Our lab is looking to hire a new lab manager, and it turns out that there are differing opinions on what a lab manager's job includes. Some lab members say that it is a lab manager's job to keep the lab clean, including (but not limited to) washing glassware that has been neglected in the sink, wiping down the lunch/conference table daily, tidying the tool bench, and cleaning shared lab benches. Others say that lab members should be responsible for these cleaning duties, and the highest priority in hiring should be administrative excellence.
There's a third way to look at it, which is that if your lab manager is young and inexperienced, cleaning comes with the turf; but if you have an experienced manager, best not to waste his/her valuable time on menial tasks. (Also perhaps an older, wiser lab manager knows how to get trainees to clean up after themselves?)
What say you? There's a poll on the right...
15 years ago
16 comments:
Errrr, that poll thingy doesn't seem to be working. It keeps telling me I can't vote unless I'm signed in...
Personally I think all lab personnel should clean up after themselves (unless there's an undergrad hired specifically for that task). Trying to push the job off on someone else screams of laziness. And it would be an insult to a good lab manager to require that of them.
Yeah, I agree with Odyssey: good lab managers should never be EXPECTED to clean up after people. People should be adults and be responsible for themselves. A lab manager might be responsible for ORGANIZING things, which occasionally involves moving stuff around for better access, and throwing away old stuff that is not used anymore, but they should be about overseeing and getting everyone to help with this process, not just slaving away at it themselves.
Frankly, I think people who want a lab manager to walk around cleaning up their shit like a long-suffering lab mom are just lazy and irresponsible!
Good Lab Managers are not my personal maid. We're all adults and capable of looking after ourselves. The best lab managers I've worked with have a solid understanding of the scientific process, are an invaluable source of technical information / troubleshooting tips, great teachers and know how to work the bureaucracy of the university to get shit done. You don't want to waster that person's time by asking them to clean up after personelle.
I also couldn't cast my vote for the same reason as Odyssey . . .
As a recent lab manager I would have been insulted if I were expected to clean other people's glassware. To manage a lab means helping solve technical problems, organizing, keeping equipment well maintained, making sure people are following safety rules, complying with OSHA, interacting with sales reps and institional management and taking care of administrative tasks so that PIs, post-docs, technicians and students can do the science as effeciently as possible.
I agree with the comments so far. All lab personnel should clean up after themselves. I think if at all the lab manager should be someone who can make sure this happens. The extent of clearing up that the lab manager could do would be to dispose of unclaimed glassware, chemicals etc, and making sure things are stocked and so on.
a Lab manager for me is "someone who is more hands on mangaging the lab rather than the PI". In other words, the person who knows technical stuff - freezer things, trouble shooting most commonly used techniques in the lab, knows ordering (and/or are in charge of the ordering to keep everything under control) and setting a schedule for the cleaning.
My personal experience tells me that there is always someone in the lab who isn't cleaning and if not properly managed, the lab will become a sloppy mess. To stop that from happening, the LM steps in and "devides" the things to do up. Not cleaning it all by themselves but helping everyone to be their best. As said before by people here, really everyone should clean their own mess.
I agree with everyone else. A lab manager should be a manager not a cleaner. If that means yelling at people who don't clean up after themselves, so be it.
(And I am also unable to vote unless signed in.)
Ditto on all the comments above. Wow, such harmony of opinions. Is there a significant fraction of your lab that thinks a lab manager should clean?
YES THE DAMN MESSY ONES.
I was just checking to see if my sanity was still in place. Apparently, it is. The people in my lab regularly leave stuff all over and now they claim to want a lab manager to clean up. I want them all to GROW up.
Sorry about the poll. No idea why, Blogger is really losing points with me these days.
It is particularly frustrating because we have some excellent job candidates but messy people keep saying, "S/he has so much experience, I'm not sure s'he'll want to clean benches. Maybe we need someone less experienced." AAARRRGGH.
An experienced manager will save your sanity and money in the long term.
It is particularly frustrating because we have some excellent job candidates but messy people keep saying, "S/he has so much experience, I'm not sure s'he'll want to clean benches. Maybe we need someone less experienced." AAARRRGGH.
The choice of whom to hire as a lab manager should be much more unilateral by the PI than the choice of whom to allow to join a lab as a grad student or post-doctoral trainee. And the PI should be deciding what the lab manager's mandate is, and should be prepared to enforce it with respect to the other members of the lab.
In the absence of these two factors, there is no point in hiring a lab manager.
Sorry, I think the lab manager's job is whatever the PI says it is. Those expectations should be laid out in the beginning. Yes, people should clean up after themselves generally, but if a weekly wipe-down-the-counters-clean-random-glassware-out-of-the sink chore is a waste of time for anybody, it's a waste of time for highly trained postdocs, or, more likely, the PI who ends up doing it out of frustration. If you feel badly about it, give the manager an undergrad underling to do the dishes but it's silly to say that it's somehow 'beneath' a lab manager's dignity.
I've always had undergrad student workers do the random, unclaimed dishes. I find undergrads who simply want a paycheck and are not interested in research. (Sadly, this is not hard to find.)
I am a Lab Manager and I would rather spend my time dragging the sorry culprit who made the mess over to clean it up than clean it up myself. I already have kids at home, I don't get paid to babysit more while I'm at lab. They should take care of themselves.
I agree with comments about hiring undergrads or high school students to wash dishes, rack tips, autoclave etc. That isn't up to a lab MANAGER.. our job is to MANAGE not be a housekeeper. If I wanted to get paid to wash dishes I would have applied at a restaurant. ;)
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