r/labrats • u/Florida_Shine • 2d ago
New lab manager seeking any advice!
Hello!!
What is your best advice for a new lab manager? What are some mistakes you made and leaned from? Any advise for supervising technicians?
13
Upvotes
r/labrats • u/Florida_Shine • 2d ago
Hello!!
What is your best advice for a new lab manager? What are some mistakes you made and leaned from? Any advise for supervising technicians?
7
u/annquicksand 1d ago
A mistake in my experience that comes to mind is managers not being direct. I often see supervisors complaining about how a tech "should be done with that by now" or some other comment about how they aren't working fast enough or prioritizing a certain task but at no point did this supervisor 1. tell the tech when they hope the task would be completed by, 2. why its important to prioritize, and most importantly 3. ASK the tech to make an estimation of how long a task will take them - they will know their own workload/speed the best! It isn't hard to share your expectations, and its just empathetic to adjust your expectations sometimes - if you make a plan beforehand, together, you are both better prepared.
Another common method of not being direct is the "you guys need to take care of this" mentality of shared tasks like cleaning. It isn't so hard to confront who is responsible, delegate specific tasks, or ask for volunteers to fix an issue. I never understand the attitude of just shaming everyone as a group as a way of making sure a task gets done.
This might just be my experience, but I have worked for PIs that have never really worked outside of academia and so end up being super indirect and/or rude to institutional staff. This is where the lab manager can really shine! Get all the operations and admin people on your good side, share with them what your responsibilities are, learn what theirs are and they will always be willing to help you out (e.g. finding a missing package, getting a product ordered, getting a reimbursement, fixing regular lab equipment in a timely manner, etc.). There is so many times I was able to avoid or remedy an issue because I knew exactly who to go to and that they were my buddy.
I think if you're asking about it then you're going to be a very thoughtful manager, so you'll do great and good luck!