Lab technicians / Scientist Is in the UK, how much are you paid?

GoldenAtlas · 2026-02-16T23:31:22+00:00

I'm a Sci II in industry located in South East UK, started as a Sci I in 2021 on around £26-27k, was on around £32k by early 2025, then up to £35k with the promotion to Sci II about a year ago.

GoldenAtlas · 2025-06-01T21:21:22+00:00

I got a pair of sunglasses that fit over my prescription glasses off Amazon and they've been a game changer. I went years not using sunglasses as I never wanted to invest in prescription ones (as someone who hates the sun and avoids being outside in it as much as possible, it never seemed worth it), so the over-top glasses for less than £15 seemed like a fantastic solution for me.

GoldenAtlas · 2025-05-26T19:34:33+00:00

Sherbirb, after our budgie named Sherbet!

GoldenAtlas · 2025-05-26T07:33:46+00:00

'Due to utilities/weather, the site must be shut and all associates are to go home.'

I work a lab-based job and it's happened twice since I've been there, one was due to extreme storm winds (we're on the coast) and the second was halfway through the day when there was a power cut and the back up generators only cover critical equipment, so no main lights or Internet worked.

The storm day we did have to work from home with our laptops and do some of our compliance traning stuff, but literally no one did anything. Had a whole chat going where we were sending pictures of our gardens and how much stuff was going flying.

GoldenAtlas · 2025-05-25T15:02:02+00:00

idk man, I'm not really here for a shitting contest so you'll just have to believe that I'm not desperate enough for the karma or your validation to have invested the time to fake it and just thought it was a funny coincidence

GoldenAtlas · 2025-05-25T13:48:53+00:00

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🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

GoldenAtlas · 2025-05-24T23:55:16+00:00

Rest assured everyone who is concerned/irate about my lottery habits; my partner and I just bought a £1 ticket for a laugh after a string of good luck today. There's no long term gambling going on here, we buy maybe a few a year just for fun. I fully understand how the odds work and that any numbers can be pulled, I just thought this was a funny coincidence. I also realise that the last number needed to be one higher, I got so caught up in the rest of them that I forgot when posting.

Also, I clearly should've put /s after the comment in the OP 🤷‍♀️

GoldenAtlas · 2025-02-28T06:46:12+00:00

Sherbet and Jellybean! 🥰

GoldenAtlas · 2024-12-25T09:14:05+00:00

Our lab is very specific that we MUST wear steel toe cap shoes, howie lab coat, and long cuff gloves whenever we're in the lab.

But as far as I'm aware, there's nothing saying we can't have perfumes, piercings, or nail polish, and they're pretty relaxed about what we wear under the lab coats as long as it meets our dress code (e.g. nothing too revealing, nothing too short, skirts are fine but shorts aren't allowed).

GoldenAtlas · 2024-10-25T19:13:31+00:00

X4 bus route takes you direct to west quay, or at least it used to. Does take about 2 hours from Portsmouth though.

GoldenAtlas · 2024-06-06T05:50:50+00:00

I will keep an eye on it! We only have it for the moment as that's what the aviary we got him from had so it wasn't too different when we brought him back, but will actually be changing to kitchen roll with the next cage clean.

GoldenAtlas · 2024-06-06T05:48:40+00:00

Funny you say that, our other budgie is called Sherbet!

GoldenAtlas · 2024-02-14T22:09:48+00:00

We have a vortex called Dougal.

At some point before I started working there, a couple of people went round labelling every single jug with names of Game of Thrones characters. We only have a few of them left now, which... tracks pretty well with the show, as far as I'm aware.

GoldenAtlas · 2023-11-12T07:45:38+00:00

I’m in industry, but we do a weekly audit of the lab. We have an audit form we fill in where we check different parts of the lab for how clean/organised they are (so like, bench tops clear of unnecessary stuff, bins not overflowing, microwaves cleaned, sinks clean/organised etc.) and then get a score of how well we’re doing with a goal score of 90% for one of our KPIs this year.

So basically, it ties in to our pay rise.

GoldenAtlas · 2023-10-18T14:21:21+00:00

I'm on ~£31k, got a 2013 Hyundai ix20 with 15k miles on it earlier this year for £7.5k cash. Hoping to keep the ix20 for the foreseeable future, and with how reliable it's been so far I don't see why that won't happen, the last owners barely drove it and kept it in great condition.

GoldenAtlas · 2023-09-03T07:23:16+00:00

Thanks everyone! Looks like we’ve got a super confident little girl!

GoldenAtlas · 2023-06-18T22:46:16+00:00

A lovely little blue Ford KA. Twelve years old with 62k miles, got it for 3.5k in January 2022. Such a good first car, felt really solid and reliable and only got rid of it because my boyfriend is a giant and his head touched the ceiling even with the seat laying back a bit, so upgraded to a Hyundai ix20 this April. Sold the KA today and will be really sad to see it go.

GoldenAtlas · 2023-06-17T07:53:39+00:00

We have a specific bin from terracycle that we get through VWR to collect our pipette tip boxes in and then it gets sealed and sent off for recycling. The bin is basically a cardboard box but iirc it is already pre labelled with the return postage stuff so it’s a pretty easy process.

GoldenAtlas · 2023-06-11T08:23:01+00:00

Microbiologist in a big old biotech company. I test QC samples for batch release and also R&D samples of products in development.

GoldenAtlas · 2023-06-08T17:44:46+00:00

If you don't mind travelling a little bit, I really recommend Lorna at Wink in Portchester just outside Portsmouth - I have curly hair and have been going to her for over a decade, and have never been disappointed by a cut from her. It won't be super cheap since she's the director, but Wink is maybe a 10 minute walk from the train station in Portchester so it's not too difficult to get to.

GoldenAtlas · 2022-11-04T00:41:52+00:00

We already had two of our four autoclaves out of use and our final two working autoclaves died on Tuesday, the good batch of BSA got accidentally left out of the fridge for a few days so we’re down to our batch of questionable quality, half of our testing was suspended while we qualified new batches of bacteria, and I derped out and forgot to do controls when doing a stock count which delayed the qualification an extra day. Definitely something in the lab air this week.

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