Safety Procedures

I recently had to attend a seminar on workplace safety that was given in-house where I work.  In my industry, there are numerous hazards that one can run into on a daily basis.  For myself, its mostly has to do with the different types of chemicals we work with on a daily basis.  At a minimum I have to wear safety glasses and a labcoat while I’m in the laboratory.  Occasionally we have to wear aprons and/or face shields if the chemical we are working with is particularly hazardous, a concentrated acid, or a concentrated caustic.
Something that surprised me during this seminar/class was the addition of a lockdown procedure.  It was something that caught me off-guard but looking back seems to make a lot of sense.  We now have a system outlined that we are supposed to follow if there is an event or a person in the building or on the property that has a weapon and intends to do harm.  It’s not something that I normally think about, or ever really thought of for that matter, but it is definitely a reality in today’s day and age.  It’s rather scary to think that if something like this were to happen, we as employees are pretty much defenseless.  I’m not sure if anyone else has any experience with this type of policy at their company, but I’d love to hear more about it.
The lockdown procedure and recommendations found on this site: http://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-School-or-Workplace-Shooting  are very similar to the ones that were covered the seminar I attended.  I think what bothers me the most is how helpless most people would be in these types of situations.  I believe everyone should be able to fight back when they have to, but in cases like this where someone is armed and you are not, it just wouldn’t be logical.   I’m not sure what can be done about that, but it bothers me a great deal…

Title Structure Reorganization

Its interesting to see the different types of employee title structure that are used by different companies, particularly those companies within the same industry.  In my industry (biotech) employee titles typically vary a great deal from one employer to the next.  For instance, at my first employer, I started as an Assistant Scientist and was promoted to Scientist 1 my first year there.  Then I jumped around a bit to two other companies and when I landed at my last company (previous to my current company) I was an Associate Scientist II.  What's interesting about all of this is that I was a full Scientist at my first job within a year.  By the time I started at my last employer, I had 5 years experience and was lower than a full Scientist yet I had a much higher salary than when I was a full Scientist before.  It really didn't make any sense.  The point of all of this is that there is no standard by which you can compare titles for positions from company to company, and it would be ideal if there was some sort of standard.

On the bright side, some biotech and pharmaceutical companies have taken steps to harmonize with the industry as a whole.  My company recently reorganized its title and salary structure to have a much smaller number of titles and created a more streamlined and transparent system for its employees.  It gets tricky however, when you start putting employees with varying backgrounds and varying years of experience into the same title/pay grade.  You'll sometimes have employees who were at different titles (scientist 1,II, and III for instance) and then lump them together at the same level under the new system.  This can cause some issues in the sense that someone who once had title seniority no longer does.  There can be a lot of bruised egos with changes such as this and some employees will be a bit disgruntled.  

I found this website on creating salary structures which I thought was rather relevant:

http://internationalhr.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/ten-steps-for-building-a-salary-structure/  but I'm still at a loss on finding anything to combat the troubles of the title situation.  I'm not sure how to solve this problem, and I'd be interested in hearing your comments about how to fix it.  

Final Paper Abstract

A literature review was performed on publications relating to management practices in the biotechnology field, focusing on the prevalence of toxic management and its effects on employees.  This paper details the findings and possible reasons behind how these toxic situations develop, such as a lack of management training, degree requirements not related to leadership roles, lack of transparency, and detrimental personality traits.  The paper also addresses different courses of action that can be taken in order to attempt to remedy these types of behavior, specifically management education requirements and mentoring programs.  These strategies are by no means guaranteed methods to overcome toxic management, however they can help promote productive management styles in individuals who have difficulty adapting to a manager mentality in the biotechnology workplace.

A Little More on Company Perks

I decided to refer back to two of my previous posts with this week’s blog.  The two posts in question are the one about the Millenials, and the other was about the perks which companies offer their employees.  I was reading an online article the other day, which can be found here: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1690 which was quite interesting.

