It’s widely known that unemployment creates strain on marriage even when both partners work. New Ohio State University research on employment and divorce suggests that pressure on husbands to be wage earners remains. The focus of Liana Sayer’s study is on how employment status influences both men's and women's decisions to end a marriage.

 

She found that a woman's employment status has no effect on the likelihood that her husband will opt to leave the marriage. However, an employed woman is more likely to initiate a divorce than an unemployed woman. Not only are unemployed men more likely to face divorce actions by their wives, they also are more likely than employed men to initiate divorce proceedings.

 

The study was published in May 2010 in American Journal of Sociology 116:6 (May 2010).

 

Implications for Lab Managers

 

This study suggests that married female employees with unemployed husbands may be facing severe strains in their personal life. How should lab managers and human resources professionals at laboratories respond?

 

The first concern is finding out that there is a problem. Many female employees considering divorce may not wish to share this information with anyone at their workplace particularly managers. Managers shouldn’t ask employees about their marriages but they should be on the alert for changes in women’s workplace behavior. They may be short tempered and have more interpersonal problems with coworkers. If so, they should be counseled only with respect to their workplace behavior. Managers and HR representatives should not ask employees if they are having marital problems.

 

They can also be sensitive to the stresses some of their female staff members are under as a result of their husband’s unemployment. While they can attempt to reduce workplace stresses, this approach is fraught with danger. Giving stressful but high-profile projects to others could expose the laboratory to discrimination lawsuits. So can giving promotions to others thinking that this will reduce the stress a woman employee is under.

 

Perhaps the safest course of action (in terms of heading off potential discrimination lawsuits) is to urge the affected female staff member to discuss her situation with a human resources representative. HP staff members should be aware of counseling groups in the area and refer employees to them.

 

If they do learn of a husband’s unemployment, lab managers and laboratory HR representatives shouldn’t attempt to be marriage counselors but they can supply a sympathetic ear is approached by female employees wanting to discuss their marital situation. However, it helps to be aware of the employment status of woman staff members’ spouses. They can discuss lab policies on employment of spouses. Perhaps an unemployed spouse could be hired at least on a part-time or short-term contract basis.

 

More evidence of poor decision-making as a cause for the Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout recently emerged. The sorry situation holds valuable lessons for lab managers.

 

Houston Chronicle business columnist Loren Steffy noted, “It’s rather amazing, almost a year and a half after BP’s Macondo well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, new details continue to emerge…” in his September 16 column. He was commenting on a September 14 Associated Press report that BP petrophysicist Galina Skripnikova reported in a deposition two months ago that she identified a natural gas deposit 300 feet above the oil-bearing formation. This means that substantially more cement should have been prepared and pumped down the wellbore to seal it (and prevent entry of this natural gas into the well bore, which could triggger a blowout).

 

Some experts believe the lack of additional cement helped cause the disaster while others do not.

 

Her testimony emerged as part of a lawsuit between BP and Halliburton. BP has been blaming Halliburton for problems with the cementing operation saying it caused the blowout.

 

Why is this important in an article about decision-making?

 

Skripnikova made this discovery only the day before the blowout that killed eleven people on the drilling platform. Rather than inform anyone, she flew back from the rig to land. She stated in her deposition that she assumed her information would be passed up the management chain. She apparently did not communicate her findings with the people who would be most affected by her findings: the engineers and others still working on the rig. Time was short and BP was in a rush to plug the well with cement. Her information was only discussed the day after the explosion and blowout.

 

Steffy, the author of a book on the blowout, wrote, “BP’s fractured management structure and its lack of accountability meant no one was directly responsible for getting this potentially vital information to the people actually drilling the well.”

 

Lessons

 

Lesson 1 of this decision-making disaster is that people who generate knowledge must take responsibility for assuring that it gets communicated to people who can make a timely decision based on this knowledge. The Associated Press report and Steffy’s column indicated this did not happen in this situation. In other situations these people could well be laboratory managers and staff members.

 

Lesson 2 is that clear lines of communication and authority are essential if decisions are to be made and communicated in a timely way. According to Steffy, this did not occur before the Macondo well blowout. On the laboratory level this means that responsibility rests with all members of the lab team. For example, if a technician knows that a pressure build-up is occurring or an exotherm is developing in a reactor, he needs to know what steps to take to counteract this before a dangerous situation develops. Alternatively, his chemist should be close at hand to be informed of the situation, make a decision, and execute it before a fire or explosion occurs.

 

Wrap-up

 

Steffy concludes that the situation “shows how seemingly innocuous management decisions can quickly escalate to disaster.” While decisions facing lab managers may not involve human life, they often involve safety or can impact the long-term economic health of the organization.

 

Many laboratory professionals – and their managers – would like to delay their retirements. I wrote about this in an earlier blog. However, this is often not an option for scientists, engineers and technicians who lost their laboratory jobs in the Great Recession. Many older laboratory professionals have experienced forced early retirement. They are competing in the job market with younger people who have lost their jobs and with job-hunting post-docs and graduate students. As a result, it is more difficult for older people to find new employment, particularly employment comparable to the job they lost. Many people are experiencing both financial and personal problems caused by what is, in their perspective, premature retirement.

 

If you are older and have experienced forced early retirement, you may be financially unprepared for retirement. Even if you are, you may be mentally unready for retirement and wish to continue to practice your profession, either on a full-time or part-time basis. What steps can you take to deal with these personal and financial problems caused by forced early retirement?

Professional Alternatives

If you have the financial capacity to live largely on Social Security, a pension and withdrawals from your 401k plan, an acceptable alternative to conventional full-time employment may be consulting, working part-time or working in temporary positions. By providing income these alternatives may enable you to delay drawing on your personal financial reserves or collecting social security earlier and receiving reduced benefits.

The development of personal computers and modern communications has made it possible to conduct a thoroughly professional consulting business out of one’s home. Many other businesses can also be conducted out of a home office. For example, while I do some work in client’s offices, I do most of my consulting and technical writing in my home office, a spare bedroom furnished as an office.

Another alternative is to become more active in professional societies and organizations. For example, much of the volunteer work needed to keep the American Chemical Society functioning, largely governance and programming, is done by volunteers. I have a friend who is a member of not one, but three, Toastmasters clubs and is active in all of them. Of course, one isn’t paid for this volunteer work.

Financial options

Then an unplanned retirement catches you by surprise, you may need to find ways to plug the financial gap created by an early retirement. Begin by learning exactly where you stand. Review your finances. Determine what your retirement income is. Track your monthly expenses.

Determine your monthly income. Besides pension and social security benefits, are you eligible for unemployment benefits? If so, collect them for as long as you can. If you received a lump sum severance package, don’t spend it; add it to your financial reserves.  

Then determine how much you need to cover the basics: grocery, house and car payments, utility bills and gasoline. Talk to your children about them shouldering more of their college expenses.

Health insurance is a major concern. Secure COBRA coverage for your family’s health insurance if you don't have access to coverage through your spouse or some other program.

Reduce expenses

Determine what is a necessity and what is a luxury. Reduce or eliminate past expenses - especially those related to your work life. This includes much clothes shopping and dining out.

You To reduce your spending, you may need to cancel premium cable channels, health club memberships and plans to buy a new car. Although this remains a bad time to sell a house, consider downsizing your home.

If you're age 62 or older, your income options increase with the ability to collect Social Security and tap into traditional IRA accounts without paying a penalty. If you're under 59½, income options that won't trigger penalties are limited. Tapping certain accounts such as a Roth IRA you’ve owned for five years may be feasible.

Review all your investments and assets. Prioritize when it makes sense to begin drawing upon each based on your age. Given likely life spans, you don’t want to withdraw more than 4% annually.

Finding a job

While finding a job comparable to your last position may not be possible, you may be able to find a lower-paying position, a temporary position or a part-time job. Consulting may be an option. Can you be creative and turn a hobby into income?

The key to happiness in unplanned retirement

The key to happiness in unplanned early retirement is to plan for the eventuality before it happens. Then it won’t be such an emotional and financial should you experience unplanned early retirement.

 

 

Scope creep refers to uncontrolled changes in a technical service project's scope. These can swell the amount of work associated with the project. This makes the project take longer and cost more than anticipated. When this occurs neither you nor the customer is happy.

Why project scope creep can occur

 

Scope creep can occur when you do not work with your customer at the beginning of the project to properly define and document its scope. Customers sometimes have vague ideas of what they want or the standards a solution to their problem has to meet. It is important to diplomatically press the customer to get a better definition of what they want or the requirements a solution must meet to be acceptable. Often customers haven’t thought the problem through thoroughly. This can make them uncomfortable when you press them with questions – hence the need for diplomacy.

 

The additional work increases the time needed to complete a project. If your lab isn’t being paid by the hour, scope creep reduces your income because you aren’t working on other projects. Scope creep and the resulting delays can also yield to disagreements with the customer reducing the chances your company will continue to sell to this customer.

 

Some reasons for the unplanned work that occurs because of project creep are:

• customers changing their mind about the project requirements broadening the scope of the manuscript beyond initially agreed upon
• customers expecting services that the laboratory had not originally intended to provide
• customers may not provide all the needed information
• customers being slow in approving achievement of project milestones and thus slow in making incentive payments based on achieving milestones
• poor communication between project participants.

 

Larger projects involving more people are harder to organize and keep organized. Consequently, the tendency towards scope creep is greater in big projects.

 

Taking steps to avoid project creep

So, how can your lab managers and their staff members avoid project creep and its attendant problems? One has to manage the customer’s expectations from the beginning of the project. This means:

 

• having a contract that clearly defines the scope of the work. In the absence of a contract, a clear definition of the project and its scope in meeting minutes or a written summary of a telephone discussion can serve to define the scope of the work and the standards a problem solution must meet to be acceptable. Project definition and scope considerations should include:
  • what you will do for the customer
  • what the customer must do for you (in terms of providing information, samples, etc.)
  • what is included and excluded from the project
  • how much additional work beyond the original scope of the project will cost
• at the beginning of the project, giving the customer clear options to extend the scope of the work. Specify changes in the price of the project and deadlines should the customer extend the scope of the work.
• agree with the customer on:
  • how you will deal with requested changes in the manuscript
• how project delays caused by the client (failure to provide needed information or delays in approving outlines or drafts)  

 

If disagreements do occur, try to understand the customer’s viewpoint.  Even if you disagree with it, this understanding can reduce the severity of disagreements.

 

Consultants working with clients can use similar approaches to reduce the possibility of project scope creep.

 

The era of the Western expatriate manager is ending argues Jeffrey Joerres, CEO of the global staffing firm Manpower, Inc. in the May 2011 McKinsey Monthly Newsletter. It’s time for a local approach, he says.

 

Why is this? According to Joerres expatriate managers are very poor at adapting to local culture. The presence of foreign managers often promotes a belief among local employees that there is a glass ceiling to their own career advancement. This breeds anger and resentment often resulting in increased staff turnover. I’ve seen this resentful attitude myself in a group of about a dozen Bangalore research engineers and junior level managers who reported to an Australian senior level manager. Despite the Australian having good interpersonal skills and an understanding of the situation, overcoming these problems was a difficult, often frustrating process.

 

Independent companies and joint ventures with western firms are growing in number and strength. As they do so they become stronger competitors for western multinational companies. With their intimate knowledge of local markets, business conditions and workplace cultures, native managers are often more effective in managing operations in developing economies.

 

If multinationals staff their own international management ranks with expatriate employees, they often find it more difficult in competing to hire the best local management and technical talent. In addition, intimate local cultural and business knowledge is becoming increasingly important in competing effectively in developing markets.

 

Solving the problem

 

One approach to solving the problem is to make it clear to the expatriate manager and to local employees that the expatriate will be in country for only a limited time. Expatriate managers should have two major responsibilities. The first should be to get new programs or facilities up and running. This should include hiring local managers and staff members. The other is to train local managers to assume their responsibilities, become able to work independently and replace the expatriate in a reasonable amount of time.

 

“Reverse expats”

 

 A reverse expat is a local manager who is placed in charge of an international company’s operation in an emerging. This individual can be then rotated through some of the company’s more mature operations in other countries. Time in these assignments should be measured in months, not years. This process can accelerate the development of emerging economy managers and lead to a more competitive and sustainable organization.

 

Existing managers in the more mature operations play a key role in this process. They need to be aware that the goal isn’t to blindly transfer workplace practices to emerging economy operations. When rigidly practiced by local managers these practices are likely to fail. The goal is to develop local managers’ basic knowledge so they can adapt mature economy practices to operations in their homelands.

 

Parent company managers should work with emerging market managers to develop an action plan for the reverse expatriate’s return home. The principles of project management can be used to define goals, criteria for success and milestones for this process.

 

Lab managers

 

All of the above discussion applies to laboratory managers at various levels as well as managers of business and production operations.

 

Throughout the summer economists have voiced disappointment in the U.S. economy. Recovery from the recession appears to have been losing steam. The Dow Jones barometer of the stock market has lost 1,000 points over couple of months. The S&P has also dropped significantly. Some economists are beginning to talk of a double dip recession. President Obama has proposed a jobs creation program to get the economy growing again.

 

U.S. gross domestic product increased at just a 1.8% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the first quarter, and is likely to post a similarly disappointing 2% pace in the second, according to Barclays Capital. That is a far cry from the average 3.5% first-half pace economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected as recently as February.

 

Meanwhile many major corporations are sitting on cash hoards of billions of dollars. These aren’t being distributed as dividends to shareholders who might spend some of them thereby stimulating the economy. Will this cash eventually be spent on mergers and acquisitions? Short-term, mergers and acquisitions do little to stimulate the economy and often result in job cuts that increase unemployment.

 

What does this mean for lab managers?

 

Lab managers can be caught flat-footed by a major change in the economy. For example, in 1982 a sharp drop in crude oil prices resulted in oilfield service companies laying off field engineers and other field personnel. However, all seemed serene in their laboratories and new employees were still being hired. Apparently high level managers thought any industry slowdown would be short lived. Then a wave of lab layoffs hit many oilfield service laboratories. I saw the lab climate shift from hiring to firing in less than one month. This sharp turnaround made the emotional shock of job losses greater for lab staff members who found themselves unemployed.

 

The sudden pressure on lab managers to reduce spending and cut employment resulted in some poor choices being made. Lab cuts were by a set percentage, often 10%, in all departments and programs without strategic decisions being made on the best programs to keep and to cut.

 

All is not doom and gloom

 

Natural gas produced from low permeability shale formations is improving the competitive position of U.S. petrochemical producers vs. their international competitors. Increasing U.S. production has reduced prices. Stephan Arbogast, a University of Houston finance professor and a former in Exxon Mobil’s chemical business goes so far as to say, “There’s been a startling revolution in the competitive position of the Gulf Coast chemical industry. Right now, what the Gulf Coast has is cheap feedstock and strong demand.” The weak U.S. dollar has improved the competitive position of U.S. chemical producers both at home and in the U.S. export market. Longer term, political unrest in the Middle East is delaying chemical investments there.

 

On the Gulf Coast, "Capital investment is now being reconsidered," said Kevin Swift, chief economist with the American Chemistry Council. "Ten years ago, it was largely being written off." Among the chemical producers putting shutdown U.S. ethylene production units back in operation are Dow Chemical, Bayer, ChevronPhillips and Eastman Chemicals. Nova Chemicals is considering building a new plant in West Virginia.

 

Lower prices for basic petrochemical building blocks will promote lower prices for downstream chemicals made from them also improving the competitive position of some U.S. chemical producers.

 

 

 

 

Throughout the summer economists have voiced disappointment in the U.S. economy. Recovery from the recession appears to have been losing steam. The Dow Jones barometer of the stock market has lost 1,000 points over couple of months. The S&P has also dropped significantly. Some economists are beginning to talk of a double dip recession. President Obama has proposed a jobs creation program to get the economy growing again.

U.S. gross domestic product increased at just a 1.8% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the first quarter, and is likely to post a similarly disappointing 2% pace in the second, according to Barclays Capital. That is a far cry from the average 3.5% first-half pace economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected as recently as February.

Meanwhile many major corporations are sitting on cash hoards of billions of dollars. These aren’t being distributed as dividends to shareholders who might spend some of them thereby stimulating the economy. Will this cash eventually be spent on mergers and acquisitions? Short-term, mergers and acquisitions do little to stimulate the economy and often result in job cuts that increase unemployment.

What does this mean for lab managers?

Lab managers can be caught flat-footed by a major change in the economy. For example, in 1982 a sharp drop in crude oil prices resulted in oilfield service companies laying off field engineers and other field personnel. However, all seemed serene in their laboratories and new employees were still being hired. Apparently high level managers thought any industry slowdown would be short lived. Then a wave of lab layoffs hit many oilfield service laboratories. I saw the lab climate shift from hiring to firing in less than one month. This sharp turnaround made the emotional shock of job losses greater for lab staff members who found themselves unemployed.

The sudden pressure on lab managers to reduce spending and cut employment resulted in some poor choices being made. Lab cuts were by a set percentage, often 10%, in all departments and programs without strategic decisions being made on the best programs to keep and to cut.

All is not doom and gloom

Natural gas produced from low permeability shale formations is improving the competitive position of U.S. petrochemical producers vs. their international competitors. Increasing U.S. production has reduced prices. Stephan Arbogast, a University of Houston finance professor and a former in Exxon Mobil’s chemical business goes so far as to say, “There’s been a startling revolution in the competitive position of the Gulf Coast chemical industry. Right now, what the Gulf Coast has is cheap feedstock and strong demand.” The weak U.S. dollar has improved the competitive position of U.S. chemical producers both at home and in the U.S. export market. Longer term, political unrest in the Middle East is delaying chemical investments there.

On the Gulf Coast, "Capital investment is now being reconsidered," said Kevin Swift, chief economist with the American Chemistry Council. "Ten years ago, it was largely being written off." Among the chemical producers putting shutdown U.S. ethylene production units back in operation are Cow Chemical, Bayer, ChevronPhillips and Eastman Chemicals. Nova Chemicals is considering building a new plant in West Virginia.

Lower prices for basic petrochemical building blocks will promote lower prices for downstream chemicals made from them also improving the competitive position of some U.S. chemical producers.

 

Throughout the summer economists have voiced disappointment in the U.S. economy. Recovery from the recession appears to have been losing steam. The Dow Jones barometer of the stock market has lost 1,000 points over couple of months. The S&P has also dropped significantly. Some economists are beginning to talk of a double dip recession. President Obama has proposed a jobs creation program to get the economy growing again.

 

U.S. gross domestic product increased at just a 1.8% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the first quarter, and is likely to post a similarly disappointing 2% pace in the second, according to Barclays Capital. That is a far cry from the average 3.5% first-half pace economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected as recently as February.

 

Meanwhile many major corporations are sitting on cash hoards of billions of dollars. These aren’t being distributed as dividends to shareholders who might spend some of them thereby stimulating the economy. Will this cash eventually be spent on mergers and acquisitions? Short-term, mergers and acquisitions do little to stimulate the economy and often result in job cuts that increase unemployment.

 

What does this mean for lab managers?

 

Lab managers can be caught flat-footed by a major change in the economy. For example, in 1982 a sharp drop in crude oil prices resulted in oilfield service companies laying off field engineers and other field personnel. However, all seemed serene in their laboratories and new employees were still being hired. Apparently high level managers thought any industry slowdown would be short lived. Then a wave of lab layoffs hit many oilfield service laboratories. I saw the lab climate shift from hiring to firing in less than one month. This sharp turnaround made the emotional shock of job losses greater for lab staff members who found themselves unemployed.

 

The sudden pressure on lab managers to reduce spending and cut employment resulted in some poor choices being made. Lab cuts were by a set percentage, often 10%, in all departments and programs without strategic decisions being made on the best programs to keep and to cut.

 

All is not doom and gloom

 

Natural gas produced from low permeability shale formations is improving the competitive position of U.S. petrochemical producers vs. their international competitors. Increasing U.S. production has reduced prices. Stephan Arbogast, a University of Houston finance professor and a former in Exxon Mobil’s chemical business goes so far as to say, “There’s been a startling revolution in the competitive position of the Gulf Coast chemical industry. Right now, what the Gulf Coast has is cheap feedstock and strong demand.” The weak U.S. dollar has improved the competitive position of U.S. chemical producers both at home and in the U.S. export market. Longer term, political unrest in the Middle East is delaying chemical investments there.

 

On the Gulf Coast, "Capital investment is now being reconsidered," said Kevin Swift, chief economist with the American Chemistry Council. "Ten years ago, it was largely being written off." Among the chemical producers putting shutdown U.S. ethylene production units back in operation are Cow Chemical, Bayer, ChevronPhillips and Eastman Chemicals. Nova Chemicals is considering building a new plant in West Virginia.

 

Lower prices for basic petrochemical building blocks will promote lower prices for downstream chemicals made from them also improving the competitive position of some U.S. chemical producers.

 

Are lab managers being penny-wise and pound-foolish in not hiring contractors to perform work that needs to be done but that their own staff can’t handle in a first-class manner because they are already over-worked?

 

By the numbers

 

Many self-employed consultants and other experts seem to be starve for business and thus for funds. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of self-employed Americans grew from 15.7 million in 2007 to 16.3 million in July 2008. However, since then the number has fallen to 14.7 million in July 2011. Thus there are about 1 million fewer self-employed Americans now than when the recession began. The number of new employer businesses dropped 24 percent to 505,473 on an annual basis in 2010 from 667,341 in 2006. There would seem to be little doubt that the economy is currently constraining entrepreneurial activity.

 

According to Robert Litan, a vice president at the Kauffman Foundation, the number of new employer businesses dropped 24% from 667,341 in 2006 to 505,473 in 2010. (The Kauffman Foundation supports research on startup companies with the goal of promoting entrepreneurship.)

 

Brad Thomas, an analyst with KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. calls small business growth a missing link in the current business “recovery.” A lack of customers has forced many of these entrepreneurs out of business, according to Kristie Arslan, chief executive officer of the National Association for the Self-Employed.

 

There is another problem. A lack of access to capital inhibits start-ups and small companies that want to invest and grow in the U.S. according to Loren Steffy, Houston Chronicle business columnist.

 

Entrepreneurship Initiatives

 

The National Science Foundation is seeking to promote entrepreneurship with its new Innovation Corps (www.nsf.gov/i-corps). The NSF I-Corps is an effort aimed at connecting NSF-funded scientific research with entrepreneurs who can convert these discoveries into useful – and profitable – innovations.

 

The American Chemical Society Presidential Task Force on Innovation and Job Creation released their report, entitled “Innovation, Chemistry & Jobs.” This report is available for free online at www.acs.org/CreatingJobs). The report offers four recommendations to stimulate innovation and job creation in the US chemical industry (and supporting industries such as laboratory instrumentation). The ACS Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs (CEPA) and ACS Corporation Associates have requested funds to jointly sponsor an entrepreneurial initiative, which would implement two of the four recommendations. First, it will establish an educational program to guide budding entrepreneurs through the creation of new chemical businesses. Second, it supports formation of new chemical companies by providing access to the unparalleled informational resources of the Society, as well as other professional resources. These proposals have been approved and will be implemented in early 2012.

 

The ACS National Meeting in San Diego March 25 – March 29, 2012 will include symposia and panel discussions on:

 

• Best Practices for Entrepreneurs
• Chemical Entrepreneurs
• Exponential Technologies: Disruptive Influences and Rapid Advances in Chemistry

 

San Diego program offerings from the Committee on Science include two symposia:

 

• Emerging models for strengthening science education toward scientific workforce development: Blurring the line between science and business education
• Entrepreneurship in Chemistry: Business Plan Presentations for Financing Start-ups

 

The Division of Professional Relations is sponsoring a symposium on Chemistry Education: The Case for Business Skills at the same meeting.

 

The ACS has also created the Chemical Entrepreneurship Council (CEC). CEC members include the Women Chemists Committee, the Committee on Science, the Division of Small Chemical Businesses, the Division of Business Development and Management, the National Collegiate Inventors and the Innovators Alliance. This self-organized working group intends to provide resources and skills to enable chemists to convert research results into commercially viable products.

 

Encouraging employee engagement is a hot topic for lab managers and human resources specialists. Employees psychologically committed to their jobs are more productive and easier to manage. Yet there is a downside to high employee engagement as well. A 2011 Canadian study indicates that key employees, particularly those most committed to their jobs, are often at the greatest risk of experiencing high levels of work stress. The study was published in the January 2011 issue of the journal International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

 

The Canadian survey of 2,737 workers indicated that 18% reported that their jobs were "highly stressful." Of particular interest to lab managers, study results indicated that the chances of experiencing higher stress were greater if the employees were managers or professionals. "The people who report high stress are the ones most invested in their jobs," says Dr. Carolyn Dewa, Senior Scientist and Head of Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's Work and Well-being Research and Evaluation Program. "Employers should be very concerned with keeping this population healthy. From a business perspective, it is in a company's best interest to support these workers."

 

Study findings

 

The survey included Alberta adults aged 18 to 65 who had worked the previous year in full range of settings, including offices, manufacturing, construction, farming and services, among others. Dewa notes, "These sources of stress that we identified will be the same for Canadian workers wherever they are based, as they held true across different locations and workplaces in our survey."

 

The 82% of employees reporting low or no stress were more likely to be male, single, under the age of 25 or work in a small business. Job satisfaction is another important factor. Workers reporting they were satisfied with their jobs were less likely to say that they found their jobs highly stressful.

 

Job characteristics associated with stress

 

The job characteristics associated with stress were feelings of engagement and responsibility. If employees thought their own poor job performance could negatively affect others they tended to experience more stress. If workers felt their poor job performance could result in any physical injury, damage to company's equipment or reputation, or financial loss, they were twice as likely to report high stress.

 

Not surprisingly employees working long or variable hours tended to experience more workplace stress. So did variable work hours such as being on call, doing shift work or having a compressed work week such as a 9/80 plan in which employees work 80 hours over nine workdays and have alternate Fridays off. I found this last surprising since these plans reduce commuting to work by 10% and are intended to help employees better balance their work and personal lives.

 

Other factors promoting workplace stress were a long commute from their home to their workplace. Having to entertain customers or travel for their job also increases work-related stress.

 

Taking action

 

The study's goal was to learn how workers view their responsibilities and job characteristics, and their experience with stress. The study authors hope this information could be used to help develop interventions targeting both workers and their work environment, which is considered a more effective approach than focusing on either alone.

 

"It is important that employees have access to resources that address their mental health concerns.” "Employers should be asking, 'What am I doing to reduce stress in my most valuable people?'"

 

Speaking at an international conference, the speaker had just completed a well-organized, polished presentation. Yet there was almost no applause. In contrast to the many questions other speakers received after their presentations, this speaker didn’t receive any. What went wrong?

 

The speaker had delivered an overly commercial presentation in a non-commercial environment to an audience that didn’t expect it. Whether you or one of your lab staff members is presenting a speech at the upcoming ACS national meeting, a trade association meeting or some other conference, you need to adjust the level of commercialism to meet the audience’s expectations. If you are overly commercial, the consequences can be worse than embarrassing; sometimes they can have a lasting effect on your career.

 

Audience members can vote with their feet. My supervisor and I once paid $99 each to attend a one-day workshop on time management. What we had expected to be a helpful educational workshop was primarily an advertisement for one firm’s time management products. At the lunch break most of the 200 workshop attendees left the workshop hotel; many did not even stay for the complimentary lunch that was provided as part of the workshop.

 

Avoiding Over-commercialism

 

How can you and your staff members avoid these embarrassing and unpleasant situations? First, determine audience expectations and adjust the amount of commercialism in your presentation accordingly. Second, sugarcoat the commercialism remaining in your speech with interesting, useful information.

 

 Determine audience expectations

 

The organization sponsoring a conference customarily sets limits on the amount of commercialism in presentations. Audience members did not pay registration fees and travel costs plus the value of their time to attend a presentation that is essentially a sales pitch.

 

Avoiding excessive commercialism includes designing any slides you use. Many organizations set limitations on commercialism in visual aids.  For example, the Society of Petroleum Engineers informs speakers at its conferences, “Company logos must be limited to the title slide and used only to indicate the affiliation of the presenter and others involved in the work.” The American Chemical Society does not allow trade names to be used in the titles of presentations given at its conferences.

 

So if you are describing the virtues of your employer’s products or services, you must clearly describe the product without using trade names and stick to the facts without exaggeration or hyperbole. Numbers and measurements showing the capabilities or superiority of your product persuade the audience that you are presenting facts not a sales pitch.

 

Comparing your product with other products are fraught with dangers even though your employer may want you to demonstrate the superior performance of your product compared to competitive products. Avoid using trade names for competitive products but note that they commercially available. Should an audience member ask what the names of these products, say that you’ll discuss it privately after the presentation. This strategy has worked well for me in over thirty papers presented at conferences and trade association meetings.

 

 

Deep water offshore oil and gas platforms can lead double lives from the time when drilling begins to after the wells are depleted and oil and gas production shut down. Platforms house the people and equipment to drill the well s and produce oil and gas 100 miles or more offshore in ocean depths of more than one mile. In addition they enable scientists to study deep-sea life and their habitats. Unlike using research vessels, offshore platforms enable scientists to study the same marine habitats over long periods of time.

 

For example, the relationship between Chevron and scientists begins long before a platform is built, when remote operated vehicles (ROVs) roam the soft, loose sedimentary base of the Gulf of Mexico to locate and survey places to drill. Oil companies use ROVs to locate “chemosynthetic communities:” organisms that live around natural oil or gas seeps, in order to avoid drilling in their habitat. At the same time, these seeps often indicate oil and natural gas deposits deep below the ocean floor.

 

ROVs are used for maintenance and repairs throughout the life of deepwater production platforms. The platforms also provide a base for ROVs to study deep water biological communities over very long periods of time, something far more difficult when using oceanographic research ships. Buying their own deepwater ROVs would be very costly for scientists to do on their own.

 

The trend to producing oil and gas using platforms placed in ever deeper water is an incentive to this marine biology research. New species have been identified and captured on film and their behavior studied.

 

Scientists are not just interested in what goes on at the bottom of the sea; they also conduct research closer to the surface. Here, too, oil production platforms play a role.

 

While oil companies such as Chevron may not provide the scientists with funds, they may provide support in the form of the services of ROVs and their operators in conducting observations, transportation to and from platforms, food and shelter.

