Managing a Dynamic Workforce Posted on January 20, 2009 Dr. Patricia Molina describes the personnel challenges that occur in dynamic work environments like labs.

Getting a team to work together and getting a team that works smoothly together is incredibly challenging. And I think that I doubt that any investigator would ever reach a stage or would ever go through a sustained period of time where everybody's working well with everybody because labs are very dynamic environments. Students come, students leave, technicians come, technicians leave.

I mean, there have been times in which I've had incredible conflict. I mean, lots of tension, where I've had to intervene with both parties, where I've had to get other members of the lab involved in saying, bringing up the situation and basically asking them to help make it a smoother environment.

I haven't always been successful. It's almost easier when it's a transient, when it's a technician that's working there or when it's a part-time student worker. Then you know that he's only going to be here six months. Or you can say, "You know what? This is really not working out. This is it."

It becomes much harder when it's somebody that you know is going to be there for a longer period of time. And so at that point, you try to talk to the people around. I have never done this in a confrontational way of bringing everybody in and say, "Okay, let's get things out in the open." When I speak to them as a group, I'm very indirect. I mention the issues, but I don't say, "So and so is doing this," and so they know what's going on. And then I talk to them individually.

I've had to ask people to look the other way. I've had to ask people, to say, "I understand exactly how you feel, but I cannot change this person. This is how this person is. Try to look at it from X point of view." I've had to talk to people and say, "You know what? Your attitude is creating issues in the lab. People don't want to work with you. People don't want to help you out. This is not good for you. This is, you're not, one day you're going to leave this lab, you're going to need me to write a letter. And one of the things that people look for when you hire somebody is somebody who can work with other people." I said, "You don't have to go home with these people. You don't have to invite them to your parties. But you have to be able to have a team approach to get the work done."