[labnetwork] After-hours work in cleanroom and laboratories

[John Shott]

John:

While we've recently been able to incrementally bump up our staff 
coverage so that it runs from approximately 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. M-F, at 
nights and weekends we have no official staff on site.  As a result, we 
rely on:

1. The buddy system.

2. The fact that there tend to be experienced users around most of the 
time that are willing to answer questions, help solve problems, etc.

3. We have a rotated on-call "duty phone" that can be used for emergency 
use.

4. Facilities monitoring, toxic gas monitoring, etc are fully automated 
and on-duty 24x7.  If any of those systems sense a problem, email, 
automated phone dialers, communication to the fire department, and 
campus-facilities takes over.

5. Users can't get to gas vaults, buk chemical storage, the basement 
(where most pumps and chillers live) so they are somewhat limited in the 
range of trouble that they can create.

All that said, more "curious events" do seem to happen in the evenings 
than happens when staff is on site.  Given the staffing realities of 
most university labs, I'm comfortable with this as a viable approach.

Good luck,

John


On 11/20/2013 5:40 AM, Weaver, John R wrote:
> Due to some headcount reductions we are re-thinking our after-hours 
> lab work. Previously we had trained "lab attendants" who watched over 
> things until midnight, then required the "buddy system" after that. 
> Now we are looking at just using the buddy system after 5:00 pm.
> How do you handle things in your facility? Are you happy with the results?
> Thanks in advance,
> John
> */John R. Weaver/*

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