ALMA E-News for April 2003
Greetings ALMA Members,
Most lab personnel know that nitrogen causes more fatalities than any other chemical. When a person enters a nitrogen atmosphere, oxygen flow is reversed from arterial blood and tissues back into the lungs and loss of consciousness follows within seconds. At a local plant, an individual was working on top of a reactor, leaned over, got a blast of pure nitrogen, and pitched forward into the vessel unconscious. In the lab, a similar event can occur when working with liquid nitrogen since the cold vapor concentrates at floor level—a worker who leans down into this cloud can be overcome. Another too common mistake is to ride on a freight elevator with the container when transporting liquid nitrogen between floors—elevators should have warning signs posted to strictly prohibit this practice. The staff must also be trained to overcome their natural instinct to rush to assist an unconscious coworker since over half of workers who die in confined spaces are attempting to rescue other workers. Since nitrogen constitutes about 78% of the air that we breathe, it is easy to become complacent and to underestimate its dangers. If you use nitrogen in your lab, safe handling of this dangerous gas should be an annual topic for a safety meeting to remind the staff of the risks.
Managers view promotions into the management ranks as a reward for their top researchers or technical specialists even while envying the independence, challenge, and collegial relationships associated with the technical positions. It is assumed that these talented individuals will welcome these opportunities and will appreciate the recognition and status. However, a recent article (“Managerial Misfits,” Harvard Business Review, May, 2003) points out that the offer of a promotion places significant pressure on the candidate since it is clearly management’s desire that he/she accept, it is implied that the decision will influence future opportunities or status, and there may be pressure for a quick decision. Thus, a highly motivated, exceptional contributor may feel trapped into accepting a position where they are less valuable to the organization, are less capable of excelling, find the work less satisfying, and are generally less happy with their lives. Clearly this is not the reward intended. Management’s own self-aggrandizement contributes to this situation with the tacit acceptance of the premise that success = management (firmly supported by most HR practices). While there’s not much we can do about the corporate caste system, we can at least help our technical contributors make the decision that is best for them by offering an honest assessment of their management potential and by helping them to understand the degree of satisfaction that they might derive from planning, budgeting, attending meetings, listening to other’s problems, enforcing policies, and all of the other functions of management. Technical managers are not necessarily helping or rewarding strong technical performers by automatically selecting them for management.
If you have any comments, cost saving suggestions, opinions, etc. let me hear from you .
Wayne