Monday, February 09, 2009

Ill-fitting lab coats

I was gabbing with some of the technical guys at work today, and the subject of lab coats came up. Our lab manager is getting coats for anyone who spends more than a millisecond in the machine room, and he’s even taking the unusual step of making sure that they fit. To me this sounds suspicious.

As a serial lab coat borrower, I am used to them being small, and generally short-sleeved. But evidently there is more to it. I'm told they can be procured in all sorts of shapes and sizes to fit a variety of body types. In fact, I believe that there was only one person in the building who they had trouble fitting with a lab coat. This person is not particularly large, small, or gangly. He just has broad shoulders, a strong upper body, and very good posture.

After an exhaustive search, they finally realized that lab coats simply weren’t made for people built like that. Can’t imagine why not...

5 comments:

Jessica Ball said...

Short-sleeved lab coats? I always looked at lab coats as aprons with sleeves, and having short sleeves on one kind of defeats the purpose of wearing it. Different lab setting, I guess.

C W Magee said...

What I meant is that smaller sized lab coats have sleeves that end at my elbows.

Silver Fox said...

Lab coats always remind me of those stupid things they make you put on in doctor's offices or in the hospital. Hopefully they will fit better than that!

EcoGeoFemme said...

I don't generally need to wear a lab coat. However, shortly after I joined the lab they bought some new coats and got one small enough for me. I was quite pleased to see that the catalog had a wide range of women's sizes. We petite types are usually overlooked in situations like that (well, most situations really). I'm secretly glad to hear that men have trouble sometimes too.

EliRabett said...

Even better, they come in colors that you can match to your safety glasses.