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trinityvixenKarima forwarded me an e-mail today from Dr. Christiano. She's basically the PI for most of the labs in our room, and Karima used to work for her. We share tissue culture hoods with the Christiano folk, information, other equipment, etc etc. The first thing was the subject of discussion. Dr. Christiano's e-mail said, "as she understood it, it was the 'newer' people who were the biggest offenders of the 'rules' of the tissue culture room." She went on to remind the two addressees, my boss and the boss of the two girls next to me, that that meant the new girl from Australia and me.
Rules of the tissue culture room as I understood them before this:
-Spray the work space with ethanol before use.
-Always keep the space sterile by keeping the glass door shut when not in use.
-Do not leave objects behind after you have finished working.
-Spray the work space with ethanol when you're finished, turn off the fluorescent light and turn on the UV light.
-If the red-bagged garbage (medical/hazardous waste) is full, empty it and replace the bag. Same goes for the glass disposal box, and the pipette box.
Of these rules, I am guilty of violating the third and last one. I've left medium behind, outside of the hood, once. Someone came and asked if I was still using it. I said it was a simple mistake, I'd forgotten to put it away, but the hood was cleaned and prepped and ready to go, so there was no real reason to hold that against me. I've left pipette tips in the hood, too, because for transfections, I was not supposed to allow the box to be opened outside of the hood. It seemed easier to leave them in the corner, tucked neatly away. They were less obtrusive, I might point out, than the beaker full of ependorf mini-centrifuge tubes that Dr. Christiano's lab has left in there for probably decades. I might also mention that my tips, labelled with my boss' initials, were frequently used by people other than myself, seeing as how I went through maybe 10-15 tips maximum with each transfection and did three rounds and ended up with a nearly empty box (which usually has 96 tips/a box).
I violated the last rule at first because I honestly was amazed that people left the medical disposal to pile up like it was the kitchen garbage. After being tired of trying to wedge my used tubes between the thirty billion culture flasks (which we don't use, so therefore could not have been mine or the other girl's fault as she doesn't use them either), I took it upon myself to empty the damn thing about once a week as necessary. The glass disposal was worse because it has a top to protect you from shards flying out, but no one ever put it on. I sat and fought to get it closed, I called services to get a new box (which either never arrived or was taken by someone else and not placed in tissue culture), and I replaced bags in the pipette box to boot.
The e-mail said that we need to know the rules and be talked-to so that Dr. Christiano knows that we're aware of these rules. Karima, clearly pissed, though for once not at me, walked me through the rules again. Everytime I bristled and tried to defend myself and say I knew something, she'd cut me off and say, "I know you do, but I don't want to hear from her again. Let's just go through this." As it turned out, it was mostly a rant against Dr. Christiano and her lab, which made me feel better. I'd been rather crushed to read that Dr. Christiano, who, for all purposes, seemed to think I was rather competant when my boss left me alone the first time, considered me a health and experiment risk. Karima and I decided that we would just no longer use the same hood as the Christiano people, nor would we keep restocking the pipettes by it from our own supply (which again, they helped themselves to). Karima said they were dirty--meaning they didn't take proper precautions with their tissue culture equipment (and, after seeing how dirty their hot water bath had gotten, I, for one, believe it)--and that someone who pulled in as much grant money as Dr. Christiano did didn't need to live off a PI with less money in terms of supplies.
So, immediate changes will involve no longer checking on their incubators (which, after the mess with the one I cleaned, I am glad of), nor will we keep any of our supplies in the tissue culture room. We'll bring our box to and from. We will dispose of pipettes properly and not in the glass disposal (honestly! ::GRRR::) so that the box won't close. We'll keep to our one side, and leave their one side alone. If there are more complaints about their hood, it won't affect us. Truthfully, I'd like most to talk to the Aussie gal next to us. She's a bit...well, she doesn't always handle stress or workload well, so I'd like to commiserate, comfort, that kind of thing.
The short version of the rant: a PI complained about the state of the tissue culture room and fingered the culprits as being the new girl next to me and myself. It was a rather low-blow to my already shaken confidence, made worse because it came from this happy-go-lucky woman rather than my rather tetchy boss. Made me feel completely worthless, again. I've gone through the necessary motions of re-examining our tissue culture room procedures, but I'm wondering if I ought to go confront this woman and ask her for the specifics (for possible explanations of my 'offenses' see the cut-tag link). I don't want to go to her angry or hurt and be like "Why are you picking on me? I am very thorough and clean and neat! I do all this grunt work cleaning up after myself and others!" But I want to hear from her how she has come to 'understand' that it is mine and this other girl's fault. She's hardly around, I guess others might have complained, but I want to know what was said. I don't need to know who pointed the finger--they can feel safe in their cowardly anonymity if they so chose, I'm not looking to get them--I just want to know more than a vague, "I don't like what the fuck is going on here," e-mail. Worse, I think this e-mail's gone 'round to the whole lab, which is humilliating. Someone just came to ask Karima about it, if she'd seen it. God, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Must this job do all it can to embarass, belittle, and alienate me?