It is not just scientists who are drawn to the platforms' promise of food and shelter. Many of the estimated 4,000 platforms and other offshore petroleum industry structures in the Gulf of Mexico are more than thirty years old and have become a resource to all kinds of marine life. In deeper water, these ecosystems are like artificial reefs with all kinds of organisms clinging to the submerged poritons of the structure. The more organisms that grow on the structure, the more attractive it becomes to other fish and other creatures that might feed on those organisms, use the habitat as shelter or to lay eggs. All the kinds of things that happen on a natural reef happen on platforms on a smaller scale.

 

These underwater habitats, in turn, attract not only scientists but also divers and fisherman. The problem is when a platform has ceased production, oil companies are legally required to remove them, which means disrupting the thriving ecosystems. However, programs established in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi allow energy companies to donate old structures to the state. This includes giving the state a large portion of the money that would have been spent hauling, dismantling, and disposing of the platform. The funds are deposited in a trust fund dedicated to maintaining, mapping and placing navigation aids on platforms ensuring that they continue to provide a home for a variety of species in the Gulf, ocean currents, seawater chemistry and climate.

 

 

 

Deep water offshore oil and gas production platforms can lead double lives from the time of their installation to after the wells are depleted and oil and gas production shut down. Platforms house the people and equipment to produce oil and gas 100 miles or more offshore in ocean depths of more than one mile. In addition they enable scientists to study deep-sea life and their habitats. Unlike using research vessels, offshore platforms enable scientists to study marine habitats over long periods of time.

 

For example, the relationship between Chevron and scientists begins long before a platform is built, when remote operated vehicles (ROVs) roam the soft, loose sedimentary base of the Gulf of Mexico to locate and survey places to drill. Oil companies use ROVs to locate “chemosynthetic communities,” organisms that live around natural oil or gas seeps, in order to avoid drilling in their habitat. At the same time, these seeps often indicate oil and natural gas deposits deep below the ocean floor.

 

ROVs are used for maintenance and repairs throughout the life of deepwater production platforms. These provide a base for ROVs to study deep water biological communities over very long periods of time, something far more difficult using oceanographic research ships. Access to ROVs would be very costly for scientists to obtain on their own. (ROVs also played an important role in controlling the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.)

 

The trend to producing oil and gas using platforms placed in ever deeper water is an incentive to this research. New species have been identified and captured on film and their behavior studied.

 

Scientists are not just interested in what goes on at the bottom of the sea; they also conduct research closer to the surface. Here, too, oil production platforms play a role.

 

While oil companies such as Chevron may not provide the scientists with funds, they may provide support in the form of the services of ROVs and their operators in conducting observations, transportation to and from platforms, food and shelter.

 

Platforms attract marine life

 

It is not just scientists who are drawn to the platforms' promise of food and shelter. Many of the estimated 4,000 platforms and other offshore petroleum industry structures in the Gulf of Mexico are more than thirty years old and have become a resource to all kinds of marine life. In deeper water, these ecosystems are like artificial reefs with all kinds of organisms clinging to the structure. The more stuff that grows on the structure, the more attractive it becomes to other fish and other creatures that might feed on those organisms, use the habitat as shelter or to lay eggs. All the kinds of things that happen on a natural reef happen on platforms on a smaller scale.

 

These underwater habitats, in turn, attract not only scientists but also divers and fisherman. The problem is when a platform has ceased production, oil companies are legally required to remove them, which means disrupting the thriving ecosystems. However, programs established in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi allow energy companies to donate old structures to the state. This includes giving the state a large portion of the money that would have been spent hauling, dismantling, and disposing of the platform. The funds are deposited in a trust fund dedicated to maintaining, mapping and placing navigation aids on platforms ensuring that they continue to provide a home for a variety of species in the Gulf, ocean currents, seawater chemistry and climate.

 

Employees – and lab managers as well – worried about being laid off seldom perform at their best. If many lab staff members are worried about keeping jobs, job security jitters affect overall lab productivity and morale.

The United States has emerged from the recession but for many it doesn’t feel like it. Consulting firm Right Management‘s 2011 survey of nearly 600 employees in a variety of jobs and industries indicated that 71% felt less secure in their jobs this year than last. Unemployment remains at 9.0%. This figure only considers those people actively job hunting. Those who have given up at least temporarily on finding a job swell this number. Hiring continues to be at a modest rate with the economy adding about 200,000 jobs monthly. Many college and high school students have experienced great difficulties in finding summer jobs in part due to federal, state and local government budget cuts.

 

64% of small-business executives surveyed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in late June, said they weren't expecting to add to their payrolls in the next year. Another 12% planned to cut jobs. Only 19% planned to increase their work forces. The main reason? In a May survey of its members, the National Federation of Independent Business released discouraging hiring findings. For the first time since September 2010, more companies planned to reduce staff than hire. One reason - many small businesses remain starved for capital and reluctant to add jobs according to a Houston Chronicle report (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/7616109.html). Another reason - in a typical recovery, improved profits at larger companies result in more contracts for smaller ones. Many small business owners see few examples of cash-rich big businesses increasing contract work.

This is a cause for worry among some lab managers relying on contract work. Many employees worry as they have watched friends and family members get laid off and struggle to find new jobs. So even at laboratories spared layoffs worries about job security persist among many staff members.

 

Dealing with the problem

 

While lab managers can’t promise job security, they can ease staff members’ jitters. The best place to start is with one-on-one discussions with staff members about their career goals. Managers should emphasize the importance of accepting job assignments and taking advantage of company benefits that will help them improve their professional credentials.

 

As part of this discussion, use the principle of cascading goals (http://labmanager.com/?articles.view/articleNo/3402/article/Performance-Reviews , http://www.labmanager.com/?articles.view/articleNo/3728/article/Competing-Priorities , http://www.labmanager.com/?articles.view/articleNo/4204/article/How-Lab-Managers-Can-Implement-Business-Strategies and http://www.labmanager.com/?articles.view/articleNo/4175/) to help your staff members understand how each fits into the department’s and the lab’s plans for achieving goals and strategies for success.

 

Discuss their career goals with staff members. After learning what their goals are, discuss how in-house and company training programs can help them achieve these goals. To try to assure that adequate funds are available, press for their inclusion in our department or the laboratory budget.

 

Encourage staff members to keep abreast of business news about their employer. When he owned specialty chemical manufacturer Tomah Products, Mr. Steven King would personally present quarterly business results to all employees. He would identify areas in which the company was doing well and areas in which improvement was needed. When business hit a several month long rough patch, he announced there would be no layoffs but would be a temporary freeze in hiring and salaries plus a reduction in the corporate contribution to the 401k plan.

 

While these measures certainly were not popular, the employees were relieved to know where we stood. At the time my lab group was working in space rented from a major chemical company. There was a major difference in our stress levels and those of our landlord’s lab personnel.

 

Unlike Mr. King, lab managers don’t have the knowledge or authority to make promises that there won’t be layoffs. What they can do is discuss how each employee’s job responsibilities and continuing education can more strongly position them in the job market should the worst occur and there be a staff reduction.

 

 

 

 

Hiring managers should look for enthusiasm in job candidates during screening and on-site interviews. Enthusiasm indicates job candidates are interested in working for the employer and excited about their profession. This enthusiasm is usually sustained when on the job. It makes it easier for employees to endure discouraging periods on the job and persist in their work until they obtain the desired results. Enthusiastic employees promote good morale and productivity in others. They are people others are eager to work with and to work for.

 

There is an interesting scene in the television show JAG about military lawyers that seems relevant. In the first episode of the second season, law student Ensign Bud Roberts joins the legal staff. The admiral appoints him to assist two more experienced lawyers on a critically important case. When a state department official protested citing Roberts’ inexperience, the admiral noted the ensign’s enthusiasm and said it could be valuable in solving the case. Of course, the script was written so the admiral’s prediction came true. Nevertheless, in real life an individual’s enthusiasm can sustain him or her when solving difficult problems and also be contagious infecting coworkers.

 

Enthusiasm during employment interviews

 

How does enthusiasm shine through during employment interviews? Enthusiastic candidates indicate their enjoyment of lab work and their interest in the employer by their behavior. Those looking for their first job are enthusiastic about their academic work, their college, their professors and fellow students. Experienced candidates are enthusiastic about their accomplishments, technology field and industry.

 

Their questions let hiring managers know they have spent time learning about the employer and about the job opening. Enthusiastic candidates use this knowledge to make a case for their being an outstanding choice to fill the available position.

 

Enthusiastic candidates are intensely interested in the job opening. They want to know why the position they are interviewing for is vacant. They may ask about the previous occupant of the position and even ask to talk with the individual to learn more about the job opening. Enthusiastic candidates also are interested in how they will fit in with the work group to which they are assigned.

 

The questions enthusiastic candidates ask are not just about their first assignment but also about what they would be doing in the future and what opportunities are available to grow professionally.  In particular, enthusiastic job candidates are interested in upward mobility.

 

Enthusiastic people are enthusiastic about more than just their profession and the possibility of employment with your organization. They usually are enthusiastic about hobbies or outside interests. Asking about these during meal breaks can enable you to judge their enthusiasm.

 

Detecting fake enthusiasm

 

There are always some candidates who manufacture fake enthusiasm about a job opening and employer. Some of these may put on a convincing act. However, by observing candidates closely and asking behavioral questions, hiring managers usually can see though a convincing actor. Also, it’s difficult to sustain fake enthusiasm during the course of an all-day on-site interview.

 

Times when candidates relax their guard can also enable hiring managers and their staff members see through an act. Meals with candidates and lab tours are such times. Candidates certainly aren’t relaxing during employment interview seminars. However, fake enthusiasm is difficult to maintain during a 30-45 minute seminar.

 

Final remarks

 

It usually doesn’t take special training for hiring managers to detect and gauge enthusiasm. For example, when I sit with job hunters to discuss how to improve their resumes, it is easy to detect enthusiasm when they talk about their research.

 

The U.S. Navy offers an interesting lesson to laboratories on how to get more work done with reduced staffing levels. During the Cold War guided missile cruisers were manned by 380 people. Today those same cruisers are manned by 310 people. Future cruisers will be manned by only 150 people. With smaller crews, each crew member is more important in executing the ships mission and has more responsibility that in the past.

 

Doing more with less is the challenge facing many lab managers, particularly those managing small labs for small companies. A recent survey indicated that small companies have been reducing hiring for several months. The latest monthly survey indicated that more small firms plan to reduce staffing levels than expanding them. So a major aspect of the challenge of doing more with less is to handle increased workloads with a static or reduced workforce. Ideally this is done without increasing the stress levels your staff members’ experience. Another aspect is handling increased workloads with reduced capital equipment budgets.

 

Staffing levels

 

Doing more with less is possible. Laboratories can learn from the U.S. Navy. In World War II destroyers were manned by 1,142 officers and sailors. During the Cold War approximately 25 years ago, guided missile cruisers as large as or larger than these destroyers and packing far more destructive force were manned by only 380 people. The reduction in crew size means that the annual operating cost of these cruisers is much less than that of World War II destroyers.

 

Today these same cruisers are manned by 310 people. Future cruisers with even greater capabilities will be manned by only 150 people.

 

The reduced crew sizes are made possible by extensive automation and computerization of many of the ships systems as well as the weapons themselves. Each crew member has greater responsibility and, when fully trained, operates more independently of officer supervision.

 

With smaller crews, each crew member is more important in executing the ship’s mission and has more responsibility than in the past. They also have a greater spectrum of jobs to do than previous sailors.

 

Applying lessons in the lab

 

So how does this translate to the lab?

 

Laboratory information management systems (LIMS) interfaced with more capable laboratory instrumentation means it takes less time to assemble and integrate data. Lab personnel can spend less time running analyses, assembling data and writing reports and more time in the high value activity of interpreting the results. They can issue reports more rapidly.

 

Electronic lab notebooks can also aid in organizing data and results and storing them in a more easily retrievable way.

 

Personnel management

 

Managers can best capitalize on this technology through improved personnel management and training practices. This includes hiring technicians with the training and education to quickly learn how to operate today’s more sophisticated equipment. In many cases technicians will be assembling and interpreting data and writing reports, activities once reserved for scientists.

 

Training programs will be needed to keep lab personnel skills up to date. Many in today’s lab work force are more interested in continuing education than their peers of a generation ago. Some are interesting in moving out of the laboratory into jobs in business management, sales, marketing and other facets of business operations. Others want to stay in the laboratory but may be interested in moving into various management positions.

 

Many of today’s lab staff members need skills such as project management not traditionally thought of as laboratory skills. Project management, time management and interpersonal skills enable lab staff members to work more efficiently.

 

They have to be able to do this on their own. The command and control system that worked well in the past is less effective when the number of managers is limited and managers are often expected to be hands-on team leaders who don’t spend all their time supervising others.

 

Lab staff members are also fulfilling other responsibilities not traditionally thought of as lab skills. For instance, technicians at many labs keep customers informed of progress in completing projects, make both informal and formal oral reports to customers and prepare written reports.

 

Employees – and lab managers as well – worried about being laid off seldom perform at their best. If many lab staff members are worried about keeping jobs, job security jitters affect overall lab productivity and morale.

 

The United States has emerged from the recession but for many it doesn’t feel like it. Consulting firm Right Management‘s 2011 survey of nearly 600 employees in a variety of jobs and industries indicated that 71% felt less secure in their jobs this year than last. Unemployment remains at 9.0%. This figure only considers those people actively job hunting. Those who have given up at least temporarily on finding a job swell this number. Hiring continues to be at a modest rate with the economy adding about 200,000 jobs monthly. Many college and high school students have experienced great difficulties in finding summer jobs in part due to federal, state and local government budget cuts.

 

Meanwhile many small businesses remain starved for capital and reluctant to add jobs according to a “Houston Chronicle” report (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/7616109.html). In a May survey of its members last month, the National Federation of Independent Business found that for the first time since September, more companies planned to reduce staff than hire. One reason - in a typical recovery, improved profits at larger companies result in more contracts for smaller ones. Many small business owners see few examples of cash-rich big businesses increasing contract work.

This is a cause for worry among some lab managers relying on contract work. Many employees worry as they have watched friends and family members get laid off and struggle to find new jobs. So even at laboratories spared layoffs worries about job security persist among staff members. Staff members see budget cuts in areas such as travel budgets, maintenance and food for staff events. With hiring limited at many labs, staff members are working harder because of increased workloads as business recovers.

 

Dealing with the problem

 

While lab managers can’t promise job security, they can ease staff members’ jitters. The best place to start is with one-on-one discussions with staff members about career goals. Emphasize the importance of taking on job assignments and taking advantage of company benefits that will help them improve their professional credentials.

 

As part of this discussion, use the principle of cascading goals (http://labmanager.com/?articles.view/articleNo/3402/article/Performance-Reviews , http://www.labmanager.com/?articles.view/articleNo/3728/article/Competing-Priorities , http://www.labmanager.com/?articles.view/articleNo/4204/article/How-Lab-Managers-Can-Implement-Business-Strategies and http://www.labmanager.com/?articles.view/articleNo/4175/) to help your staff members understand how each fits into the department’s and the lab’s plans for achieving goals and strategies for success.

 

Discuss their career goals with staff members. After learning what their goals are, discuss how in-house and company training programs can help them achieve their goals. To try to assure that adequate funds are available, press for their inclusion in our department or the laboratory budget.

 

Encourage staff members to keep abreast of business news about their companies. When he owned specialty chemical manufacturer Tomah Products, Mr. Steven King would personally present quarterly business results to all employees. He would identify areas in which the company was doing well and areas in which improvement was needed. When business hit a several month long rough patch, he announced there would be no layoffs but would be a temporary freeze in hiring and salaries plus a reduction in the corporate contribution to the 401k plan.

 

While these measures certainly were not popular, the employees were relieved to know where we stood. At the time my lab group was working in space rented from a major chemical company. There was a major difference in our stress levels and those of our landlord’s lab personnel.

 

Unlike Mr. King, lab managers don’t have the knowledge or authority to make promises that there won’t be layoffs. What they can do is discuss how each employee’s job responsibilities and continuing education can more strongly position them in the job market should the worst occur and there be a staff reduction.

 

 

Remind staff members of their benefits

 

 

Be sure staff members are familiar with severance benefits. Be sure they are familiar with company benefits that can help them improve their professional credentials.

 

A software engineer who works for a defense contractor says he has “considerable anxiety” about his job stability. The engineer, who asked to remain anonymous because he fears possible retaliation by his employer, says foreign guest workers and the continued offshoring of jobs threaten veteran technology professionals.

 

 

Throughout the spring economists have voiced disappointment in the U.S. economy. Recovery from the recession appears to have been losing steam. The Dow Jones barometer of the stock market has lost 500 points over the past month. The S&P has also dropped significantly. Some economists are beginning to talk of a double dip recession.

 

The rosy view most economists had at the start of the year has given way to a more sober reality. U.S. gross domestic product increased at just a 1.8% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the first quarter, and is likely to post a similarly disappointing 2% pace in the second, according to Barclays Capital. That is a far cry from the average 3.5% first-half pace economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected as recently as February.

 

Meanwhile many major corporations are sitting on cash hoards of billions of dollars. These aren’t being distributed as dividends to shareholders who might spend some of them thereby stimulating the economy. Will this cash eventually be spent on mergers and acquisitions? Short-term, mergers and acquisitions do little to stimulate the economy and often result in job cuts that increase unemployment.

What does this mean for lab managers?

 

Lab managers can be caught flat-footed by a major change in the economy. For example, in 1982 a sharp drop in crude oil prices resulted in oilfield service companies laying off field engineers and other field personnel. However, all seemed serene in their laboratories and new employees were still being hired. Apparently high level managers thought any industry slowdown would be short lived. Then a wave of lab layoffs hit many oilfield service laboratories. I saw the lab climate shift from hiring to firing in less than one month. This sharp turnaround made the emotional shock of job losses greater for lab staff members who found themselves unemployed.

 

The sudden pressure on lab managers to reduce spending and cut employment resulted in some poor choices being made. Lab cuts were by a set percentage, often 10%, in all departments and programs without strategic decisions being made on the best programs to keep and to cut.

 

All is not doom and gloom

 

Natural gas produced from low permeability shale formations is improving the competitive position of U.S. petrochemical producers vs. their international competitors. Increasing U.S. production has reduced prices. Stephan Arbogast, a University of Houston finance professor and a former in Exxon Mobil’s chemical business goes so far as to say, “There’s been a startling revolution in the competitive position of the Gulf Coast chemical industry. Right now, what the Gulf Coast has is cheap feedstock and strong demand.” The weak U.S. dollar has improved the competitive position of U.S. chemical producers both at home and in the U.S. export market. Longer term, political unrest in the Middle East is delaying chemical investments there.

 

On the Gulf Coast, "Capital investment is now being reconsidered," said Kevin Swift, chief economist with the American Chemistry Council. "Ten years ago, it was largely being written off." Among the chemical producers putting shutdown U.S. ethylene production units back in operation are Cow Chemical, Bayer, ChevronPhillips and Eastman Chemicals. Nova Chemicals is considering building a new plant in West Virginia.

 

Lower prices for basic petrochemical building blocks will promote lower prices for downstream chemicals made from them also improving the competitive position of some U.S. chemical producers.

 

 

 

It is critical for lab managers to hire job candidates who will be real contributors and not just those who have learned to interview well. So when I interview job candidates, I ask them to discuss real examples of their skills and accomplishments. It’s easy for job hunters to say they are outstanding scientists or engineers, are excellent communicators or leaders. However, look for actual examples in their résumés and cover letters. Ask them to provide examples during screening or on-site employment interviews.

 

Oral and written presentation skills

 

Also ask them for examples or evidence that they’ve developed the generic skills such as teamwork and leadership they claim in their résumés and cover letters. For example, when candidates claim to have excellent oral presentation skills, I check to see if they have given many papers at conferences. If they are members of Toastmasters International, this is evidence they are working to improve their oral communication skills. So I’ll ask them if they are members and to describe their most recent Toastmasters speech project. Of course their discussions with you and your coworkers during interviews provide more evidence of their oral communication skills.

 

Job candidates’ employment interview seminars provide excellent evidence of their oral presentation skills as well as their scientific accomplishments. Questions from the audience can indicate how the candidate goes about solving scientific problems.

 

Another common claim is excellent written communication skills. Their résumés and cover letters can provide evidence of this. So can their e-mails.

 

Questions to experienced candidates can provide information on how they solved or helped solve business problems. For example, have they accompanied sales representatives on customer calls? One question I like to ask candidates in one-on-one discussions is, “What are the three most important qualities that make you a good lab scientist?”After they answer I will ask them to provide specific examples of at least one of these qualities.

 

Leadership skills

 

Currently it’s “hot” to claim leadership skills. Check their résumés and cover letters for evidence that they have held leadership positions in on-campus and professional organizations. I usually ask candidates questions about these leadership activities.

 

Leadership in the work environment is also relevant. For example, during my post-doc, my professor frequently traveled on business. I filled in teaching his sophomore organic class. I also supervised his graduate students in his absence. During interviews I would provide an anecdote about how one of his graduate students, who was intimidated by the professor, had an experimental technique problem he just couldn’t solve. I kept the story succinct but did provide details of the problem. His difficulties led him to absent himself from the laboratory for days at a time. I called him in one week when the professor was out and we worked together on the problem. By going back to basics, we found an acceptable solution in a day. I made a friend for life.  

 

Probing other skills

 

Meeting deadlines is important. So I ask experienced candidates for examples of how they met project deadlines. I also ask them for examples of how they worked with a supplier or a customer to solve a problem. I ask them to quantify or explain results in terms of time or money saved, increased output or improvement and do not ask about proprietary details.

 

I ask new graduates, postdocs and experienced laboratory scientists how their achievements and skills can be applied to the job for which they are applying.

 

Put all this together and it can provide good evidence of how the candidate will fare as an employee in your organization. Probing these issues during screening interviews can help assure that you invite only the best candidates to on-site interviews.

 

In a perfect laboratory managers would accept staff members for taking calculated risks even if the outcome isn’t successful. Coworkers wouldn’t steal others ideas and credit would be given where it is due. Sadly, in reality some managers blame staff members who take calculated risks in return for big potential rewards. Some lab managers pass off employees’ ideas as their own. So do some coworkers. These behaviors erode trust and teamwork while stifling creativity.

 

Thankfully there are few lab work groups like this. But they do occur. These behaviors can be very destructive both to the work groups in which the problems occur and other work groups observing these behaviors. They can also be destructive to the careers of lab managers who steal ideas and blame staff members for problems and for those who don’t participate in these destructive behaviors but do tolerate them.

 

I have worked twice, at two different companies, in work groups in which this kind of behavior was commonplace. In one a mentor routinely took credit for the ideas of mentees often ruthlessly criticizing them in front of high-level managers as they tried to give presentations on their work. My lab department manager in another company bottled up new products at a time of severe economic downturn because he feared the risks of introducing unsuccessful new products into the marketplace. The result in both companies was low morale among many of the lab employees and reduced creativity and productivity. Lab managers aren’t immune from these feelings. These workplaces become highly politicized and cliques formed.

 

Prevention and cure for the blame game

 

How can you, as lab manager, prevent or reduce these problems? Begin by taking a problem-solving point of view when a project fails. Instead of playing the blame game and pointing fingers at staff members, ask your staff members and project teams, “What could we have done better” or “How could we have avoided this problem.” Get the discussion started by saying, “Here's what I could have done better.”

 

Encouraging all staff members to practice the basics of project management can help prevent small problems from becoming big ones. Monitor delays in achieving early project milestones carefully. These early delays can indicate problems that become far more severe if not effectively addressed in a timely way. Corrective action can be taken or projects killed before excessive amounts of time, effort and money have been expended. Monitoring project budgets from the initiation of projects can help assure that projects don’t go over budget.

 

Individual perspective

 

If you are blamed for a failure, it is much better to take a problem-solving perspective and discuss what you could have done better and how you would prevent similar situations in the future. This approach makes it more difficult for others to attack you and continue playing the blame game. Unfortunately many people become very defensive about their mistakes and even attack others seeking to shift the blame. Talk about destructive behavior! This doesn’t accomplish anything constructive and lengthens the time in which the failure remains a divisive workplace issue with adverse effects on your own career.

 

Focusing on the future is how both companies and individuals grow. Focus on the future and ask yourself, “What should I learn that I can use in the future? What different things can I do next time?”

 

 

Women have lower career expectations than men. They expect lower salaries and longer periods between promotions than their male counterparts according to a new study from business professors Linda Schweitzer, Ed Ng and Sean Lyons of Carleton University, Dalhousie University and University of Guelph respectively. When comparing starting salary expectations of Canadian female and male university students, they found that women predict their starting salaries to be 14% less than did men. This expected wage gap widens over the course of their careers with women anticipating their earnings to be 18% less than men after five years on the job. Women also expected to wait about two months longer than men for their first step up the corporate ladder.

 

These findings were for 23,000 Canadian college students pursuing majors in a variety of fields. Gender gaps in expectations of salaries and promotions were greatest among students planning to enter the male-dominated fields of science and engineering.

 

ACS survey findings

 

These findings are generally consistent with the results of the latest American Chemical Society Starting Salary Survey (http://pubs.acs.org/isubscribe/journals/cen/89/i11/html/8911acs1.html). Newly graduated women received lower median salaries than for men at the bachelor’s and master’s degree levels. The annual salary difference in favor of men was $3,500 at the bachelor’s level and $13,500 at the master’s level. The trend reversed itself for Ph.D.s with women receiving $2,700 more than their male counterparts. "It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg-situation," said Sean Lyons. "Women know that they currently aren't earning as much as men so they enter the workforce with that expectation. Because they don't expect to earn as much, they likely aren't as aggressive when it comes to negotiating salaries or pay raises and will accept lower-paying jobs than men, which perpetuates the existing inequalities."

 

"This study shows that women aren't blissfully ignorant and know the gender gap exists," observed Lyons. He suggested that the difference in salary and promotion expectations may reflect inflated career expectations of young men. "Overall we found the male students' expectations are way too high. These results may indicate that women are just more realistic about their salary expectations."

 

Reasons for the gaps

 

Are there reasons other than discrimination that can explain these salary and promotion disparities in starting salaries and initial promotions between the genders?

 

One factor could be gender differences in career priorities, Lyons said. The study found that women were more likely to choose balancing their personal life with their careers and contributing to society as top career priorities. In contrast men preferred priorities associated with higher salaries and career advancement. "It may be that women expect to trade off higher salaries for preferences in lifestyle." Women's lower expectations might also reflect historical inequities often related to them by older women in their career field.

 

Despite these different career expectations, the study found women and men have the same levels of self confidence and sense of competency. "Our study shows women don't feel inferior to men and view themselves as every bit as capable as their male counterparts," Lyons said.

 

The manager’s role

 

If course it’s up to lab managers to offer equal starting salaries combined with equitable raises and promotions to their men and women staff members. Other things being equal, it is possible that women may in general accomplish less over the course of a career based on their placing a greater emphasis on balancing their personal and professional lives. Women are usually still the primary caregivers for their children and for elderly parents. Few men take paternity leaves that last as long as their spouse’s maternity leaves. Nevertheless, decisions regarding raises and promotions must be made on an individual basis considering only each employee’s contributions and not on generalities about salaries and promotions for the two genders.

 

It was a long time ago but I still remember one manager telling me my contribution was greater than a colleague’s but he received a larger raise because he had a family to support. Another time a woman staff member came to me for advice. Our manager told her that because he was a husband and the primary financial support for his family, the guy had received a larger raise than she had despite her superior performance. The only consideration in these and other cases should be the individual’s contributions, not their personal or financial circumstances.

 

Given the greater frequency of two-career couples today, one would expect that more males would be strong proponents for fair and equitable treatment of their female coworkers.

 

 

I once had a manager who equated managing his research group to being the father of a large, unruly family. Such was his personal tact that he often brought this up in group meetings. However, the analogy has some truth to it. As children mature and gain adult skills, they push for more freedom in their personal lives. They use their peers as metrics to define appropriate levels of freedom and personal autonomy according to Christopher Daddis, psychology professor at The Ohio State University, who published his research in the journal Child Development.

 

Professional Development in the Lab

 

Can the analogy be made that expanding the boundaries of personal authority is a normal part of professional development in the laboratory? I think so. Undergraduate and new graduate students normally begin their research careers working under the close supervision of their professors, post-docs, experienced graduate students and more experienced undergraduate research students.  As they develop laboratory experience, they can be trusted to work safely. They also better understand what they are studying and what their results mean. Thus they don’t need to rely on others for advice so frequently.

 

The same is true in industry but with a different emphasis. New employees usually have the scientific knowledge to do their job but often need coaching on the employer’s specific technology and what related work was previously done in the employer’s laboratories. Where the new employee really needs coaching and advice from managers and mentors is on how to manage others such as technicians assigned to them, procedures to get supplies, who to see regarding specific questions and the general workplace culture.

 

The Maturation Process

 

As new employees gain the needed knowledge and experience, like teenagers growing up, they seek more autonomy. This is when dissatisfaction can arise. Daddis’ research indicated that teens' perceptions of peer freedom predicted desired levels of autonomy. However, teens consistently overestimated the actual levels of their peers' autonomy, assuming that others had more freedoms than they did. Is the same true of new employees? I know that when beginning my industrial career I observed the interactions between other recent hires and our manager and mentors. I would note when other new employees would get to go to conferences and seemed to be working more independently than I.

 

It is this desire for increased autonomy that can lead to frayed relationships with managers and mentors. It is easy to settle into patterns of behavior with inexperienced employees and remain in these patterns even though recent hires are gaining new capabilities and can work more independently. Managers and mentors need to realize that the recent hires they supervise are maturing in their capabilities and need to be allowed more autonomy.

 

When recent hires are ready for increased autonomy varies from one individual to another. It depends on their personalities, how well they work with others and how rapidly they absorb the technical knowledge they need to work independently. Managers’ and mentors’ supervisory styles also can affect how quickly new hires develop to the point when they are ready to work independently and supervise others.

 

Of course, recent hires talk to each other and often rely on these peers to gauge the reasonableness of their own desires for additional freedoms.

 

 

There are six methods that you can use to control your career as a lab manager. What are the 6 C’s of control?

