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.
