ExittheLemming wrote:
How many people would pay to see any of you do your job? |
Strange as it may seem - people (my customers) do ask and I politely turn them down because there is nothing to see and it's inconvenient to have someone watching over my shoulder while I work - lab work is not a spectator sport. In the past I have "allowed" some to observe and I have charged them for my time, invariably they discover how arse-numbingly boring it is and they start to wander around the lab looking at other things, which distracts me from the task in hand as I have to usher them away from sensitive jobs that are nothing to do with them or spend time describing various bits of equipment that have nothing to do with their projects. There is also the discomfort factor of having to offer corporate entertainment at lunchtime and in the evenings because that is the industry norm - frankly ferrying customers around the countryside on sight-seeing trips after work isn't in my job description (I had one guy who wanted me to take him to see Stonehenge in the evening, another wanted to see where "Midsommer Murders" was filmed...) ... and that's before we have to spend time in a pub or restaurant exchanging small-talk on subjects that i have no interest in (since it is ill-mannered to talk shop all evening).