six hours of my life I will NEVER get back

[asimplechord]

The Nuclear Regulatory Committee requires six hours of training for anyone who will be occupationally exposed to ionizing radiation.

I performed said training at the Universities of Wisconsin and Utah, and when I moved here, the Radiation Safety Officer received a faxed copy of my certification from Utah, and said that was enough training.

Said person is on maternity leave, and the fax could not be found when the most recent surprise survey was held, so it was requested that I take the class again.

Fine, whatever.

I called and *specifically* asked if production of proof of previous training was sufficient, and was told that even though I had taken the class elsewhere, they wanted me to take it HERE, in case the procedures are different. (They aren't: ALARA through time, shielding and distance.)

So I did - the first half was today, second tomorrow. I had a question about one of the forms, so I talked to Chris, the guy teaching the class (I've dealt with him when I had storage and disposal questions), who asked, "I recognize you; why are you here?"

When I explained, he said, "That's dumb, I know we must have that on file somewhere. If you can produce a copy, you don't have to come back tomorrow."

Awesome. I just have to hope that Utah kept files from >5 years ago and will fax them to him before 9am tomorrow.

THIS IS WHY I CALLED AND ASKED LAST WEEK. WHY DOES THE ANSWER VARY, DEPENDING ON WHO I ASK?

Comments

[inkandchaos.livejournal.com]

You have the most awesomely interesting shitty days at work. IDEK.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Dude. My rant about work, let me show you it.

The sign-up for the tissue culture area:
9-12:30 - The Idiot
1:30-2pm - me
2-3 student C
3-4 post-doc X

It is 1:30pm. The Idiot is STILL in there, and when I told him it was my time slot, he said he'd be 20 more minutes. I pointed out that the hood was booked for the afternoon, so he couldn't go over, and he said, "Oh, well, I didn't plan well."

No. Fucking. Shit. Imagine my shock.

[inkandchaos.livejournal.com]

Can you lodge a formal complaint about him? Seriously, he sounds like the kind of guy who NEEDS a black mark on his permanent record.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

My boss is aware of the situation. That's really all that can be done, since the primary investigator's funding and evaluation are what control employment of post-doctoral associates.

Seriously, he just got out of the hood and told me, "We need another hood."

My response? "No, you need to plan your experiments before you start. We've had a single hood for six people and not had a problem before." He signs up for hours at a time, but doesn't have things designed and planned, so he goes in, comes out, fiddles withe computer, finds plasmids and reagents, goes back, comes out, etc. Whereas the rest of us? Plan, write it out, gather materials, go into the TC area, and get to work.

Plus, even if he'd like to sacrifice four months' pay to *buy* another hood, where exactly does he think we'd put it? The lab is new and shiny, but we have zero extra space.

[labrt2004.livejournal.com]

UGH, this is the class where they tell you not to eat the radioactive material and how the entire premises should be evacuated if a drop of it falls out of your pipette, right? RIGHT? :-D

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. My summary of the class to my boss: Don't lick the container of P-32. That would be bad.

[ordinary-magic.livejournal.com]

Could a copy of the cert be filed anywhere else - health and safety officer, etc? I keep a file with certified copies of everything because I'm paranoid.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

I'm asking them to fax *me* a copy as well. The problem is that the person who is on maternity leave, who had the original fax? IS the health-safety officer. So if they can't find it in her filing, what does that mean?