[cytokine_storm]

Wow. I'm a student in a research microbiology lab and I could give a rough overview of the projects of everyone in my lab, and the neighbouring sister microbiolgy lab too. There's no room for charades because one of the first questions scientists ask each other at social events of any kind is "so, what do you do/ work on?" Not to mention how much you need to rely on others just to get basic experiments in reasonable shape.

[dirktheman]

And that's how it should be. In fact, that's what you get when you work with task-oriented people who are passionate about their work. In most large corporations however, your initial enthousiasm is smuthered rather quickly by people who just want to keep their jobs. After some 6 to 12 months, you comply. Another year passes by, and you get 'promoted' to a staff function or middle management. When that happens, you're the guy telling newcomers to 'take it easy and just go with the flow'.

Whatever you do in the future, remember the spirit and work ethics of the microbiology lab. If you find yourself working somewhere lacking that spirit but having the 'corporate' attitude instead, quit right away. Seriously. You'll thank me later!

[hef19898]

Can only conjure on that. Hell, reading that comment brings up a lot of nice memories from back the day when I was young. You know, before I got promoted to, yes, a staff function. How do I miss these days. Unfortunately they won't come back..

So yes, try to work in environments with that attitude as long as you can!

[jmcgough]

Money is also a lot tighter in research labs, so lab heads have to run a tight ship and account for everything.