Sometimes I think my workplace is OK and then things happen that make me realize that it's just another nut farm, just like the other work places around. Here are a few examples of things that have sent me away scratching my head in confusion recently.
I got a call from someone in one of the labs about a piece of equipment that wasn't working. She went into this big, elaborate detail about what she did to get it to work and how she absolutely had to have it running. It just would not work! Normally, I would just refer her to the Maintenance Group for help, but I know the people in this department, so I went in to see what was wrong. I walked in, assessed the situation, pressed the 'ON' switch, and left. Things usually work better when they are turned on.
This same group has a storage area where they keep sensitive equipment locked up. They claim they don't want anyone doing anything with the stuff for fear it will be altered in some way. Recently I had to get into the storage area for something but I didn't have the lock combination. After talking to a few of the people, I was told that no one knew the combination but it was posted on the wall beside the cart. I went back to check and sure enough in big block letters there was the combination to get into the cart posted on the wall right beside the locked up sensitive equipment. It was even labeled to let you know what it would open. Real secure, eh?
In one area, we have one of those automatic doors that you just hit the button on the wall to open. It is constantly failing. I recently came by and saw a Maintenance guy fixing the motor again and I asked why it was always breaking. He got all huffy and said that if people didn't use the thing it wouldn't be breaking all the time. When I mentiond his reaction to one of the other Engineers, he said the guy was right. The door shouldn't be used so it would always work right. Now there's a concept! Let's just buy all kinds of equipment and NOT use it. Then we would never have to worry about it needing any maintenance at all! Why don't all companies work that way?
We got in a new instrument that everyone was hot to put into service. I had many people asking me if I had done my thing to get it ready for the validation group yet. I had gone looking for it several times and couldn't find it. I was assured it was set up and ready for me to work with. Guaranteed. I still couldn't find it. (Maybe it had a cloaking device?) Finally after a couple of days I gave up. I went and asked the Warehouse Manager if he knew where it was and he took me right to it. It was still boxed up and sitting on a rack in the warehouse several rows up. About 20 feet up to be more precise. It was never put into place. It was never even taken out of the box. Kinda hard to work with like that, I think.
Finally, I got a request from someone asking if I could investigate an alarm. I went looking for it and could not find the source. I looked everywhere in the area that the alarm was originating, but I couldn't track it down. So I made a second go round and when I went into one area I noticed something odd about one of the refrigerators. I went for a closer look and found that the door was hanging open about a foot. Someone had gotten into the thing for whatever reason and left without closing the door. Now, I'm no genius or anything, but even I know that a refrigerator can't keep itself cool with the door hanging open. One would think that was a basic thing and a person wouldn't need special training for closing low-temperature chamber doors. But what do I know, eh?
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