Control the clock

Some of us spend our entire careers struggling with time management. Time management is a skill most of us are always trying to improve. Effective time management requires productive work habits. Learn the length of time you can work productively without a break. Then schedule your daily work schedule to provide some time blocks of this length for your most important tasks. Use shorter time blocks, for short tasks such as writing e-mails, reading, telephone calls, etc. Also understand what times of day you are most productive. Then schedule your most demanding tasks for this time.

Control your interruptions. Interruptions can kill productivity – primarily by interrupting your chain of thought. So use caller ID to screen phone calls and answer only the truly important ones immediately. Otherwise, schedule times when you will answer telephone messages and also originate calls of your own.

Control your concepts

Make good use of your creative imagination. When I’m exercising, in the shower or engaged in safe, intellectually undemanding tasks, I will think about workplace problems and new projects. I’ll often plan an upcoming presentation or report. As a result of this preliminary conceptualizing, I often can write short documents or prepare PowerPoint slides quite quickly using short time blocks or unexpected openings in my schedule.

 

Control your contacts.

 

Who you know is how you grow. So focus your attention adding outstanding scientists and managers to your professional network. Make your contacts value you by providing value to them. However, your time is too valuable to spend it on people who are overly demanding or ungrateful for your assistance.

 

Control your communications

 

Both your written and oral communications should be focused and concise. In particular, communicate project requirements and deadlines clearly. Hone your effectively listening skills. In particular, ask leading questions to obtain the information you need from others.

 

Control your commitments

 

It is often hard for managers to turn down work. Yet over-commitment can lead to slapdash execution and missed deadlines. There is nothing that will destroy a relationship your relationships with colleagues and customers faster and more completely than not meeting a deadline or turning in a work product that requires a lot of rework.

I find a four-step process helpful in meeting deadlines:

 

1. Use month at a glance calendar to track deadlines and your progress in meeting them.
2. Set your own completion dates for all your projects. Make these at least three days in advance of the actual deadlines. That way, if you fall behind schedule, you can still meet the deadline.
3. Develop intermediate milestones with completion dates for big projects. Meeting these will keep you on target to meet your project completion deadline. 
4. Negotiate a revised deadline as soon as you can see there will be a major problem meeting the original assigned deadline.

 

Control your concerns

 

Recognize when a project will not provide the needed results in a timely, cost-effective way. It may be difficult for you and your staff members to admit this. However, few things are less productive than pouring more time, effort and money into a project that just will not provide the needed results. One has to move on to a productive project and not dwell on these frustrations of terminating a project you’re emotionally attached to. Getting over these frustrations and moving on will enable you to better direct your energy towards future success.

Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression is a significant workplace concern in part because it is related to the productivity of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) employees. As a result, lab managers need to be concerned with professional equity for GLBT employees as well as for other minority groups.

 

Barbara Belmont, laboratory manager at American Research and Testing, Inc., organized a symposium on”Gay and Transgender Chemists: The Case for Visibility and Diversity Inclusion” as part of the March 27 – 31 ACS national meeting in Anaheim, California. In May “Chemical & Engineering News” will publish an article on the experiences of gay and transgender chemical professionals.

 

Reduced commitment to the organization

 

In an era when laboratory professionals are urged to develop a satisfactory balance between their professional and personal lives, many lab professionals feel very uncomfortable discussing matters relating to their sexual orientation and hide their personal lives from coworkers. For a long time the former U.S. military policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” was the response in the business world to issues of employee sexual orientation. This creates a psychological strain, often severe, on lab professionals who hide their sexual orientation from coworkers and employers. This can reduce GLBT employees’ commitment to the organization.

 

Some fear discrimination based on their sexual orientation and some actually experience it in their employers’ hiring and benefit practices, job security, and career advancement. They also fear an adverse effect on their personal workplace social environment.

 

Role of professional organizations

 

Professional organizations have been assuming a growing role in advocating and promoting the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender scientists, engineers and technicians in laboratory workplace. As a chemist and councilor for the American Chemical Society’s Division of Professional Relations (PROF), I am particularly aware of this group’s activities (http://prof.sites.acs.org/lgbtandallies.htm) in this area.  

 

Barbara Belmont, organizer of the symposium mentioned above, writes in the abstract of her own paper presented at the upcoming ACS national meeting, “energy and effort -- that could otherwise be applied to workplace productivity -- is consumed in evading discovery, avoiding workplace socializing, and suppressing personality.” She believes if lab managers and their employers create workplaces in which employees feel comfortable not hiding their sexual orientation, GLBT employees will be happier, more dedicated to their employer and more productive.

 

Industrial R&D is increasingly carried out by multidisciplinary project teams. Congenial personal relationships are necessary for members of these teams to work effectively together. Sensing or fearing hostility, for whatever reasons, can result in individuals spending metnal energy on these fears detracting from their workplace productivity.

 

Because of their perceived need to hide their lives, GLBT employees often are less actively involved in employer-sponsored social activities. For example, spouses are usually invited to company Christmas parties and picnics. Rather than attend with their partner or go alone, some GLBT employees will not attend increasing their social isolation in the workplace.

 

Professor James Nowick (Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine) notes that one result of hiding their sexual orientation is that GLBT lack role models in the sciences. As a result these students are less likely to major in science and graduate with bachelor or graduate science degrees. This impacts the size of the candidate pool from which lab managers select new employees. Dr. Nowick also presented a paper at the ACS symposium.

 

Progress

 

Some large employers of chemists, other scientists, engineers and laboratory technicians have promoted establishment of employee affinity groups for members of various minorities to discuss workplace issues important to them. These companies include firms in the chemical, pharmaceutical, petroleum and high tech industries. While I worked at Shell Oil an affinity group for GLBT employees was formed. I saw firsthand the group’s positive effect on the attitudes of many employees towards their GLBT coworkers and their concerns.   

 

Dave Hughes of http://glbtworkplace.com/ offers a list of questions managers commonly ask on how to deal with GLBT workplace issues. A Google search reveals many websites and articles addressing GLBT issues. While a lot of statistics are available, I could find none relating specifically to the laboratory or R&D.

 

 

Laboratory layoffs continue although at a substantially slower pace. Currently lab layoffs are due largely to industry restructuring. Nobody likes layoffs. That includes lower and middle level lab managers. Conducting layoffs can be very stressful for lab managers as well as their staff members. Even those who keep their jobs can be impacted by “survivor’s syndrome,” which reduces their productivity and psychological well being. After summarizing the reasons for lab layoffs, we’ll discuss what managers can do to mitigate their harmful emotional effects on their staff members as well as on themselves.

 

Reasons for Layoffs

 

When you boil things down there are four reasons for layoffs. The first is to reduce corporate spending. Contrary to the philosophy that lasted until the early 1970s, R&D is often seen more as an expense than an investment in the future despite corporate rhetoric to the contrary. Financial analysts reward investors when companies “make their numbers” and have profits that meet or exceed expectations. Companies give top-level managers large bonuses for the same reason. So when sales are sluggish, as they have been in the recent recession, companies cut expenses to fatten profits. By far the largest expense associated with R&D is salary. So substantially reducing R&D costs means cutting staff members. (In a future blog, we’ll discuss cost-cutting alternatives to layoffs.)

 

Unfortunately even upper-level lab and R&D managers can do little to counter corporate pressures to cut R&D costs.

 

The second reason for layoffs is corporate changes of strategic direction that result in the abandonment of entire areas of R&D. This has occurred in the last few years in the pharmaceutical industry as various “big pharma” companies have abandoned large areas of therapeutic research and laid off so many of their laboratory staff that they have closed research centers employing 1,000 people or more.

 

The third reason is mergers and acquisitions. The largest have occurred in the pharmaceutical industry but some have occurred in the chemical industry as well. One of the largest is Dow Chemical’s acquisition of Rohm & Haas. These consolidations result in some duplication of effort (and personnel) in various operations including the combined R&D programs of both companies involved. To eliminate these duplications and produce cost-saving “synergies,” companies reduce laboratory staffs. The most dramatic staff reductions have occurred in the pharmaceutical industry. As noted above, these have resulted closure of entire large research centers.

 

The fourth reason for layoffs is lab staff members having out-of-date skill sets. This is the only area that lab managers can have a significant effect on by helping staff members improve their job security.

 

Out-of-date skill sets

 

Staff members who let their skill sets become out of date will both reduce their job security and increase their difficulty in finding a new job. Out-of-date skill sets occurs as technology develops in new directions and R&D is increasingly done in new ways. For example, in many companies, staff researchers spend less time at the bench and more time in team meetings and other communications activities. They spend more time in meetings with customers and suppliers. Staff members with marginal communications skills that might earlier have done well in their careers are now increasingly at a disadvantage.

 

Using project management to improve efficiency is increasingly necessary. This is true if you are to lead a team of researchers or even in the course of your own work, Staff members who look quizzically at their manager when she talks about milestones or the critical project path will receive little professional respect and are likely experience limited career advancement opportunities.  

 

Twenty years ago researchers who resisted the computer or were reluctant to master computer driven presentation software were common. Now it is virtually impossible to find such researchers. A combination of out-dated skills and retirement - often involuntary - have driven them out of the workplace. As my high school Latin teacher used to say, “You can lead a jackass to water but you can’t make him drink. Managers can push staff members to update their work skills but are often limited in what they can accomplish.

 

 

 

It’s time to update my September 2011 “Lab Manager” article  (http://labmanager.com/articles.asp?ID=718) on what has happened to closed U.S. pharmaceutical, chemical and oil industry laboratories This blog will discuss recent developments in the Chicago area. These will be discussed in more detail in a paper I plan to present at the ACS Joint Midwest and Great Lakes Regional Meeting in St. Louis October 19-22.

 

Former G.D. Searle Lab in Skokie, Illinois

 

In April 2000, Pharmacia & Upjohn acquired Monsanto including its G.D. Searle drug unit. The new company, named Pharmacia, was acquired by Pfizer. In 2003 Pfizer announced the closure of the former G.D. Searle laboratory in Skokie, a suburb north of Chicago, About 1,500 people were laid off or transferred to other locations. Several interested in starting their own companies contacted the Chicago Technology Park, a business incubator funded by the state of Illinois. However, the 56,000 square foot facility has a waiting list of companies seeking to occupy space at the site and was unable to accommodate them.

 

At approximately the same time, Pfizer closed it laboratory in Kalamazoo, Michigan acquired when Pfizer too over Pharmacia and Upjohn. When Pfizer reviewed 50 proposals in the summer of 2003 from its laid-off scientists looking for financial support to start new companies, twenty-two were from the Kalamazoo area. Eventually two start-up companies incorporated in Kalamazoo County. All received state financial aid, and Pfizer pledged as much as $30 million to support three of them.

 

Illinois Science + Technology Park

 

Chicago got off to a slower start. Only four start-up firms filed requests for financial support by late 2003. Neither received any money from Pfizer. Two Pfizer scientists and managers, Michael Gralinski and Peter Senese, had formed a drug testing services company, CorDynamics Inc. in July 2003 and moved into a building across the street from the Chicago Technology Park. A third Pfizer alumnus, Mike Schlosser, founded another testing services company, Midwest BioResearch, to offer drug testing services in another suburb north of Chicago, Evanston. This firm relocated to the 23-acre former G.D. Searle site, now called Illinois Science + Technology Park.

 

In 2005, real estate developer Forest City Enterprises acquired the site from Pfizer for $23.4 million. Forest City has promised to invest $155 million to redevelop the facility over a 10year period. Government financial support will also help redevelop the site. The State of Illinois has committed $5 million to the project. The Village of Skokie has promised $10 million from two general obligation bond issues.

 

The Illinois Science + Technology Park currently contains 660,000 square feet of space. Among its thirteen tenants are Fisher Scientific, NanoInk, Midwest BioResearch, Nanotope, NanoIntegris, Vetter Pharma International USA and Astellas Pharma.

 

Upon completion of its redevelopment the facility will offer up to 2 million square feet of office and state-of-the-art facilities including chemistry, biology, and clinical research labs plus GMP and NMR facilities. The expanded facilities will make the Illinois Science + Technology Park a full-service corporate research campus with facilities to meet the needs of early stage companies, growing firms, large established life sciences companies, and related institutional research facilities.

 

The Q Building is the chemistry focal point of the complex. Its flexible design also can accommodate other scientific disciplines. The building has a floor space of 170,000 square feet. The original construction cost in the late 1990s was $78 million.

 

 

When applying for jobs many older job hunters hear the dreaded words, “I’m sorry, you’re over-qualified.” Sometimes this is a euphemism for too old; sometimes it means hiring managers fear the candidate would cost too much. Sometimes it means that hiring managers fear they cannot keep these job candidates constructively busy and challenged if they hire them. In the present high unemployment rate economy, all these are weak arguments.

 

Laboratories that continue to hire talented workers in business slumps are able to hire the cream of the crop. Some of these scientists, engineers and technicians may be their competitors’ best employees. Hiring these over-qualified individuals can result in lab managers achieving long-term advantages over their company’s competitors.

 

I saw this occur during the oil industry slump of the 1980s, the chemical industry slump of the mid-1990s and in the recent large-scale staff reductions by some big pharmaceutical companies. Much of this is the “creative destruction” envisioned by economist Joseph Schumpeter. Creative destruction means that newly created jobs and applications for capital have a higher value to society than the jobs lost. This certainly seems to be the case for drug development as some drug companies slash laboratory employment and close entire laboratories even as they increasingly buy promising new drugs and drug development projects from smaller, more innovative biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms.

 

The lab manager’s role

 

Once the lab managers hire these over-qualified job hunters, they need to find ways to provide a stimulating work environment, challenge them and reward them adequately so they to not leave for other jobs as the economy improves.

 

One key is not to hire them for a single job but use them in multiple roles. In addition to their primary work assignment, place over-qualified new employees on teams where theycan serve as internal consultants and other team members can tap their knowledge and experience. Over-qualified individuals can also serve as instructors in corporate training programs and as mentors to younger employees. For example, many younger scientists and engineers have a poor understanding of the U.S. patenting process. If your firm uses outside patent attorneys rather than having their own patent department, having these attorneys coach your lab employees can be expensive. Your younger employees may relate better to senior colleagues coaching them on the patent process than to patent attorneys doing the same thing. This coaching may be either formal or informal.

 

Flexible employment practices such as flexible working hours and the option to work from home can make over-qualified recent hires more satisfied with their situations. 

 

Pay

 

Pay can be a major challenge for lab managers who hire top talent at bargain basement salaries. Negotiating with your own managers to pay over-qualified hires more and give them adequate raises can be difficult. One option could be to develop a system of bonuses for accomplishments that will allow employees to receive substantial financial awards for specific accomplishments in addition to their base salary. The alternative is to see your outstanding new hires defect to other laboratories as the economy improves.

 

Other pressures on managers

 

Over-qualified new hires may be relieved to have a job again but are often embittered over the loss of benefits they enjoyed in their former jobs or lower salaries. Often these individuals are reporting to managers they don’t respect and who lack the experience of the over-qualified individuals. These situations can lead to resentment – particularly after the initial relief at having a job again wears off. Managers need to be sensitive to these situations.

 

 

There is a fine line between helping staff members with workplace problems and enabling them in ways that promote persistence of the problem. Of course, as a manager, you should help staff members who need it. However, you should not help staff members in ways that allow them to continue their unproductive behavior while you or others are saddled with their work. It's our natural instinct to reach out and help someone having problems. However, your enabling behaviors may have the opposite of its intended effect.

 

Here are some common workplace problems and how to avoid enabling the people causing them.

 

Giving people one more chance, then another and another

 

It is easy to fall into this trap with problem staff members who are nice people. However, you shouldn’t fall into the habit of repeatedly coming to someone’s rescue. They shouldn’t be able to escape the consequences of their problem behavior. Whatever their problem behavior is, missing deadlines, etc., by enabling them you permit them to avoid the consequences of their problem behavior. Your own enabling tactics can cause difficulties with other coworkers if you reassign the problem employees’ responsibilities to them. Alternatively, you cause yourself problems if you take on their work yourself.

 

If you ignore the problem, you and your work group may develop a bad reputation as the problem employee’s behavior can reduce productivity and team morale. Some managers prefer to avoid confrontations hoping the problem will go away. Unfortunately, it is more likely that the problems will continue and fester. A manager’s avoidance behavior is seldom productive.

 

Accepting problem employees’ rationalizations

 

Often problem employees will rationalize their unproductive or disruptive behaviors. While managers can accept such rationalizations once, they should inform employees that their behavior will not continue to be tolerated. They should suggest in-house counseling if it is available or perhaps help from a therapist particularly if the company health plan will cover some of the costs.

 

If the behavior and their rationalizations continue, managers should take disciplinary action. Often such action is described in the company’s employee manual. As the manager, you should consult with your supervisor to obtain their support and advice in how to handle the situation.

 

One behavior that employees frequently rationalize is missing deadlines. I once had a technician who continually missed deadlines due to his own unproductive behavior. He was constantly distracted and shifting from one activity to another without finishing anything. To add to the problem, he was a slow learner. My coaching wasn’t helping. Finally, I gave him a month to complete a project he should have been able to do in two weeks. With the support of my manager, I informed him that if he failed to complete the project by the deadline he would be fired for cause. I became a bit of a nag as I was frequently reminding him of the deadline. With less than weeks left before his deadline he asked for my approval to take a two-week in-house engineering course unrelated to his work rather than completing project. I turned him down reminding him of his deadline. He became very angry. When the deadline arrived and the work was far from completed, I had to fire him.

 

I expected my staff members to be annoyed with me since the technician was a nice guy. However, there was no disagreement at all. They were sick and tired of being saddled with extra work because of his repeated failures in meeting deadlines.

 

 

There are often problem employees even in downsized organizations that have already reduced their staffs. In some ways an organization such as a work group, team or department is like a person. All it takes is one problem employee and the entire organization may perform at less than top efficiency.

 

There are different types of problem employees and the lab manager has to deal differently with each type in order to get them – and the entire work group – to perform at higher efficiency.

 

Top performers

 

High performers can also be problem employees. In some ways the high performers are the most difficult type of employee to deal with. Some of them have too much control over the workplace. For example, the recession has forced some firms to cut lab staffing levels so dramatically that there is little or no redundancy in some areas. In these areas a single individual can have an organization’s entire functional knowledge of some area of technology. This person may develop an excessive sense of control hinders cooperation with others. The individual feels that knowledge is power and hoards his/her expertise and doesn’t share it. The individual may become a prima donna who doesn’t take direction well.

 

In this situation it is important for the lab manager to have a strong management training and succession plan in place so the prima donna knows there is another person in the organization developing a mastery over his technology area. Also, a well-organized knowledge management plan can capture much of the prima donna’s knowledge so it becomes available to others.

 

Employees hoarding all the functional knowledge of an area or riding crest of a highly successful project can become over-confident and feel they are immune from job loss or discipline. This can cause them to coast and be less productive or to take unnecessary risks in their work.

 

Marginal employees

 

In the current environment, many lab managers find it difficult to obtain permission to hire new employees. Consequently they hold onto under-performing employees. This makes their coworkers resentful as they see their manager lavishing coaching and attention on the marginal employee.

 

Some managers enable these marginal employees by lowering expectations and allowing these staff members to get away with being less productive. Other staff members may be forced to pick up the slack. These individuals will resent both the under-performing employee and the manager.

 

Sometimes employees are performing at least reasonably well but the manager does some of work for them. This is often because the manager is unwilling to relinquish control over a project. Some managers may be compensating for making a bad hiring decision and are now carrying part of an under-performing staff members work to make sure it gets done.

Openly negative employees

 

Some employees, both top performers and marginal ones, may have developed strongly negative attitudes or pessimistic. During the recession, this negativity permeated a workplace reducing morale and productivity. This negativity can persist even when business and the employment environment improve as they are now. While it’s natural for employees to occasionally gripe about the workplace, their manager, and coworkers, it shouldn’t become a habit. The manager should sit down with these negative employees and discuss their behavior as soon as they become aware of it. Emphasize the harmful effects of the negative attitudes. Let them know you won’t tolerate it and it will affect their performance review and thus their next raise and their chances of promotion.

 

You have about a 20% chance of becoming disabled at some point in your career. A 2002 National Science Foundation study indicates this is the case for scientists and engineers (www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf029024/nsf029024.pdf). This report indicates, “The proportion of scientists and engineers with disabilities increases with
age. More than half became disabled at age 30 or older.”

 

People with disabilities are the world’s largest minority group. Perhaps because I had a grandfather who became confined to a wheelchair when in his fifties, I’ve long been sensitive to the employment problems of the disabled. And they do have employment challenges that are greater than those faced by people not disabled.

The disabled more likely to be unemployed

According to Gareth Edwards, a statistician and research associate with the American Chemical Society, ACS 2010 Chem Census survey indicated that members who “consider themselves to be a person with a disability” are more likely to be unemployed that those who do. The data he based his conclusion on are summarized in the table below:

Table 1. Employment Status of ACS Members (2010) Chem Census Survey

 

		Do you consider yourself to be a person with a disability?
		Yes	No	Total
		Column N %	Column N %	Column N %
Employment Status	Full-time	69.6%	86.9%	86.6%
	Part-time	5.5%	3.8%	3.8%
	Postdoc	2.3%	3.9%	3.9%
	Not Working Seeking	6.2%	3.7%	3.7%
	Not Working, Not Seeking	16.4%	1.7%	2.0%
	Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

 

The unemployment rate seems to be higher (6.2%) among those who consider themselves disabled than among those who do not (3.7%). As Table 1 indicates, these numbers do not include members who are not working and not seeking work. Members who consider themselves disabled are nearly ten times more likely to fall into this category than members who do not. In addition, ACS members considering themselves disabled are more likely to be working part-time those employed part-time than those who do not. Many part-timers would like to work full-time and fall into the category of under-employed.  

 

Hiring strategies

 

Overall these numbers indicate that managers, including lab managers, are not considering a substantial number of highly skilled chemical professionals when hiring new staff members.

 

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 protects qualified individuals with disabilities from unlawful discrimination in the workplace. The ADA defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.

 

What is a reasonable accommodation?

A reasonable accommodation is a modification or adjustment of a job to allow a qualified individual with a disability the same opportunity to perform the job as an individual without a disability. This may be accomplished by:

1. Making a facility accessible
2. Changing jobs or work schedules
3. Modifying equipment, tools, policies or training procedures
4. Providing qualified readers or interpreters

 

Making a laboratory accessible to the disabled is often less expensive than many employers estimate.  The cost of most modifications is modest. For example, for the wheelchair bound, accommodations can include lowering lab benches or work surfaces in hoods, storing more chemicals in cabinets under the laboratory bench rather than on shelves above the bench where they may be out of reach. Shelf lift systems such as used in many warehouses can also be useful. Workstations must be of a suitable height for the wheelchair bound or their height be made adjustable.

 

Safety equipment such as safety showers and fire extinguishers must be accessible to those in wheelchairs. Light alarms can substitute for safety alerts broadcast over loudspeakers for the deaf.

 

Many lab modifications for the disabled are possible. Lab managers would do well to consult with laboratory designers who specialize in designing laboratories for the disabled.

 

Many global corporations have laboratories located in several or more countries. Laboratory managers can benefit greatly by establishing a corporate intranet social networking site or utilizing an already existing one. A corporate intranet social networking site can enhance the speed of communications and enable discussion of projects and other work in a less formal way that could enhance flexibility and creativity. A corporate social networking site can enable topics to be discussed and options reviewed before decisions are made.

 

Input can come from surprising sources. For example, plant engineers could provide their opinions on challenges in taking a new process from early-stage research to pilot and commercial production. This input could come months or more before a project has reached a stage when plant engineers are added to the project team.

 

Think FaceBook or LinkedIn on a corporate Intranet and focused on company R&D and business topics. The software isn’t the challenge. Rather it is defining your objectives and strategy. Managers need to decide what they want to accomplish using corporate networking sites to enable employees to interact. Employees at smaller organizations may interact sufficiently using more traditional means than social networking technology. However, employees of large firms, often with laboratories and other facilities scattered across the globe may not have other effective means for employees to interact.

 

However, before establishing a corporate social networking site, managers should consider several factors.

 

Expectations

 

Lab managers should have a clearly defined purpose and strategy for introducing internal social networking. The technology is probably the easy part. More critical are approaches to encourage free and open discussions that are closed down when decisions are made. Endless questions or revisiting decisions can lead to “paralysis by analysis.” Overly frequent reconsideration of previously made decisions can weaken team spirit and cooperation among staff members. So can discussions that become overly critical or personal. The employer is responsible for discussions that are harassing or discriminatory unless offensive posts are quickly removed from the site. So someone from the human resources department should be given the responsibility of moderating discussions?

 

Managers need to be able to assess whether the social network is providing value – sufficient value to justify the expense. Means of assessing the usefulness of a corporate social network include the number of page views, active users, the number of questions posted and the number of responses made. Employee ratings of the usefulness of the social network discussions and content can also be useful.

 

Fit with corporate culture

 

Managers also need to determine whether social networking fits the corporate culture. Without a cooperative culture of sharing, trust and mutual cooperation, a social network may be little used. An overly competitive corporate culture can make people reluctant to share their ideas and opinions.

 

Social networks should complement the way staff members already work. For example, don’t expect social networking to substantially replace the telephone or e-mail. Social networking should provide an additional means of communication, not a replacement for other communication methods.

 

Content

 

Staff members have to want to spend time on the social networking site. Particularly in the beginning managers may need to provide interesting content to encourage staff members to do so. Updates on company events, and news of technology developments and accomplishments can encourage employees to keep coming back for more.

 

Anecdotal information suggests that some firms place job advertisements that discourage the unemployed from applying. Employers and staffing agencies have advertised jobs in technology fields such as electrical engineering noting that only currently employed candidates would be considered according to Helen Norton, a professor at the University of Colorado law school. She was testifying at a February 16, 2011 meeting of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She reported, “Some employers may use current employment as a signal of quality job performance,” Norton testified. “But such a correlation is decidedly weak. A blanket reliance on current employment serves as a poor proxy for successful job performance.” This seems reasonable when pharmaceutical firms, are terminating research in various therapeutic areas, closign enitre R&D centers, and laying off thousands of laboratory professionals.

Why this can be a mistake

 

Are some lab managers not considering job applicants for job openings just because they are unemployed? There appears to be a growing possibility that this could expose hiring managers and their firms to discrimination lawsuits. It could also be a mistake resulting in overlooking excellent candidates for job openings.

 

Some managers are disinclined to consider hiring jobless employment candidates reasoning that there must be a reason for their unemployment that will detract from job performance. This appears to be particularly the case for the long-term unemployed, those jobless for six months or more. This is the most common U.S. definition for long-term unemployment.

 

Speaking at the ACS Leadership Institute, David Harwell, Assistant Director of the ACS Office of Career Management and Development, noted, “Statistically, people who have been unemployed for two years or more never reenter the workforce; they are generally absorbed into assistance programs or enter retirement early.”

 

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is trying to determine whether this is a widespread tactic. The EEOC is investigating whether excluding the unemployed has a greater effect on minority groups that tend to have higher jobless rates. Currently there are no specific legal protections for the unemployed regarding discrimination in job hunting. However, William Spriggs, assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Labor said that the potential for discrimination is certainly there. He observed that the chances of an employer considering an ethnic minority for a job opening are reduced by one-third if jobless applicants are excluded from discrimination. For example, the pool of disabled applicants would be reduced by nearly 50%.   

 

Stuart Ishimaru, a member of the EEOC, notes that not considering unemployed for job openings could raise a serious question of corporate liability if this does indeed lead to discrimination.

 

The Labor Department is aware of anecdotal reports that some recent company advertisements have discouraged the unemployed from applying. It will be difficult to determine if this problem is in fact significant in the chemistry job market because most chemistry jobs are not publically posted (the so-called hidden job market).

 

Considering the long-term unemployed

 

Many reports of the long-term unemployed experiencing depression and other psychological problems date back to an era when unemployment among professionals was much less common.  Is such the case now when long-term unemployment, even among laboratory professions, is so much more widespread?

 

So what can you do to both consider long-term unemployed job candidates for employment while still making wise hiring decisions? According to Catherine S. Farley, a Seattle-based managing director of Accenture, a management consulting firm, a critical question is whether the unemployed candidate is doing things to keep their skills fresh. Using this as a criterion will enable laboratory managers to both consider jobless candidates for employment and cite a reason for excluding them that will pass muster with both the EEOC and their own conscience.

 

 

 

This week we’ll continue our discussion of how to be a good manager in tough times. Additional constructive manager behaviors are discussed below.

 

Accept responsibility

 

Accept blame when appropriate. President Harry Truman’s “The buck stops here” sign was already mentioned. You may remember in 2008 deaths and illnesses were traced to meat products produced by Maple Leaf Foods. CEO Michael Cain announced the closure of the plant and promised to improve manufacturing practices and restore trust in the company. He came across as accepting responsibility and being decisive. Managers who blame outside forces for their problems are not leaders and come across as powerless. Managers who take responsibility for problems like layoffs, salary freezes and failed projects are seen as more powerful, competent, and likeable than those who deny responsibility according to studies by Fiona Lee, University of Michigan professor of management and organizations.

 

Like Michael McCain, effective managers must do more than just accept blame and apologize. They must take immediate control and institute remedial action to solve the problem.

 

Treat staff members as people

 

Managers need to recognize that their staff members are individuals with different strengths and needs. The best managers create an environment in which people can brainstorm and test ideas and make mistakes without fear of punishment. This psychological safety can be essential if staff members are to report mistakes and problems.

 

Treating staff members as people often involves shielding them from informed criticism from top level managers. I have been in meetings during which top level managers criticized individual’s performance and blamed them for problems. The managers to whom the individuals reported said nothing during the meeting. One could see the individual’s coworkers visibly wilt as no ne rose to defend the person. I was once in a position in which one of my lab technicians was blamed for a problem. The problem was indeed caused by something he did. However, I got up and said that, as supervisor, it was my responsibility. I suggested that the manager and I discuss the problem alone after the meeting. The manager agreed and moved on. I thought there were repercussions to my career but there weren’t. Our private meeting was brief as the manager just told me, “See that it doesn’t happen again.” The incident was never brought up two months later during my annual performance review. I wasn’t particularly popular among our department’s lab technicians before the incident. Afterwards this changed and technicians were always eager to work on my projects.

