Scientist Career Won’t Work Properly

I'm not able to put the sim ray on the Constructor sometimes.  Another problem I have is that things that are supposed to be completed in the work day won't give me the options.  Today I was supposed to make a snake oil serum and it was grayed out, since I started this thread it actually gave me the ability to make a new serum and I couldn't test it on my pregnant sim (it was an alien abduction case), then I lost the vial so I couldn't test it on a coworker either..  I was supposed to talk about work with a co-worker, but the "talk about work" wouldn't come up in the pie menu.  Sometimes I've had to send my Sim to work alone day or two and that has seemed to get around the issue sometimes.