more help.

The worst part of all of this is, I heard all of it second-hand. My boss told all of the people the situation that were being let go yesterday, like my junior research assistant, J. She told me everything today. She thinks he doesn't want to tell me so that I don't start looking for a new job. I am sure he doesn't want to lose both of his research assistants and me, his lab manager. So, now I have to decide if I wait to see what happens or start looking for a job. I think I will consult the Lord about this alot. J thinks that if my boss leaves Portland, he may ask me to come with him. Alot of the PI's try to take their head assistants/lab managers with them when they leave so they have someone who already knows how to run their lab. I don't want to leave Portland though.