-
A woman model in a white coat poses as a chemist looking intently at a vial.
-
“About 5 years ago had just started at a new biotech as a medicinal chemist. We didn’t have a compound management group, so distributing compounds to the assay chemists fell to the chemists. Essentially, I made compounds and then gave them to another scientist to test the compounds to see how effective they are. I would make the compounds, put them in a vial, and slap a label on them with the identifier code and the chemical structure, and then walk over and give the guy the samples.”
-
In a world of science and intelligence, you would think that power dynamics would be solved. It isn't about how it needs to feel like a big dog in charge; it is about who is the most helpful in the circumstances. Good bosses know when to step back and give praise to the ones actually doing all of the work. Or they at least know when they do not understand. Isn't that what the great philosophers always talked about, too? Didn't Socrates say that the smartest man is the one who knows he knows nothing? Like, come on science nerds, catch up.
-
People posing in a science research lab with test tubes and beakers while appearing to be having a discussion.
-
“One day I accidentally mislabeled 2-3 compounds, which, hey, my bad, I am not infallible, and it messed up the results. Instead of doing the normal thing and coming to talk to me about the mix-up, he decided that it was necessary to send an email to my boss and his boss saying how unprofessional the situation was and how this can’t happen, etc., etc.”
-
"What the guy didn’t realize was that I had a great relationship with my boss and his boss, who both forwarded me the email saying we know accidents happen, but be careful, this guy seems like a real butthead, so just be extra careful.
Here is where the petty revenge happened. I decided to come up with a “foolproof” system that would protect me but also add about 2-3 hours to his workload."
-
Luckily, for our online reading entertainment, this biotech got its petty revenge, and we are for it. Even managers need to face the consequences of their actions. Finding, not only a sneaky way to give this supervisor extra work, but also one that was praised by the higher-ups is simply *chef's kiss*! That is a great scientific achievement. Eureka!
-
A woman model poses in a white coat while peering into a microscope, appearing to do scientific research.
-
“What I ended up doing was no longer putting the identifier code or structure on the vial and instead only using barcode vials. I would put each compound in a barcoded vial and then create an Excel sheet that had what each barcode corresponded to which compound. This required him to scan each vial with a barcode reader and then go through the Excel sheet to determine what it corresponded to, requiring him to spend about 5-10 minutes determining what each compound was. I debuted this system on a set of 200 compounds, and watching him ask in our company Slack if anyone had a barcode reader made me giggle.”
-
A man types, modeling his hands working on a laptop.
-
In all seriousness, managers need to do better. We applaud the higher-up boss who had his employee's back, but also, hire better supervisors, bestie. Don't you have that power? Isn't that like… Your main power? To hire the best staff? Or at least get them trained better in leadership and through those pesky power dynamic games out of the window! Now, that feels like positive evolution!
-
“The best part was that he asked me if we could go back to the old system, and I politely said no because my bosses were legitimately stoked about the new system because it was easier for them to keep track of where everything was. We eventually hired a compound management group that made my system unnecessary, but it was a glorious 3 months.”
Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.