Anal Retentiveness is Vital to the Chemistry Laboratory
Lab people are inherently anal. We tend to have a bit of OCD and need to be organized and clean. It’s the nature of the lab. As long as everything is in the correct place, people are relatively calm. However, rearrange just one small thing and it throws the entire section into chaos. I was able to witness this last week after I took the initiative to reduce clutter.
I had chemistry’s best interests in mind when I did what I did, but not everyone agreed on what the best interests were. So what was it that I did to bring the entire chemistry lab to a grinding halt, spreading mass hysteria and inciting riots, you ask? I reduced the number of balance tubes for our centrifuges from approximately 75 to a mere 15.
Now, for those that don’t know, in order to do our job here in the lab we utilize centrifuges. Basically, they’re like the spin cycle of a washing machine, but for test tubes of blood. The centrifuge spins the blood tubes at 3500 rpm for 5 minutes. This is to separate the plasma/serum from the red blood cells for testing. In order for centrifuges to work they need to be balanced, if you put a tube on one side you have to have a tube of the same weight directly across from it or you risk having the centrifuge “walk” off the counter-top.
Anyway, for our 3 centrifuges in the lab we had approximately 75 different tubes we could use for balance. This is WAAAYYY too many. If you think about it, you should only need one balance tube for each centrifuge each time you spin it. Anytime you have an even number of tubes to spin you shouldn’t need a balance tube. Now, we do have several sizes and types of centrifuge tubes in use so we do need enough to cover each type of tube and we also have to allow for tubes that aren’t as full as they should be. Even after all of that we should only need a handful of tubes to balance the centrifuge.
So, one night on my last stretch during an uncharacteristically quiet period I decided to sort through our balance tubes and whittle the total down by a few dozen. I kept enough tubes, I thought, so that we would still be able to function easily and balance all of our centrifuges if they were all in use. The 50 or so tubes I chose to exclude I put in a box in a drawer underneath the centrifuges, just in case someone really felt they didn’t have enough to choose from.
I never expected such a negative reaction from the day staff as I received for that little move. They couldn’t believe what I had done, they were livid. They couldn’t function without all 75 of their tubes lined up from fullest to emptiest in neat little rows. Apparently I broke the unwritten commandment of thou shalt not screw with my tubes. In retrospect, I should have seen this coming from the day shifters, they’re known to be quite anti-change, anti-commonsense, and anti-space saving.
When I got back from my 7 days off, all of the tubes were back. Each one lined up in rank, where they’ll sit for the rest of eternity, waiting to be used. Also waiting for me when I got back were dirty looks and sneers from…. the day staff. They’re like a gang, they’re all a good 20-30 years older than those of us on the other two shifts and they all seem to band together to fight change and common sense. I’ve apparently become the embodiment of both of these things and they are none too pleased. Oh well, I shall continue the good fight and hopefully will emerge victorious when they finally retire.
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