Jumping into the fray

The working relationships in an academic lab are usually relatively simple. Students (undergrads, grad students, post-docs) work with varying degrees of autonomy on individual projects under a primary investigator. The projects may or may not be connected.

The situation in a diagnostic lab, such as this National Virology Lab of Nicaragua, can be much more complex with a confusing web of intra-office relationships and roles, some hardly obvious. Typically, individual lab technicians are assigned specific protocols and contribute to a larger communal body of data. One person does PCR on all these samples, for example, another cell culture, another serology, and at the end of the day they compile national data to tell a large story. However, new projects (re: money!) can arise (dengue, influenza, or HIV surveillance) and project leaders, and new subgroups arise (PCR, cell culture, or serology) and leaders of subgroups, and to each go a certain authorship right and financial reward. It becomes complicated. Throw in some good old sex with the bossman, and it’s ripe for drama. All these underlying interactions may not be initially obvious to the naïve, chipper grad student, fresh out of the academic lab and eager to spend a few weeks doing PCR with great fervor. He is jumping into the fray. He may inadvertently step on toes; buck the system. He must be aware of certain things he may otherwise choose to ignore. He just wants to work, drama free. He has the support of influential friends, so he thinks it’ll be fine.