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Sundae posted:We just had a quarterly Iab cleanup. Top discovery: a pack of soy sauce in a lab drawer that also contained an incorrectly stored bottle of sodium cyanide. Eurgh On the first day of my last doomed lab job, I found a bag of Craisins in a drawer at my new bench. That was a food-safety lab, but those were clearly extracurricular Craisins. It was a pretty bad start to a pretty bad job.
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Oct 10, 2018 21:26
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Sundae posted:We just had a quarterly Iab cleanup. Top discovery: a pack of soy sauce in a lab drawer that also contained an incorrectly stored bottle of sodium cyanide. MSG 
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Oct 10, 2018 22:18
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It's burgin' time! 
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The most boneheaded thing I've ever seen happen in a lab was someone sticking their head into a fume hood and over a strongly basic solution as they added concentrated acid to it.
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Oct 12, 2018 13:17
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Sundae posted:We just had a quarterly Iab cleanup. Top discovery: a pack of soy sauce in a lab drawer that also contained an incorrectly stored bottle of sodium cyanide.
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Oct 13, 2018 16:26
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Dance Officer posted:The most boneheaded thing I've ever seen happen in a lab was someone sticking their head into a fume hood and over a strongly basic solution as they added concentrated acid to it. I bet when you called him out, he got really salty about it too.
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Oct 14, 2018 09:12
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Sundae posted:I bet when you called him out, he got really salty about it too. No. The reaction was so violent the acid flew everywhere and right into their face. They were hospitalised.
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Oct 14, 2018 17:34
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Well that's one way to learn.
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Oct 14, 2018 18:25
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one of my labmates almost died from a faulty fume hood and the school lawyers "made" her sign a bunch of things saying she wouldn't sue the school and she signed all of them because she felt like it was her fault somehow.
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Oct 14, 2018 20:36
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Dance Officer posted:No. The reaction was so violent the acid flew everywhere and right into their face. They were hospitalised. God drat... and here I was just making a lovely joke. 
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Oct 14, 2018 23:16
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Dance Officer posted:No. The reaction was so violent the acid flew everywhere and right into their face. They were hospitalised.
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Oct 14, 2018 23:30
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Sundae posted:God drat... and here I was just making a lovely joke. I appreciated it.
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Oct 14, 2018 23:54
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Sundae posted:God drat... and here I was just making a lovely joke. Take your highly charged jokes somewhere else
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Oct 15, 2018 00:57
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Sundae posted:God drat... and here I was just making a lovely joke. I thought it was funny. Just in this case what actually happened wasn't very funny.
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Oct 15, 2018 19:08
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Dik Hz posted:So you're saying that it was a strong acid and a strong base, and it blew up in his face, so he did get salty about it. 
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Oct 15, 2018 20:22
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Sundae's was better but way too subtle for me.
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Oct 15, 2018 23:10
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Oct 16, 2018 00:11
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So I spent all day in a PHA meeting today. Our contract engineering firm has a semi-retired PHA specialist. All she does is coordinate PHAs. And she's really good. We're in the process design phase and spotted ~50 hazards, ~15 of which required additional mitigation through things like interlocks and valve reconfiguration. It is so satisfying to deal with them before the reactor is even built. So much cheaper and easier than fixing poo poo with the process improvement team after the fact.
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Oct 16, 2018 00:33
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I've been a QC Chemist (MSc) for 7 years at a large company. Looking for a new job (ideally R&D or leadership) because my boss won't promote me yet will never let me go to another department either. Just started interviewing and my first few interviews have gone very well. Just had a small 40-person environmental testing company tell me they plan to give me an offer for a lab-manager-in-training role I interviewed for. I'll just be a chemist for 1 year of training, then I'll be promoted to lab manager (3-4 direct reports) and the current manager will switch to part-time Sr. Chemist and gradually retire. I'm unsure how to handle negotiations because I'm getting hired in a transitional role. I have not gotten the salary offer yet, but it will be for the chemist role and I do not think they will specify the raise that will come with the promotion. Should I just accept regular chemist pay with nothing about the planned promotion on paper? I wouldn't take the chemist job if it wasn't manager-in-training. I suppose the worst case is just that the manager decides not to retire and I'm a chemist looking for a better job again (with slightly worse benefits). I don't see that I have much leverage right now aside from them being very excited to hire me. On the other hand starting at lower pay may hurt my ability to negotiate in a year when they've already landed me. Should I get the expected salary as manager down on paper now? Any advice? teardrop fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Oct 19, 2018 |
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Oct 19, 2018 01:15
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What I'd do in your situation is probably get it written down that I'll be in a managing position next year come hell or high water, and not worry too much about the pay raise upon promotion. The reasoning behind this being that I want to manage more than I want the extra pay, and QC (at least where I live) gets you a decent wage anyway.
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Oct 19, 2018 07:11
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Good thinking, I care more about managing than the pay also. Worst case is the pay is low and after a few years of experience I can renegotiate or switch companies to get closer to the median lab manager salary. I think I’ll respond to the offer with gentle pressure on salary, moderate pressure on PTO (their director literally told me to negotiate that up) and a request for something in writing about the expected promotion. I don’t know that I’m bold enough for hell-or-high-water phrasing, but what do you think of: “If performance is satisfactory, I will be promoted to Metals Department Manager summer of 2019.” That is what we verbally agreed on. Also, I just received an offer for more money to start as a Product Development Chemist that I had interviewed for earlier elsewhere. Would it be a good idea or not to show that offer and explain my request as “I’m turning down higher-paying opportunities because I believe in this company and your mission. So I hope it’s not taken amiss to request the extra consideration in light of that.”
