Collaboration that is not going well

[the-tenure-track-prof]

Grants can be transferred. But the pattern of behavior that he exhibits does not show solid research skills, even a doctoral student would know how to phrase a research question.
At any rate, I plan to keep it short. I am getting busier and busier and I cant work with someone like that.

[Ruralguy]

Just see where it goes for the rest of the semester. After that, there will be a pretty good excuse for putting it to rest, which you can do by just ignoring it (and he likely will too).

Something to be careful of though: try not to insult people who are not as research active as you. If they can't keep up, then I guess its your right to cut them loose, but keep things friendly.
I am not sure why his research skills would be quite so rusty, but they are, so just deal with it fairly collegially, or walk away in the same manner.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

I feel relieved now. I am mindful of not to create any bad feelings. I plan to keep it brief and friendly. I may also use the fact that he plans to leave, and I plan to leave as another reason to reconsider the collaborative work. It is my goal to keep the relationship collegial and friendly. Thank you all.

[mleok]

Since he seems the sort to let things in his court drop, i would ask him to do something, and let him ghost you. And, you should simply not follow up on it unless he approaches you. If he later comes to you asking for an update, tell him you're still waiting on whatever task you had assigned to him. Simply put, do not engage or do anything more until he does his part, and that will buy you several months of peace at the very least.

[polly_mer]

I am not sure why his research skills would be quite so rusty, but they are, so just deal with it fairly collegially, or walk away in the same manner.

I've lost track of the various sagas here. 

However, at least one of the current forumites asking a lot of questions and doing a job search in the current cycle as someone who is only in their second TT year was somewhere that focused on teaching and service, not research.  Someone who never established an independent research program, spent the past N decades teaching a heavy load, and is only now trying to do some recent research to polish the CV to move will have more of a uphill slog than someone who didn't have the gap.

Someone who has a research/funding/writing groove in place has a significant advantage over someone who is reluctantly wedging more into an already packed schedule in the hopes of being qualified for a new job.

[Ruralguy]

I guess the last two posts say it all...Polly's explains the situation (it is what I thought, but I was trying to grasp the details) and Mleok gives an astute and to the point explanation of how the OP should  proceed. I agree...that is, agree on something he should do and then let him proceed not to do it. Maybe set up one meeting to address what he has accomplished, but after that, if he doesn't do it, don't ever address it again. It runs the risk of resentment being harbored by a senior colleague, but since he's probably only doing this to build up some experience he can launch from, if he ultimately doesn't want to, then he won't, and then he probably won't leave. He'll just proceed to do what he has been doing.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

I built several successful collaborations; as indicated earlier, I am currently working on 4 collaborative projects that are going well; two of them are likely to have grant proposals submitted! so I don't need this work with him, and while I am a junior faculty, I have a very active research agenda before I became an assistant professor, so I am not brand new to the field. I ask questions because I always seek out different points of view. I find it enlightening, and I can always ignore someone who cants give a useful input, but I am appreciative that most people on this forum are well experienced, and I was able to learn new lessons about how to handle some people in academia. I also have active publishing agenda and will continue to do that while applying out for jobs.

I tried to keep this project just because he approached me last year and thought perhaps some collaborative work might work out, especially that he is a professor who made me believe that he must be good. I checked his record of publications a very long time ago. I realized that he was third, a fourth co-author on peer-reviewed journals in most publications, NEVER first.
As someone said here, it looks, as he is used to taking a free ride on others` work without making significant contributions, but this is just speculation based on my experience with him, along with this observation. The only publication he had as a single-authored was an essay, and all that is ten years old. Still, I chose to give this work a chance not because I don't have choices but because he approached me and he is at my university, and I didn't see any harm in working with him back then!. Does that make sense?
I am not looking at his publication record per se, and I do not care about this, but it is really the other way around. His behaviors mostly raised a red flag, and I have been seeing the pattern for many months now. The lack of stability and jumping from one topic to another without clear focus is not a characteristic of well-trained scholars.
I am not sure what was these comments about "gaps" by someone here, but I do not have any gaps in my career. If anything, I am super active. It is my fault that I accepted a position at this university, and I take full responsibility, so I am applying out selectively. At any rate, I will see how the conversation with him will go.

[Ruralguy]

We're not questioning your bona fides at all.

