I wonder if the art of subtlety is a lost one?
Over at lablit.com we've been talking about courtesy in the lab, specifically the leaving of notes by and for other labrats.
Here, in our gel room, we have three boxes. One for big combs, one for small combs, and one for spacers. This seemingly simple arrangement appears to be too complicated for some people, because I often find myself having to look in the big combs box for small spacers, and I'm sure I'm not the only one because yesterday this message appeared on the whiteboard:
This morning, I was still having to look for small spacers in the big combs box. Maybe the art of subtlety is not dead; it's just that the target audience is too dense to get it.
Comments
Or your target audience has to care - ie. suffer the negative consequences for themselves. Until then, you can get indignant all you want; it won't help. So much in lab is like that! Empty enzyme tubes in the freezer, tips boxes with two cones remaining and no order placed, and so forth. I went to read that thread on lablit and it looks like you've all got it covered. Takes all types, and so on.
Ah - I haven't received any answer from my administrator folks at scienceboard.net - I'll write again later this week and threaten them with moving over to Nature Networks if they don't respond - because I have to weed out a lot of spam from the moderation box every day while your (and some other) comments don't even make it that far. If I get any reaction that all, that is. Otherwise I won't threaten, I'll just do it. I've more than fulfilled my obligation.
Posted by: Alethea | August 26, 2007 07:21 PM
I note that the rocket is a Roooskie one. You damn commie scientists.
Posted by: Nige | September 3, 2007 06:14 PM