1  Onboarding

The process to onboard in my lab is:

  1. I decide to hire you, and you agree to work for me.

  2. I send a message to Jolene Johnson in the department office to begin the process to hire you.

  3. I add you to the BYU Transportation Lab Team.

  4. You join the Team and replace your initials avatar with a picture1 to use for your avatar on Teams.

  5. You create a GitHub account (if you don’t already have one), and send me your username on Teams. Get a picture2 to use for your avatar on GitHub.

  6. I add you to the BYU-Transpolab github organization.

  7. You complete any necessary university hiring forms; Jolene will email you with these instructions.

  8. You complete Y-time and desk worker safety training, and any other safety trainings that may be necessary.

  9. I send a message to Julie Brinton in the department office to give you after-hours access to the building, the transportation lab, and your desk as appropriate.

    • I will tell you when your access expires; please mark this date down and ask me to extend it if you are still working for me

  10. You begin working!

1.1 Working hours

When I hire you I will state expectations for a weekly commitment. This is typically:

  • Undergraduates: 5-10 hours per week

  • Graduate student academic year: 10-20 hours per week

  • Graduate student Spring/Summer: 20-30 hours per week

You may work whatever hours you choose, with the exception of any weekly project team meetings or project sponsor calls. That said, I strongly recommend you schedule a regular weekly time to dedicate to the research projects you are working on. Other commitments might easily crowd out the time for your research if you do not prioritize the time. Also, I want to pay you! But I can’t if you don’t put in time.

I strongly recommend that students who work for me as a research assistant quit any other research assistance, internship, or other external employment.

1.2 Communication

I use Teams for almost all lab-related communication. Please install the Teams app on your phone and your computer. I expect you to respond to messages within a reasonable amount of time, but I never expect you to respond while you are with your families or other times when you are not working.

If you would like to reach me with a message, use Teams.

If you would like to meet with me in person about a brief issue, please schedule an office hour appointment using Calendly. If you would like to schedule a longer meeting with me, please schedule a research meeting appointment using Calendly.

1.3 Wages

Students in my lab have their wages determined by skill and seniority, following the basic outlines of the BYU hourly pay scale. Each semester I will evaluate student work and give raises as appropriate.

If you believe you merit a raise or there are needs in your family that might necessitate a higher wage, please speak to me. I’ll do what I can.

  1. This can be a photograph of you, a heavily edited photo, a drawing by your niece, whatever. Just not a blank image.↩︎

  2. This can be a photograph of you, a heavily edited photo, a drawing by your niece, whatever. Just not the default block avatar.↩︎