 

Recognize the power of small gestures

 

The best managers find ways to reduce the stress experienced by their staff members. Small steps can often do this. For example, for several years I worked for a manager who lacked many interpersonal skills. He moved my lab to another building but did not relocate my office. I had to walk many times daily between my lab and office, not a trivial matter given my knee problems. I asked several times to have my office moved to be closer to my lab. The response was always the same: this was the responsibility of the Space Allocation committee and the laboratory was too crowded to relocate my office.

 

Then one day we got a new manager. Deborah Johnson visited each of her staff scientists and engineers in the first week of her new assignment. She asked each the same question, “What is one thing I can do to make your job easier.” She wasn’t able to fix every problem bought to her attention but she tried. In my cane, she arranged an office swap that relocated both my office and that of a staff engineer closer to our labs. Her efforts on behalf of her staff members went a long way toward rebuilding the morale of a rather cynical and disenchanted department.

 

Role models

 

Whatever kind of managers you have, good ones or bad ones, observing their behavior and learning from it can improve your own performance as a manager.

 

It is easier to be a good supervisor in tough times than in economically easier ones. One is faced with more difficult decisions and problems during difficult economic conditions for your employer. What are some management behaviors that can improve the morale and productivity of your staff members?

 

Be decisive

 

As President, Harry Truman kept a sign on his desk saying, “The buck stops here” to remind himself of the leader’s responsibility for making decisions. I once worked for a nice man who had been an excellent staff engineer. However, as a manager he was afraid to make decisions. For example, the mid-1980s were a good economic period for most of the country but not for the oil industry. At this time the only way to increase business in the oil field services industry was to take it away from the competition. Despite field engineers calling for the introduction of a new product I had developed, this manager did not want to take the risk of introducing it to the field. A group of field engineers went to a vice-president who ordered the product introduced. It did very well and was responsible for my employer significantly increasing its market share and thus revenues. The manager, who had been in charge of an R&D department of about 30 people, was moved sideways to a staff position where he supervised no one and had few clear job responsibilities. He soon lost his job in one of a series of company layoffs.

 

Of course, CEO’s have the most opportunities to demonstrate decisiveness in large-scale ways. For example, in a few days starting in 1982 seven people in the Chicago area died after taking cyanide-laced capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol. The painkiller then was Johnson & Johnson’s best-selling product. James Burke, the CEO quickly took the product off the shelf and gave free bottles of a different Tylenol product to consumers who returned the possibly contaminated product. Johnson & Johnson developed improved tamper-proof packaging. The company became a role model for others in handling product recalls.

 

Give credit where it’s due

 

When staff members do good work, their manager gets some of the credit, often too much of it. Giving credit to others, especially staff members, is an excellent motivating strategy – and an ethical one. People want to work for winners who share the credit. Your staff will regard you as truthful. Those outside your firm will tend to regard you as generous and competent.

 

Besides verbally giving their staff members credit in company meetings and performance reviews, managers can nominate them for performance awards, include them as authors on technical papers and give them opportunities to work on exciting projects. I once had a manager who said he was too busy to nominate his staff members for company awards. Is it any surprise that morale in his group was at rock bottom?

 

All the opposite is true if managers takes too much credit for their staff members’ work. You may be able to hire new employees to work in your group. However, it may not be too long before there are looking for opportunities to transfer to another work group where the manager shares credit and their own careers will be more likely to flourish.

 

Role models

 

Whatever kind of managers you have, good ones or bad ones, observing their behavior and learning from it can improve your own performance as a manager. We’ll talk more about constructive manager behaviors next week.

 

Listening to President Obama's State of the Union speech last night prompted me to think about leadership and laboratory management. I found his theme of support for American innovation encouraging but without offering specifics. "The first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation," the President said. "We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world. We have to make America the best place on Earth to do business." However, he offered no guidance on how to do this.

The President rightly noted, "Our free enterprise system is what drives innovation. But because it's not always profitable for companies to invest in basic research, throughout history our government has provided cutting-edge scientists and inventors with the support that they need." At this point I expected him to ask for a renewal of the now-expired R&D Tax Credit. However, he did not. Instead he promised to send Congress a budget calling for investments in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology - an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people. This is fine but what many companies need is an incentive to do their own research rather than hope someone else will do it for them.

 

Managers and leaders

Of course, the President is not the sole leader of the federal governenet. Leaders at other levels, including Congress, matter as well. Personally, I hope that Congress, even without presidential leadership, will take consider the issue of reviving the expired R&D tax credit.

Managers at all levels of any organization, including laboratories, matter. They set the tone and determine the culture at all levels of their organizations. In individual departments and across the organization, they can implement cultural changes or fight them. For example, it has become widely understood that the cost-cutting mentality of CEOs became absorbed at levels of the BP organization and contributed to oil spills in Alaska, refinery accidents at BP''s Texas City Refinery and elsewhere, and its Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico with its attendant loss of life, pollution and economic damage to many private citizens. Houston Chronicle business writer Loren Steffy has been following BP for many years in his business articles. These articles and his book "Drowning in Oil: BP & the Reckless Pursuit of Profit," lays much of the responsibility for BP's to an excessive emphasis on cost cutting and a high tolerance of safety and environmental risks. Steffy believes that leaders at all levels of BP need to work together to change the company's business culture. Lower level managers as well as CEOs can work to develop a culture that will remedy BP's deficiencies.

 

Managers and staff members

James Meindl, on the faculty of the State University of New York, formulated what he called "the romance of leadership." He concluded that top-level leaders get far more credit –and blame - than they deserve. It is easier and more emotionally satisfying to treat leadership as the only cause of poor performance than to consider other organizational and external factors that also organization performance.

Still, it is hard to deny the major role of managers in determining organization performance and health. This health can even include the individual health of employees. A Swedish study indicates that for more than 75% of employees dealing with their immediate supervisor is the most stressful part of their job. Even more shocking, the 10-year study of 3,122 men found that those with bad managers experienced 20% to 40% more heart attacks than their counterparts with good managers.

You suspect your boss is going to be promoted or transferred or may retire soon. How can you position yourself to be the first in line to inherit his/her job?

 

Train for your boss's job

Many laboratory staff members have only a narrow, circumscribed view of their manager's job and are unaware of the full range of his/her responsibilities. Try to understand the many facets of your boss' job responsibilities by observing him/her at work.

 

Earn your boss' recommendation

Earn your boss' support by informing him/her that you are interested in advancing to a management position. Ask how you can earn his/her support for this. Avoid the appearance of being a threat to him/her and don't appear as if you as seeking to undermine him/her.

Ask your boss to identify your weaknesses for a management position so you can fill your knowledge gaps. Ask his/her advice on your professional development.

A good time to do all this is during your annual performance review.

 

Bolster your qualifications

Use the information you gain to strengthen your qualifications and develop useful experience for a management position. Attend management training programs; attend short courses; or take college courses in night school or online. Be sure your manager and others know you're taking these courses.

Ask to collaborate on projects so you can gain an inside view of his/her job. Request additional work and ask for assignments that will let you manage projects from beginning to end.

 

Develop wider visibility with other managers in your laboratory or company

Volunteer for important projects even if it means more work. Try to make some of these be projects involving team members from outside your department and even outside your laboratory.

 

Role Models and Mentors

If you boss is really good at his/her job, use him/her as a role model. Observe how he/she interacts with others. Include both staff members he/she supervises, his/her peers, and higher level managers. Observe your manager's communication style. Your observations will provide you with guidelines on how to develop your own management style but one that is a good fit for your firm's corporate culture.

Find mentors from whom you can receive advice on being a manager. It is usually best that these be from within your own laboratory or company. Different companies favor different management styles. For example, Steve Jobs of Apple is an outstanding manager. However, his aggressive style may not work at another company with a more conservative management style such as IBM.

Become familiar with the management responsibility chain in your company. Also understand trends in your industry so you can knowledgeably discuss them with managers and in meetings.

 

Some don'ts

Don't try to compete with your boss or make him/her appear less competent than you.

Don't undermine your manager even if you disapprove of aspects of his/her management style. Be supportive of the goals even if you can't be an advocate of his/her methods for achieving them.

Corporate hiring is picking up – finally. This solves some problems for some lab managers coping with accomplishing goals with a limited number of laboratory staff members. However, resuming hiring gives rise to a new concern: making good hiring decisions and avoiding bad ones. Hiring someone who turns out to be a low productivity or disruptive employee can reduce the productivity and lower the morale of other staff members. This is particularly the case for smaller laboratories where a single person can have a proportionally greater effect on lab operations.

 

Terminating unsatisfactory staff members

One can work with low productivity employees to improve their performance. Unfortunately, this often is usually a lengthy process. Poor attitude and disruptive behavior are often even harder problems to fix because they may have deep seated roots in the employee's personality. Terminating an employee for cause can be a lengthy, tedious and demoralizing process due to the need to provide evidence and documentation to support the termination decision should lawsuits later arise. I know because I've been there.

All these concerns are not the case when is hiring a person for a temporary position. A temp is a person who works at your laboratory but for the temporary agency. The agency handles paying the individual a salary, providing benefits, reporting the individual's income to the federal and state governments for tax purposes, etc.

Of course, it may take longer to determine if a temporary staff member can adequately fulfill the job responsibilities of the position. If it does take longer, you do have to pay the agency a fee. However, terminating a temp is not subject to the legal and government scrutiny that firing a regular employee is. This is because the individual is an employee of the agency, not of your laboratory. Thus hiring a temp is a more flexible staffing option than hiring a new employee.

Customarily, a layoff or firing a staff member for cause can have disruptive effects on remaining lab staff members reducing productivity and morale. However, letting a temp go seldom has this adverse effect. This is because the alert lab manager times these departures to occur quickly before the temp has developed strong relationships with employees. Also, just knowing that an individual is a temp having a different, weaker bond with the laboratory than conventional employees makes these employees more willing to accept their departure. Indeed in many cases the staff members who worked most closely with an unproductive temp are relieved at that individual's departure. They may have more work heaped on their shoulders because of the temp's low productivity or experience more workplace stress because the temp is hard to get along with.

 

Supply of temps is ample

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that most corporate hiring for the past year has been for temporary positions. This is because many hiring managers are uncertain about the strength of the economic recovery and want to be able to reduce staffing levels if necessary without conducting an employee layoff.

Should you decide to hire a temporary lab employee, be sure you work with reputable agencies such as Kelly Scientific Resources, Aerotek Staffing, LabTemps or other agencies that you check out online. Among the services offered by some reputable agencies is often the option to let a newly hired staff member go after their first day without paying a fee. Lab managers can do this if it is obvious the individual is unsuitable.

In the past many excellent candidates have not considered temporary positions when job hunting. The Great Recession and the continued slow pace of industrial laboratory hiring have changed this. Even should laboratory hiring rapidly increase; there is still a large supply of unemployed chemists, post-docs looking for industrial positions and graduate students who are delaying the completion of their studies. Many of these individuals are registered with temporary agencies and are willing to consider temporary staff employment.

This means that laboratory managers can hire good candidates on a temporary basis. If they do work out well, the laboratory manager has the option of hiring them as long-term employees when the staffing budget permits it.

Lab managers can reduce overhead costs by reducing unnecessary bureaucracy. A rough rule of thumb is that larger laboratories tend to have more bureaucracy. Staff members often find their productivity increases substantially when they change jobs and go to work for smaller companies that hold fewer meetings and have fewer time-sapping bureaucratic measures in place. While this rule of thumb generally holds true it doesn't have to. Even at large companies, managers can take steps to reduce the number and length of meetings and make them more productive.

Controlling meetings

One of the main tools of bureaucrats is meetings. I still remember going into a lab to talk to a coworker about some rush customer service work as the chemist rushed out of the lab. "I can't work right new," he said. "I have to go to a meeting." The subject? Reducing the number of quality assurance meetings.

Effect of decision-making

Bureaucracy tends to mire decisions in lengthy discussions in an attempt to achieve consensus and reduce risk. Hence, more meetings. The phrase:"paralysis by analysis" comes to mind. (The phrase may have been first uttered by Harold S. Geneen, CEO at ITT, formerly International Telephone and Telegraph.) Walt Disney, a pretty creative guy, put it a different way when he said, "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Often this means quit having meetings to discuss matters by deciding on a course of action and then implementing it.

Staff members seldom like bureaucracy (unless they themselves are the bureaucrats). Schedule a long meeting and staff members go home at the end of the day frustrated because they accomplished relatively little due to the time invested in the meeting. Alternatively, they work longer hours to get something done – also a source of frustration.

An opportunity to reduce bureaucracy

Think about how you fit into the new organization, advised Mike Kahn, senior recruiting manager for Hunter + Sage, a Houston firm specializing in placing human resource professionals in jobs. As a result of layoffs, people have left, but many of their duties still have to be done. Staff reductions provide an opportunity to restructure the way work gets done and improve productivity.

For example, the recession has forced many oil producers to delay projects, merge units and reduce staffing to protect dividends in anticipation of higher prices in the years ahead. "We are stripping away layers and overlaps to add more value and that means fewer people," Shell Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser said in a statement to stock analysts. These changes include oil company laboratories. Similar changes are occurring in the laboratories of other industries.

Effective meetings

Excessive numbers and length of meetings often reduce productivity (and employee frustration if they do not see meetings as accomplishing a clear purpose). Meetings often turn into vehicles for extended discussion rather than as opportunities for effective decision making. They lack purpose, the right people aren't there, or the decision maker isn't at the table, said Paul Rogers, one of the authors of Decide & Deliver: 5 Steps to Breakthrough Performance in Your Organization (Harvard Business Review Press). So instead of making a decision, the meeting turns into an endless debate, said Rogers, managing partner of London-based consulting firm Bain & Co. Excessive numbers of meetings and overly long meetings are often a symptom of excessive bureaucracy.

The key to effective meetings is that each must have a clear goal, and participants who go away with specific responsibilities. Then these individuals must be held accountable for following through in a timely manner, Sullivan said.

We'll discuss ways to restructure work processes to reduce staffing requirements in future blogs. Interestingly, developments in this regard by the U.S. Navy may provide moddels for lab managers.

Due to the holidays, I won't be posting new blogs until January 5.

Enjoy the holidays everyone!

Impact players are employees whose knowledge, skills and work habits make them exceptionally productive. Of course, one always wants to hire new employees who have these attributes. In this post-recession period, financial managers are beginning to give lab managers the resources to increase new employee hiring. However, the number of new hires is very limited at most laboratories. Both financial and business managers are looking over lab managers' shoulders to assure themselves that they are making good hiring decisions, in other words that new employees begin to contribute both quickly and significantly to help develop new products and processes and supply high quality customer support.

So what can lab managers do to help assure that the staff members they hire will rapidly become impact players?

Look for problem solvers

The best indicator of future performance is past performance. Look for job candidates who have been outstanding problem solvers in previous jobs or in their academic work. Look for evidence of this when you review résumés, discuss candidates with their references, and then interview them. Listen especially carefully when candidates provide examples of their problem solving skills. When they provide these examples, ask additional questions to determine what impact their results had in terms of bring new products to market, new processes to market or increases in previous employers' business.

Often the hunt for new staff members who will have both a rapid and significant effect on lab productivity means hiring experienced people. Industrial experience can hone problem solving skills while providing knowledge of how to get things done in an industrial work environment. So while experienced staff members can cost more, they are often worth the extra money.

Structuring salary policies

One way to deal with financial managers' concerns over the higher salaries one usually offers experienced new employees is to use novel payment structures based on contributions. For example, one can offer job candidates a lower starting salary with rapid increases; say a 3-month and a 6-month raise, contingent on performance. Alternatively, lab managers can make these raises contingent upon achieve of project milestones or specified performance levels.

Look for flexibility

In addition to looking for outstanding problem solvers, lab managers should look for other skills and accomplishments. For example, experienced researchers often have first-hand experience with the process of recognizing inventions and working with patent attorneys to obtain U.S. patents. They could serve as mentors working with younger coworkers educating them about the patenting process from the researchers' perspective and mentoring younger colleagues.

Experienced new hires often come from laboratories employing different workplace procedures. Some of these may be more cost-effective than current ways your laboratory does things. They can help lab managers explore and implement new, improved operational procedures.

Aim for an age mix when hiring new employees

Of course one doesn't want to hire only experienced employees. Recent graduates often bring with them knowledge of and experience with new synthesis methods and instrumental analysis techniques. Combining these attributes with the skills and perspectives of experienced staff members can create a synergistic mix that increases productivity.

Sometimes, not always, younger job candidates have better or broader computer skills than older laboratory staff members. On the other hand, some of their soft skills such as written communication, oral communication and time management skills often are weaker and their can benefit from mentoring by older, more skilled colleagues. Thus having an age mix of employees can improve productivity through knowledge transfer among lab employees.

Younger new hires often require more time to adapt to working in industrial laboratory workplace cultures than more seasoned new hires. This can lessen their short term impact on laboratory results and their employer's bottom line. Having seasoned coworkers as mentors can reduce the time younger new hires need to get up to speed.

Delaying retirement? You are not alone. Many baby boomers currently are delaying their retirement. One-third plan to retire only after age 65 according to an Employment Benefit Research Institute survey. In another recent survey of more than 2,200 U.S. workers by consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide, 44% of respondents age 50 or older said they plan to postpone retirement; half of those say they plan to work at least three years longer than they previously expected.

However, at the same time companies continue to have layoffs. How can you remain employed even past the conventional retirement age of sixty-five years even if your company reduces staff?

The key is to capitalize on skills you've developed over the course of your career and not compete directly with younger (and lower-paid) coworkers. Capitalize on these skills by sharing them. Become a resource for younger coworkers.

Several options to do so are discussed below. Engaging in only a single approach probably isn't an effective strategy to persuade managers to delay your retirement. While there is no magic number required for your success, becoming involved in multiple strategies can improve your odds of delaying your retirement.

Mentoring programs

One way to do so is to become a mentor. Many companies have instituted mentoring programs and are now taking advantage of information technology to make them more effective. For example, in December 2009 IBM created an online tool to support its mentoring program. Older employees list their skills in a database. Younger coworkers seeking to develop particular competencies can search the database to identify coworkers having these competencies. More than 3,500 IBM employees have registered to be mentors and more than 2,600 coworkers, mostly younger employees, have consulted with them.

Continuing education

Senior employees should encourage their managers to institute continuing education programs. They can serve as instructors sharing the skills they've learned and the experiences they've accumulated over the course of a long, productive career. Having senior employees serve as instructors can have advantages over sending younger employees to external training programs or bringing in consultants to teach these courses. Senior employees can present information and advice in the context of the company's culture and provide relevant examples from their own experience. This gives information an immediacy and relevance that instructors from outside the company often can't provide.

Workshops often offer an attractive alternative to internal short courses that require a longer time commitment.

Consultants to project teams

>p>Older employees can serve as consultants to project teams using their experience to help team members save time and not waste their efforts. For example, a senior chemist may know of a reactor built years ago and placed in storage when an R&D program was finished. Refurbishing and using this reactor to use in a current project can save both time and money.

Older chemists' experience may enable them to use a team's discovery in the context of the firm's earlier R&D. They can provide useful advice on such issues as the relevance of earlier projects to the current work and whether the current work should be the subject of a patent application.

"Reverse" mentoring

Older employees shouldn't be reluctant to consult younger coworkers to learn new skills they need to remain employed and improve their productivity. These include things such as online social networking, and wikis.

Publicity

Another factor to consider is making your own manager and other managers in the company aware of your involvement in these programs and the value you provide to the firm – value that cannot be provided by younger coworkers. Make sure you get appropriate recognition for your efforts. It was comedian George Carlin who said, "The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets the all publicity." Make sure you're not the caterpillar.

John Borchardt is a chemist and freelance writer who has been an ACS career consultant for 15 years. He is the author of the ACS/Oxford University Press Book "Career Management for Scientists and Engineers." He has had more than 1200 articles published in a variety of magazines, newspapers and encyclopedias. As an industrial chemist, he holds 30 U.S. and more than 125 international patents and is the author of more than 130 peer-reviewed papers.

Much has been written about the advantages of flextime for both employees and employers. However, there are downsides as well – downsides that are seldom mentioned. This is particularly the case for people working in laboratories.

Safety

The laboratory is inherently a less safe environment than offices. Flextime can encourage lab staff members to work early in the morning, late in the evening and on weekends. Relatively few coworkers are around at these times. Should an accident occur, there may be little help for injured staff members, staff members available to fight laboratory fires, etc.

The cure for this is to insist that employees be working alone in their laboratories alert others working elsewhere in the laboratory of their presence. Individuals should check in with each other at periodic, fairly frequent intervals to assure that their coworkers are safe and well.

< p>Laboratory buildings should be equipped with alarms located in each laboratory room. Ideally these will have a code that will indicate which work area is experiencing an unsafe working condition or where an accident has occurred.

Work – family balance

It is more difficult to draw clear boundaries between work and one's personal life. Flextime often results in people spending more time working. Modern communications enables employees to do so from home, while on vacation or while out of town on business.

Recent research performed at the University of Toronto confirms this observation. Sociology professor Scott Schieman and graduate student Marisa Young measured the extent of schedule control and its impact on work-family processes using data from a national survey of more than 1,200 American workers. Two key findings emerged from their study. First, people with more schedule control are more likely to work at home and engage in work–family multitasking activities. They try to work on job- and home-related tasks at the same time either while at home or engaged in recreational activities. This blurs the boundaries between their work and personal lives. Second, people who report more blurring of these roles also tend to report higher levels of work-personal life conflict - a major source of stress.

This role blurring can reduce the time and energy employees have for their personal lives. According to Schieman, discovering the conditions that predict work – personal life conflict is critical because "a substantial body of social scientific evidence demonstrates its link to poorer physical and mental health..."

Preventing the disadvantages

It requires mental discipline to prevent workplace responsibilities from excessively invading one's personal life. As a lab manager, designate substitutes for your employees who are on vacation. Require your staff members to brief coworkers on their activities and issues that may arise while they are on vacation. Leaving out-of-office e-mail and voicemail messages can enable them to alert those trying contact them just whom they should contact instead and informing them when they will be back at work.

Staff members should have the discipline to shut off their cell phones and not check their e-mails for periods in which they are engaging in family or personal activities. Without an understanding supervisor, this can lead to stress. However, maintaining frequent and extended contact with coworkers and colleagues at other companies means one does not experience the relaxation and metal rejuvenation that vacations are supposed to provide.

Laboratory managers can benefit greatly by establishing a corporate social networking site or utilizing an already existing one. Think FaceBook on a corporate intranet. The software isn't the challenge. Rather it is defining your objectives and strategy. Managers need to decide what they want to accomplish using corporate networking sites to enable employees to interact.

Employees at smaller organizations may interact sufficiently using more traditional means than social networking technology. However, employees of large firms, often with laboratories and other facilities scattered across the globe may not have other effective means for employees to interact other than e-mail which often does not provide the best forum for exchange of views among a members of a group.

Strategy

An effective strategy for social networking requires an organizational culture of employee teamwork and interaction. While e-mail can serve admirably to communicate information, it is less effective at promoting interaction between multiple individuals and discussion of various topics. Social networking should complement the way people already work and not be an attempt to force people to change the way the work.

This said, managers should begin by deciding what objectives they want to achieve through organization networks. This should be their primary focus rather than a focus on what particular technology to implement. Of course, suitable software is essential and should be as easy to use and transparent as possible. Several vendors provide social networking software and using Internet search engines can identify them.

Employees or organization members must want to spend time on the social networking site (a reasonable, but not excessive, amount of time). For this to happen, the content must be useful and the technology easy to use. I have seen managers attempt to promote use of social networking by posting on topics of little interest to their staff members. This results in killing interest in a new social networking site rather than promoting it.

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When instituting a social networking site, managers should clearly communicate the rules for using the site. Ground rules for site users are essential for several reasons. The site should promote team spirit, not divisiveness. Therefore discussion of certain topics should not be allowed. Such topics may include politics, promotion of purely social agendas unrelated to business and discussions that may be considered harassment or defamation and thus illegal. Vigorous disagreements should be reserved for personal discussions. Anonymous posts should not be allowed.

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Having rules means enforcing them. Employers are legally liable for posts on their social networking sites. Therefore, people should be assigned to monitor the sites to identify and promptly delete posts that violate organization policies on use of the social networking site.

Information Security

Information security is a common and valid concern. Trade secrets and other confidential information can be easily leaked to outsiders through an organization's social networking site unless precautions are taken. Even on an organization's intranet, access to some information should be restricted. For example, a team working on a hot new project may want to limit access to information and discussions to only team members and others with a strong need to know or who can provide valuable input. This can be accomplished by requiring team members to log in using passwords. Another approach is to set up multiple social networking sites with some having limited access. For example, some employers have set up social networking sites for retirees. Such sites can allow organizations to communicate news of interest to their retirees.

Retiree social networking websites can allow managers to tap the expertise of retirees. For example, retirees could post their resumes. Managers can keyword search these resumes to identify retirees that could serve as consultants on particular projects or post announcements that retirees with a specific type of expertise are needed. (This topic will be discussed in more detail in a subsequent blog.

Measures of Success

A social networking site nested in your organization's intranet is a waste of money if people don't use it. Measures of success can include the number of active users, number of page views, the number of questions or topics people post and the response rate to these posts. I know that I am always disappointed when I post a topic or question and there is little or no response.

For companies marketing to a large number of customers and potential customers, newsletters and blogs offer a way to keep them in touch with customers informing them of new products and generic descriptions of how their products solved other customers' problems. Using good digital photographs and text your firm can inform customers and potential customers about newly hired staff members and their capabilities; new lab, plant and office construction or remodeling and other news that could have an impact on meeting customers' requirements. One could also announce papers being presented at conferences and scheduled for publication in research journals and trade magazines.

Writing newsletters and blogs can increase your own interactions and that of your staff members with your firm's sales, marketing and manufacturing personnel. This can improve productivity, communications and teamwork while enhancing individuals' career development.

Communications Strategy

Newsletters and blogs need not be an either – or decision. One could publish an electronic newsletter with links to one or more company blogs. Newsletters commonly are issued monthly or quarterly while blogs come out more frequently, often weekly. The key is to publicize both and be sure they are published on schedule. Ideally, customers will enjoy the blogs and find them valuable. As a result, they will develop the habit of checking them on a fairly regular schedule.

Use social media such as LinkedIn and Facebook to promote your blog.

Readers don't like disappointments. Blogs have to be maintained on a regular schedule to retain customers as regular readers. It is discouraging to check a blog expecting to see a new post but not find one. While different employees can write the blog, the quality and organization of the blog should be consistent. Blog posters must seek new perspectives on subjects to avoid having blog posts become repetitious.

Blog subjects should be chosen in advance to coordinate subjects to industry events, conferences, and trade shows. They should also be coordinated with new product introductions and product discounting programs.

Take advantage of the capabilities of the World Wide Web and consider posting videos and other types of dynamic presentations. Link to pertinent information when appropriate, particularly to your firm's technical bulletins and other information available on the Internet.

In short, having made the decision to have a blog, the firm must assure that, like its commercial products, it is of high quality. This means being willing to have employees spend the time to write new blog posts.

Monitor your blog

Give blog readers the option to post comments. Respond promptly to readers' comments and questions. Give readers the option of commenting by e-mail should they wish to discuss information their employer may regard as confidential.

Monitor readership to learn what subjects seem to be of most interest to your customers.

Learning to Blog

You can have your staff members learn how to blog by bringing in an experienced blogger to teach a workshop. Hire someone with experience in writing blogs for companies or magazines rather than someone who writes their own blog for the fun of it.

Suggested Reading

Robert W. Bly, "Blog Schmog: The Truth About What Blogs Can (and Can't) Do for Your Business"

Tris Hussey, "Create Your Own Blog" 6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro,"

Susannah and Shane Birley, "Blogging for Dummies"

Final advice

Don't be swept away by all the current hype about blogging. Consider carefully how you will use blogging to promote your business. Beware - logging can be addictive.

While encouraging staff members to write blog posts, lab managers should be sure they don't spend an excessive amount of time in doing so.

Many lab managers could ignore a rising tide of incoming résumés for the past two years or so since staffing levels were frozen or being reduced. However, as they begin to hire again they have to deal with this flood. This is a particular problem for managers of small laboratories with limited staff resources to help screen potential applicants in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner.

However, there are many sources of aid available.

While he is no longer in this business, I know of one employment consultant who would travel to American Chemical Society national meetings and use the onsite career fair to screen job hunters for potential clients. This service can be of particular benefit to small laboratories located a long distance from the meeting.

Online methods of recruiting and screening employees have been mentioned in an earlier blog post (http://www.labmanager.com/blogs/Lab-Management-Matters/index.cfm/2010/10/13/Screeening-Job-Applicants?adminview=true).

The American Chemical Society Virtual Career Fair was held at the beginning of October. Since this is a new option for screening and meeting job candidates, it seems timely to review the success of this new approach. Was it successful?

ACS Virtual Career Fair

According to Cheryl Mathews who managed the Virtual Career Fair, 2,644 [people attended. Twenty-six employers had virtual company booths staffed by 111 company representatives. These companies posted 200 job openings. The company representatives could screen résumés only to decide which job hunters they wanted to interview. In addition, job-hunters could request interviews. The environment was very interactive with both text and video options available for holding interviews. Interestingly, very few people chose the video option for interviews.

In addition, attendees could attend webinars on various job-related subjects and download employer and job-opening information.

The Virtual Career Fair was free to job hunters while employers paid a fee of approximately $4,000 for a booth. The Virtual Career Fair was also subsidized financially by the ACS.

Was the Virtual Career Fair successful? The final answer lies in the success of employers in filling the job openings with candidates from the job-hunting participants plus lab managers satisfaction with the performance of their new hires.

Future of the Virtual Career Fair

The Virtual Career Fair was an experiment. I asked Ms. Mathews if the ACS planned to do it again. Her one-word answer was, "Absolutely." A second edition of the Virtual Career Fair is tentatively scheduled for some time in June 2011.

ACS has sent survey forms to both employers and job hunters to collect feedback. In addition ACS plans to have focus groups discuss various aspects of the Virtual Career Fair. The results will be used to fine tune the second edition of the Virtual Career Fair.

Will other professional societies or industry trade associations adopt the concept of virtual career fairs? Ms. Mathews noted that the commercial software needed to support the virtual Career Fair was costly. Its use may be limited to organizations that can attract substantial numbers of employers to a virtual career fare. Meanwhile it appears to be full steam ahead for the ACS.

