Lab Safety Inspections: Passing the Torch to an Irresponsible Labmate
by
Dear Dora,
Since she has been hired, my fellow research assistant has not showed up for or helped to prepare for a single lab safety inspection or audit. She is especially sloppy, and always leaves an un-kosher mess which if I do not have time to clean up before inspections, the lab suffers for. Her standard excuse is “I haven’t been feeling well” or “my memory has been bad lately”, and she has never responded to any of my requests or reminders. While I do care about her and empathize with her medical struggles, I have my own and even when I am not well it falls on me to pick up her slack, or take the heat when I forget to. I am leaving the lab in a few months to enter graduate school and am worried about who will pick up after her when I am gone so that my boss doesn’t have to take the heat. I have spoken to my boss, but he has not done anything. What more can I do to convince her to improve her habits?
–concerned technician
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Dear Concerned Technician,
It is very conscientious of you to keep the lab in order for inspections and to care about your coworker. It sounds like you have done your part in this matter by talking with the technician about your concerns and bringing the issue up with your boss. In response to your question about what more you can do for them, the answer is that you have done all you could. After you leave, it will be up to your boss to ensure his lab is clean. He will probably talk to the technician and set some rules, and there is a good chance she will respond better to him. But if her own issues are preventing her from doing her job, your boss might need to hire someone better suited for the position.
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Dora Farkas, Ph.D. is the author “The Smart Way to Your Ph.D.:200 Secrets from 100 Graduates,” and the founder of PhDNet, an online community for graduate students and PhDs. You will find links to her book, monthly newsletters, and discussion board on her site. Send your questions to [email protected] and keep an eye out for them in an upcoming issue!
Stay tuned for the next Dear Dora in two weeks! In the meantime, check a few of Dora’s recent posts:
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- Reviewing Papers from Your Past: Is It Legal?
- Is It 2-Hour or 2-Week Notice? Telling the Boss You’re Leaving
- My Boss Treats Me Like Rodney Dangerfield – No Respect.
- So You’re Saying 50 is Too Many?
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- Is Joining Two Labs Twice the Fun?
- Am I Stuck with this Boring Project?
- Just Two Weeks to Study for My Qualifying Exam?!
Submit your questions to Dora at [email protected], or use the comment box below!
FLOSciences
wrote on July 22, 2011 at 9:09 am
Agreed- this is not a personal problem, it is an institutional one. There's really no excuse for no following safety protocols. Our safety departments deals with it very simply: if you're not following safety rules, you lose lab access. Then you have to explain to your PI why you can't get into the lab and get any work done. Further, if the institution gets fined by DEC the PI has to pay for it out of their funds. A proactive safety department makes the PIs proactive and you can bet the lab workers end up taking it seriously. As a coworker you can only do so much.
alan@benchfly
wrote on July 22, 2011 at 11:38 am
Double agreed. While it's very considerate of you to worry about future lab safety inspections, this is an issue for your boss to straighten out, not you. You've notified him of the situation so he should be aware of it. As Dora points out, it may take one inspection where the lab gets cited for a few sloppy issues (that you would have taken care of) before he realizes the extent of the problem – and resolves it.