The Lab Group Outing: Are We Having Fun Yet?!
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The group outing can be an essential morale booster and a source of stories and inside jokes for years to come. As Dora discussed in her recent article, Is a Lab Holiday Party Too Much To Ask For, many students and postdocs look forward to these events, even if they have to take the reigns to plan it. However, the group outing and can range from really fun to really, really awkward. So as a first step in avoiding 60 minutes of uncomfortable silence, let’s find out what we really want.
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The Sacrifice/Experience Profile
When planning experiments, we should consider the risk/reward profile first. In other words, if the experiment only has a 5% chance of success, the potential result it may yield better be significant enough to justify the 95% likelihood that we’re about to waste time, money and reagents.
In planning a group outing, we should consider the sacrifice/experience profile. In this case, the more inconvenient the outing, the better the experience should be. As seen in Figure 1, if we’re going to a weekday lunch near the lab, then there are very low expectations for that event. However, if we’re expected to rent a car and drive two hours on a Saturday night, it better be pretty spectacular…
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Figure 1. The group outing experience should justify the required personal sacrifice.
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PIs are generally good people who care about the lab and want to show their appreciation by giving something back to us. While well-intentioned, sometimes they can get a bit carried away. So next time they start to plan the lab group outing, teach them about the sacrifice/reward trade-off and use the data above to support your case.
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Have any favorite or successful lab group outings to recommend?
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