I found another article http://www.marketwatch.com/story/playful-perks-propel-google-to-top-of-fortunes-best-workplaces which stated that Google managed to make it into “Fortune’s list of “100 best companies to work for” in the company’s first year as an entrant.”  This article is dated 2007, but regardless, it’s still relevant.  Google is a remarkable company by almost all aspects.  Their stock price was around $100 per share during its IPO.  Currently, it trades around $610-$615 per share.  Google seems to be involved in almost everything.  My wife has a Google cell phone, and I just saw Google TV in Best Buy the other day.  I find myself wondering “How did this company do it?”

A big part of how all this was accomplished is because Google has been attracting top talent for years.  This was in part due to the laundry list of perks offered by the company, some of which seem a bit unorthodox, such as providing nap rooms and allowing employees to play video games via company-provided Xbox’s and Playstations during breaks.  There are quite a few other companies out there that offer perks like Google, two of which are Apple and Atari.  I imagine that these types of perks appear quite appealing to Millenials and this is why these companies attract the top talent in this age group. 

While these perks seem to make really good business sense in terms of the success of these companies, it also brings up some other issues that may not be apparent.  It was noted in one of the articles that these perks are often provided in order to get employees to spend more time at work.  More time at work means less time with family and loved ones.  It also means less time doing recreational activities which I think are essential to a productive work-life balance. 

I’ve always been the type of person who “turns the switch off” when he leaves work.  When I walk out that door, I don’t typically think about work until I arrive there the next morning.  Personally, I think that’s the perfect balance.  I don’t think I should be worrying about work when I’m at home with my loved ones nor when I’m out doing the activities I love, such as fly fishing.   This isn’t always the case, but I strive to make it so.  Not that I don’t enjoy my job, I certainly do.  I enjoy it when I tell someone what I do for a living and they genuinely find it interesting.  I find my job extremely rewarding.  But at the same time, I don’t think you can put a price on your personal time, nor your family time. 

Company Perks

As I was riding to work on Friday morning (I carpool with my friend Dave) I realized that I didn’t have anything for breakfast.  I usually have a box of cereal in my desk (since my company provides free milk to all of its employees) which I eat a bowl of every morning.  Typically I come into work sit down at my desk, do about an hour of computer work (mostly responding to e-mails and creating different Excel files for different projects) and while I’m doing this I enjoy a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal.  Today was going to be different because I didn’t have my cereal, so I had Dave drop me off at the building which has our cafeteria in it.
 I don’t frequent the cafeteria much since I also bring my lunch to work, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had Dunkin Donuts coffee brewing.  I grabbed a medium DD coffee and a prepackaged bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats and headed to my building to start my day.  As I was walking out, I noticed a few of my colleagues heading into the cafeteria, I said “Hi”, and that’s when it hit me.  We often take all of these little things for granted, but there are a LOT of perks that companies give us that make our work environment really rewarding.  And by making our work environment rewarding, they get increased productivity and value added to the job. 
 There are a lot of great incentives added by today’s companies that not only help the company, but help the individual employee as well.  One that I value a great deal and is available at my company is a fitness center.  Granted it isn’t the size of a normal gym, but the fitness center we have on campus has free weights, cardio equipment, and a few different types of weight machines.  It has enough equipment that you can get a decent workout in, feel good about it, and feel like you accomplished something. 
 Companies offer fitness programs for various reasons.  Exercise helps keep their employees in shape and also keeps them sharp.  Here is a website that lists some of the benefits of company sponsored fitness centers and fitness programs:

http://naturalhealthcare.ca/benefits_of_a_wellness_program.phtml

Not only does it help save the company money, but it increases employee productivity, and it helps give employees a healthier lifestyle.  At some point I would like to see these types of programs incorporated into all companies.  I know this most likely will not happen, but regardless, I think these programs are important, if not essential.  I often hear people saying that stress from work is taking years off of their life.  These types of programs not only increase productivity, but they can also potentially ADD years to an employee’s life.  What could be better than that?

The Millenials

In the last few classes we have touched on the different age groups and generations that make up today's workforce.  In our discussion last week the term "Millenials" was mentioned.  This topic was covered to a certain degree in my marketing class last semester and our professor showed us a video clip that was on the tv show 60 Minutes.  The text version of the video can be viewed at the following website:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml

You can click on the video link on the website and watch the full video also.  It really is a great article and it shows how the workplace is changing and what will be faced by managers in the future.