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Oct 23, 2018 15:27
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teardrop posted:Good thinking, I care more about managing than the pay also. Worst case is the pay is low and after a few years of experience I can renegotiate or switch companies to get closer to the median lab manager salary. I think I’ll respond to the offer with gentle pressure on salary, moderate pressure on PTO (their director literally told me to negotiate that up) and a request for something in writing about the expected promotion. I don’t know that I’m bold enough for hell-or-high-water phrasing, but what do you think of: Also, don't show the other offer. Just state that you have it. If they get aggressive, withdraw. They're showing what kind of people they would be to work for at that point. Also, post these questions in the negotiation thread for a wider audience.
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Oct 24, 2018 00:13
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I have a question about my resume. I'm looking for a job in a new city and my old boss (an academic lab) sent me a list of publications i'm involved in, including five he hasn't sent out yet, with "projected submission" ranging between next month to next year. As a Bs-having technician/associate with six years of experience and a few publications to list on my resume, would it be at all appropriate to include those?
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Oct 30, 2018 17:01
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Putting one or two with projected submission is probably worth it, though might not count for too much. Having more projected than actual would probably look like desperately trying to pad the list
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Oct 30, 2018 21:52
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Hooplah posted:I have a question about my resume. I'm looking for a job in a new city and my old boss (an academic lab) sent me a list of publications i'm involved in, including five he hasn't sent out yet, with "projected submission" ranging between next month to next year. As a Bs-having technician/associate with six years of experience and a few publications to list on my resume, would it be at all appropriate to include those? Focus on your 6 years' experience.
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Oct 31, 2018 00:18
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You know normally I like my job but today we had to sort a bunch of gross moldy test tubes so they could get cleaned. Some of them were like, fused together. 
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Nov 2, 2018 01:34
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For those of you trapped in GMP HPLC world is it normal for methods to never work depending on what system you use? I'm used to the world of NMR where usually switching systems didn't cause entire methods to not work right ever.
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Nov 15, 2018 13:30
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Yup. Chemist: If we run the carbohydrate analysis on any instrument other than HPLC Number 5, it'll fail the control and system suitability criteria. Number 5 is in use today, we can't run carbohydrate analysis until tomorrow, which is fine, the deadline for this stability timepoint is in 3 days. Management: Any instrument should be able to run any test, carbohydrate analysis needs to happen today because scheduling and I can't have you just sitting around not testing. Chemist: *Runs carbos on HPLC Number 4* *Fails control range* Management: Since you've failed, write up the Lab Event GMP paperwork for the failure and get a signature to authorize re-testing, contact Sample Management to get a contingency sample for the re-test, remove HPLC #4 from service and contact the vendor if you can't identify or address the root cause of the failure yourself, and re-run the test on any other instrument since they should all be able to run any test. Vendor: Yeah this thing's running perfectly, passes all my performance checks with flying colors.
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Nov 15, 2018 14:48
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Shrieking Muppet posted:For those of you trapped in GMP HPLC world is it normal for methods to never work depending on what system you use? I'm used to the world of NMR where usually switching systems didn't cause entire methods to not work right ever.
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Nov 16, 2018 01:07
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Dik Hz posted:Replace your guard column. hosed up guard columns are the "turn it off and back on again" of chromatography. 99% of HPLC's could be replaced by a peristaltic pump. It's the column that's the variable. Hahahahaha that would require my hell hole to use guard columns
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Nov 16, 2018 01:40
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Shrieking Muppet posted:Hahahahaha that would require my hell hole to use guard columns
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Nov 16, 2018 23:01
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I just filed a whole bunch of expense reports under "GMPizza". No regrets. 
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Nov 19, 2018 22:50
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Sundae posted:I just filed a whole bunch of expense reports under "GMPizza". No regrets. Nice. My personal best was going out to the Court of the Two Sisters for their Jazz Brunch in New Orleans when Pittcon was down there. I asked for an itemized receipt, and the receipt just said "Jazz Brunch 3 $105". No tax, no gratuity. Got that one approved for no reason I can understand. One of the best meals I've had in my life, though. Easily worth the $35/plate.
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Nov 19, 2018 22:57
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Shrieking Muppet posted:Hahahahaha that would require my hell hole to use guard columns "we don't use guard columns" is the "poo poo, I forgot to even plug it in" of the chromatography world It is much better to dedicate a system to an analysis than to move methods around. If you used the same cook top to make a bunch of hamburgers and then you cook an omlette, that poo poo is gonna taste like hamburger.
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Nov 22, 2018 02:58
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we're moving our lab to a new building in a ~1.5w and nothing is packed any tips???? the movers are apparently only packing our glassware, chemicals and common storage area. bonus lol: no one actually in the wetlab was involved in designing the lab space so we don't have a 4C walk-in or a loving storage room to put our supplies. also no place to put our couch 
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Nov 29, 2018 01:10
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where are you moving?
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Nov 29, 2018 03:29
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crabrock posted:where are you moving? to the LED fun house you know what I'm talking about
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Nov 29, 2018 03:29
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clark? i always pity the people working in there, everybody can just loving see u
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Nov 29, 2018 03:33
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no. have you not seen the new building with the programmable LED patterns??????? the building that shut down electricity for the whole loving campus????
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Nov 29, 2018 03:41
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lol no. the power never went off in our building when that happened i guess the hospital has backups.
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Nov 29, 2018 04:11
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crabrock posted:lol no. the power never went off in our building when that happened i guess the hospital has backups. video: https://i.imgur.com/x2O6NgQ.mp4  this is my bench. we all have adjustable standing desks but they are missing shelves for me, heh.
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Nov 29, 2018 04:38
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