November 2009 - Posts

The Fair Fix
November 20, 2009 6:02 AM by Scott Warner

I last blogged that I would suggest how to really fix what's not fair in your laboratory. We've all felt rising resentment from unfair treatment: an extra weekend, being blamed for another's mistake, a poor evaluation. Let's consider the chronic problem Read More...

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Equitable: See Fair
November 16, 2009 7:07 AM by Scott Warner

"Scott refuses to define the word equitable ," someone once complained about me. The American Heritage dictionary defines equitable as "just and impartial," then tells us to see fair . Fair , unsurprisingly, is defined as "just to all parties; equitable." Read More...

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Ask, Don't Tell
November 11, 2009 7:15 AM by Scott Warner

As a kid I heard Talk is cheap , meaning that talking about doing something is the easy part. Boy, was that the truth! My homework and chores didn't get themselves done, no matter how much I talked about doing them or (often enough) why I hadn't. And Read More...

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Rules and Algorithms
November 6, 2009 6:26 AM by Scott Warner

Just the other day a question of how to alert physicians of laboratory reflex rules came up. After all, everyone's rules are slightly different. Examples: if the dipstick is positive for blood or leukocyte esterase, perform a microscopic examination of Read More...

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Weasel Words
November 2, 2009 6:26 AM by Scott Warner

Don Watson says in his introduction to Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words, Contemporary Cliches, Cant, & Management Jargon that weasel words are bringing about the death of language. "The real disease," he writes, "is in the system: in the new models Read More...

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