I'm not sure how I feel about this next generation of employees.  I'm still of the mentality that no one owes me anything in life, and no one is going to do things for me, so whatever I desire out of life, I have to accomplish myself.  It seems to me that the younger generation has a very selfish attitude and basically act rather spoiled.  Which pretty much makes sense.  There seem to be no consequences for kids anymore.  And its really not their fault.  I blame it on poor parenting.

My wife's a teacher and so are my brother and his wife.  All three of them have told me that when a student misbehaves or does poorly in class, the parents are called and they have this attitude of "oh no, not my little angel".  So either their child could not possibly have done anything wrong, or its not their child's fault, its the teacher's fault.  In all actuality, its the parents fault!  Parents make so many excuses for their kids anymore its ridiculous.  And now its beginning to create issues in the workplace.  There's this attitude of "if you don't give me what I want here, I'll go find someplace that will".  This isn't a sustainable attitude to have.  It seems self-defeating to me.  I don't see how any of these workers are ever going to be content or satisfied.  It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Weekend Events

This past weekend was quite an eventful one.  I got married!  They say your wedding day goes by so fast, but I had no idea how true that was.  It seemed like one minute I was watching Amy walk down the aisle, and the next I was looking at my watch and it was midnight!  It was such a great time, spent with such great people, our family and friends.  Here are some pics of the festivities:

My brothers Bob and Mike.

Amy and I with our toasting flutes.

Amy getting cake on my nose during the cake cutting.

Our reception was held at Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Macungie, PA.  Not only was it the venue for our reception, but it was also the location of our first date.  We had dinner at the restaurant which is in the downstairs section of the resort. 

I hadn't seen my brother Bob in over 2 years because he lives in Seattle, WA and doesn't get back to the area much.  It was really good to spend time with him and I wish he could have stayed longer.  He had to get back rather quickly due to his landscaping business.  His business focuses mostly on residential clients these days but he had held quite a few commercial accounts in years past.  Landscaping can be a very lucrative business especially when commercial businesses are your clients. 

My brother consistently ran into collection problems with his commercial clients in the past and he has since rid himself of the most troublesome ones.  Most businesses he had dealt with required constant badgering and oftentimes the threat of a lien was used in order to collect money owed.  If a lien is placed against a business, there can be no improvements made to the business before the debt is paid.  This isn't an enjoyable situation to be put in, but it is effective, nonetheless. 

I have often thought about starting my own landscaping business here on the east coast, as start up costs are relatively inexpensive, and I could do most of the labor myself.  The biggest issues would be trying to determine what clients I should focus on (residential or commercial) and accumulating that initial client base.  Who knows, I may still make an attempt in the future.  It's just tough finding the time to run this startup while working fulltime.

Case Studies

I'm having a hard time believing how much I'm actually enjoying the case studies.  I think it might have something to do with the fact that I'm more of an analytical thinker.  Well, that's what I do in my job everyday as a scientist, and I think I enjoy it because it's like troubleshooting an instrument that isn't working correctly.  You have to find out what IS working correctly, and then slowly chip away at things methodically until you find the problem.  Only then can you address it. 

When troubleshooting an instrument or developing analytical methods, you change only one variable at a time. This allows you to pinpoint problems without creating new ones.  I used to work with a fellow who would change 3 to 4 different instrument settings at a time when trying to figure out what was wrong with it.  I used to try to tell him that the way he was going about things was only causing him him more headaches, but he never listened to me.  He always refused help, and it always took him weeks to figure out issues with methods when it should have only taken a day or two.  He was guilty of one of the deadly sins...Pride.

I don't have any real management experience, unless you count the job I had during college in a phonebook factory.  I was temporarily promoted to Lead Loader a few times and I would have to lead a team of people to run the signature loaders for binding phonebooks.  Well, that and I was a Residence Advisor during college.  I was in charge of a full wing which encompassed about 60 students, mostly freshman and sophomores.  The reason I bring this up is that I'm not sure management is as easy as troubleshooting methods and instrumentation.  There are a lot more variables, some that you can't always control, and you also don't have the luxury of being able to change one at a time and see how things are affected.  I think this is going to be the most challenging part of it for me, and one that I'm going to have to adapt to.  That being said, I'm really looking forward to evolving...

