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Shrieking Muppet posted:So we got new lab coats at the office, of course purchasing picked the lowest bidder. That sounds like an HSE complaint to me. Lab coats too large for an individual's frame? That's a trip hazard. Too small to cover a heavier individual? Lack of proper PPE. I'd formally document this and get your health and safety rep involved.
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Aug 22, 2017 22:51
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Mourne posted:That sounds like an HSE complaint to me. Lab coats too large for an individual's frame? That's a trip hazard. Too small to cover a heavier individual? Lack of proper PPE. I'd formally document this and get your health and safety rep involved. Seriously, those coats are for more than just show.
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Aug 23, 2017 07:31
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Tried to MacGyver a Keurig machine into using our own coffee, an already-used container, and parafilm. ...it did not work. I thought parafilm would have a higher melting point, but we got a nice small fountain of coffee and a melted parafilm sheen in our mug. 
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Aug 23, 2017 12:38
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it's a literal wax product, that is hilarious
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Aug 23, 2017 13:16
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vivisectvnv posted:it's a literal wax product, that is hillaruous We started out like Icarus, but it ended up in tragedy
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Aug 23, 2017 15:11
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Johnny Truant posted:Tried to MacGyver a Keurig machine into using our own coffee, an already-used container, and parafilm. Yeah, but how did it taste?
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Aug 23, 2017 15:41
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Solkanar512 posted:Seriously, those coats are for more than just show.  with her labcoat she  and died of her injuries.Very detailed examination of the incident.
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Aug 23, 2017 16:26
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I will admit to occasionally fudging PPE, but only if I'm doing stuff like filling bottles with DI water or grabbing packages from the walk-in fridge. Any actual lab work and the coat goes on. There was a brief time when we were switching lab coat companies and had to wear disposable paper ones that absorbed liquids. As klutzy as I am that was not a fun couple weeks.
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Aug 23, 2017 19:11
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Johnny Truant posted:Tried to MacGyver a Keurig machine into using our own coffee, an already-used container, and parafilm.
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Aug 23, 2017 19:11
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Youth Decay posted:I will admit to occasionally fudging PPE, but only if I'm doing stuff like filling bottles with DI water or grabbing packages from the walk-in fridge. Any actual lab work and the coat goes on. We have those for tours, purchasing said we should use them when we do cryogenic fills at other sites.
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Aug 23, 2017 20:38
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vivisectvnv posted:it's a literal wax product, that is hilarious kissekatt posted:Never worked with paraffin-embedding, have you? Oh I have, we just thought it could stand a Keurig machine, haha.
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Aug 24, 2017 19:13
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Youth Decay posted:I will admit to occasionally fudging PPE, but How about you stop right there. If your PPE is too cumbersome to support your throughput or otherwise a nuisance; you need to (again) document this and bring it to management's attention. Mercy me! Some of you guys have some serious cowboy poo poo going on.
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Aug 25, 2017 01:36
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There's a guy in my lab who I've only seen wear shorts. At least he still wears his lab coat?
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Aug 25, 2017 02:18
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Johnny Truant posted:There's a guy in my lab who I've only seen wear shorts. Do y'all not work with nasty poo poo? It's policy in my lab(and like almost all labs) to wear pants.
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Aug 25, 2017 02:24
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Mustached Demon posted:Do y'all not work with nasty poo poo? It's policy in my lab(and like almost all labs) to wear pants. Oh no, we do. Today I saw another dude wearing a tank top, and plenty of ladies wearing short skirts.  OHSHA be damned, apparently!
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Aug 25, 2017 02:34
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I can't imagine not wanting to wear pants working with murderous death chemicals.
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Aug 25, 2017 02:37
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Mourne posted:How about you stop right there. If your PPE is too cumbersome to support your throughput or otherwise a nuisance; you need to (again) document this and bring it to management's attention. How am I supposed to get superpowers if I'm wearing a bunch of lame rear end PPE? 
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Aug 25, 2017 02:39
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Muscular Typist posted:How am I supposed to get superpowers if I'm wearing a bunch of lame rear end PPE? H7N9 pandemic inactivated influenza samples are scary poo poo, my dear sir.
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Aug 25, 2017 03:07
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Johnny Truant posted:There's a guy in my lab who I've only seen wear shorts. I wore shorts every day during the summer under my Nomex jumpsuit
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Aug 25, 2017 03:54
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Mourne posted:How about you stop right there. If your PPE is too cumbersome to support your throughput or otherwise a nuisance; you need to (again) document this and bring it to management's attention. LOL my management wants us all to look like stock photos of lab scientists. Clients have to see us and think "wow real science people are here". I've bitched about corporate-pushed 5S here before and that seems to have chilled out some at least.