Also, it really doesn't matter what the details of this colleague's past are like. If you are willing to work with him,
and something happens, fine. If not, no biggie. But it sounds like you really don't have much respect for this person, so a collaboration is probably not sensible. Give it a nominal chance, but just let it go if he does...and he probably will.
Keep in mind that I'm not defending him or saying he's secretly a great researcher. Our advice is designed to help you navigate this difficult relationship without (much) judgment. Just try to be nice about it even if he seems lazy.

As for gaps, I think Polly was saying he probably does have gaps in his career (gaps of productivity), and you don't, which is why he's trying to get something out of you.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

Apologies. I think I missed some part of Polly`s post. My bad.
I appreciated the advice that you provided, rural guy, as well as others` advice.
I will do my best to be nice in my conversation with him. If there is anything to report back, I will do.
Thank you!.

[mamselle]

Just to confirm what ruralguy is saying, and maybe to add an observation....you come across as very nervous or anxious about how you're perceived and what people think of you.

That can really be off-putting in a potential collaborator.

It can also stir up ill feeling if they get the sense that you place yourself below them, as junior to a senior person, but you're not going to play ball after all (even if for good reason. I'd have given up on them long ago: when people's actions say they're not going to collaborate, stop trying to collaborate...).

So, when you do talk with them, be sure your tone is calm, and steady, and not loquacious.

Just be simple about it, don't over-explain or make a big deal about it.

Sort of a Jedi-mind-trick, like, "Not much going on here, it's OK to move along,"  rather than adding a lot of charge to the situation.

Just a thought.

M.

[polly_mer]

Don't talk at all.  Stay in your research groove and keep going there.

If this non-researcher checks back with you at the end of the term, merely respond with:

Thanks for checking in!  I'm still waiting for that revision from you.

Best,

the-tenure-track-prof

Hit send and go on with your other activities.  Stop putting your energy into this guy when you already have plenty on your plate.  Be friendly and polite every time you see him, but hold firm that the next step in this collaboration is him producing a good draft (or whatever deliverable).

[mleok]

Hit send and go on with your other activities.  Stop putting your energy into this guy when you already have plenty on your plate.  Be friendly and polite every time you see him, but hold firm that the next step in this collaboration is him producing a good draft (or whatever deliverable).

I have to say that the impression I get is that the OP expends a great deal of emotional energy on things s/he does not have control over, which is unproductive.

[mamselle]

Hit send and go on with your other activities.  Stop putting your energy into this guy when you already have plenty on your plate.  Be friendly and polite every time you see him, but hold firm that the next step in this collaboration is him producing a good draft (or whatever deliverable).

I have to say that the impression I get is that the OP expends a great deal of emotional energy on things s/he does not have control over, which is unproductive.

+1 ^

Also, as a corollary, there may be some need to outgrow the need for imagined drama and to focus more on the dramatic facts of actual productivity which the OP is saying are already progressing in other parts of their work.

One doesn't want the lines of force around real, good work to collapse because one has siphoned off time, energy, and other internal resources on what-if's and might-have-been's.

Stewardship of ones options means looking forward with objective hope, not backwards in fearful conjectures about imagined scenarios.

And I don't mean that observation judgmentally, just helpfully/hopefully. I say it having had to learn it myself, the hard way. It's not easy to learn, and one can't ever quite give up the need to enact it intentionally, if the opposite approach was learned in some difficult environment or other.

OP, look wisely to yourself and your own needs, and let this go.

M.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

Thank you!

Hit send and go on with your other activities.  Stop putting your energy into this guy when you already have plenty on your plate.  Be friendly and polite every time you see him, but hold firm that the next step in this collaboration is him producing a good draft (or whatever deliverable).

I have to say that the impression I get is that the OP expends a great deal of emotional energy on things s/he does not have control over, which is unproductive.

+1 ^

Also, as a corollary, there may be some need to outgrow the need for imagined drama and to focus more on the dramatic facts of actual productivity which the OP is saying are already progressing in other parts of their work.

One doesn't want the lines of force around real, good work to collapse because one has siphoned off time, energy, and other internal resources on what-if's and might-have-been's.

Stewardship of ones options means looking forward with objective hope, not backwards in fearful conjectures about imagined scenarios.

And I don't mean that observation judgmentally, just helpfully/hopefully. I say it having had to learn it myself, the hard way. It's not easy to learn, and one can't ever quite give up the need to enact it intentionally, if the opposite approach was learned in some difficult environment or other.

OP, look wisely to yourself and your own needs, and let this go.

M.

[Ruralguy]

If your colleague amps things up, take it as windfall and go with it, but if he doesn't, just let it go.

Similarly with your job search: never mind the interpretation, just move on.