Possible Research Topic

This weekend I went on my annual fishing trip to the Salmon River in Pulaski, NY.  I get together every year with a group of friends, which consists of three former work colleagues, we get a cabin at Selkirk Shores State Park and spend at least two solid days on the river.  Here are some pictures of our excursion:

                        





This is Mike with a very small steelhead.  We've never caught any this small before.














Here's Larry with a nice king (chinook) salmon.

Me with a coho fresh out of Lake Ontario.

Me later in the day with another coho.

A shot of the river just upstream from the estuary with  Dave on the middle left, and Mike on the right.

And one more of me on the second day with another coho.






I'm not sure if anyone cares about salmon fishing or not, but fishing is my #1 hobby (besides working out, if you can consider that a hobby) so I thought I'd share.  There's something to be said about being on the river with a great group of friends .  It's the simple things like this that make life truly great.

Anyway, back to the purpose of today's blog.  While I was up there, I decided I should take along my text book and the practice case study so I could do the assigned readings and do some work on it in my spare time.  While laying on the riverbank with my textbook in hand, I read the article on toxic management.  All I can say is WOW, did that piece really hit home...

In the industry I work in (biotech and pharmaceuticals), you run into a LOT of toxic management.  I am pretty sure most of it stems from the fact that most managers in this industry are not trained in management.  When hiring for high level positions such as directors, associate directors, and laboratory managers, it is usually company policy to require a PhD.   I never understood how a PhD in protein science or a PhD in organic chemistry can be a prerequisite for running a laboratory.   If your main focus in your job is going to be managing a laboratory, which includes everything from managing staff to budgeting costs to resolving conflicts between employees, wouldn't you think that it would be wise to have some sort of management degree as a prerequisite?  Whether it be an MBA or some other type of business certificate, I personally think that this should be the case.  You need to bear in mind also that a lot of people who have a PhD in one of the science fields, are not exactly the most socially proficient.  In fact, quite a few I've met appear to be quite narcissistic which was the first toxic management personality type covered in the reading!

I would really like be able to do my research paper on toxic management in the pharmaceutical industry.  This is an issue I have experienced first hand and I feel that it is a main contributor to a lot of the conflicts that occur in the industry as a whole.  I have to do some research and find out how much information is available out there on this topic.

1st Blog, MGM580

Hi Everyone,

This is my first experience blogging, so I have a feeling the semester is going to be a true learning experience for me.  I consider myself computer savvy, but I never got into blogging for some reason.  I guess I'm a bit of a "private" person and I don't want too much information about me just floating around on the internet.  Although I do have a Facebook page, so any privacy I had was probably history quite a while ago...

About me...well, I grew up in Sheppton, Pennsylvania.  Sheppton's a small town just outside of Hazleton.  I graduate from Hazleton Area High School in 1997 and earned my bachelor's degree in chemistry from Bloomsburg University in 2002.  While I was in college, I spent a summer living with my brother in Seattle, WA.  He own's a landscaping business and needed my help doing the work when he injured his back, so I drove cross country to help him out.  It was a great experience and I'd do it again if I could.

Since graduation, I've bounced around a bit between a few pharmaceutical companies for the past 8+ years and I've lived in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and back to PA.  I started out in small molecule pharmaceuticals and got into the biotechnology sector with my last company.  After three years at that company, another large pharmaceutical company purchased us and I was part of a layoff.  I managed to find a scientist position with another biotech company, and everything pretty much worked out for the best. 

I have to say, I'm really looking forward to this semester.  I've only taken one other graduate course, and I had to take three undergrad courses during the spring and summer due to deficiencies in certain areas like accounting, finance, and marketing.  (You don't get to take too many of those classes when you're a chemistry major)  I was nervous about the MBA program at first, and I was really worried that I wouldn't find business classes interesting or I wouldn't do well because the concepts weren't science based which is what I am used to.  I have to say, so far, I've really enjoyed all of the classes I've taken for the MBA program and I find that I can apply a lot of the concepts to my everyday worklife, which reinforces the notion that I've made the right choice.

Jeff