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Aug 25, 2017 05:27
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Mustached Demon posted:I can't imagine not wanting to wear pants working with murderous death chemicals. I spilled just a tiny but of xylene on my pants the other day and thought the exact same thing.  Nissin Cup Nudist posted:I wore shorts every day during the summer I wear them when I bike in, so occasionally if the shower is occupied I'll just walk to my office, which crosses through the lab for a few meters. That's my way of sticking it to the (safety) dress code!
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Aug 25, 2017 10:59
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Youth Decay posted:LOL my management wants us all to look like stock photos of lab scientists. Clients have to see us and think "wow real science people are here". I've bitched about corporate-pushed 5S here before and that seems to have chilled out some at least. Wait, what's wrong with 5S in a laboratory setting? It keeps things organized and clean. Also helps ensure stuff isn't expiring all the time.
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Aug 25, 2017 16:11
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Solkanar512 posted:Wait, what's wrong with 5S in a laboratory setting? It keeps things organized and clean. Also helps ensure stuff isn't expiring all the time. We do 5S too. It's great being able to find things! The lab's also one of the few non-clean room areas with actual work being done so we get tours all the time. I am sure the suits like that we stay clean. Plus the whole safety aspect of not having a cluttered mess of a lab.
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Aug 25, 2017 16:20
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Solkanar512 posted:Wait, what's wrong with 5S in a laboratory setting? It keeps things organized and clean. Also helps ensure stuff isn't expiring all the time. Me from earlier ITT posted:Oh god, our lab is implementing this 5S crap and we get monthly inspections by their secret police. They enacted a no lab coats on the backs of chairs policy for every lab, along with no reagents at the bench, no items on the top shelf above the benches, have all the individual bench spaces barren and everything goes in the common area . The goal is to have everything look all neat and clean and tidy for the client auditors while making it less convenient for us analysts to actually do our jobs. Like I said, they've gotten a bit more sane about it since then following complaints from PIs/managers. There's a difference between keeping things organized and marking us off for stuff like having handwritten labels instead of typed.
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Aug 26, 2017 04:41
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Regarding 5S stuff. When they did this for our lab, the guy watched us for 5 days, had no clue what we were doing and frequently remarked that we worked balls to the wall. We're understaffed and have doubled throughput with no new equipment and only 14 heads instead of 12. That 14 counts deputy director through entry level tech. When he left, absolutely nothing changed.
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Aug 27, 2017 00:06
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Mourne posted:Regarding 5S stuff. When they did this for our lab, the guy watched us for 5 days, had no clue what we were doing and frequently remarked that we worked balls to the wall. We're understaffed and have doubled throughput with no new equipment and only 14 heads instead of 12. That 14 counts deputy director through entry level tech. As in, he recommended no changes because you were doing well? Or as in, stuff changed but everyone ignored it? If it was the former, sounds like he might have actually done his job correctly in a way. Evaluate for improvements, then don't fix things that aren't broken.  The worst are people who come in and change things to make their mark / because they're paid to change things without any regard for the actual benefit of the change. I like 5S. I like organizational programs and information retention systems. I hate either one when poorly implemented almost as much as I hate six-sigma environments whose full scope of implementation is "say a few japanese words here and there throughout the day, claim success." Wandering around the floor and doing a safety walkthrough isn't a gemba walk. Your morning activity priority meeting is not a kaizen. Shut up and actually learn what the gently caress you're implementing, then come back and look at your labs again, please.Edit: (Generic rant you, not YOU you. Just to be clear.  )
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Aug 27, 2017 17:45
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Might be in over my head posting this. Be gentle goons, for my confidence is already shaken. Recent university grad. B.A in biological anthropology. Want to pursue grad school soon, but academic burnout took hold so I'm taking at least a year or two off before going into the meat grinder again. The programs I'm looking at really want students to have experience working in a lab. In grad school, I'd like to get into analyzing stable isotopes to run some projects of human nutrition. Equally exciting but totally different would be looking at paleoanthropological remains, such as pollen spores or food/fecal remains in archaeological sites like Çatalhöyük in Turkey or whatever other cool stuff is in the cradle of civilization. I've had some lab experience at my university. But all that experience is pretty much restricted to science-fair grade DNA fingerprinting/barcoding. I think working in a lab setting would really help out my chances here, but theres a problem: all the entry level lab tech jobs in town require prior experience in similar fields. I've been getting rejected on my applications because I lack experience (even when I'm technically qualified on their requirements). The only places I seemingly have a non-zero chance of getting into are food safety labs, which may or may not be related. But it should be a good stepping stone right? Provided it is a logical first step, how can I convince a company to take in a **very green** worker?