What do y'all think? Should I go ask what her 'offenses' list details?
Rules of the tissue culture room as I understood them before this:
-Spray the work space with ethanol before use.
-Always keep the space sterile by keeping the glass door shut when not in use.
-Do not leave objects behind after you have finished working.
-Spray the work space with ethanol when you're finished, turn off the fluorescent light and turn on the UV light.
-If the red-bagged garbage (medical/hazardous waste) is full, empty it and replace the bag. Same goes for the glass disposal box, and the pipette box.
Of these rules, I am guilty of violating the third and last one. I've left medium behind, outside of the hood, once. Someone came and asked if I was still using it. I said it was a simple mistake, I'd forgotten to put it away, but the hood was cleaned and prepped and ready to go, so there was no real reason to hold that against me. I've left pipette tips in the hood, too, because for transfections, I was not supposed to allow the box to be opened outside of the hood. It seemed easier to leave them in the corner, tucked neatly away. They were less obtrusive, I might point out, than the beaker full of ependorf mini-centrifuge tubes that Dr. Christiano's lab has left in there for probably decades. I might also mention that my tips, labelled with my boss' initials, were frequently used by people other than myself, seeing as how I went through maybe 10-15 tips maximum with each transfection and did three rounds and ended up with a nearly empty box (which usually has 96 tips/a box).
I violated the last rule at first because I honestly was amazed that people left the medical disposal to pile up like it was the kitchen garbage. After being tired of trying to wedge my used tubes between the thirty billion culture flasks (which we don't use, so therefore could not have been mine or the other girl's fault as she doesn't use them either), I took it upon myself to empty the damn thing about once a week as necessary. The glass disposal was worse because it has a top to protect you from shards flying out, but no one ever put it on. I sat and fought to get it closed, I called services to get a new box (which either never arrived or was taken by someone else and not placed in tissue culture), and I replaced bags in the pipette box to boot.
The e-mail said that we need to know the rules and be talked-to so that Dr. Christiano knows that we're aware of these rules. Karima, clearly pissed, though for once not at me, walked me through the rules again. Everytime I bristled and tried to defend myself and say I knew something, she'd cut me off and say, "I know you do, but I don't want to hear from her again. Let's just go through this." As it turned out, it was mostly a rant against Dr. Christiano and her lab, which made me feel better. I'd been rather crushed to read that Dr. Christiano, who, for all purposes, seemed to think I was rather competant when my boss left me alone the first time, considered me a health and experiment risk. Karima and I decided that we would just no longer use the same hood as the Christiano people, nor would we keep restocking the pipettes by it from our own supply (which again, they helped themselves to). Karima said they were dirty--meaning they didn't take proper precautions with their tissue culture equipment (and, after seeing how dirty their hot water bath had gotten, I, for one, believe it)--and that someone who pulled in as much grant money as Dr. Christiano did didn't need to live off a PI with less money in terms of supplies.
So, immediate changes will involve no longer checking on their incubators (which, after the mess with the one I cleaned, I am glad of), nor will we keep any of our supplies in the tissue culture room. We'll bring our box to and from. We will dispose of pipettes properly and not in the glass disposal (honestly! ::GRRR::) so that the box won't close. We'll keep to our one side, and leave their one side alone. If there are more complaints about their hood, it won't affect us. Truthfully, I'd like most to talk to the Aussie gal next to us. She's a bit...well, she doesn't always handle stress or workload well, so I'd like to commiserate, comfort, that kind of thing.
The short version of the rant: a PI complained about the state of the tissue culture room and fingered the culprits as being the new girl next to me and myself. It was a rather low-blow to my already shaken confidence, made worse because it came from this happy-go-lucky woman rather than my rather tetchy boss. Made me feel completely worthless, again. I've gone through the necessary motions of re-examining our tissue culture room procedures, but I'm wondering if I ought to go confront this woman and ask her for the specifics (for possible explanations of my 'offenses' see the cut-tag link). I don't want to go to her angry or hurt and be like "Why are you picking on me? I am very thorough and clean and neat! I do all this grunt work cleaning up after myself and others!" But I want to hear from her how she has come to 'understand' that it is mine and this other girl's fault. She's hardly around, I guess others might have complained, but I want to know what was said. I don't need to know who pointed the finger--they can feel safe in their cowardly anonymity if they so chose, I'm not looking to get them--I just want to know more than a vague, "I don't like what the fuck is going on here," e-mail. Worse, I think this e-mail's gone 'round to the whole lab, which is humilliating. Someone just came to ask Karima about it, if she'd seen it. God, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Must this job do all it can to embarass, belittle, and alienate me?
What do y'all think? Should I go ask what her 'offenses' list details?
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Date: 2004-08-23 09:36 pm (UTC)