My School allows all the PhD students/postdocs to be back to the labs, but we need to work in shifts. I work one day every two days. But now the School is planning on making everyone work in half-day shifts. I think that's rather stupid. We can't finish an experiment in half a day! I hope the School will listen to our opinion rather than go ahead with this stupid idea.

We are not even allowed in the labs yet :(

I can understand half a day is not enough for a lot of experiments but coming in every other day is still draconian. As one of my experiments requires me to come in every day (including weekends) to do 1 hour of measurements and working every other day would kill it. There should be some flexibility as everyone's experiments are different and not a one size fits all.

I get to go back to the lab next week. We are being given half-day slots with a max of 20% of people allowed in the lab. We can have 4/ 5 people at once. We have been told the reason for half days, is our kitchen facilities and lunchroom will be closed, alongside offices- therefore by giving a half-day no one should be taking a lunch break for food and should not need to use their office.
Were trying to arrange that people work on a like-minded project will work sperate shifts so that if sampling etc needs later in the day, someone else can do it.

Hi, we have been working in half-day shifts since the end of April. It will work if you plan your experiments carefully. But indeed, for some experiments, it is not possible.
After 2 months working in a stressful situation, I realize that I like that. Because I actually have the other half-day to stay at home and do whatever I want. I also don't want to stay 10-12hrs /day in the lab.
Something worse is that you don't have time to prepare stuffs such as pipette tips, media,...

Rewt - have you had any information at all about when you might be able to get back into labs? I'm assuming you are at one of the Welsh universities. I'm out of the country at the moment working on my PhD, where I can use lab facilities, but will be returning to study at Cardiff Uni in August, or most likely working from home in England. The VC's communications outline plans for undergrads but the postgrad info via the intranet doesn't reveal much. There is some vague information about a phased approach to buildings access but that is it.

The labs at my university are reopening for general research in late July (we have a date) but the details have not been clarified. There is a going to be a rota system but we have not been told how it will work.

Allegedly, my university wants to force lab technicians who should be shielding to come in. We have a lot of lab technicians compared with other unis and to be polite they are not the healthiest of people (cough: diabetes cough:). So my university is being extremely careful and the buildings in general are not suitable for social distancing. We are supposed to be getting socially distanced fire escape plans, because when you are escaping a burning building you still need to maintain that 2m.

PS: I am not in Wales

Other countries promote face masks and they don't need to stay 2m apart. Wearing a mask is more convenient than keeping the 2m distance. Only the UK policy is so stupid.