The primary basis for employee job satisfaction is your personal relationship with your manager. Next is importance is your personal relationship with coworkers and the people that report to you. Only then do broad personnel practices come into play. As Sue Shellenbarger, a Wall Street Journal columnist, noted, "Regardless of the policies on the books, your company is only as family-friendly as your immediate boss, or the department where you work"http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2010/05/21/novartis-ruling-offers-lesson-on-family-friendly-workplaces.

This is why a company listed as one of Working Mother magazine's "100 Best Company's Working Mother's" list could be cited by a federal court for sex discrimination against women. On May 20 a federal jury awarded $250 million to a group of current and former women employees who sued pharmaceutical giant Novartis, AG for sexual discrimination. Novartis attorneys quickly announced they would appeal the verdict.

The women involved were pharmaceutical sales personnel; laboratory staff personnel do not appear to be involved in the suit. Nevertheless, the verdict holds lessons for laboratory managers.

As Shellenbarger wrote, "All it takes is one boss–or a negative workplace culture in one division–to turn family-friendly policies into an embarrassing lie." Novartis' policies such as child care discounts, backup child care plans and ten weeks paid maternity leave were not proof against charges of discrimination and harassment.

Motives don't matter

Lab managers should not rely on only corporate policies forbidding gender discrimination. They should examine their own behavior and actions to be sure they are free of gender bias. Also, innocent actions could be interpreted as gender bias. For example, when interviewing candidates, female or male, for employment, laboratory managers should not ask questions about their marital status, plans to have children, and other factors not directly related to job performance. Some of these questions are actually illegal in the U.S.

Foreign-born lab managers should not allow workplace practices and attitudes of their homeland culture influence their U.S. workplace behavior to the point where they violate laws or discriminate against certain groups of employees. I once had a foreign-born coworker, a Ph.D. chemist, decide to return to her home country. She set up an employment interviews and flew to Europe. She came back with her mind completely changed as a result of some of the questions she was asked. At least at this firm it was clear that her career as a researcher at the firms she interviewed with would be limited because of her gender. In the particular country involved, all the questions she was asked were quite legal but the gender-related ones would have been illegal in the U.S. More than years later, this chemist is still working in the U.S.

ironically, some discriminatory behavior could actually be related to misguided attempts by managers to be considerate. I have observed cases when lab managers, out of a misguided sense of consideration, tried to force women to use all their maternity leave when they wanted to return to work. Another thought he was being considerate when he gave a coveted promotion to someone else and not a working mother thinking that the frequent business travel required would be a strain on her family life. The employee has to make this decision; a lab manager can't make it for her. In other cases, I have seen lab managers argue against given a woman employee a high performance rating or a coveted promotion because she did use all her maternity leave saying that this reduced their contribution to the company.

"Better the devil you know than the one you don't." is a familiar proverb. Whether consciously or unconsciously, many lab managers are guided by this proverb in the way they manage their laboratories. The result is a static workplace culture that can reduce productivity and job satisfaction as business conditions change and both science and technology advance.

What are some of the barriers to change and how can they be overcome?

Not invented here syndrome

The "not invented here" syndrome leads to laboratories ignoring answers to their problems developed elsewhere and instead focusing on developing their own solutions. As a result, the rate of new product and new process introduction are slower. Laboratories cannot afford this when their competitors are turning to open innovation to import ideas and technologies developed in other organizations (http://www.labmgr.com/articles.asp?pid=163).

The solution to the "not invented here syndrome" is to promote looking outside the laboratory for solutions to problems and challenges. The employee reward system must be changed to reward staff members who import solutions to problems that save the laboratory money and development time as well as rewarding those who develop solutions internally. Staff members may need to learn how to work more closely with information scientists to search the outside world for technology and solutions to problems. They may need to better understand the processes of patenting and licensing technology.

Better focus staff members' efforts

It has become a badge of honor to multitask and have crowded calendars. Many managers would benefit by applying the Pareto Principle to time management. Also called the 80/20 Rule, the Pareto Principle (http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/Pareto081202.htm) states that you should focus 80% of your efforts, and those of your staff, on the things that really matter: the projects and activities that will make a major difference in the results the laboratory contributes to the organization.

Another way to state the Pareto Rule is, "Don't just 'work smart,' work smart on the right things. One way to do so is to follow the practice of cascading goals. This means making sure that the goals of every level of the organization are aligned with the overall goals of the organization. For example, the overall organizational goal might be to increase sales by 5% annually while maintaining profit margins. For the laboratory, this means devoting the appropriate amount of effort to the projects most likely to achieve this goal. The lab manager must assign staff members to these projects and work with them to be sure their individual goals are aligned with this overall objective and help to achieve it.

Communicate commitment and engagement

Cascading goals help staff members understand how their personal workplace goals contribute to the organization. This promotes commitment and engagement resulting in greater productivity and high morale. Managers should promote commitment and engage staff members by "walking the talk" and practicing what they preach.

Provide your staff members with the information they need to commit to the goals of the organization. Develop a system of rewards, both monetary and non-monetary, to promote commitment and engagement.

Make the lab a happy place

People who enjoy their work are more productive. It was Walt Disney who said, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible." Enjoy your own work and communicate this to your staff members. Encourage them to do the same.

Management policies can contribute to this sense of enjoyment. These policies can include award programs to recognize team and individual achievement. However, management policies can go beyond this. For example, when Shell instituted a policy that gave U.S. employees the option to take alternative Fridays off, the result was an improvement in lab morale. Some lab staff members used Fridays to achieve a more appropriate balance between their work and personal lives. Others used the time to pursue special projects and professional society activities they would otherwise not have had the time for.

Lab managers have been faced with cuts in their training budgets since the recession began. Upper level managers have been cutting back on the number of employees allowed to enroll in external training programs and limiting lab staff participation in internal courses that charge the laboratory by the number of employees taking the course or workshop.

The goal in these efforts is to focus scarce resources on high-impact training programs and on the employees most likely to benefit substantially from attending these programs. Maintaining an adequate level of training will help companies strengthen their competitive positions as the economy improves.

Skill Areas to Focus On

So what types of programs are companies still spending money on? According to Josh Bersin, president of human resources firm Bersin & Associates, "Leaders beginning to shift attention back toward skills development, globalization, innovation and rebuilding... Now is the time to focus on and invest in programs that drive innovative thinking, collaboration, employee empowerment, and localization." His conclusion is based on the findings of a 2010 study of 265 human resource, learning, and business leaders. A complimentary copy of TalentWatch H1'2010: Trends in Talent Management and Training is available for download here at http://marketing.bersin.com/TalentWatchH12010.html.

Bersin believes that available training funds should be focused on areas providing "biggest bang for the buck." These include coaching, efficient knowledge sharing and collaboration, onboarding, and management training. Respondents to the survey indicated they believe that the capability of first-line managers is of particular concern. Survey respondents believe that these individuals are less well prepared for their new assignments than are newly hired entry-level employees.

Cutting training costs

So how can companies reduce training costs while giving lab staff members the training they need? Instructor-led training is the primary method companies use to provide training to employees. However, a 2009 Bersin & Associates survey indicated its use declined from 67% of training hours in 2008 to 60% in 2009 (http://www.bersin.com/News/Content.aspx?id=11925). This study collected data from 1,400 organizations.

This traditional method of corporate training tends to be the most expensive.

Use of online training is increasing, from 24% of training hours in 2008 to 33% in 2009. Most of this was online self study with learners proceeding at their own pace and taking tests at the end of segments of the course. Often a minimum score is required to certify that the student has passed the course. Should students record too low a score in one or more of these tests, they have to repeat those sections of the course.

Companies are slowly developing other newer technologies for training employees. While 8% of formal learning was delivered via virtual classrooms in 2008, this increased to 13% in 2009. Virtual classroom technology enables instructors to present coursework using live remote broadcasts or video.

Use of wikis and blogs as learning tools is increasing. Each is being used by about 14% of the organizations surveyed in the Bersin & Associates study.

More organizations have turned to outside vendors to provide training and reduced or eliminated their in-house training staff. Nearly two-thirds of organizations used outside professionals for instruction. One type of cost-effective outside vendor can be company retirees. Also, 51% of the surveyed companies used outside venders fro course development. , and 51 percent did so for course development.

In the wake of widespread layoffs, laboratory managers are beginning to hire again as the economy slowly recovers. Lab managers could ignore a flood of incoming résumés while staffing levels were frozen. However, as they begin to hire they have to deal with this flood. This is a particular problem for managers of small laboratories with limited staff resources to help screen potential applicants in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner.

However, there are many sources of aid available.

 

Strategies for Using Online Job Sites

 

Lab managers probably are already familiar with online job sites such as Monster.com, Hotjobs.com and CareerBuilder.com that they can use to a search for qualified job hunters. However, many experts counsel both hiring managers and job hunters to focus on using specialized job sites rather than big job sites covering many professions. These offer lab managers a more focused pool of potential new employees. Specialized job sites lab managers could consider include sciencejobs.com. Professional societies offer job sites as well. For example, after setting up a free account on the ACS job site, http://chemistryjobs.acs.org/hr/jobs/, lab managers can pay to advertise job openings and search the online résumé database, http://chemistryjobs.acs.org/hr/jobs/..

Like traditional recruiters, the RealMatch.com job site charges allows employers only when they identify a candidate they want to contact. Job hunters can post for free. Potential employers can post job descriptions and review candidate postings describing their skills and experience. However, both are restricted to choosing skills from a skills list that may be too limited for many laboratory positions.

Some managers broaden a search using multiple online job sites. Others winnow the field with tests that applicants can take online. Others used prerecorded interview questions that promising candidates answer online often using a web camera to record their answers. Some sites also perform fast background checks and help companies manage the whole hiring process through one portal.

 

Online screening interviews

 

Screening interviews have become widely used to help lab managers select only the most promising candidates for the onsite interviews that consume large amounts of staff time. The video capabilities of the Internet enable managers to use this technology for screening interviews as well.

For example, InterviewStream (www.interviewstream.com) enables hiring managers to choose interview questions from a list of 2,500 questions. Applicants answer these questions with their answers being recorded by webcam. In one mode applicants can use the site to practice online job interviewing by recording and reviewing their answers. Employer fees vary by company size and range from $25 to $60 per interview with volume-based discounts available. Participating in online interviews is free to job hunters.

VoiceScreener (www.voicescreener.com) takes a different approach. Managers can record interview questions over the telephone and then send an online interview invitation to a promising applicant by email. The applicant follows the emailed link to a customized webpage and enters their telephone number. VoiceScreener calls the number and plays the manager's questions to the applicant. The applicant answers the questions and answers are recorded for the manager's review.

Online interviewing can enable employers to participate in online career fairs using services provided by suppliers such as InterviewStream. Organizations such as the American Chemical Society (http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_SUPERARTICLE&node_id=1780&use_sec=false&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=12d3b1fe-e63a-49fd-90ab-1fcb879880e1 ) have begun to hold online career fares. Both employers and job hunters can participate at times convenient for them.

One potential downside to online interviewing is that it can convey a cold and impersonal image of the company as a workplace.

The primary basis for employee job satisfaction is your personal relationship with your manager. Next is importance is your personal relationship with coworkers and the people that report to you. Only then do broad personnel practices come into play. Sue Shellenbarger, a Wall Street Journal careers columnist, noted, "Regardless of the policies on the books, your company is only as family-friendly as your immediate boss, or the department where you work" (http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2010/05/21/novartis-ruling-offers-lesson-on-family-friendly-workplaces).

This is why a company listed as one of Working Mother magazine's "100 Best Company's Working Mother's" list could be cited by a federal court for sex discrimination against women. On May 20 a federal jury awarded $250 million to a group of current and former women employees who sued pharmaceutical giant Novartis, AG for sexual discrimination. Novartis attorneys quickly announced they would appeal the verdict.

The women involved were pharmaceutical sales personnel; laboratory staff personnel do not appear to be involved in the suit. Nevertheless, the verdict holds lessons for laboratory managers.

As Shellenbarger wrote, "All it takes is one boss–or a negative workplace culture in one division–to turn family-friendly policies into an embarrassing lie." Novartis' policies such as child care discounts, backup child care plans and ten weeks paid maternity leave were not proof against charges of discrimination and harassment.

Motives don't matter

Lab managers should not rely on only corporate policies forbidding gender discrimination. They should examine their own behavior and actions to be sure they are free of gender bias. Also, innocent actions could be interpreted as gender bias. For example, when interviewing job candidates, female or male, laboratory managers should not ask questions about their marital status, plans to have children, and other factors not directly related to job performance. Some of these questions are actually illegal in the U.S.

Foreign-born lab managers should not allow workplace practices and attitudes of their homeland culture influence their U.S. workplace behavior to the point where they violate laws or discriminate against certain groups of employees. I once had a foreign-born coworker, a Ph.D. chemist, decide to return to her home country. She set up an employment interviews and flew to Europe. She came back with her mind completely changed as a result of some of the questions she was asked. She said it was clear that her career as a researcher at the firms she interviewed with would be limited because of her gender. In the particular country involved, all the questions she was asked were quite legal but the gender-related ones would have been illegal in the U.S. More than ten years later, this chemist is still working in the U.S.

ironically, some discriminatory behavior could actually be related to misguided attempts by managers to be considerate. I have observed cases when lab managers, out of a misguided sense of consideration, tried to force women to use all their maternity leave when they wanted to return to work. Another thought he was being considerate when he gave a coveted promotion to someone else and not a working mother thinking that the frequent business travel required would be a strain on her family life. The employee has to make this decision; a lab manager can't make it for her. In other cases, I have seen lab managers argue against given a woman employee a high performance rating or a coveted promotion because she did use all her maternity leave saying that this reduced her contribution to the company.

For companies marketing to a large number of customers and potential customers, newsletters and blogs offer a way to keep them in touch and inform them of new products and generic descriptions of how these products solved other customers' problems. Using good digital photographs your firm can inform customers and potential customers about newly hired staff members and their capabilities; new lab, plant and office construction or remodeling; and other news that could have an impact on meeting customers' requirements. One could also announce papers being presented at conferences and scheduled for publication in research journals and trade magazines.

Writing newsletters and blogs can increase your own interactions and that of your staff members with your firm's sales, marketing and manufacturing personnel. This can improve productivity, communications and teamwork while enhancing lab staff members' – and your own - career development.

Communications Strategy

Having lab or corporate newsletters and blogs need not be an either – or decision. One could publish an electronic newsletter with links to one or more company blogs. Newsletters commonly are issued monthly or quarterly while blogs usually come out more frequently, often weekly. The key is to publicize both and be sure they are published on schedule. Ideally, customers will enjoy the blogs and find them valuable. As a result, they will develop the habit of checking them on a fairly regular schedule.

Use social media such as LinkedIn and Facebook to promote your blog

Readers don't like disappointments or uncertainty. Blogs have to issue on a regular schedule to retain customers as regular readers. It is discouraging to check a blog expecting to see a new post but not find one. While different employees can write the blog, the quality and organization of the blog should be consistent. Blog posters must seek new perspectives on subjects to avoid having blog posts become repetitious.

Blog subjects should be chosen in advance to coordinate subjects to industry events, conferences, and trade shows. They should also be coordinated with new product introductions and product discounting programs.

Take advantage of the capabilities of the World Wide Web and consider posting videos and other types of dynamic presentations. Link to pertinent information when appropriate, particularly to your firm's technical bulletins and other information on the Internet.

In short, having made the decision to have a lab blog, the lab manager must assure that, like its products, it is of high quality. This means being willing to have lab staff members spend the time to write new blog posts.

Monitor your blog

Give blog readers the option to post comments. Respond promptly to readers' comments. Give readers the option of commenting by e-mail should they wish to discuss information their employer may regard as confidential.

Monitor readership to learn what subjects seem to most interest your customers.

Learning to Blog

You can have your staff members learn how to blog by bringing in an experienced blogger to teach a workshop. Hire someone with experience in writing blogs for companies or magazines rather than someone who writes their own blog for the fun of it.

Suggested Reading

Robert W. Bly, "Blog Schmog: The Truth About What Blogs Can (and Can't) Do for Your business"

Tris Hussey, "Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro"

Susannah and Shane Birley, "Blogging for Dummies"

Final advice

Don't be swept away by all the current hype about blogging. Before beginning, consider carefully how you will use blogging to promote your business.

While encouraging staff members to write blog posts, lab managers should be sure they don't spend an excessive amount of time in doing so. logging can be addictive.

Many laboratory professionals reaching traditional retirement age are finding creative ways of staying in the workforce. What they are doing is often more than just working full-time past age sixty-five. This is occurring even as many mid-career and late-career laboratory professionals have lost their jobs in staff reductions and still-employed late-career professionals are delaying their retirements working full-time substantially past the age 65.

Why delay retirement

According to the 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (www.ebrig.org), fewer retirees have confidence their savings will carry them through their retirement. This is because many companies have abandoned pension plans in favor of 401k savings plans. The value of many of these savings plan investments has been substantially reduced by declines in stock prices and real estate values in recent years.

Many scientists, engineers and other lab professionals delay retirement because they enjoy their jobs. If lab managers could find ways to keep these professionals as part of their staffs while developing flexible workplace policies and practices that allow these professionals to balance their personal and work lives, their companies could tap the skills of these experienced professionals. Some progressive companies are already doing so.

At the same time younger lab professionals have been becoming frustrated at the slow rate of promotion due to so many positions, particularly management positions, being occupied by employees delaying retirement. Lab managers should have plans to deal with this problem.

Staged Retirements

One approach to deal with this problem while still tapping the skills of your lab's retirees is "staged retirements" – hiring retirees as part-time consultants to their former employers or other firms.

A firm called YourEncore was formed in 2003 by a consortium of Eli Lilly, Procter and Gamble, and Boeing to accelerate innovation by tapping the expertise of retired professionals, primarily in science and engineering. These individuals can register on the YourEncore website, www.yourencore.com. If selected by a company, they can work temporarily on a project either on a part-time or full-time basis until project goals are achieved. There are currently more than 4,000 retirees registered on the site and more than 600 work assignments have been completed. Other companies such as General Mills have joined this consortium.

As part of flexible practices applying to all their employees, Abbott Laboratories has adopted programs that apply to all their employees whatever their age. These options include flexible work hours, job sharing, and telecommuting. These programs are rooted in three major demographic trends occurring in both developed countries such as the U.S. and some developing countries. These trends are:

• aging of the workforce, particularly the increasing number of Baby Boomers beginning to reach retirement age

• younger workers' increased emphasis on balancing their work and family lives

• increased role of women in the scientific workforce

Abbott's Freedom to Work in the U.S." program was launched in 2008. Employees considering retirement have options besides the traditional all-or-nothing approach of working full-time or retiring full-time. They can change both their work hours and job responsibilities in different ways without affecting their benefits.

The Custom Schedule Program, allows employees to reduce their work hours (and their salary and bonuses) without reducing benefits such as health insurance. Employees who elect the program can either enjoy four-day work weeks or take as much as five additional weeks of vacation.

The Emeritus Program is more specifically tailored to employees reaching traditional retirement age. Those over the age of 55 years are eligible to participate. It allows managers, including lab managers, to shift from managing staff members to becoming individual contributors without reducing their salary or employee grade. In this way younger employees have more opportunities to become managers and rise up the ranks. Otherwise, frustration at their inability to do so could lead them to change employers.

Contributions to Emeritus Program participants' 401k plans are made as a percentage of their full salaries. The formula to calculate their pensions allows them to earn more years of service at their highest pay grade.

One of the big benefits to Abbott Laboratories is that these experienced professionals can serve as mentors to recently hired employees and transfer their knowledge in ways that are more effective than these young professionals reading lab reports, often old lab reports.

According to a quarterly Associated Press survey of 42 leading economists, economic growth will slow from 3.5% to 3.0% in the next 18 months (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38457713/ns/business-economy_at_a_crossroads). The primary reasons are slow hiring and consumers' reluctance to spend. What are the implications of this for lab managers and their staffing needs?

An increasing number of new science graduates are delaying their entry into the industrial laboratory workforce by taking post-docs. Baby boomers are delaying their retirement, reducing the number of job openings. One-third now expect to retire only after age 65 according to an Employment Benefit Research Institute survey..

Given these conditions and limited staffing budgets, how can lab managers meet their staffing needs?

New Concepts of Laboratory Employment Needed

The latest quarterly earnings reports from many chemical and pharmaceutical companies, major employers of laboratory professionals, appear to be good. Despite this there appears to be relatively little increase in hiring. Indeed, the number of people in conventional full-time employment is still declining. The improvement in the job market is in temporary employment. According to a recent study (http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/07/a-temporary-gap-lets-hope-so/ ), employment in temporary jobs has increased 19.6% over the past year.

Should lab managers institute unconventional (at least for laboratories) hiring practices to hire the staff members they need to achieve goals while not substantially increasing their long-term payrolls?

Hiring temps

Certainly, one option to increase staffing levels is hiring temporary employees. Overall most people now being hired are working in temporary positions. Couldn't lab managers to the same and hire people to work only until project goals are achieved?

Many laboratory professionals accept temporary employment hoping to do an excellent job and having their position will be converted to a full-time, long-term one. However, often this is not an option and lab managers should be honest and open about a temporary employee's prospects.

Lab managers can try to retain high performance temps by finding them another position in the lab when their current assignment is completed. This gives them the advantage of employing an individual in whom they are confident rather than taking a chance and hiring a new temp unfamiliar to them. The temp employee has the advantage of little or no interruption in their income as they transfer from one temporary position in the laboratory to another.

Upon project completion, letting temporary employees go is less psychologically damaging to full-time staff members that laying off employees according to University of Georgia associate professor of public administration and policy Jeffrey Wenger.

Hiring part-timers

Hiring people to work part-time may be a way to get needed work done when the workload is insufficient for a full-time position. Currently the common solution in this situation has been to assign additional work to current employees. However, this approach can heap an excessive amount of work on lab staff members, often the most reliable ones, as lab managers assign additional work to their most reliable employees. Feeling overworked, these individuals may be more likely to change jobs in the future.

Hiring part-timers enables them to have some earnings - particularly valuable after an extended period of unemployment. In the case of an outstanding part-time staff member, perhaps a second lab manager can also find a part-time position so the individual receives a full-time income. However, there are possible of legal complications should an individual be working two simultaneous half-time positions for the same employer and not receiving the benefits full conventional full-time employees receive.

From the part-time employee's perspective, he or she may be able to find a second part-time position with another employer. Adjunct faculty members often work in this fashion having simultaneous part-time positions at two or more colleges. In California, these individuals as known as "freeway flyers" based on their commutes from one campus to another.

Limited training budgets pose a challenge for many lab managers. To meet their training needs we need to scrutinize both internal training programs and those offered by consultants and other external suppliers more carefully. Maintaining an effective training program now can lead to improved employee retention later when the economic outlook brightens and lea to competitive advantage.

Survey of training programs

The results of a 2009 Bersin & Associates study can provide some guidance for lab managers. Bersin & Associates is an Oakland, California-based research firm specializing in enterprise learning and talent management. They conducted an online survey of more than 1,400 organizations having 100 or more employees. In addition to the private sector, organizations included in the survey include local, state and federal government agencies.

According to Bersin & Associates, spending on training-related products and services, which totaled $48.2 billion in 2009, the lowest ever recorded in Bersin's annual report. Payroll for training staff members, which accounted for $27.5 billion of all training spending this year, plummeted 18 percent. Nearly $14 billion was spent on training products, consultants and other services, but that represents a one-year drop of 10 percent.

So if you have fewer training dollars to spend, how can you spend them more effectively? Some consultants charge for training workshops by the number of attendees. Lab managers can limit spending by controlling enrollment and making sure only those staff members who can benefit most by participating actually attend the workshop.

Alternative training programs

There are alternatives to traditional training workshops held in class rooms with one or more instructors in the room. Online training is increasing rapidly. The Bersin & Associates survey indicated about one-third of formal learning was delivered online in 2009 compared to about one-quarter in 2008.

Some large employers have developed online training workshops and courses. These are often essentially a sound track and series of PowerPoint slides. Participants click through the slides at their own pace. There are also training programs available online, often for modest no cost. One example is the series of webinars offered by the American Chemical Society. In addition to webinars on job-hunting and career management, the ACS offers webinars and online courses on such subjects as running effective meetings and project management (http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_ARTICLEMAIN&node_id=1103&content_id=W67_002212&use_sec=true&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=970deb72-48a9-4e5d-9608-bd9cb5917fca ) plus continuing chemical education courses (http://www.proed.acs.org/ ) . There is also the ACS Harvard Business Courses (https://acs.learn.com/learncenter.asp?sessionid=3-7673499A-3D4B-42F9-A663-64294F8510C8&id=178419&page=47 ). These 42 online courses cover business subjects such as budgeting, developing business plans, decision making and marketing.

Live remote broadcasts are increasingly being used to eliminate the costs of long-distance travel to attend training. The software used usually allows workshop participants to ask questions.

Some suppliers offer DVD courses that lab managers can purchase and make available to their staff members. For example, The Teaching Company offers courses on critical decision making, the global economy and business law (http://www.teach12.com/storex/coursesdetail.aspx?ps=901 ).

Some companies will bring in consultants to present training programs and record them so other employees can view the workshop later. Lab managers should check with the consultants presenting workshops before they do this to assure that they don't object. Some will.

In conclusion, it's worth it to consider all your options before setting up training programs.

Lab managers don't have time to read or write unnecessarily long reports; nor do they have the time to write them.. Thick reports may look impressive but how many people are actually going to read them? So how can you write a concise report that conveys essential information needed to make decisions?

Begin with an outline

Lab reports and other business documents should be focused and clearly written. Beginning with an outline can help keep your first report draft focused and concise. Whether writing from an initial outline or not, outlining your already completed first draft helps identify paragraphs that interrupt or slow down your manuscript's flow. These sections need to be eliminated or repositioned. Because of your emotional attachment to your manuscript, these are often much easier to spot and delete when working from this second outline than from the manuscript itself. Preparing an outline of your completed draft can also help you shorten or otherwise revise reports for submission to journals or trade magazines.

Excessively long introductions can cause readers to lose interest. Background material places the subject of your article in context. It engages readers by helping them relate to your subject or characters. However, is all your background information really needed? Keep only that essential to your report. If you think large amounts of background material needs to be included, put this information in appendices at the end of your report.

Tactics to reduce report length

Unnecessary summaries often result when moving from one topic to anotherr or introducing an important piece of information. This summarizing in advance seems to be a natural tendency but one we can't afford if we want to produce a focused report.

Bullet or numbered statements save words by eliminating the need for transitions. In addition, they may be written as phrases rather than complete sentences. These are especially useful with sections of manuscripts that lend themselves to list formats.

Line editing

Now the time has come to narrow your editorial focus to individual sentences. Begin at the opposite ends of the manuscript. Introductions and conclusions often contain surplus sentences and phrases. Then extend your sentence revision to the rest of the manuscript.

Edit sentences for structure and clarity. Unless they add power and precision to your sentences, cut out adjectives and adverbs. Using active rather than passive voice usually results in shorter, more forceful sentences. Avoid using verbs that sound weak or hesitant such as "appear" and "seem."

Occasionally a compound noun such as "end result" will creep into your manuscript. Like compound verbs and unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, these often needlessly lengthen your sentences. So do prepositional phrases.

I always save earlier, longer versions of my manuscripts. Then when a manager asks questions or suggests adding information, I often can provide a rapid response with little additional work.

It helps to establish emotional distance from your manuscript before editing it down to size. This means scheduling your writing project so you can set it aside a day or more to cool before beginning your manuscript surgery. For longer manuscripts, I find it helpful to schedule a second editing session a day after the first. I'm more satisfied with the results than if I substantially reduce the word count of a long manuscript in a single session.

Editing checklist

The whole editing process is complex. So a checklist can help cut your report down to size. Here's mine:

1. Outline your manuscript before beginning to write.

2. Write your report following your outline.

3. Prepare an outline of your first draft. Use it to cut unneeded portions of your manuscript.

4. Ask yourself what background information can be removed?

5. Narrow your focus and edit the manuscript sentence by sentence for structure and clarity. Start with your introduction and conclusion.

The result is a manuscript that flows smoothly from one important point to the next leaving the readers agreeing with your conclusions and recommendations.

ACS national meeting programming holds much of interest to industrial and government lab managers and to academic researchers in their role of lab managers running labs and supervising research students. The ACS national meeting will be held August 22-26 in Boston. Slightly over 14,000 people attended. At the ACS Career Fair, 68 employers (of all sizes from large companies to quite small ones) recruited for 484 positions, mostly laboratory positions. ACS members using ACS Career Fair services number 1066. They attending job-hunting workshops, had one-on-one session with ACS career consultants to discuss and improve their résumés, and had mock employment interview session in which they were interviewed by an ACS career consultant. The short interviews were video recorded and the job hunter and career consultant reviewed the video to see how the job hunter could improve his/her interviewing techniques.

Symposium on Open Innovation sponsored by the Division of Business Management and Development

Unfortunately, many joint development alliances fail. Gene Slowinksi of the Rutgers University Graduate School of Management noted, "Managers must deal with the complexities of cooperatively developing intellectual assets, linking decision-making structures and building cross-corporate innovation networks. The difficulties in executing these processes can torpedo the effectiveness of joint development alliances."

Ronald Taylor of Intellectual Assets, Inc., that the intellectual property associated with an open innovation program must be carefully managed. "This requires careful alignment and appropriate negotiations of non-disclosure and joint development agreements, with timing that maintains intellectual property rights," he observed. "Moving too soon can expose the firm to contamination, but waiting too long can result in a loss of the fruits of the collaboration."

In addition to developing new products and processes, managers need to experiment with new business models without disrupting current operations, notes Saul Kaplan of the Business Innovation Factory. "Most organization leaders today have only had to lead a single business model throughout his or her entire career. And most haven't had to significantly change a business model in order to sustain the organization competitively. Organization leaders of tomorrow will have to change their business model several times over the course of a career and the successful leader will establish an ongoing process to explore new business models, even models that might threaten the current one."

ACS Division of Small Chemical Businesses

This division presented a symposium on how small companies can obtain funds from the federal government's Small Business Innovation Research program. Companies have obtained up to $5 million in funding. This programs supply finding that does not dilute an entrepreneur's ownership share.

Adjunct faculty often excluded from research

The Women Chemists Committee sponsored a symposium on the status of adjunct faculty members and the challenges associated with being one. A growing fraction of university faculty members are being substantially excluded from doing original research, supervising research students and managing laboratories.

