Anecdotes

With the start of a new week, I suppose I should record some anecdotes from "pharm" life. Number one I shall entitle "Safety on the Job". My boss has her EMT license, which is qualification enough in our industry to warrent her appointment to the safety staff. She has been enlisted to monitor fire extinguishers, difibrillators, etc., as well as to administer first aid when necessary. The difibrillators have presented an interesting conundrum though, since the only one available in our building is located in "Steve's office". "Who is Steve?" one asks. Apparently no one knows, since the difibrillators office residence is vacant, implying that "Steve" has moved out and moved on. Some speculate that "Steve" now presides over another building, while others say he left years earlier. Regardless, our one means of defining the location of this life-saving device is by a moniker that is at best outdated. My boss was beside herself. "How is anyone to know where 'Steve's office' is, if no one knows who 'Steve' is?" No appropriate answer was given. She is still resolving this issue...

Number two is "The Hostage". Pipettors come in many shapes and forms. They are the "measuring spoons" (albeit expense ones) of the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and research fields. They are extensions of our hands, but they must be kept in precision shape in order for them to remain useful. One of the micro lab's new pipettors was held hostage by a chemistry laboratory technician who claimed she could not release it to us until the SOP (see Day One) was changed from "Eppendorf pipettor" to simply "pipettor". You guessed it. Our new tool is not made by Eppendorf and so was out of specification for this "pharming" industry! Instead of paying the required ransom (obsequious groveling at said lab tech's feet), we daringly air-lifted the captive pipettor from its prison and began using it again. We can hear the storm brewing...