Don't pent up negative energy from lab..

And blow it up on loved ones at home (who are clueless and innocent).

Show of hand, how many are guilty?

I am.

Just because they love you don't give you the right to misuse their love to vent out your frustrations and all other negative energy onto them...

You should (or I should) be giving it directly to the person who are making you feel down in the office (or lab)... except to your boss of course (unless you have found a new job)...

Give it straight to the person making you feeling down by telling him/her off. Give a piece of your mind rather than swallow it hard and blow up later. Don't be the implosive type.

You can be nice but firm in your stand and protect yourself from being led downward. Say "no" more often and mean it when you say "yes".

Good luck..

There is a reason for not labeling properly in the lab

The first time I encountered such example would be in the common cold room. A stretch of LB antibiotic plates were placed nicely on a rack. At the bottom pasted a note reading, "use at your own risk, plates not labeled as it was meant to".

I scratched my head seeking for a reason. It never took long to figure out that the note was meant for other "unauthorized" users. It is also very likely that this person had been victim of pilfer for a long time and it reached the threshold of being calm to irritation for him/her.

Rule: "Use and let use" means to replace what you took from others and don't be a parasite.

I have adopted this approach (mislabel or unlabel) not long after. That started when I realized that the solutions I prepared not long ago were pilfered and I was left with insufficient amount at the most crucial time of the experiment. It is upsetting, no?

When someone says give me 5 mins, it means

they will need a minimum of 5 mins of your time.

It would be impolite to start a timer to count down a five; and it would be impractical for the person asking (seeking) for the time to start timing you (because it would be disadvantageous to the seeker).

If you are busy, politely say no. No time for now.

If you are the seeker, be polite as not to place a number on the time you are asking the person. Five min? Who are you kidding, because most of the time, it is more than 5 min of that person's time?

I would take you seriously if you start your timer and say, "now, may i ask 5 min of your time?" That is practical but still inappropriate because the person you are asking will feel bad about it.

Ever get irked by telemarketers asking for 5 min of your time? They always waste 2 mins before getting to the point, e.g. insurance, stock, investment, marketing, etc...

Last, a polite way to ask for someone's time would be, "are you free to talk?", if yes, then go right to the point especially if you notice that the "yes" was given out of courtesy.

Courtesy of switching off others timer

Often time, in the lab, you will hear timer going off while the person setting the time is no where to be seen. Most colleagues will leave the timer sounding for exactly a min before the timer stops and resume count up (showing elapsed time).

If you are the unique group of people who can't stand the sound of beeps in the lab or anywhere, chances are you will go over to the bench and switch the timer off for that someone. The latter group of people, can be responsible or just not. The responsible ones will remind that someone about the time-up, while the irresponsible ones will pretend ignorance and wait for the someone to figure out.

Now, a common courtesy if you need to switch off someone's timed-up timer:

1. Switch off and start count up. The latter action is to remind the someone the elapsed time since time-up.
2. Remind the person if you see them about the time-up. 

See, that isn't to difficult to do, right? If you can't stand the beeping sound, do the right thing when you switch off someone's timer next time.