[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

One of the more important lessons I learned in high school physics was the procedure of “fudging” the results to get the desired answer. In that case, the payoff was a better grade.

To a working scientist, the payoff is continued funding.

I actually left my first job out of graduate school - at a start-up pharma development company - in part because of the poor working relationship that developed with my supervisor after I refused his "suggestions" that I fudge some data to make the results look better for what the company wanted.

The other part was because this same supervisor was a drunk driver - with me and other co-workers in the vehicle with him, not noticing until after he started driving - which caused me to question his judgment.

[Fresh Wind]

Funny you should mention the drunk supervisor. I was in a similar situation on my last job (actually a part-time post-retirement gig). The supervisor would frequently disappear in the afternoon to another part-timer’s house for “conferences”. They are both drunks. I’d rather not speculate about what went on, but it was definitely not work in the usual sense of the word. He also urged me to charge hours that I didn’t actually work, which was strange, but it probably made him feel better about doing the same thing himself.