Out of Hours Working
Out of Hours Working
Personnel working outside normal working hours must adhere to the Departmental policy. Lone working in research laboratories is strictly prohibited.
Key Points
- ‘Normal’ working hours are 07:00-19:00 Monday to Friday.
- Anyone entering outside normal hours, should enter by the Security Office and complete and sign the record book.
- Outside normal hours, researchers carrying out lab work must nominate a lab buddy.
- The lab buddy must be present and within earshot throughout the work.
- Postgraduates working between 22.00 and 07.00 need specific permission from the principal investigator and Head of Department and a separate risk assessment.
- Undergraduates (or anyone with a level of experience equivalent to an undergraduate) should not work in the lab outside 08.45-18.30 (Mon-Fri) during term time.
- Outside term time, undergraduates (or equivalent) with 3 years experience or less should be accompanied in the lab by a staff member or suitably qualified postdoctoral researcher. Level 4 masters students (MChem/MSci) can work outside term time provided that the Departmental Safety Coordinator and Director of Teaching are first consulted.
Please note that if you are in the Department outside normal hours with a lab buddy who ‘pops out’ for any reason, you are in contravention of the Departmental policy if you continue to work in the laboratory. ‘Popping out’ in this case means anywhere out of earshot. As a consequence, if you are the ‘buddy’, it is essential, as well as being courteous, to inform your fellow researcher if you are leaving for any reason, even if temporarily.
Note also, that even during normal working hours, if several members of your group are out of the lab (e.g. during coffee breaks, seminars etc), there may not be anyone within earshot. In such circumstances, you should not conduct laboratory work until someone is within earshot.
Overnight Experiments
Experiments running overnight require the completion of a yellow form (available from CG018).
The yellow form should be placed on the door to the laboratory in which the experiment is running. This card will be used by someone who is chemically trained (usually the supervisor) should they need to enter the laboratory overnight in the event of a problem. This is an interim measure. When the old door holders for yellow cards have been replaced, the positioning of the cards will revert to the door to the laboratory. In the near future, the location of the yellow cards will move back to the door to the laboratory (once new fixtures have been installed).
Any researcher leaving experiments running overnight that are using services (electricity, water, fume cupboard) must use the green form on laboratory doors if failure of any of these services would represent a risk, either to others, or to the building (e.g. flooding, fire).
The form on the door does not need to completed if an experiment poses no risk in the event of service failure (as is the case for many reactions left stirring at room temperature). If you are running an experiment that poses a risk, the protocol for completing the card is:
- If the card is blank (i.e. new), tick the box(es) for the service(s) that present a risk.
- If the form is not blank and a box you need to tick is already ticked, leave it ticked.
- Enter details for the ‘Contact Responsible’ (usually the supervisor) for each service you tick; if their details are already there, leave them there.
- If a service presents a risk and the box is already ticked but your ‘Contact Responsible’ details are not there, add them.
Note that in most circumstances, the ‘Contact Responsible’ for air handling will be E&B.
Please bear in mind that the green forms on laboratory doors are intended for use by security personnel, who are not chemically trained. If a service fails overnight, if that service is one of those indicated as posing a risk, the security personnel mark this on the form. You should check this form in the morning, especially if you are the first to arrive. A fume cupboard or air handling failure might mean that vapours have accumulated in the laboratory. In the morning, once it is clear that the laboratory is operating safely, the card on the laboratory door should be removed.
In synthetic laboratories, please note the following for overnight reactions:
- Tubing carrying water, e.g. for a condenser, must be secured with cable ties at both ends.
- If a reaction is being heated, a temperature regulator must be used.
- Any reaction carried out above ambient temperature overnight must be stable at its regulated temperature for at least one hour before being left.
Permanently Running Equipment
Permanent running cards should be displayed on laboratory doors.