Many of the growing corps of non-tenure track faculty are being excluded from these activities as well as the benefits of tenure. For example, Cheryl Lavoie of Simmons College noted that as a non-tenure-track chemistry faculty member, her duties include lecturing, tutoring, outreach, as well as correcting lab reports and supervising lab instructors. There was no mention of research.

Adjunct professors are often part-timers and work at two or even more institutions to earn an adequate income.

and much more

The Division of Chemistry and the Law presented a symposium of interest to lab managers as well as patent attorneys on what managers, business owners and professors need to know to begin safeguarding their inventions. Of particular interest was paper CLAW 32 providing advice to help guide inventors and lab managers to help them answer the question "Am I ready to patent this development."

Of course, there were also literally thousands of papers on various areas of chemical science and technology. One can keyword search the meeting abstracts, which are posted on the ACS website at http://abstracts.acs.org/chem/240nm/program/divisionindex.php

QNMU6KZH4R9C

Increases in management practices such as outsourcing, hiring temporary workers and focusing on project-based teams is having an adverse effect on workers. They may also result in long-term problems for lab managers and other employers.

Employee job satisfaction affects employee loyalty, efficiency in the workplace and quality of life. "We spend a great deal of our time at work, so it is an important part of our lives," says Dr. Martha Crowley, an assistant professor of sociology at North Carolina State University who has done research on the subject. "If our work experience is unpleasant, it affects every aspect of our lives and ultimately it affects our ability to do our jobs."

The research study

While the study wasn't focused on laboratory managers or their staff members, it did focus on professional employees. The researchers examined data on working conditions, workplace relationships and worker behavior of professional employees over the past 80 years. They found that, over this period, employers increasingly implemented measures designed to increase profits. These include layoffs, outsourcing jobs, and replacing salaried employees with contractors. All of these measures have been widely implemented in laboratories in many industries over the past three years as responses to the recent recession. In addition, large-scale mergers in the pharmaceutical industry have resulted in these measures plus dissolution of entire research groups and even closure of large research centers.

"We found that, while these measures have succeeded in increasing performance pressure, there have also been unintended consequences," Crowley says. Many of these unintended consequences have an immediate impact on employees. For example, professional workers increasingly work longer hours to meet project timetables. If they are salaried employees, there is no compensation for the increased time they spend on the job. Indeed there may be less as some employers freeze or even cut salaries.

Effects on employee workplace behavior

As a result, many employees experience increased workplace stress. There is an increase in fear among employees that their job will disappear and a distrust of management. Greater stress can result in increased interpersonal conflict. Employees increasingly focus on their own individual situations rather than on that of their employer except as it affects them personally. The researchers found that professionals are less likely to help coworkers than in the past and to work together effectively.

All these factors reduce workplace efficiency. The quality of the work product also declines as workers settle for "good enough."

As a result of these business practices and their consequences, people tend to withdraw loyalty from their employers. This could have long-term effects. When the economy becomes more vigorous and grows more rapidly, companies will eventually begin to increase their hiring of scientists, engineers and technicians to work in their laboratories. With an improved laboratory job market, decreased loyalty among current staff members could result in increased current employee turnover. While employers may offer incentives to stay on the job, the memory of the previous months or years of stressful laboratory workplace conditions may result in these offers being ineffective.

These stressful work conditions caused by changed workplace practices also may reduce employees' commitment to their employers' goals. "People are still doing their jobs and many are putting in a lot of hours," Crowley says, "but they are not doing the things they would do if they were passionate about their work." This behavior can persist despite a strong economic recovery.

Crowley concludes that employers should not rely on these workplace practices suggesting, "Treating your employees well can be a way to boost your profits and productivity simultaneously without generating the unintended consequences of tactics based on fear."

The recent demise of Chrysler's once popular PT Cruiser automobile holds important lessons for lab managers. A decade ago, Chrysler Corporation introduced its PT Cruiser. The car's retro styling immediately made it popular with both car dealers and drivers. It inspired imitators such as the Chevrolet HHR. PT Cruiser production could barely keep up with demand. All this gradually changed. Last July Chrysler manufactured its last PT Cruiser. Sales had declined from 145,000 in 2001 to just 18,000 last year. Back in 2001, What happened to kill the car?

The answer to this question holds important lessons for lab managers. What is the answer? Chrysler ignored its customers. Although car dealers (Chrysler's direct customers) and drivers (Chrysler's indirect customers) asked for things such as two-door and panel van versions, Chrysler failed to invest in the car to offer these options or change it beyond offering additional paint colors and a convertible top. With the loss of the once rich PT Cruiser profits, Chrysler paid a heavy price for ineffective customer relationship management.

Even in 2001, the PT Cruiser was considered a heavy vehicle with relatively low gas mileage. As drivers are demanded ever higher gas mileage, Chrysler never made design changes to improve gas mileage.

In short, Chrysler never updated the car to overcome its disadvantages or broaden its appeal. This and competitive threats from boxy, higher mileage vehicles destroyed the appeal of the PT Cruiser. The same sort of problem can confront instrument makers, drug manufacturers and even commodity chemical manufacturers. Their lab manufacturers are responsible for protecting their employers' markets. However, like Chrysler's designers, sometimes they are asleep at the switch.

Example – polyester raw materials

Early in my career I received a valuable lesson in the dangers of ignoring competitive threats until it's too late to retain one's markets. I worked for Hercules, then a major manufacturer of dimethyl phthalate (DMT), the raw material for polytheylene terephthalate (PET). PET is used to manufacture plastic soda bottles, water bottles, clothing made of polyester fibers and other products. Then Amoco introduced terephthalic acid (PTA) as an alternative.

The introduction of PTA was an ambiguous threat because its consequences for DMT producers was unclear at first. "When faced with ambiguous threats, organizations often tend to downplay or minimize the risks," notes Trustee Professor of Business Management Robert Rigoberto of Bryant University. Hercules appeared to do this. I saw lab managers dismiss the threat because PTA was a solid rather than a liquid. They were convinced that customers would prefer to handle a liquid product. However, with Amoco's help, polymer manufacturers soon learned how to handle PTA pellets in their plant. Suddenly it was DMT that had a major disadvantage: methanol was produced as a byproduct when polymerizing DMT but not when polymerizing PTA. Previously polymer makers had lived with the problem of finding markets for the methanol. They didn't have to do this when using PTA. Hercules was forced to buy back the methanol from its customers thereby reducing profit margins. Still storing methanol, loading rail cars, etc. was a hassle for polyester manufacturers. As a result, Hercules had to fight hard to keep its customers in what had been a growth market.

Hercules eventually got out of the business selling its plants to other firms.

Lessons for lab managers

So what is the lesson for lab managers? When an ambiguous threat appears on the horizon and you are unsure whether or not it poses a threat to your firm's business, consider the threat carefully. Study of the patent literature may help define its seriousness. If it is indeed serious, your firm has a window of opportunity to confront it before your business starts to suffer. For example, lab managers could have started a program to investigate making PTA themselves. Marketing managers could have immediately instituted a methanol buy-back program and persuaded DMT customers to sign long-term contracts. This would have given lab managers time to work on the problem before sales and profits began to decline too severely. Alternatively, Hercules could have acted quickly to get out of the business.

Before presentation software such as PowerPoint became almost ubiquitous, many presenters would give rambling, poorly focused presentations. Preparing 35 mm slides was often too costly and took too much time for internal presentations. So speakers wouldn't use visual aids and often "wing it" with little rehearsal. As a result, their presentations would be unfocused and disjointed. All this changed with PowerPoint and its competitors and the availability of projectors that take what's on a computer screen and project it onto a wall screen or the wall itself. Bullet point slides gave speakers a visual outline of their talk as their proceeded. This makes it much easier for them to give their presentations structure and focus.

Presentation also provides speakers and their organizations with a written document they can distribute to audience members or people unable to attend their presentation.

What else can oral presentation software do?

PowerPoint and similar software can also help you give other written documents more organization and focus. Hate to outline your reports and other documents you have to write? Instead of conventional outlining, you can use PowerPoint bullet point templates to organize your thoughts. You can use the main or leading bullet for an important subject or thought and subsidiary bullet points under the main point for supporting evidence and to explore the implications of your main bullet point. This is exactly what an outline does. However, many people find they prefer using PowerPoint or a similar program to do so rather than using a word processor to prepare an outline. Try it. You may find you prefer to use PowerPoint over conventional outlining as the first step in writing a lengthy report or other document.

PowerPoint instead of word processing

Indeed, you may even want to experiment with using PowerPoint to prepare an entire document for your firm's website rather than using a word processor at all. The bullet points of a PowerPoint document help eliminate excess verbiage that so turns off people reading document online. Inserting charts and diagrams can reduce the monotony of one bullet point slide after another.

After giving a well-received presentation to your managers, customers or at conferences, authors can post the presentation on their firm's website or intranet. This saves the author's time compared to preparing a text document in addition to the presentation. If your firm has a process requiring management and legal approval for documents printed or posted online, posting your PowerPoint presentation rather than a new document can streamline the approval process. Instead of having to approve two documents, they have only to approve the PowerPoint presentation.

Taking meeting notes

Being assigned to take meeting notes for all the attendees can be a pain. If their keyboarding skills are good, many recorders use a notebook computer rather than handwriting their notes. PowerPoint offers an alternative to word processors for this task. The bullet point structure enables the note-taker to spend less time keyboarding and more focusing on what is said. The final document, whether written using a word processor or PowerPoint, will probably be more concise.

If you can condense the most critical points made during the meeting to one or two PowerPoint slides, projecting these slides offer an excellent way to get everyone "on the same page" when beginning a follow-up meeting.

PowerPoint doesn't work best all the time

PowerPoint is often poor for explaining difficult concepts. Speakers have to rely heavily on their own verbal explanations. In this case, using a word processor is more effective in communicating these concepts and information.

Taking useful short courses and workshops can be a major factor in career success. While taking full semester courses is often helpful, many times this isn't possible due to time constraints of job responsibilities or family duties. Often full semester courses contain a lot of material that isn't focused enough to be of substantial help in meeting one's career goals. Short courses offer a useful alternative to longer courses and can be more focused with less demanding time requirements.

When one uses the term "short course," one typically thinks of intensive courses one to five days long and running six to eight hours per day. These are live presentations and may be held in a hotel meeting room or, if an internal corporate course, in a company meeting room. Instructors may be outside consultants, current employees or retirees. Workshops are more narrowly focused and shorter - sometimes as little as three hours in length.

Consultants may offer their own courses and workshops or teach onees offered by professional societies. Many conferences such as national American Chemical Society meetings and Pittcon offer short courses on both technical subjects and soft skills. Courses in soft skills, sometimes called people skills, may seem easier when sitting in a meeting room than are more technical courses. However, they are harder to put into practice. It is the failure of many attendees to do so that can result in a poor reputation for some short courses.

Other types of short courses

So far we've been talking about the traditional model of a short course or workshop: a live presentation in a meeting room. However, technology has made possible other types of short courses. One is the webinar. This may be a one-way presentation broadcast to your personal computer or, by using a telephone or online software, allow for two-way communication in which course attendees can ask questions.

Another alternative is the videoconference in which the instructor's presentation is broadcast to attendees in one or more distant locations. These locations are typically meeting rooms designed for videoconferences and having one or more large-screen video monitors. Two-way communication between the presenter and the attendees is possible. Some courses are available on DVD. Students may watch them at their leisure in their own homes. Several months ago I took a 12-hour DVD course, "The Art of Critical Decision Making" and recently watched the tapes again. This course has been useful in my own work and helped me better understood how things went wrong in the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Example

When I started working for Shell Chemical Company all new employees took three-day short courses in listening skills (in the context of conversations) and oral presentation skills. These have been among the most valuable courses I have ever taken helping me in my R&D, technical service and lab management positions. Outside the laboratory, effective listening skills have helped me as a volunteer American Chemical Society career consultant working with job hunters. It also helps when working with employed ACS members is dealing with on-the-job issues. (As a writer, learning how to listen effectively and actively has helped me when interviewing people for articles I am writing.) The presentation skills course has helped me in preparing and making in-house presentations, conference presentations, presentations to customers and job-hunting and career management presentations. It also prompted me to develop a workshop on preparing oral presentations when English is your second language.

Writing in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/ad/article/managingrisk-managing"), veteran business journalist Russ Banham notes, "In this era of globalization, few strategic initiatives are more global than a company's supply chain."

The "lean manufacturing" concept pioneered by Toyota and others emphasizes just-in-time delivery of raw materials and mechanical parts with minimal amounts kept in inventory. I recall reading that a one-day delay in delivery of Toyota parts from Japan can force shutting down the firm's Tennessee auto plant. However, the recession has forced many firms to reduce their internal costs. One way to do so is to minimize inventories of raw materials and parts and instead rely on suppliers to deliver them just-in-time.

There are other factors to worry about other than delays in delivery. What if the delivered parts or materials do not meet your firm's quality specifications? This is where the laboratory can play a major role in assuring on-time delivery of on-specification raw materials and parts.

The Production Plant Laboratory

The plant laboratory has long been the site where raw materials and parts were tested to assure they met specifications. However, this testing often took place after the materials in question arrived at the plant. Today it is more efficient to require that a representative sample be sent by overnight delivery for lab test testing. This testing must be carried out in a very expeditious way so that shipment can occur quickly enough to assure on-time delivery with no interruption or delay to the production schedule.

This requires that the plant laboratory have sufficient staff and the testing equipment needed for rapid and efficient testing. It also means that lab personnel have an efficient sample submission and tracking system that assures that samples are logged in as soon as possible after arrival and sent to the proper analyst or analysts for testing. In some cases, rather than wait for one analyst to perform a test and then pass the sample onto another analyst for a different test, these tests should be performed in parallel so the entire test series is completed more quickly.

Once testing is complete, either the analyst or a supervisor must approve the sample for shipment and so inform the supplier. This should be part of the sample shipment and tracking system.

It may be advisable to make the sample submission and tracking system accessible to the supplier. This enables anxious suppliers to track the progress of their sample towards approval.

The Central Laboratory

Should a central corporate laboratory play a role in this analysis and approval process? It depends. It may be that the testing instruments are very expensive. This equipment may be used only occasionally in a plant lab but frequently in a larger, central laboratory. Should this be the case, it may be more cost-effective to purchase only one unit of each piece of testing equipment and position them in a central laboratory. (Sometimes the reverse is true and equipment used only occasionally in a central lab will be used more frequently in a plant lab.)

Having two laboratories testing and approving a raw material or mechanical part can complicate sample tracking and approval. Systems must be designed so no ambiguity creeps into the approval process and the supplier is informed of approval – or non-approval – in a timely manner.

One factor that could make it advantageous to schedule as much testing as possible in the plant lab is that its personnel may feel a greater sense of urgency in performing the required tests than analysts in a central lab devoted in large part to R&D.

The pharmaceutical industry appears to be in the process of switching over to a different R&D model involving more outsourcing and less internal R&D than in the past. Perhaps a decade ago, pharmaceutical companies were outsourcing drug manufacturing stating that their core strength was new drug development. The current trend towards more outsourcing and less internal R&D is seen as a response to a major industry problem: big pharmaceutical companies have commercialized relatively few new drugs in the past decade.

Some blame this problem on extremely large research staffs formed as a result of the drug industry mega-mergers of the past ten to fifteen years. They suggest that large staffs have resulted in innovation-stifling bureaucracy. Another contributing factor may be changes in U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations for permitting of new drugs. Whatever the cause, the result has been what Chris Viehbacher, CEO of Sanofi-Aventis SA, has called a "lost decade" in terms of new drug development.

The big pharmaceutical companies, so-called "big pharma," have been reacting to the problem by reducing R&D staffing levels. According to Russell Reynolds healthcare recruited Jacques Bouwens, the ten largest drug companies have eliminated approximately 27,000 R&D jobs since the beginning of 2009. R&D staffing levels may continue to decline due in part to work force reductions and in part due to reduced hiring of young researchers. At one point in the 1990s, the pharmaceutical industry hired more than half of new Ph.D. chemistry graduates according to American Chemical Society surveys of new graduates.

Restructuring

R&D restructuring has includes more than just laboratory staff downsizing. Some companies have ended development of some types of drugs and dissolved entire research groups.

Entire large laboratories (chemical industry labs as well as drug industry labs) have been closed and sold or converted to other uses. An article scheduled for publication in the September issue of "Laboratory Management Magazine" will discuss some of these once shuttered large laboratories and the uses to which they are now being put.

GlaxoSmithKine provides a representative example. Since 2006, the firm has cut its global R&D staff by 20%. At the same time it has substantially increased funding of outside projects performed by small biotech firms and academic research groups About 30% of its drug discovery research is now contracted out to other firms (http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/88/i06/8806notw4.html).

As a result of extensive outsourcing, overall drug industry R&D spending has declined relatively little. New laboratory management and staff jobs are increasingly in contract research organizations and in biotechnology firms and small pharmaceutical companies rather than the major pharmaceutical firms.

Another approach being evaluated by some big pharmaceutical companies was discussed at length in a recent "Wall Street Journal" article (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704569204575328580921136768.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLEFifthNews). Basically it involves carrying out new drug development in small teams of about a dozen people with support functions such as clinical testing, formulation development and manufacturing development being outsourced.

However, entrenched corporate cultures often are hard to change. For example, according to some reports, despite a change in 2006 – 2007 to a more safety oriented culture, many BP managers and staff members are still taking safety-related risks in order to minimize spending and meet deadlines. Even if excessive lab bureaucracy and its time-consuming requirements are eliminated or greatly reduced, some lab managers and staff members behave as if it is still there.

Cloud computing is not just for large laboratories. Data processing and storage requirements are increasing substantially for small laboratories as well. We talked about cloud computing in the April 21 edition of this blog. As noted then, cloud computing enables remote users to connect to massive, warehouse-scale data centers comprising hundreds or even thousands of servers with a huge capacity for crunching numbers and storing data. These offer economy of scale, freeing laboratories from purchasing large numbers of servers, most of which they use only intermittently and the hassles of backing up their data and maintaining the servers.

Cloud services to grow rapidly

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), a global information technology services firm, information technology (IT) will grow at five times the rate of traditional IT products. Sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 27.4% to$16 billion in 2009 to $55.5 billion in 2014. These 2014 sales will equal saleas of traditional software.

Small laboratories

Cloud computing is about to get a lot simpler for many small laboratories. Microsoft has launched a new version of Microsoft Office called Office Web Apps. It allows users to store WORD, Excel. PowerPoint and other Office documents on Microsoft's data center servers. This places Microsoft in direct competition with Google's online Docs suite of programs.

These online software packages can enable employees to work more productively at home or while on road. Cloud computing benefits can be particularly valuable to small companies, which more often have limited IT expertise and cash for servers. Many small laboratories do not have a dedicated IT staff and setting up servers and worrying about data security and backup offer a major challenge according to Rajen Sheth, senior product manager for Google Apps.

Other companies offering cloud computing services include familiar names such as Amazon, Yahoo and Facebook.

Currently few small laboratories have yet to switch to cloud computing. This is in large part due to the popularity of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office is used by 97% of all organizations according to the IDC. Cloud-based analogs of Microsoft Office software tend to have fewer features than the traditional Microsoft Office programs However, according to Google Docs, more than 2 million businesses now work entirely on Docs, and 3,000 more are switching every day. Google claims millions more use it on an ad-hoc basis to share individual files online, including Microsoft Office documents.

Faster Internet connections, improvements in browser technology and competition resulting in improved cloud computing software packages are overcoming the limits of cloud computing.

Other cloud computing advantages

Cloud computing offers the capability of overcoming the limits of firms storing documents on their own servers and offers them advantages in accessing documents from the cloud. For example, some trade and trade magazines now delete articles once available online from their servers in order to free storage space for more in recent documents. I don't know about you but I have already found this a very frustrating inconvenience several times. Cloud computing makes it possible for laboratories to save PDF versions of these articles in their own cloud and avoid this information loss."

Cloud computing makes it possible for your laboratory to share data with your firm's customers and suppliers located hundreds or thousands of miles away without granting them access to your corporate computer system and intranet. Using the cloud can accelerate work on joint projects on which your lab staff is working with supplier or customer personnel.

If your laboratory or your company is considering making a large investment in servers, cloud computing may offer a more cost-effective alternative.

Last May BP promised to spend $500 million on oil spill research relating to its big Gulf of Mexico oil spill. "We must make every effort to understand (the) impact" of the spill "on the people and environment of the Gulf Coast," said BP CEO Tony Hayward in a press release. There is an urgent need to ensure that the scientific community has access to the samples and the raw data it needs to begin this work." Hopefully, this means BP will provide data to researchers.

In BP's press release it promised to pay for R&D to answer important questions including: 1. Where are the oil, the dispersed oil and the dispersant going under the action of ocean currents? 2. How do oil, the dispersed oil and the dispersant behave on the seabed, in the water column, on the surface and on the shoreline? 3. What are the impacts of the oil, the dispersed oil and the dispersant on the seabed, the water column, the surface and the shoreline? 4. How do accidental releases of oil compare to natural seepage from the seabed? 5. What is the impact of dispersant on the oil? 6. How will the oil, the dispersed oil, and the dispersant interact with tropical storms, and will this interaction impact the seabed, the water column and the shoreline?

Crude oil dispersants

I have been concerned about the fact that the dispersant being used in the Gulf was developed nearly a generation ago. Are there no improved products available? Shouldn't there be R&D on new, more effective, more environmentally friendly crude oil dispersants? In early May I contacted several high-level American Chemical Society officials urging that ACS advocate the need for such research with the appropriate federal government officials. I have received no information on whether such discussions have taken place. So it's nice to know that Congress is taking an interest. This also represents a commercial opportunity for industrial lab managers.

Other industrial R&D opportunities include improved oil well drilling and completion methods and design of improved blowout preventers.

Biological research

BP's program also represents an opportunity for academic researchers. While BP America chairman Lamar McKay was testifying before Congress last week, Rep. Steve Kagen, (D-Wis.) asked him to "commit to funding any and all studies to look at the long-term consequences of the dispersal agents that you're now using within the Gulf."

Last Monday Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) pressed BP to immediately begin a nationwide search for research projects to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and its effects on marine life. He is concerned that delays in awarding the funds BP promised and possibly an overly narrow distribution of funds to a limited number of researchers would impair the value of the research. "Failure to start collecting data and conducting research now on the spills' effects on delicate marshlands and fisheries, the impact of underwater oil plumes, and other critical issues will make it impossible to understand the full effect of this spill 10, 20, or 30 years from now," Capps said. "It's essential that BP get this money out the door as soon as possible so scientists around the country can begin working to understand the catastrophic impacts an oil spill has on the marine environment." He also wrote Tony Hayward directly urging that the company begin distributing research funds as soon as possible after peer-review of the research proposals.

Efficient customer service plays a key role in keeping customers loyal. Effective customer service begins with selecting the right people to provide this service.

The hiring process

When recruiting and hiring laboratory staff, the focus is usually technical competence and knowledge. However, communication and interpersonal skills as well as problem=solving skills. are paramount in providing customer service. So lab managers should not neglect these skills when interviewing candidates for technical service positions.

One traditional screening tool for Ph.D. and M.S. job candidates is the research seminar. Lab managers should also require B.S. job candidates who have not performed research to present an employment interview seminar as well. The topic could be a job-related one chosen by the candidate or by the hiring manager. The logic behind this is that customer service specialists often have to present seminars to customers describing their employer's products, how they work and how they can solve the customer's problems.

Attitude is another very important factor but can be hard to assess since job candidates are normally on their best behavior during employment interviews. Technical service specialists must have a sincere desire to help others. The job candidate's references should be able to provide helpful information in this regard.

Beginning the job

Having hired good people, lab managers must motivate and manage them. In particular, they must coach them in their firm's customer relationship methods while helping them develop their own interpersonal and communication skills. This often requires training programs either taught in-house or by external providers. For example, when I started working for Shell Chemical Company all new employees took three-day short courses in listening skills (in the context of conversations) and oral presentation skills. These have been among the most valuable courses I have ever taken helping me in my R&D, technical service and lab management positions.

Lab managers should work with their technical service specialists to seek out opportunities to promote the firm's products to prospective customers. This often involves working with sales personnel. For example, technical service specialists could present papers at trade association meetings on the performance of new products both in the laboratory and in commercial use by their customers. Technical service customers can work with customers to help them present such papers as well.

Managers should reward performance by a combination of financial rewards and non-monetary recognition. Laboratories often have recognition programs for employees who are outstanding inventors. They should also have formal recognition programs for staff members who have also delivered outstanding customer service.

From the staff's perspective

Technical service positions can provide newly hired employees with a crash course in how their new employer works. Technical service specialists not only deal with customers, they often work with researchers, sales representatives, marketing and business managers and plant personnel. Beyond the organizational borders of their employer, they work with supplier and customer personnel.

This knowledge is a valuable asset should the lab staff member continue in technical service or focus on new product development. With this knowledge, technical service specialists can also make valuable contributions quickly should they move out of the laboratory to work in sales or marketing.

Career paths

Technical service specialists need to have paths available for professional and career advancement. Once they have shown themselves to be responsible and mastered both their job responsibilities and the basics of their customers' technologies, they should be allowed to work independently while being encouraged to consult with others as needed. Some may wish to become managers of laboratory customer service groups. Others may wish to become business managers or move into other business functions. If they do a lot of quality assurance work, they may wish to consider working in a production plant.

Once they are doing well and have gained sufficient experience, lab managers should work with customer service specialist to help them consider these career options.

The human and environmental tragedy that continues to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico has important lessons for lab managers. I'll be writing an article for the December issue of "Lab Manager" on the lessons in crisis management that the situation holds for lab managers. I'd like to talk about another oil spill-related matter here.

Need for continuous product and process improvement

Resting on current laurels and not trying to improve existing products and processes can cause problems later. While the dispersant being used to treat the oil spill has been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, there have been serious concerns raised about its environmental safety. At one point the government ordered BP to switch to a different dispersant. This never happened because no other suitable dispersant was available in sufficient quantities. (At the time this blog was written, over one million gallons of this dispersant had been used. Its use continues.)

The dispersant being sued was developed approximately twenty years ago. I don't know if its manufacturer conducted follow-up research to develop improved dispersants. However, much has happened in surfactant science since development of the current dispersant. For example, nanotechnology has resulted in the development of a single-molecular-layered material made by reacting graphite powders with strong oxidizing agents. Recently Northwestern University researchers discovered that graphene oxide behaves like a surfactant. It can be assembled in soft sheets like floating water lily pads. Will these sheets disperse crude oil? Are they durable enough to endure ocean waves and tides? What are the environmental effects? I don't know the answer to these questions. However, it seems worthwhile to determine if these grapheme oxide sheets will disperse crude oil in simulated ocean water. If so, it may be worthwhile to investigate the other questions raised here. Certainly other recently developed surfactants may also be crude oil dispersant candidates having improved environmental properties.

The blowout preventer on the Macondo well, the last line of defense against a well blowout failed to perform as required releasing oil and natural gas to the ocean. This could have been due to insufficiently powerful shear rams. These are designed to cut and seal the pipe connecting the well to the drilling rig. Cameron International, which built this blowout preventer, does offer a recently developed, more powerful one. However, at the time of the blowout, none had been sold to drilling contractors.

Educating customers

This illustrates another requirement. Laboratory managers and their staff members must work with their firm's sales and business personnel to convince prospective customers that new and improved products fill a real need. One of the most commercially successful and innovative products I invented illustrates this point. It substantially reduced a problem that oil companies had been living with for years. They viewed the situation as a fact of life and lived with oil production declines caused by migration of small mineral particles in the microscopic flow channels that carry oil and gas to well bores for production. These particles plug the flow channels reducing hydrocarbon production. The polymer I developed decreased the drag forces exerted by flowing fluids thereby reducing production declines.

My employer's sales effort included technical bulletins, my presenting technical papers at oil industry conferences, visiting oil company laboratories and going out to well sites to supervise the first well treatments.

When were improved, most-cost-effective oil absorbent boom designs last developed? I don't know the answer to this question. However, I am sure there are oil absorbent booms and other products being used in dealing with the oil spill that could be improved by additional R&D.

There is a huge backlog of approximately 750,000 patent applications in various stages of review at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In 2009, it took an average of 34.6 months for patent applications to be reviewed compared to an average 26.7 months five years earlier.

There have long been calls for the USPTO to review applications and issue patents in a timelier manner. Now, if they are willing to pay additional fees, inventors and their employers can receive expedited reviews of their applications.

The proposed new process

Last week U.S. Patent and Trademark Office chief David Kappos proposed an expedited application review process for inventors. The planned expedited process means there will be a three-track system to review U.S. patent applications. The expedited process would allow applicants to pay an unspecified fee in addition to standard $1,090 filing fee. In return for paying this fee, the patent application in question will receive priority in the patent review process. USPTO officials haven't decided yet how much the expedited review process would cost.

In the traditional process, patent applications are processed in the order they are submitted. The new process will let companies and inventors get patent applications with the greatest commercial potential evaluated before other applications submitted earlier. The result would be for the expedited application review process reduced to one year from submitting the patent application – if everything goes according to plan.The new system would become effective in 2011. Before it does, there will be a public comment period.

This writer's concerns

This writer has several concerns with the system. Will devoting some patent examiners to expedited reviews slow down the process for the remaining patent applicants who do not request expedited reviews? Will the extra revenue brought in by higher fees charged for the expedited process be used to hire additional patent examiners to accelerate the traditional patent application review process? Or will applicants using the current application review process see the time required to receive a patent get longer?

Is there a fairness issue associated with allowing applicants with deep pockets to receive favored treatment compared to independent inventors and small firms with limited financial resources? My guess on this last question is probably not since USPTO fees traditionally have been quite modest compared to fees paid to patent attorneys or agents to draft patent applications.

Another issue is that U.S. patents are awarded to the first to invent (compared to most of the rest of the world where the first to file receives the patent). If a company pays for expedited processing, it could be awarded its patent long before a company that was first to invent but used the conventional patent application process. This second company then would have to pay for the expensive process to get the other firm's patent invalidated and their own issued. This may be beyond the financial means of independent inventors and small firms. To receive anything from their invention, they could be forced to license their technology to the company that received the benefit of expedited patent application processing.

What do you think of all this? Please post your comments.

