weekends

should be a period of time where one recharges and do the things that they want to do but have no time to do in the weekdays, due to work or other commitments.

I think a superior should not give you last minute work (especially if it is their own work), expecting the subordinate to finish within 3-4 hours just because "it is due on the day itself, and I am busy in the lab". And if the subordinate has prior commitments on that day itself, the superior should not ask the subordinate to finish it over the weekend. Several reasons why.

1) It IS the superior's work. The subordinate is clueless about what the superior is doing, will have to spend some time reading about it before being able to start work on it. - It is very inefficient, and even if the subordinate manages to complete the work on the day itself, it will be a lousy job unless the subordinate has full knowledge of the matter.

2) If it is due on the day itself, asking your subordinate to complete it for you at the last minute shows that you a) don't care about the work that needs to be completed; and/or b) have a lack of planning skills, asking someone less well-versed to complete your work.

3) If it can be done over the weekend, why can't the superior do it himself? He is not going to stay in the lab the whole weekend right?

It leads me to conclude that the superior does not care about the work that needs to be completed, nor does he care about his subordinates as a human being - to him, they are probably tools that can be used to complete tasks.

Of course, all of these are in the point of view of a disgruntled subordinate. It is definitely biased, and the whole world can say "welcome to the working world" for all I care. I do not believe in these kind of working habits and environment, especially when they are constantly enforced on the subordinate.

The superior also attended the event that the subordinate was preparing the whole afternoon for, refusing to acknowledge receipt of the subordinate's reply that finishing the work during the weekend is impossible as he has a whole day event on during Saturday. The superior also ignored the subordinate's presence in the event, preferring to mingle in the presence of higher ups.