Hi there:
 I have a question concerning the NSH guidelines for the workload per tech
per day.  According to Mary's message NSH suggests 1 tech per 50 slides per
day.  Does this take in to account for all the other work done in the lab?
I come from a research lab where we cut about 30 slides/tech/day along with
gross-in, embedding, machine maintenance, staining, data entry, labelling
cassettes/slides
(we've automated this process), archiving samples, preparing studies for
contract labs, etc.  Each of the techs does everything in our lab.  All of
us have had/or currently have repetitive motion injuries and don't generally
have breaks during the day, even though we're encouraged to. If we increased
our workload up to 50 slides/day/tech I think we'd be here 7 days a week all
night long (maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but it feels that way sometimes).
If the NSH guidelines do take into account everything done in a lab, then
we'll never be able to justify another position in our lab.  I'd love to
hear what others think. 	 

Judi
Palo Alto, CA