How can lab managers strengthen the alignment between their staff's activities and projects and the company's business strategy? Often laboratory staff members aren't always working on the right things. This happens for a variety of reasons.

Cascading goals

Make sure your staff members understand the goals of the various divisions or business groups within your company. Implement a system of cascading goals. This means working with your team leaders and staff members to be sure their project goals and other activities relate to the business goals of your employer.

It doesn't hurt to over-communicate frequently reminding staff members how accomplishing their own goals will help the organization achieve larger, broader goals.

Besides communicating with your own staff members, it is important to communicate with business managers so they know how the lab is supporting them in achieving business goals. One excellent way to do so is multidisciplinary project teams whose members include one or more business development managers and sales representatives.

Be sure that all the stakeholders in a project understand how achieving its goals will benefit both the employer and themselves personally. For example, when I managed a paper chemicals development group, at approximately the midpoint of projects teams would discuss how to publicize the new development, normally a new chemical product, though presentations at trade conferences and writing journal articles and technical bulletins. Team members appreciated the opportunities to attend conferences and develop professional recognition through conference presentations and trade journal publications.

Communicate achievements

Communicate achievements that contribute to achieving business goals to both lab staff members and members of concerned business groups within the organization.

To maintain enthusiasm, recognize not only accomplishing final goals but also achieving project milestones. This can be very important in maintaining momentum in working on long-term projects.

Use collaboration tools

Use collaboration tools effectively to promote effective communication among team members both within the same laboratory, different laboratories many miles apart and among members of very large teams. Collaboration tools can range from monthly progress reports compiled from individual team member reports to videoconferencing and online meetings. Don't forget the value of old-fashioned telephoning and hallway conversations.

Building trust

Used effectively these approaches will build trust and a sense of cooperation among team members. This is important in preventing friction between different "interest groups" within the company. For example, without effect communication and development of trust, an adversarial relationship can build up between laboratory staff and the business group they are supporting. If business group members don't appreciate the difficulty of solving a laboratory problem, they can become impatient with the rate of progress on a project and worry that the lab staff isn't focusing sufficiently on business needs.

Trust is like a lubricant reducing this friction. In my experience the best way of building this trust and convincing business personnel that sufficient concern is being paid to their interest is having representatives of the concerned business be members of multidisciplinary project teams, attend team meetings and have input into team decisions. Trust becomes the lubricant that enables future business transactions to go smoothly and team camaraderie and cooperation to flourish.

Behavior-based interviews have been common for more than a decade. However, if you aren't prepared for them, they can be largely a waste of time for both the manager and the job hunter. The people on both sides of the manager's desk have to prepare for job interviews. Let's look at the behavior-based interview from the perspective of both the hiring manager and the job hunter.

The manager

The manager needs to be prepared with at least several behavior-based questions that relate to common but difficult situations that can occur in the job for which the candidate is interviewing. When the candidate is an experienced scientist or engineer, the lab manager can ask questions quite closely related to the job opening and punctuate the main question with follow-up questions requiring the candidate to add details. The answers should come out of the candidate's job experience, preferably recent experience.

Graduating students or post-docs will need to come up with examples or case histories that occurred during his/her education and research. Because of their inexperience in the industrial laboratory workplace, the questioner has to be more supportive and specific often defining the kind of situation under discussion.

The questions usually aren't highly technical in nature but deal with how the candidate handled a difficult interpersonal disagreement, how he/she chose among alternative options in the course of pursuing a project, or how the candidate achieved challenging goals. The inexperienced candidate should be given leeway to describe situations arising during coursework and extracurricular activities as well as in the laboratory. The experienced candidate needs to focus on research, tech service, plant or marketing situations in presenting answers to behavior-based questions.

In addition, the interviewer may ask behavior-based questions about situations that may occur during performance of the job. These should be more specific and the interviewer more demanding in the rigor of the responses when the job hunter has experienced. For example, the interviewer could present a short summary of a real or typical situation that might occur during the course of the job and ask the candidate, "What would you do in this situation?" This type of question can present a lot of options for follow-up questions requiring candidates to expand upon answers and dealing with the situation resulting from the decision. The questioner should be tolerant of what may seem like naïve answers from graduating students and post-docs since they may have little available experience to help them in answering these sorts of questions.

It is easy for job hunters, particularly inexperienced ones, to feel stressed by the nature of some of the questions. Placing excessive stress on candidates during employment interviews can lead them to have an unfavorable view of the employer and be more likely to decline a job offer.

To avoid overly stressing job candidates, managers should maintain a pleasant demeanor, relaxed voice tone and encourage the candidate by expressing interest in the answers through voice tone, body language and follow-up questions.

The candidate

Job candidates can prepare for behavioral interview by thinking about situations in which:

1. He/she had to resolve a personal conflict in the laboratory 2. Choose among more than one approach to solving a research problem 3. Be creative in designing a test procedure or piece of apparatus 4. Choose among several different analysis options to answerer a question 5. Dealt with a safety issue in the lab

To prepare for behavior-based questions, job candidates should read about the employer and study the employer's website. Of course candidates should read the written job description. Candidates also can ask their host questions about job responsibilities before the onsite interviews begin.

Last week we talked about the problems of being a micromanager and how to break the micromanagement habit. But what if you work for a micromanager? Reporting to a micromanager can be hazardous to your career as well as endlessly frustrating.

Some experts believe that most micromanagers never change. However, I have seen it happen. It can be difficult to change this behavior but it can be done.

Assertive communication

The way to get a micromanager to change his/her behavior is to have a face-to-face conversation. I learned this while still in graduate school from a more senior graduate student who was a mentor to me. I observed that his professor micromanaged all his graduate students except Bill. I asked why and Bill explained that he had had a discussion with the professor about his behavior.

What I found very interesting was that this professor modified his behavior with only this one graduate student and not the other members of his research group. It taught me that micromanaging may be an expression of a basic problem, usually an inability to trust others, and that micromanaging can be a difficult behavior to eradicate completely.

The Discussion

You need to plan your conversation ahead of time and have a clear set of points you want to make during the discussion. Be polite but direct in expressing your thoughts. For example, you might ask your manager, "Why do you feel you need to look over my shoulder?" Be prepared to cite some examples since your manager may deny that he/she does so. On the other hand, the manager may cite situations where you did not perform well when he/she did not closely supervise you. If this is indeed the case, agree upon a training program to prevent these situations from recurring in the future. Then your manager will be more comfortable in delegating authority and responsibility to you.

Ask your manager for a chance to complete a task on your own without his involvement. Then if you do not do well, ask him to explain what you did wrong so the situation does not recur.

Get help from your human resources department

Should your assertive communication with your manager not change his/her behavior and the micromanagement behavior continue, discuss the situation with someone in your firm's human resources department, ideally a corporate career advisor. However, before you do so document your manager's micromanagement behavior wit examples by keeping a journal. You need to document his/her pattern of behavior before going to a third party.

Chances are your manager is also micromanaging others. You may wish to ask them to also document the manager's micromanagement behavior. However, be very careful in approaching only individuals you can trust. You do not want what you are doing to become known prematurely.

Document your own behavior as well. This can be done in e-mails that serve to follow-up to conversations in which you summarize your understanding of a new assignment and what your responsibilities and deadlines are.

Going to human resources may be a high risk tactic. Your manager may be able to convince the human resources person that he/she is not a micromanager and you may face the possibility of retaliation.

Job transfer or job change

If your efforts to resolve the situation do not succeed or appear too high risk, your best solution may be a transfer so you are working for a new manager either in your own organization or another one.

There are two sides to micromanagement. The first is the harm you do by being a micromanager. The second is the harm working for a micromanager can do to your own career. We'll talk about the first side below and the second side next week.

What is micromanagement?

Superficially it seems like a good idea to supervise your staff closely assure they are doing a good job. Pitching in and working closely with them seems like a food way to demonstrate a strong work ethic and be a good example for your team.

What could be wrong with that? A lot.

Micromanagement really isn't managing at all. It is doing part of your staff members' jobs for them. This robs them of their independence and gives them a sense of powerlessness. They aren't going to develop skills and self-confidence if you are making their decisions for them. They'll develop the habit of waiting for you to make decisions for them slowing down their progress. Perhaps the worst thing about micromanaging is that it takes away your staff's sense of accomplishment in a job well done.

You aren't doing yourself any good by being a micromanager either. The time you spend micromanaging takes away from the time you should be spending coordinating projects, working with other managers and developing relationships with customers. Compensating for micromanaging by working long hours can increase job-related stress and strain personal relationships with family and friends should you spend too much time working. Working excessively long hours week after week can lead to burnout.

Tips to prevent or cure micromanagement

First, remember that there is more than one way to work on a project and do the various tasks associated with bench work. Your own way may not be the only one that works. It may not even be the best way. You need to prepare your staff members to perform their work successfully and then step back allowing them to perform their jobs and develop their own solutions to solving problems.

This doesn't mean that you don't discuss their work with them and track their progress. It doesn't mean you don't coach them so they can improve their skills.

<'>Second, remember that micromanagement implies a lack of trust in your staff members to perform their jobs well on their own. Your employees have to believe you trust them in order to do a good job. Otherwise they will feel frustrated, powerless and afraid to make decision on their own.

Third, coach your staff members on how to do their jobs if they need this. Customarily you'll do most of your coaching with new employees. Coach them on how to do something well and then trust them to do their job well until they run into problems. Then it is time to coach them some more. If coaching doesn't improve their performance, assigning the person to a different job or firing them may be necessary.

Finally, lead by example, not by doing your staff members work for them. Your staff members will feel a greater sense of personal accomplishment and be more productive. You can't lead if you are always looking over your staff members' shoulders.

Even if your laboratory is not allowed to hire many new employees, the long-tem unemployed – chemists, other scientists, engineers and lab technicians unemployed for six months or more – can offer a valuable resource of you can persuade your budget people to allow you to hire them as contract employees or use them to outsource certain functions.

There are a lot of long-term unemployed people out there. About 44% of the unemployed have been without a job for more than six months. Besides the general statistics, the labor market consultant Janice Shriver with the California Employment Development Department (CEDD) singled out chemists and engineers for mention. She noted that the long-term unemployed used to be people difficult to place because of personal factors. Today they are often chemists and engineers, she observed. Many of these chemists and engineers are now competing with less-trained job-seekers in less specialized fields. Age adds another barrier to a group that already may face a stigma - having been out of work for a long stretch. Having an under-water mortgage or being unable to sell one's house reduces one's mobility making it harder to find another job.

Long-term unemployed professionals offer a valuable resource that can help lab managers meet their training and short-term staffing needs. You can help them while enabling your laboratory to accomplish its mission of delivering useful results in a timely way.

Training

Training firms often charge high fees for workshops and short courses. Qualified but unemployed local lab professionals may be able to offer similar training at lower fees.

What sorts of training might be particularly useful? Some lab managers are finding themselves with only relatively inexperienced scientists and technicians to operate sophisticated instruments. If you can find a local professional experienced in operating the make and model of instrument you have, hiring them for perhaps a week to give your own personnel hands-on training may be an option.

Meeting short-duration staffing needs

Hiring the long-term unemployed, providing the individual has the needed skills, may be an option for short-term staffing needs on projects. This is particularly useful should a project fall behind schedule. It is essential that the individual you hire have the needed skills set and experience, be able to learn your laboratory workplace procedures quickly and be able to get along with others on the job.

Vacation replacement is another possible option. Many labs have downsized to the point where an individual highly skilled in operating a particular instrument may not have an experienced back-up to fill in while he/she goes on vacation. Bring an experienced but unemployed person temporarily onboard to fill in temporarily until your own expert returns from vacation can help keep your lab running smoothly.

Finding the long-term unemployed

Finding qualified unemployed individuals who can fill short-term staffing needs can be challenging. Attending local section meeting s of professional groups such as the American Chemical Society may be one way to network and meet these individuals or someone who can suggest someone to you. Advertising the temporary opening in a local section newsletter can be a relatively low cost way to get the word out that you are looking to hire a temporary staff member.

You also can turn your staff members into recruiters by informing them of the type of individual you are looking for.

Helping the long-term unemployed while helping yourself can improve your lab's image in the local scientific community.

Multitasking has become part of the productive professional's persona. Walking through business corridors, through airports and while driving, the professional is constantly communicating with the mindset of communicating or learning critical information or making important decisions that just won't wait. But how necessary is all this communication and besides the benefits what disadvantages does multitasking provide?

According to Earl K. Miller, Picower Professor of Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, constantly switching focus as one multitasks makes it harder to focus on a single task. The distracted mind is less focused. The dangers of using a cell phone or text messaging while driving have been widely publicized. President Obama, the most connected president in history and the first to have a personal computer in the Oval Office, has banned federal government employees from texting while driving. Even when using a hands-free model, talking on a cell phone is as dangerous as drunk driving according to a University of Utah study.

The laboratory arena

Multitasking can be physically dangerous in the laboratory if staff members are talking on a cell phone while conducting a potentially hazardous experiment or walking through the lab while someone else is working at the bench. While I haven't seen this, I have seen people talking on cell phones while walking into laboratory corridors and colliding with other people and even walking into walls.

The upside of multitasking is the increased productivity it is thought to provide. However, constantly switching focus can make it hard to concentrate on a single task. Multitasking can interfere with solving difficult problems and reduce creativity.

According to Professor Miller, signs that you are multitasking too much include:

- Difficulty paying attention

-Inability to relax or sleep disorders

Build-up of clutter from the work projects you have not finished

Ignoring your own needs to do things for others

Repeatedly putting off the little things that need to be done

Lack of creativity

One issue in the multitasking debate is how much mental and physical attention tasks require. While multi-tasking the brain gives priority to one activity at the expense of another according to Michael Bloxham, director of testing and assessment at Ball State University. For example, many people watch television while doing other things such as engaging in conversations or reading. However, watching television is widely regarding as a passive activity.

Is multi-tasking a myth?

Some researchers say that we aren't multi-tasking multi-tasking - doing more than one thing simultaneously; we actually are switching rapidly from one task to another. According to neuroscientist Miller the brain simply can't focus on more than one thing at a time. One reason for this is that similar tasks compete to use the same part of the brain.

multitasking

So while multitasking has its place, when one is trying to focus on a time-consuming task or one requiring all of one's knowledge or creativity to solve a problem, it's best to do things the old-fashioned way and focus on one thing at a time.

Today's advent of distributed, massive-scale "cloud computing" is something of a return to the early 1980s, when computing was of a different sort. Rather than individual desktop or laptop machines, which are the current norm, workplace computers were usually time-shared among multiple users working on "dumb" terminals connected to a central machine--often located in some remote corner of the building. According to the New York Times, at least one major pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly, already is using cloud computing to support its R&D efforts. Lilly uses Amazon's cloud services for some R&D. activities. There are definitely concerns about data security. Dave Powers, an Eli Lilly senior systems engineer, noted that they are very careful about what information is putting on the Amazon servers.

Cloud computing may offer the greatest benefit to small laboratories with limited information technology budgets. Already about 3.2% of U.S. small businesses, about 230,000 companies, use cloud computing services. Another 3.6%, 260,000 businesses, plan to add cloud services in the next 12 months. Spending on cloud computing by small business will increase by 36.2% from 2009 to US$2.4 billion.

What is cloud computing

"Cloud computing" is a term that confuses many lab managers, scientists and research engineers. In a sense cloud computing is back to the future, a return to the early days of computing in the 1980s. Cloud computing enables your workstation to connect to remote, massive, warehouse-scale data centers housing large networks of processors and memory. This capacity is used to process and store data. These big datacenters offer economy of scale that lowers computing costs according to network architect Cedric Lam of Google.

An outside vendor such as Amazon or Google runs the remote servers and software. Lab managers can have smaller information technology departments in-house and focus on the lab's primary business: meeting the technical service needs of the firm's customers and developing new products and processes.

Another advantage is that these datacenters relieve individual laboratories of the hassles of maintaining and upgrading equipment. Also, despite many admonishments to do so, some laboratory staff members fail to back up their data.

Perhaps the biggest real advantage of cloud computing is portability, suggests Lam. He notes that with a network connection users can access their data from anywhere and do so at any time.

Improving the state of the art

Currently data centers are huge power hogs. However, Lam believes that use of low-cost, high bandwidth/high-density optical fiber interconnects will reduce power consumption while increasing information carrying capacity. Increasingly optical cables are used for long-distance connectivity between datacenters and between users and datacenters.

Concerns

Some laboratory managers may be concerned about the security of proprietary data when using cloud computing and storing data and data processing protocols in a distant data center. Even if the lab manager is comfortable doing so, will his colleagues in other units of the company accept of cloud computing? What about the company's customers? Security of data, particularly patient's names, is essential in drug clinical trials.

Upfront costs for cloud computing are relatively moderate since the laboratory needs little hardware and relatively few information technology staff members. However, cost reductions touted for cloud computing may not be applicable for firms with large research centers already processing high volumes of data. In some of these cases, the situation is akin to deciding whether to buy or lease a car.

Lab managers can play an important role in the process of filing patent applications on staff members' inventions. The stakes are often high when patenting a new product or process. So it's important to get everything right. Nowhere is this truer than in the pharmaceutical industry where average costs to develop a new drug now exceed $1 billion.

Getting a patent is a complex process impacted by both regulations and court decisions. For example, the March 29 issue of C&EN carried a report (page 17 of the print edition) that a U.S. federal appeals court ruled in favor of Eli Lilly & Company in its patent litigation with Ariad Pharmaceuticals. Ariad had claimed that two commercial Lilly drugs, Evista (for treating osteoporosis) and Xigris (for treating sepsis) had violated its own patent covering methods of treating disease by regulating cell-signaling activity. In 2007, a U.S. district court had ruled in favor of Ariad and ordered Lilly to pay Ariad $62.5 million in damages plus future royalties on sales of the two drugs. Lilly appealed the decision and the appeals court overturned it. The reason? The appeals court decided that Ariad had failed to adequately describe its invention. Therefore, the court declared the patent claims were invalid.

According to Lawrence M. Green, a patent attorney at Boston law firm Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, this federal appeals court decision indicates the importance of including legally solid, well-written descriptions and support for any invention when filing a patent application. Inventors need to give careful thought to the applications of fundamental discoveries before filing a patent on them.

The lab manager's role

This is often difficult for inventors to do because they are emotionally involved in the conception and development of an invention. Patent attorneys are sometimes ill equipped to do so themselves despite having science or engineering degrees. This is because they were not involved in creating the invention. To remedy this, the inventor's supervisor or team leader should be involved in this process. The supervisor, whatever his/her job title, should combine a fairly detailed knowledge of the invention, which the patent attorney may lack, with the emotional detachment the inventor may lack. The supervisor can help define and explain the invention when writing the patent application. It should be noted that this is this author's opinion and others may disagree.

Being involved in the process means the supervisor should give careful thought to the staff member's invention disclosure before it is submitted to the patent department or outside law firm whose lawyers will draft the patent application. Later a final review of the patent application with the inventor and patent attorney can help assure that critical points are covered in both the claims and patent teachings. Another essential point is that the patent examples must support the claims. It also is important that the background and description of the invention be written correctly when submitting the application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Lab managers can contribute to making sure the description and background of the invention satisfy company interests and requirements. With greater knowledge of corporate strategies than their staff members have, lab managers may have useful contributions to make in helping draft patent specifications. This includes a description of the invention that may be broader than what is defined in the claims.

In last week's blog, I discussed five ways to increase their report writing speed. There is also a sixth approach lab managers can use to get reports written and issued quickly: hire a technical writer to write the report. However, this approach has its own pitfalls that can make it a painful process. However, learning how to avoid these pitfalls can enable lab managers to conserve much of their time that would otherwise be spent writing reports for leading and managing.

So how can lab managers profitably use technical writers to prepare needed reports while conserving their own time for other management activities?

Selecting an appropriate writer

The first essential is selecting an appropriate technical writer. This could be one of your staff members with excellent technical writing skills. It could also be a retired staff member with excellent writing skills. Using one of these types of individuals has the advantage that they know your corporate culture and how to get things done in that corporate culture.

A second approach is to hire an outside technical writer. If you do so, be sure to study examples of his/her technical writing and interview the person. The ideal background is a general knowledge of the technical area or management area in question and excellent technical writing skills. Interview candidates just as carefully as you would candidates for full-time staff positions. After all, you may wish to use a technical writer repeatedly. Other laboratory managers may wish to use the technical writer you identify.

Finding an appropriate technical writer may not be easy. One lab manager I work for hired and fired three technical writers in less than four months before contracting with me. Two were currently employees he tried out in full-time writing positions. The third was an outside technical writer. None of them worked out for various reasons.

Once you hire a technical writer, have that individual sign a confidentiality agreement to protect your laboratory's confidential information. Decide in advance whether you require the writer to work in your laboratory or whether working primarily or completely from a home office is acceptable.

Monitor progress

Whether or not the writer works on the premises, you need to monitor his/her progress. This requires effective project management skills on both your part and that of the writer. Begin by defining the deadline to submit the first draft of the manuscript. This will be set by your own needs and shouldn't be the subject of negotiations unless you have allowed a completely inadequate time to write the report. Then work with the writer to define project milestones and dates required for achieving these milestones.

Keep in touch with the writer to be insure that project milestones are kept. If the writer begins missing milestones, you may need to reassess your decision to hire this writer.

Editing the report draft

Generally it is best for the lab manager to assume the primary responsibility for editing the submitted draft of the report. This assures that the final report issues written in an appropriate style. This shouldn't be a major problem if you hire a good writer, approve the writer's outline and monitor progress. However, you may still need to work with the writer to verify facts or have the writer add material you deem necessary to include.

Writing is a very personal process. You may find the individual's approach to a topic or the nature of his writing incompatible with your own style even if he/she performs well. In editing this individual's report draft, you may find yourself rewriting his/her report so extensively that you save little time. Should this occur, you face the question of accepting a report that is complete and accurate but that you don't feel reads as if you wrote it yourself. Some managers are comfortable with this situation; some are not.

Writing reports can be a pain. Writing takes lab managers away from other work and isolates them behind a desk. Yet timely reports can be necessary, even essential in running a laboratory. So it is essential that laboratory managers write productively. There are strategies lab managers can use to increase the productivity of their writing time.

1. Schedule writing time

Writing isn't a task that you can just squeeze in when you have the time. You have to budget the time. Otherwise writing essential reports can get delayed. It's easy to procrastinate over writing long documents. So schedule time in your daily schedule for writing.

How much time should you schedule? The answer to this question varies from one individual to another. Many find that scheduling an hour and taking a break allows them to work most productively without neglecting their other job responsibilities. Scheudle the number of hours that will let you make good progress on the document and meet the report deadline.

2. Begin with a clear plan

One reason people, even professional writers, struggle to get something written is that they haven't completely decided what they're trying to say. Plan what you're going to write before writing it by preparing an outline.

Most people don't like preparing outlines. Yet writing from a previously prepared outline can greatly increase your productivity. Outlining can help you fit the pieces of your report together in an appropriate way so your finished document is more focused and reads more easily. For example, short as this blog is, I prepared what I planned to say using an outline. The outline was nothing elaborate, primarily a list of section headings that I shifted around into what I thought was the most logical order.

There are many ways to outline. Some writers create a detailed outline. Others make a simple list of points that become the major sections of their report. How detailed my own outlines are depends on the length of my report. For highly complex reports, I prefer mind-mapping because it helps me see the relationships between a large number of points. I often include mind maps in the introduction to long, complex documents so my readers can also see these relationships. We'll discuss mind-mapping more in a subsequent blog.

3. Prepare ahead of time

Assemble information and references you will need to write reports. Collect the needed data and organize it into tables that you prepare before writing the report. If you need illustrations, prepare these in advance or have them prepared by others. Then when you sit down to write, you'll stay put in front of your computer keyboard and focus on writing text rather than interrupting yourself to perform these tasks.

4. Interruptions

Speaking of interruptions, don't allow others to distract or interrupt you. Establish a closed door policy – when you're writing keep your office door closed and make sure your staff members know that they are not to interrupt you when your door is closed.

Don't check email or answer the phone. Just write. Despite the many articles about multitasking, allowing interruptions can slash your writing productivity.

5. Don't let your editor in the room

Don't analyze and edit your writing as you compose your sentences and paragraphs. This means not worrying about sentence structure, word choice and unclear paragraphs. Just write steadily and try not to stop. Writing and editing are two very different activities that should be performed at different times. Allowing your internal editor in the room to "fix" poor writing can greatly reduce your writing productivity. Editing while you write can make the process of writing your report agonizingly slow. No wonder so many people hate writing! Only begin editing when you have completed the first draft of your report. Then edit, review, revise and polish your manuscript.

General economic conditions have many lab employees concerned about their continued employment. This is particularly the case if their laboratory has undergone a staff reduction. Some big pharmaceutical companies even have closed entire large laboratories. All these conditions are weakening the employee – employer bond. People feel less engaged in their work. The result is unhappy people and reduced productivity.

What is engagement anyway? It is a fuzzy concept at many firms. Employee engagement refers to how committed workers are to their organization. High levels of engagement mean that staff members are willing to put in extra effort to accomplish their project goals and help their coworkers do so as well.

Loss of engagement is of particular concern for top performers. They are the individuals who can find alternative employment most easily and whose loss would be most damaging to the laboratory. Their most likely places of their new employment are laboratories of competitive firms. Some top performers with an entrepreneurial bent may go into business in competition with their former employers particularly if what is offered to the marketplace are services rather than products requiring expensive capital investment.

There are steps proactive lab managers can take to mitigate the loss of staff engagement. If they don't, their employer could be hamstrung in its efforts to climb out of their own recession when business conditions improve.

What can lab managers do?

What can be done when your funds are limited? Town hall meetings during which CEOs and other top executives explain what efforts are being taken to restore company business and profits can be helpful – but only if the speakers are open and honest with the laboratory staff. High level executives should discuss the latest business results, business goals and staffing plans.

Lab managers should be quick with positive feedback on staff members' significant accomplishments. I was worked for a lab manager whose only feedback was negative. I was surprised how demoralizing the lack of positive feedback was for me and my fellow staff members. The manager's attitude was that we were adults and didn't need this kind of appreciation. However, the need for positive reinforcement has nothing to do with maturity.

Providing increased mentoring to younger employers can increase their engagement in both their own projects and those of their mentors. Most people enjoy mentoring others and find it adds a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment to their own workday.

Enabling laboratory staff members to learn new skills also increases their engagement. Social events for group or department members can also be beneficial. When I was working for Tomah Products employees at both company locations eagerly looked forward to their summer family picnic. While the company funded the events, employees also brought food and games.

What are your competitors doing?

A September 2008 Institute for Corporate Productivity survey of 290 firms found that 58% were already taking action to minimize increased employee turnover when the economy turns around. Increased communication with employees was the most popular step taken with 81% doing so. This was consistent with a Watson Wyatt survey of human resources executives the previous month. Executives at 175 U.S.-based firms also found increasing communications was the most used method of increasing engagement. Changing roles to expand responsibilities to improve engagement was cited by 47% of companies. An increased focus on coaching and mentoring was cited by 36% of companies. Increasing special project assignments was cited by 30% of the surveyed firms.

"The chemical industry is leaving the United States, and it won't be back," said Peter Huntsman, CEO of chemical firm Huntsman Corp. "When demand picks back up, they'll build new capacity overseas--in the Middle East, Singapore and China." He was quoted in a February Wall Street Journal article, "Radical Shifts Take Hold in U.S. Manufacturing." Reporter Mark Whitehouse noted, "For chemical makers, the recession has intensified an exodus from the U.S. that has been happening for at least a decade, amid rising energy costs, environmental concerns and growing demand in developing countries."

Articles in publications such as Chemical & Engineering News, Chemical Week, and BusinessWeek have documented the closure of U.S. laboratories and the opening of new laboratories by the same firms in other countries, particularly China and India. This trend has major implications for U.S. research and technical service contract labs. The natural tendency for the growing number of new, large laboratories is for their managers to assign contract research, analytical work and other technical service work to laboratories that are in their own countries – often geographically close and staff by people whose native language is the same as their own. So even if your own firm does not open an overseas laboratory, your lab's work load could be adversely affected/

Responding to the situation

How can U.S.-based lab managers and staff members compete in this environment and avoid their labs shrinking or disappearing altogether?

I don't have an answer to this question. I do have some speculations, however. First, American adaptability could see us through as new industries grow up alongside of the declining ones. Advanced materials, catalysts, green industries, nanotechnology and biotechnology are all areas where the U.S. can potentially lead the world. The growth of these industries will be accompanied by their increased need for contract laboratory services. In many cases the details of these services such as the types of analyses performed will change. Contract and analytical services laboratory managers will need to equip their labs, train current personnel and hire new staff to perform these analyses.

Environmental technology will be a growing field as businesses are forced to address climate issues such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and perhaps commercialize processes for carbon dioxide sequestration.

All of these opportunities could create export markets that could offset the import of bulk chemicals produced in other markets.

The government may also play a role in ensuring the future of U.S.-based contract and analytical services labs. Increasing government regulations enforced by agencies such as the EPA and FDA could increase the need for analytical laboratory services. While clinical laboratory trials are increasingly conducted overseas, new government regulations may require these trials be conducted in the U.S. Already the FDA conducts on-site inspections of some pharmaceutical contract laboratories overseas.

Finally, developments in other industries could stem the U.S. chemical exodus. New technology has increased U.S. natural gas supplies from 30 years to 100 years in less than a decade. New supplies already reaching the market have contributed to lower natural gas prices and could keep them under control in the future. While much of the world's petrochemical industries are based on naphtha, those of the U.S. are almost completely based on natural gas. Heretofore, that has been an economic disadvantage. This could change as a result of more abundant natural gas prices and the consequent lower prices.

Lab managers are limited in what they can do to restore lab staff morale. Still, modest measures can go a long way. Just knowing lab managers care can be reassuring. So lab managers should do what they can to resolve issues such as equitable distribution of work loads and work – life balance. Instituting flexible working hours and, when appropriate, telecommuting can help improve staff morale.

The Adecco Group North America's latest American Workplace Insights Survey conducted by Harris Interactive last summer indicated almost half (48%) of workers say that they dissatisfied with the relationship they have with their boss. Lab managers can deal with this issue. By walking the halls and visiting the labs to talk with staff members about their projects, they can demonstrate their concern for staff members. Depending on the circumstances and timing, town hall meetings can be effective ways of both communicating policies to staff members and hearing their concerns. However, when it comes to hearing their concerns, one-on-one meetings with staff members can be more effective.