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Aug 28, 2017 02:42
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Preferably use your professional network to get your foot in the door. The main thing those "entry level" openings want experience for is just general production lab experience. It's a big jump in work load going from academic lab where work happens at whatever pace to a production lab where they wanted results an hour ago. Hiring managers don't like techs who can't prove they can handle the work load. Sooooo you'll be fine career wise if you spend a year or two in QC hell if that's what doors open for you. Stick to stuff vaguely related to where you want to go, however. Don't go joining a municipal poo poo plant when you want to stay in food. Wrong hole and all. Food safety actually might prove useful since you'll pick up some knowledge about that area of nutritional science.
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Aug 28, 2017 02:58
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Sundae posted:As in, he recommended no changes because you were doing well? Or as in, stuff changed but everyone ignored it? We must be in the same field, possibly the same (large) organization. We have "gemba walks" where different managers come through and yell at us about form versions and having documents out. Basically, the 5S guy said we can, with our current staff, test 50 widgets a day, process 30 widgets, and produce results for 30 widgets. Nevermind that if we did that, we'd have 20 procedural deviations a day because our document says we have to process all 50 widgets tested the day before. It was just completely unhelpful. No, we can't actually test 50 widgets per day and only process 30. That's not how this works dude.
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Aug 28, 2017 17:28
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I think it's an "everywhere" problem. I'm in big pharma, and the company I was talking about was my former employer, a subsidiary of J&J.
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Aug 28, 2017 19:45
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Peter Thiel, noted socipathic monster with a love of pseudoscience, recently funded a clinical trial for a herpes vaccine. By "trial", I mean he paid the academic researcher, William Halford, to send participants to St Kitts in the Caribbean, and did...whatever the trial was without Institutional Review Board oversight. Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are the backbone of research participant protections and most research ethics in the US, and are required by law several different ways for and FDA drug trial run by a scientist with academic affiliations. I was really worried that this ws to set up a scenario where the FDA, under the control of a Trump appointee, would use the study to justify unraveling IRBs and the decades of research protections they entail. Well it turns out Halford sent the study in for peer-reviewed publication. I'm not so worried anymore. Crossposting from pseudoscience thread because I thought folks would enjoy the most rigorous methods of drug development that money can buy. Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Aug 30, 2017 |
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Aug 30, 2017 06:37
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Discendo Vox posted:Peter Thiel, noted socipathic monster with a love of pseudoscience, recently funded a clinical trial for a herpes vaccine. By "trial", I mean he paid the academic researcher, William Halford, to send participants to St Kitts in the Caribbean, and did...whatever the trial was without Institutional Review Board oversight. Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are the backbone of research participant protections and most research ethics in the US, and are required by law several different ways for and FDA drug trial run by a scientist with academic affiliations. I was really worried that this ws to set up a scenario where the FDA, under the control of a Trump appointee, would use the study to justify unraveling IRBs and the decades of research protections they entail. Been following this for a bit and it's amazing / sad / hilarious.
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Aug 30, 2017 14:18
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Jesus loving Christ I want to throw my microtome out the goddamn window right now, if it's not one thing it's another  I gotta look into optimizing our tissue processing protocol, I think our samples are becoming overhardened.
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Sep 7, 2017 19:17
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Why is it phds take twice as long to do everything? My boss handed out newish phd a urgent sample to analyze and they are taking twice as long as our other newish hire who just has a masters. Meanwhile I have production screaming for a result and apparently get to stay late to review this.
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Sep 7, 2017 21:30
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Shrieking Muppet posted:Why is it phds take twice as long to do everything? Hush, they're special important snowflakes because they know how to research things. Know your place, Muppet. 
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Sep 7, 2017 22:33
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Shrieking Muppet posted:So we got new lab coats at the office, of course purchasing picked the lowest bidder. So today, first thing in the morning a new round of fittings was announced for today. Let's see if the company can get more than half of them right. Although if a month from now I'm posting about how no one got the right size I wouldn't be surprised.
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Sep 8, 2017 13:15
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Holy moly I have an interview for an entry level lab tech position. I still feel really in over my head about this. But I'm hoping my charisma works to compensate for my limited prior experience! I mean, they called me when I was in the drive thru of a burger joint, and because my phone was paired to my car a weird way, they heard the music I was playing. But I guess that didn't scare them away either. So here's hoping something positive happens!
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Sep 8, 2017 18:08
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buglord posted:Holy moly I have an interview for an entry level lab tech position. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
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Sep 10, 2017 23:37
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Are there preferred jobs sites for careers in the natural sciences/for science degree-havers? Went from a lab role to a Regulatory role and am bored as poo poo and looking for a change of pace, but am trying to look at lots of different options since I can't tell if I hate my job or just hate my employer.
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Sep 11, 2017 04:19
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C-Euro posted:I can't tell if I hate my job or just hate my employer. Why not both?
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