Silly things that you do/annoy you in the lab!

Getting there

What annoys you about your lab mates?

Having read this back Im coming across as pretty anal but I promise Im not in real life! Just when I have my lab coat on!:eek:

Where I work, we get a lot of students coming through being trained on certain things before they start projects or for little bits of their work and they use any benches which are free at the time.

They take my pipettes off their little hooks and leave them hanging around the desk. It drives me up the wall!! I even have them labelled with my name on a little yellow bit of tape!

Also, I like to keep a tidy bench, like really tidy! Things need to be in order all of the time and it has to be clean before I go home (sometime i use 70% ethanol to really clean it:D).

And pipette tips! Dont get me started on pipette tips! They must come out of the box in an orderly fashion one at a time from each row, horizontally. If i take the wrong one by mistake my eye starts to twitch;)!!

Plates in growth rooms also must be organised in a very specific way, I have to have equal numbers of plates for each type of media for eg.

And last but not least, I have a favourite marker. I panic when its not in my lab coat pocket. Iv had it for over 6mths and the thought of losing it scares me. It just writes so perfectly on glass and plastic AND withstands the autoclave. Its very special to me:rolleyes:

Id say I'm a little OCD but I am nothing like this when it comes to the rest of my life. I am a slob. Il leave the washing build up for days! I have no order to my wardrobe/cupboards anything!! And I dont mind sharing! BUt when it come to MY pipettes!!!!!:mad:

Am I mad? Tell me Im not the only one!!

5uspect

You sound like most of the biologists I've met!

Gaspode

I'm not far away from that I'd have to say. I'm anal about cleanliness and tidiness in the lab, and I do that thing with the pipette tips. Haven't developed a crush on a marker yet though!

claireeney

yeah I'm with you there OP. I make a massive effort to keep my bench space orderly. There are so many people with absolutely no respect for this. I think I burst a vein one day when I found my newly cleaned and calibrated p200 on someone else's bench with a used tip full of liquid left on it. I actually screamed.
I get annoyed on a daily basis; someone stole/changed height of my chair, someone stole my lab coat, someone used all my autoclaved tips, someone used my RNA-work-only tips and left them open on the bench, someone nicked my fav marker and bent the nib, people use all my wash buffer constantly.

I would just love to work in isolation sometimes. Outer space couldn't get me far enough away.

So glad I'm not the only one!!!

djpbarry

Getting there wrote: »

Silly things that you do/annoy you in the lab!

Undergrads. ****ing morons.

Getting there wrote: »

They take my pipettes off their little hooks and leave them hanging around the desk.

Oh, don’t get me started. I once had a student reach across me, while I was working at my bench, to grab one of my pipettes (that were clearly marked with my name and a nice big friendly “Please do not use”) – I very nearly stabbed him in the eye.

Getting there wrote: »

And pipette tips! Dont get me started on pipette tips! They must come out of the box in an orderly fashion one at a time from each row, horizontally.

You need help.

Getting there wrote: »

Id say I'm a little OCD...

A little? That’s like saying Graham Norton is a little camp.

Gaspode

djpbarry wrote: »

Undergrads. ****ing morons.

Ah, if only it was undergrads I work with, at least then you could understand and give a bit of leeway.
Most of the tools who pee me off with their poor lab practice are already at, or on their way to Phd level! :rolleyes: