Engineers and Balances

At my workplace, half of my coworkers are mechanical engineers of one stripe or another. From paper towel racks made of coat hangers to pilot plant extensions, these engineers build them all.

I admire these coworkers for their mechanical ingenuity - I hardly know which wrench is which*, much less the ways of using a wrench to fix a recalcitrant pump (no, don't whack it). Their knowledge of such seemingly mundane things as valves and fittings, and how they work together in a large system, is amazing. It's a humbling experience to watch these engineers go about their work, and honestly I'd love to help out more often except I will get in their way.**

Sometimes I wonder how such competence turn out - trust me, the majority of engineering students at my university aren't good for anything but consuming beer***. How do they survive in a machine shop drunk/hungover is beyond me.

Anyway, able as my engineering coworkers may be, they don't notice the little things that aren't quite in their field of view. Things that a student can notice.

This leads to me obsessively-compulsively doing things like levelling the top-loading balance after every single time the engineers move it. Yes, it's just a top-loading balance, but levelling just takes a minute or two****, and even a top-loading balance deserves to be treated properly. If they treat the analytical balance like this I think I'll go kick the perpetrator. And no, I am not letting them engineers touch the precious new pH probes.

*Interestingly, depending on type, *both* ends of the wrench can be usable.
**Yes, I am jealous of all those toys they get to play with. More gadgets! More!
***Based on first-year observations. Of course, that's a biased sample.
****The knack for levelling balances is partially innate; it's amusing to watch people who don't have the skill swear for fifteen minutes straight as they try to level the balance. (Of course I offer to help...afterwards *grin*).

Bitter rant-y postscript:
Sadly my job still consists mostly of cleaning - no samples are forthcoming, so there's no data collection/analysis and nothing else to do. Coworkers compliment me on how well I clean stuff - isn't that sad when I am capable of so much more?