One more thought...

Before I put my head down and focus for the rest of the afternoon...back to my 'manuscript that won't go away'...I had one more thought.

If you are the PI of a lab. And you hire a new person to work as a tech in that lab. It might be in your best interest to talk to this new employee and make sure that they understand appropriate lab attaire.

Just in case you were wondering...it is NOT okay to wear tube top dressess every day to work in a lab. It is also NOT okay to wear sandals and shorts to work in the lab.

This is not a hard concept.

And there are nice ways of doing it. There are ways of presenting this information in a safe (non-sexual harassment lawsuit endangering), encouraging way, in which the employee understands that you are looking out for their safety and not trying to be mean or demean them. I have LOTS of thoughts on how this can be phrased!

But as far as I can tell you have one, exactly ONE chance to tell this new employee about how to dress. Because if you don't do it as soon as you hire them, and they wear this crap for weeks, and you don't say anything, you lose the ability to EVER say anything about it EVER!

Rant over...I just had to get that off my chest. Because really? No one at work needs to see that much of your skin. And really? Do you really want chemicals spilt all over you? Cuz I sure don't!

Back to work!