Some managers, particularly those promoted or transferred to positions made vacant as a result of staff downsizing, may have a tendency to stay in their offices learning the technical aspects of their new assignments. They often neglect talking to staff members and establishing good working relationships with them. Unfortunately, I have seen this often in large laboratories for which I consult. Staying in your office when you get a new management assignment shortly after a staff reduction or restructuring represents a lost opportunity. It can even increase the stress staff members are working under. They are often reassured by seeing their managers in the hallway or having them stop by for a short chat.

Ineffective measures

Some measures, even when well intentioned can backfire. Giving a staff member expensive tickets to an event such as a football game or a concert can seem ridiculous in a laboratory facing severe problems. Giving a staff member one of these awards when they aren't interested in football or the music being played at the concert can be counter-productive.

Taking an employee out to an expensive lunch at a fine restaurant while leaving other members of their team back at the lab can be divisive. Instead, spend the money on an event that involves more staff members. For example, bring in pizza or some other inexpensive lunch for a work team to celebrate a major achievement rather than taking the team leader out to lunch.

Policies such as giving staff members more impressive titles and new business cards are quite transparent and widely seen as manipulative by many staff members.

Never tell staff members, "You're lucky to still have a job."

Prepare for tomorrow

Shortly after a staff reduction or restructuring is an excellent time for lab managers to examine existing workforce practices and change them if necessary. Areas for study include how work is distributed, what technologies are being developed, and what programs should be terminated. Other questions include appropriate staffing levels both now and for the future when business conditions improve. Should more reliance be placed on contract employees, contract research organizations and joint R&D efforts with other firms? Another option is funding university research with the option to license technology.

Many laboratories are not happy places anymore. The recession and slow recovery have seen to that. A recent survey released by the Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc. and conducted by Harris Interactive suggests that many employees are not feeling very optimistic. Indeed, data suggests that workplace productivity has declined. Some of the survey findings are:

About 38% of employed respondents employed said there had been layoffs in the past year at their primary place of employment. Perusal of trade magazines such as C&EN and Chemical Week suggest that some of these workplaces are chemical and pharmaceutical laboratories.

-Of those respondents who said that productivity had been negatively affected by layoffs:

-66% said that morale has suffered and that workers are less motivated;

-64% said that there is just too much work and not enough people left to do it;

-37% said the wrong people or departments were laid off, leaving inefficient systems and workflows; and

-36% percent said they are concerned that as the economy picks up, they won't have the right resources to meet demand.

With these perceptions so common, it is not surprising that workforce morale is an issue at many workplaces including laboratories. Still, it could be worse. While feeling overworked most survey respondents (53%) reported feeling that the right number of people were laid off at their organization. Another 32% percent said they felt too many were laid off and 7% percent said not enough were let go. My interpretation of these findings is that employee resentment is not directed primarily at their own employers or managers but at he general economic malaise widely reported in the news media.

However, the Adecco Group North America's latest American Workplace Insights Survey conducted by Harris Interactive last summer does show that employees are dissatisfied with employment conditions, primarily in three areas: compensation, career growth and retention efforts. Some of the findings are:

-66% of American workers are dissatisfied with their compensation

-78% are dissatisfied with their company's overall employee retention efforts

-76% are dissatisfied about future career growth opportunities at their company.

Working relationships are also strained. Almost half (48%) of workers say that they dissatisfied with the relationship they have with their boss. 59% say they are dissatisfied with the level of support they receive from their colleagues.

Workers are also critical of their organization's top management. More than three-quarters (77%) say they are dissatisfied with the strategy and vision of their company's leadership. Is this surprising when they learn of their own top management taking home bonuses while their own wages are frozen or lab staffs have been cut? Even of it hasn't, news of large bonuses paid at the same financial institutions that helped bring on the recession erodes faith in financial institutions.

Seeing many coworkers forced into early retirement, 68% of workers say they aren't satisfied with their company's contribution to their retirement plans.

Lab managers need to be aware of what their staff members are going through. This shouldn't be hard. After all, many managers are experiencing the same stress and uncertainty themselves. Many morale issues can't be resolved at the lab managers' level. However, managers can carry the concerns to higher level managers who can address them. Lab managers also need to communicate effectively with their staffs letting them know they are doing so.

We'll talk about what lab managers can do to help staff members through these tough times in the next blog. We'll also address some measures many managers take that often do more harm than good.

Many labs' budgets and staff time to prepare documents and presentations are quite limited. One way to make the most of this time may be to revise and update existing print documents for posting on company websites. By taking advantage of the unique capabilities of the web, you can do much more increasing to increase the usefulness of your posted documents. However, you can't produce excellent web articles by merely reducing manuscript length to allow for the reduced attention spans of most web readers.

Content

Readers should be able to find key words and concepts quickly by scanning your onscreen text. Section headings can help them do this. Rely on easily understood section headings to help readers navigate your article. This is especially important when your article is several screens in length.

If they can't easily scan your document before reading it, they may not read it at all.

Think short. When reading web articles, people often have shorter attention spans than when reading printed publications. Write shorter sentences and paragraphs. Use heads and subheads instead of introductory paragraphs. Shorter document lengths often mean that you need to narrow the focus of your manuscript.

Rather than putting diagrams and photographs at the end of the document, place them at the appropriate places in your text. This will break up solid blocks of text that make web documents less readable.

Revise information to make your new online documents current. In particular be sure to update your sources and statistical information. It can be useful to scan old diagrams that were expensive to prepare. Also scan any photographs to reuse them. One can even use special devices that will scan 35 millimeter slides and convert them to digital format.

Use commonly employed keywords so your document will appear when prospective buyers use Internet search engines to find information on your product. This is called search engine optimization.

Keep format in mind

You will need to revise print manuscripts for the special formatting requirements of the web. This is critical for ease in reading your online document.

Put your main message on the first screen the reader sees. Many readers lose patience when scrolling down one screen after another looking for your main message. So focus on shortening lengthy introductions.

Conventional print articles are linear. Readers start at the beginning and continue reading to the end. By using the capabilities of the web, you can make your posted manuscript multi-dimensional by enabling readers to hyperlink to related information. You can link to other documents presenting background information, statistics and in-depth information for highly interested readers. Hyperlinking can enable you to keep your introduction short. These links also can include websites of organizations mentioned in your document and contact information for individuals you mention.

Multimedia offers additional options. Rather than just using static text and links, you can link to video and audio recordings and animations. You also could convert PowerPoint or similar slide presentations into web presentations with narration and post them on your organization's websites.

Web readers hate walls of words that make screens difficult to read. Use white space, colored fonts and images to keep your screens looking light and bright. Digital cameras and graphic design software can help you do this.

Your manuscript may bear little resemblance to your previously published print article by the time you narrow your focus, otherwise shorten your manuscript, update text and add hyperlinks and images.

Turning your researchers into consultants for your customers has at least three advantages. First, in ever more fierce global competition, your firm is selling not just a product but a product and technical service. Your customers will be speaking to or e-mailing someone whose work hours overlap with theirs facilitating communication. If both speak English as their first language, this can facilitate communicating as well. So you will be maintaining or improving technical service to your customers.

Second, turning your researchers into consultants can save them from job loss should their R&D programs be cut in this still difficult economic environment. Third, you retain access to their research capabilities when increased research funding becomes available. Fourth, as subject matter experts, researchers can develop training programs for customers. By introducing new technology to your customers, your firm may gain a step on your competitors in supplying customers' needs for this technology.

Finally, lab managers should consider having your researchers serve customers directly as consultants even when they have active research projects. Often the relationship between customer and supplier involves two handoffs, from the customer to the tech service specialist and from the tech service specialist to the researcher if the problem is a new or knotty one. By having researchers directly involved in the customer relationship, one of these handoffs is eliminated often improving speed and efficiency of response.

Rather than just being a products and technical service provider, your researchers can give your firm the opportunity to become collaborators and partners with your customers setting up a deeper, more mutually beneficial relationships that goes beyond simple cost per pound factors when contracts come up for renewal.

However, making your research consultants as well requires effort. Many times your researchers will have the necessary technical skills but need to learn the soft skills to interact with customers and manage the customer relationship. For example, staff members for whom English is a second language must lean to speak slowly and deliberately articulating words carefully. They will also need to learn how to read American body language.

Your staff members will need to develop active listening skills so they can ask the needed questions to get a full understanding of the customers' concerns. They must understand customers' needs and not simply give them what they ask for. This means becoming proactive and understanding the customer's needs even before they ask for help. From my own experience I know that nothing delights a customer as much as your coming to them with a solution to a problem they thought was a fact of life and had lived with for many years.

To become effective customer consultants, your staff members will need to manage customer relationships and understand the importance of deadlines. Should problems develop in meeting deadlines, the customer should know as soon as possible. Nothing destroys a customer's trust as quickly and thoroughly as a supplier who doesn't appears to be taking the customer's deadlines seriously. Again, speaking from personal experience I have tried to persuade some customers to give one of our products a plant trial for years. More often than not the only way we finally got these opportunities for new business was when a firm's current supplier didn't meet a deadline and didn't appear to be taking the customer seriously because they had the business "sewn up."

To consult effectively, your staff members must stay abreast of technological developments and trends not only in their own field and industry but also in the industries your firm serves. By both understanding the customer's technology and problems and coming from outside their industry, your researchers and tech service specialists can provide knowledge and a fresh perspective that contribute to effective problem solving.

When it comes to clothes, University of California, Berkeley researchers have given new meaning to the term "power suit." They have created energy-scavenging nanofibers that could one day be woven into clothing and textiles. "This technology could eventually lead to wearable 'smart clothes' that can power hand-held electronics through ordinary body movements," said mechanical engineering professor Liwei Lin, head of the team that developed the fiber nanogenerators. These nano-sized generators have "piezoelectric" properties allowing them to convert into electricity the energy created through mechanical stress, stretches and twists. "Because the nanofibers are so small, we could weave them right into clothes with no perceptible change in comfort for the user," Lin notes.

You can read more in this month's issue of the ACS journal Nano Letters,.a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Chemical Society. This isn't the first approach to using clothes to using the energy from people's movements to power small electric devices. Other research teams have previously made nanogenerators out of inorganic semiconducting materials, such as zinc oxide or barium titanate. "Inorganic nanogenerators – in contrast to the organic nanogenerators we created – are more brittle and harder to grow in significant quantities," Lin said.

The tiny nanogenerators have diameters as small as 500 nanometers, or about 100 times thinner than a human hair and one-tenth the width of common cloth fibers. By tugging, the researchers repeatedly generated electrical outputs ranging from 5 to 30 millivolts and 0.5 to 3 nanoamps. There was no noticeable fiber degradation after stretching and releasing the nanofibers for 100 minutes at a frequency of 0.5 hertz (cycles per second).

The researchers demonstrated energy conversion efficiencies as high as 21.8%, with an average of 12.5 %. "We think the efficiency likely could be raised further," Lin said. "For our preliminary results, we see a trend that the smaller the fiber we have, the better the energy efficiency. We don't know what the limit is."

Lin's team at UC Berkeley pioneered the near-field electrospinning technique used to create and position the polymeric nanogenerators 50 micrometers apart in a grid pattern. This technique enables greater control of the placement of the nanofibers onto a surface, allowing researchers to properly align the fiber nanogenerators so that positive and negative poles are on opposite ends, similar to the poles on a battery. Without this control, the negative and positive poles might cancel each other out and reducing energy efficiency.

Personal thoughts

Talk about multitasking! While bicycling to work, playing basketball in the driveway, and just walking around you could be charging the batter of your cell phone or other personal electronics.

Wouldn't it be great if high tech clothes resulted in at least a partial return of the textile industry to the United States? Once this industry employed hundreds of thousands of people.

I find it interesting that these mechanical engineers are publishing in a chemistry research journal. As the ACS says, "Chemistry is the central science."

I've been rereading some of Peter Drucker's books on management. Even though some of these books are over thirty years old, Drucker was quite prescient in discussing trends shaping the business world and the results of these trends. Many of these results are now obvious in today's working environment, including laboratories. Others are still working themselves out. Last week in Part 1, we discussed offshore outsourcing of laboratory work and expatriate laboratory employees. This week we'll look at other issues important in themselves and also critical in competing globally.

Productivity Increases

Concerning manufacturing productivity, Drucker notes, "I would suspect that the productivity increases are actually greater than all the figures we see because the new, more flexible manufacturing processes practically eliminate set-up time, when manufacturing has to cease."

This set-up time is a major issue in specialty chemical plants in which reactors, flow lines and storage tanks must be cleaned when shifting production from one product to another. Some commercial biotechnology plants use batch processing as well. Set-up time can be an issue in oil refineries and other plants that shift from one kind of feedstock to another or must regenerate or change out heterogeneous catalysts. Could this be an important area of research for process chemists and chemical engineers or am I just naïve? Couldn't chemical plants that reduce their set-up times substantially have a significant economic advantage over their competitors? Certainly catalyst manufacturers have worked for many years on improved heterogeneous catalysts that lengthen the intervals between when plants must be shut down for catalyst replacement.

Laboratory productivity has also greatly increased due to instrument automation, laboratory automation and other computer software.

Continuing Education

Drucker notes, "We are the only country that has a very significant continuing education system. Our most important educational system in the U.S., unlike Europe, is in the employees own organization." Therefore, it is disturbing that many large chemical companies seem to have reduced their internal training budgets while some smaller firms send fewer of their researchers to continuing education courses sponsored by organizations such as ACS and the Pittsburgh Conference. While on-line education is booming, these are primarily business courses. To the extent that lab professionals are involved earning an MBA or other business degree online, this is a good thing. However, to take advantage of their degree, these lab professionals usually pursue careers outside the lab.

Companies should work harder to develop career paths in which lab professionals can shift more frequently back and forth between laboratory positions and alternative careers. The more productive interaction between the different areas (R&D, sales, marketing, production, etc.) that would result could provide important advantages in rapidly bringing new products to market.

Global Capital and Our Retirements

Currently, there is substantial surplus capacity in many industries on a global basis. This capital has few investment opportunities. While this capital could push up stock prices to some degree, for many investments it means that rates of return will be relatively low. As a result, many lab employees could seek to remain employed well past the "normal" retirement age.

In addition, many lab professionals in their 40s, 50s and early 60s are becoming unemployed for extended periods. This is having a negative effect on their financial preparation for retirement. This is likely to lead to people working longer. Are many lab professionals, discouraged by long periods of unemployment, giving up on finding lab jobs and pursuing alternative careers outside the lab? Lab managers are losing access to many years of valuable experience when this occurs.

For half a century, Peter Drucker has been the gold standard by which management consultants are judged. He was the first to recognize that management is a discipline worthy of deep study. Some of his remarks in an interview published in the January 12, 2004 issue of Fortune (I'm cleaning up my files) remain relevant today and appear to have major implications for the current and future state of the chemical profession. This week we'll talk about R&D outsourcing overseas. I plan to comment on Drucker's discussions of workplace productivity, continuing education and global capital requirements in an upcoming blog.

Outsourcing of Industrial R&D Jobs

One issue that has become of growing concern is the "offshoring" of U.S. technology jobs to other countries by multi-national corporations. While information technology has been impacted the most, the limited and scattered evidence I've been able to discover indicates offshore appears to be a significant and growing problem for U.S. laboratory professionals in many industries including chemicals and petroleum.

However, Drucker notes, "Nobody seems to realize that we import two or three times as many jobs as we export. I'm talking about the jobs created by foreign companies coming into the U.S." He notes that most of these jobs are high-paying, high-skill jobs while many of the exported jobs are low-paying. In recent years European drug companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis have opened large U.S.R&D centers. However, some U.S. chemical and drug companies are reducing U.S. employment of researchers while increasing employment overseas. The most popular sites for these new laboratories are countries with large and rapidly growing domestic chemical and pharmaceutical markets such as India and China.

So it would be interesting to see how the balance of laboratory jobs created versus jobs lost works out on a national (U.S.) basis. However, I'm not aware of any data bearing on this question. Are you?

Expats

Another interesting aspect of the offshoring question is to what extent U.S. lab professionals can benefit by going abroad to take assignments in these new, overseas research centers. According to Bharat Desai, CEO of Syntel, Inc., a firm that helps U.S. firms set up overseas facilities, U.S. firms are sending Americans to jump-start those facilities. Many of these are lab managers who hire nationals of the host country and familiarize them with the company's corporate culture. The expat managers can provide information on testing methods, reporting procedures and what has been done in the past. This information will help growing numbers of new overseas researchers from "reinventing the wheel."

While most of these overseas assignments for U.S. chemists are likely to be temporary, chemists can return home with valuable skills that will aid their career development. In a Chemical & Engineering News article, journalist Susan Ainsworth notes, "Unfortunately, chemists and other professionals may find it increasingly difficult to land lucrative, career-enriching international positions in the midst of the deepening global recession. And those who are already serving in those roles may face the prospect of lower pay, reduced benefits, and fewer opportunities for a new job as their assignments wind down." While this was written in April 2009, the slow pace of the economic recovery suggests it remains true now.

Many laboratory professionals have difficulty in writing reports. The process often takes longer than it should with the result being a poorly written report. This problem are often most severe for lab professionals with English being their second language. This is a large and growing group in many laboratories. Recently, I began undertaking assignments for lab managers editing customer and technical service reports written by this group of scientists and engineers. I would do "clarity editing;" sometimes while managers would continue reviewing the reports for technical accuracy. I was amazed at the time savings managers reported for this two-stage process, more than 50%.

Working with these lab managers led me to conclude that many were being inefficient in the use of their time spend editing reports. Another problem some managers had was that staff members were becoming discouraged by the feedback they received during the editing process. So how can lab managers do a better job editing reports?

Planning and conducting your edit

Before beginning to edit a particular report, understand the objectives of the work described in the report. Be sure the writer has explained these clearly and succinctly. Then decide if there are any other areas on which you need to focus. For example, has the writer prioritized or explained the pros and cons of the different problem solutions described in the report?

Decide if the report needs an "Executive Summary" section. Long reports in particular usually benefit from an executive summary section. Then ask the following questions: • If your firm uses a standardized report format, has the writer followed this format? • Is the report concise and easily understood? This is particularly important for the Executive Summary and Conclusions section. The Introduction section can often be substantially reduced in length if it contains information well-known to readers of the report. • If the Introduction contains historical information of value, consider relocating this information to an Appendix placed at the end of the report. Lengthy discussions of analytical procedures or discussion of various strategies the writer considered and discarded to solve the problem also may be relegated to appendices. The objective is to take readers to the conclusions quickly while persuading hem of the conclusions' validity.

Coaching report writers

Focus on what the writer should do. Present your recommendations and discussion from this perspective rather than from the perspective of what the writer has done poorly.

Be sure you discuss all aspects in which the report needs improvement. Repetitive edits in which first one aspect of the report such as content is discussed followed by subsequent edits focusing on grammar, spelling and brevity can be demoralizing for the report writer.

Be diplomatic

Getting feedback from a manager who has edited their report sometimes can be a demoralizing experience for a young laboratory professional. Minimize this unpleasantness by being diplomatic when discussing the changes needed in a report. Coach the employee in writing a better report rather than just providing corrections and requiring changes. Providing examples of well-written lab reports and explaining why they are well-written can help lab professionals understand what is required.

Be honest but avoid the extremes of being overly critical (trying to show the writer that you are smarter than him/her) or overly permissive about problems such as poor organization, unclear explanations, poor sentence structure and poor grammar.

Be specific in your suggestions for improvement and word them carefully. Don't use such statements as "good writers always ...."

Remember, you are evaluating the report, not the person. Being diplomatic helps the writer stay motivated and nourishes self-esteem. Being undiplomatic when discussing a staff member's reports can lead to the individual being reluctant to write reports. As a result, reports, when they finally issue, are not timely.

Different industries will recover from the recession at different rates. So in addition to monitoring general economic news, company managers – including lab managers – must closely track business trends in their own industry. The World Chemical Outlook series of articles in the January 11 issue of Chemical & Engineering News can help them do this for a variety of chemical industry segments.

When data clearly demonstrate that a recovery is occurring, organizations will be more willing to spend funds "on the front lines" to reopen production plants or add additional shifts to operate facilities 24/7. Where labs will most probably first see an increasing demand for their services is in customer support and technical services. Managers have four main options in responding to increasing demands.

1. Doing nothing

If the current customer service lab staff is under-utilized, the best strategy, at least initially is to do nothing and allow the workload for your customer service specialists to increase. Lab managers be sure that workloads don't become excessive resulting in staff members cutting corners and reducing the quality of their work. Even if there is no hiring, customer support spending may increase. For example, increased business travel may be required. (However, today's communications technology means that there are alternatives to face-to-face meetings with customers and suppliers.) Increased consumption of lab supplies and great use of outsourced functions such as analytical work may be required.

2. Transferring staff members into customer service

Transferring staff members working on new product and product development into technical service work or having them devote a portion of their time to it is another strategy. This does not increase current laboratory costs. However, there is a hidden cost. The pace of new technology development is slowed. The company may not be ready with the new products and services that customers will soon be demanding. So in making the decision to shift staff resources into technical services, lab managers must balance current versus future needs.

3. Hiring additional staff

Hiring additional staff is an obvious strategy. However, budget constraints may make this impossible. The laboratory manager must persuade funding authorities to increase lab staffing budget. Their arguments must be persuasive since funding authorities may fear the recession isn't really over for their firm. Clear examples of how inadequate customer service staffing could result in loss of current or potential business are probably needed as are persuasive explanations of why Strategies 1 and 2 above are insufficient to meet increasing demand for customer service lab work. There is also a hidden pitfall in hiring new laboratory staff – an influx of a large number of new employees. The time required for training may reduce the productivity of current staff members in meeting customer demands. Hiring experienced personnel can reduce this problem.

4. Hiring contract or temporary staff members

This strategy can reduce the concerns of funding authorities that staff expansion is premature. There are at least two major advantages of this type of outsourcing. Discharging temps does not involve expensive severance packages often associated with staff reductions. It also does not have the same emotional impact on lab staff members as a layoff reducing their own ranks.

An error in the January "Lab Management" article, "The Online Lab Manager needs to be corrected. This correction has been made in the online version of When Growth Stalls. The second paragraph of the section "LIMS" should read: One concern that some users may have with web-based LIMS is data security. However, Robert Pavlis, president of Labtronics, Inc., (www.labtronics.com) notes that users typically have to log in to systems using their names, their companies' names, and passwords. This restricts their access to only the data for their companies. Pavlis notes that his firm's laboratory integration product, Nexxis iLAB, may also be used to store information on users' intranet systems. One can e-mail Nexxis iLAB reports to others who need to see the results. One can also import the results into a Word or PDF document that includes additional results generated by other laboratories.

The recession

The article When Growth Stalls in the October 2009 issue mentions the business recession. The U.S. is now climbing out of this recession when one considers the quarterly gross domestic product figures. The jobless recovery scenario discussed in this article appears to be playing out according to a large number of business articles published in the "Wall Street Journal," "Fortune Magazine," and other business publications. What does this mean for lab managers?

Lab managers will likely have limited budgets for increasing their staffing levels in 2010. This is unfortunate as a large number of experienced, capable researchers currently are in the job market. Companies with the self-confidence to manage for tomorrow have the opportunity to hire these lab professionals to invent the products and processes and develop new services needed for business growth. But if lab managers wait too long, will these researchers still be there or will they have migrated to non-laboratory careers? For many, these careers are an alternative to an extended period of unemployment lasting a year or more.

There are many reasons why projects fail and this will be the subject of my next blog. Right now we'll talk about why you might want to make projects fail early and how you can design projects to for early failure. This seems crazy but there is method in my madness.

R&D projects are different than most types of projects discussed in management books and journals. The uncertainties going into a project are much greater. These uncertainties may cause a project to fail despite it being well-conceived, organized and executed. If nature isn't cooperating with you, the most brilliant and motivated project team can't make it work.

Typical project costs increase greatly in the later stages of the project. These later stages often involve scaling chemical manufacture, putting drugs through clinical trials or testing customer reaction to a new service or product. If one discovers major flaws in the product, process or service early in the projects, one eliminates the need for continued spending. Lab managers can conduct a strategic retreat and spend the money on other projects. When insoluble problems are discovered late in the project, there is a strong tendency for lab and project managers to "throw good money after bad" to try to solve these problems after large sums already have been spent on the project.

Design projects so that if they are going to fail they fail early before large amounts of time and money have been spent. This means identifying the greatest technical challenges (risks) associated with the project and designing the project to overcome them as early as possible. It also means trying to identifying hidden problems as early as possible to try to solve them before large sums of money are spent on the project. For example, consider development of a new drug. If toxicity and drug side effects can be discovered fairly early in the project when it is still in its laboratory stages, the need for expensive clinical drug trials can be eliminated or reduced though better design of clinical trials.

To design projects to test critical concepts as early in the project requires careful project design. This begins with a thorough literature search of the relevant technology. For example, in developing a new drug, say one that lowers blood cholesterol, one should test its compatibility with other drugs the candidates are likely to be taking such as medications that lower blood pressure. One can perhaps discover if this is likely to be a problem by searching the relevant medicinal chemistry literature. It may be possible to conduct at least preliminary, relatively low cost laboratory studies to answer the question.

Tackling critical problems early may require taking your initial project design and literally starting in the middle. For example, suppose you are trying to develop a new catalyst that has a substantially improved lifetime compared to the current one. Some proof of concept – extended catalyst lifetime lab studies - may be scheduled early before optimizing catalyst ligand and other catalyst structural features. Later, when the extended lifetime of this type of catalyst has been demonstrated and chemical structural features optimized, a small number of catalyst lifetime studies can be performed.

Operating labs more efficiently is a constant goal for laboratory managers. The current recession has added to the pressure to cut costs. At large companies reasons for high cost often include a complex organization and a consensus-driven culture. Due to the number of internal transactions that must occur, the focus on execution is often insufficient. Flatter organizations with fewer layers of management and larger spans of control for each manger can reduce the number of required internal transactions. This promotes faster decision making and execution.

This in turn increases the lab's responsiveness to business demands. Fewer people will be making strategic decisions and developing strategies while more will be working at the lab bench implementing choices managers make. A leaner lab management structure can promote clearer choices from the potential project portfolio resulting in faster development and deployment of high-impact new technology. Increasing the pace of decision making can reduce the time needed for individual project completion. Leaner management is responsible for the greater nimbleness of many small organizations in responding to business needs.

Reducing costs

Reducing project costs will improve profitability of new product, processes and technical service operations. Lower costs will make the laboratory a more attractive partner for suppliers and customers when conducting joint research.

So how can lab managers reduce costs without reducing progress on critical projects? This requires a shift in mindset by both managers and their staff members. They must calculate or estimate the value added of everything they do, both internally and externally. Projects that don't have the potential to add sufficient value must be eliminated. The focus must be on executing activities utilizing the core strengths of the organization. Support activities must be eliminated or their costs reduced. Lab managers should outsource more commodity-type functions to individuals and organizations that can perform these functions more cheaply and thus reduce overall costs. For example, outsourcing laboratory facility maintenance, cafeteria operation and security is now common. Functions such as literature searching and routine analytical work are increasingly outsourced.

Acquiring technology

The laboratory must deliver technology-driven competitive advantage to the organization. In addition to working with suppliers and customers to do this, lab managers should consider acquiring technology through open innovation facilitators and funding university projects. Funding projects through consortia can spread costs among several organizations. Many refer to these strategies as breaking the "not invented here" bias against capitalizing on external technology. Importing technology can enable desired results to be achieved more rapidly and at lower costs than relying only on internal efforts to develop and supply needed technology.

Effective project management

Improving laboratory performance requires using appropriate metrics for each project to track progress and costs relative to the original project design and budget (Using Research Metrics Helps Get More Bang for Your R&D Buck and Using Benchmarking Metrics to Improve Laboratory Productivity). It also means making the laboratory a learning organization in which individuals and teams actively share the lessons learned and best practices developed in the course of their work.

Next week we'll discuss designing projects so that, if they are going fail, they fail quickly.

Laboratory management matters even if lab managers are largely unsung heroes in science history. The third word in the title of this blog is a verb representing this opinion. It can also be a noun reflecting the many matters or aspects of lab management to be discussed in this weekly blog.

What are my qualifications to discuss laboratory management particularly in a blog format, which customarily strongly reflects personal opinions of the writer? A Ph.D. chemist, I have been a team leader and research manager for a very large chemical company, Shell Chemical, and a very small one, Tomah Products with a dozen people researchers. I have worked on product and process development plus technical service and supervised others working in these areas. Besides my 35 years industrial research experience I have taught high school chemistry and been a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Notre Dame. These days I am a consultant and writer.

The author of a well-received book,"Career Management for Scientists and Engineers", I have worked as a volunteer career consultant for the American Chemical Society helping members deal with job hunting and on-the-job issues. I believe that lab management is an under-emphasized component of scientific discovery, innovation and corporate success. That's the motivation behind my current book project, "Accelerating Innovation through Effective Laboratory Management," scheduled for mid-2010 release. Effective laboratory management is essential to discovery and innovation Essential Nature of Lab Management.

In an industrial environment it is essential to profit growth and corporate success. It can also maximize the professional achievements and success of bench scientists, engineers and technicians. DuPont Company provides a great example. From the 1930s to the 1950s, a stream of innovative polymers poured out of the DuPont Experimental Station. The names of their discoverers such as Wallace Carothers are well known in the annals of science. The lab managers who established an environment of innovation in the middle of the Great Depression are unknown today at least outside the confines of DuPont. Yet they were essential to making nylon and other fabrics household names. These polymers are still produced in the billions of pounds and have earned companies billions of dollars in profits. Other industrial laboratories long renowned for innovation thanks to effective laboratory management include Bell Labs, Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and General Electric. The progenitors of the modern industrial laboratory, Thomas Edison's labs in Menlo Park and West Orange, were run by a great lab manager, Thomas Edison himself. By the Great Depression, outstanding academic laboratories were well established at major universities around the world. World War II resulted in an explosion of government research that evolved into today's U.S. national laboratories among other government labs. General Leslie Groves, an engineer by training, managed the Manhattan Project and was called "the Manhattan Project's indispensable man" by one of his biographers, Robert S. Norris.

In future blogs we will leave history mostly behind us and discuss current issues and topics in lab management. I hope readers will participate in these discussions.

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