Every lab is made up of a cast of characters. Literally. This cast includes, but is not limited to, someone sloppy, someone anal retentive, someone who acts as the regulator/dorm mom, and someone who clearly and demonstratively doesn’t give a hoot what goes on as long as he/she is left alone to the work. It is, therefore, very difficult to get people to act in others’ best interests and to beware of the small things that can make a big difference.
I am not the first one to notice entertaining lab signs, but above being funny or angry, the one in my current lab is plain shaming and manipulative. Wait, I guess that’s funny after all.
And just in case you couldn’t make out the ‘shaming’ part:
I am not ready to divulge which one of the lab characters I most identify with, but I can say that this sign makes me double, no, triple-check that miserable freezer every time I reach in.
I find it amusing that your post and your link involve freezers.
Wonder if the science community should shift its passive aggressive style to the manufactures of freezes…
I have a habit of “humour defacing” passive aggressive notes. Now we don’t get so many…
Ted – There are a few pieces of lab equipment which I consider to be possessed by dark forces, such as pH meters and spectrophotometers. They are just evil, through and through. I wouldn’t count freezers among those. Freezers are just prone to human interference. It’s the humans that make freezers evil, unlike pH meters. Those are inherently evil.
Nathaniel – I may need an example for, you know, educational purposes.
It just needs one more clause to make it complete:
“…you stupid twit”.
Ok, maybe not.
@Anna: Good call about pH meters being possessed
Just a drop more, oh crap, what the, 5.7 to 11.2
Oh argh – Ted, your comment just reminded me of someone who once adjusted the pH of their buffers using the coloured calibration standards.
No, it wasn’t me. :P
Oh sweet lord, that’s terrible. Ridiculous, but terrible. I have done some stupid stuff in my lab life, but that… is something else.