Dismissed in business conversations?

[Cataboo]

Ginny,

I work in sciences as well, and I really did my best to stay out of the gossip or the drama that went on in my last lab... and that worked against me in a lot of ways - because I was seen as uncooperative or unhelpful or just an isolated member of the lab... It meant that less people asked me for help or to collaborate, even though I'd've been fully willing to help - so being happy with just being left alone is not always the best strategy.

While it's nice to pretend that science is a place where you don't have to schmooze or interact with too many people, the reality is that especially in this current economic climate, collaboration and making contacts is really really important. You're in an industry type setting, so it might not mean as much to you now - but when you're trying to get grant funding, which labs you can say are going to help you with certain aspects of a project is critical, especially when it's a big name of an established lab. However many papers you can get your name on, is also critical. Now, if you have no problem publishing on your own and churning out papers on your own or getting grants on your own... then that's great and that will speak for itself... HOwever, it is getting harder to get published lately and it's harder to get grants lately, so every little bit helps.

so in a similar type situation to what happened at dinner the other night, you could have asked your boyfriend to switch seats with you so that you could "talk shop" too or something like that.