My official job title is "stockroom chemist." I work in the stockroom at the university chemistry department, and am responsible for preparing all of the laboratory experiments for teaching labs(or at least lower level labs). I spend a lot of time happily alone at the back "lab" part of the stockroom preparing solutions.
I also interact with the stockroom manager, letting her know when reagents are running low. Frequently I'm also "answering the bell"-we have a pull-down window and a call bell at it. Some are students in teaching labs requesting replacements for broken glassware. The request is taken, the glassware pulled from the shelf, and handed to the student through the window.
The second type of request is a grad student or PI(principle investigator) there to pick up a package. They are brought into the stockroom, sign for the package, and then take it with them.
Either the stockroom manager or myself handle those two types of visits-depending on which of us is there, and if both whoever is less busy at the moment. If it's someone I know well, it might also turn into an extended conversation-a part of the job I very much enjoy.
The third type of request are from TAs(teaching assistants) asking for more supplies for the lab they are currently teaching. I handle these, but often the conversation is "where did the 20L I sent up yesterday go?" or something to that effect. Depending on what they are requesting-if I made overage I'll just pull it off the shelf, but sometimes have to tell them to come back later. This is usually followed by an email to the senior instructor about reagent wastage.
In addition, I teach classes. Mercifully, I have an office close to but completely isolated from the stockroom. I can shut the door if I want to be left alone to prepare exams/worksheets or grade papers, or open it for student meetings or whoever wants to stop by for business or just to chat(I welcome both).
Even though I'm by no means a trained IT guy, we have a lot of folks in the department who are Mac users and I've become the defacto "Mac guy" since the actually IT guys seem to often make a bigger mess of Mac problems than they fix. I probably get one or two calls a week on this. It also helps that I can work on PPC(better than Intel) and even 68K Macs(depending on the problem) as we have a fair number of legacy systems still in use around the department.
Finally, I also get "special requests" from the stockroom. Sometimes a research lab will need to borrow solvents or acids until their order comes in, and I usually accommodate these within reason with an informal agreement to "pay me back" when their order comes in. Sometimes a graduate student will have an idea and want a specific reagent that they don't have on hand and will call to see if the stockroom has some. If we do have it, give it to them. This lets them test their idea that day with the understanding that they will order some of their own if their idea ends up working. If it's an old reagent that's not used in a teaching lab, I will usually just give them all of it as it gets it out of our hands and off our inventory. If it is something used in teaching labs or something that I judge as having a high likelihood of being used, I will only give them enough to to try their idea.
I also sometimes field special requests for professor demos or things like that. I enjoy preparing those.
