One Resignation Away: What Leaves the Lab With a Person
The microbiologist’s last day is a Friday. The lab buys a cake, and she leaves a two-page handover memo on your desk. The next Tuesday, the incubator calibration she has done every week for nine years doesn’t happen, and nobody notices. It was never on the QA calendar, because she had always just done it.
In March a client calls about an EDD. It came in the wrong format, and the person who knew how that client wanted it has been gone five months.
You already know about the lab staffing shortage. In MLO’s 2026 salary survey, 76% of respondents reported high or moderate turnover, and 52% of them were 56 or older, so more of those Fridays are coming. This article skips the hiring advice. It covers what leaves with a person, why the SOP misses it, and how to find it before the next resignation, whether your lab runs on binders or a LIMS.
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