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  • CAREER FEATURE

How to thank your lab mates: eight ways to show gratitude at the end of year

Alongside secret Santas and seasonal parties, many laboratories develop traditions to show appreciation to colleagues — from sweets and mulled wine to quizzes and ice-skating trips.
By
  1. Anne Marie Conlon
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A small wad of cash sits in a glass beaker labelled ‘motivation’, in a safe inside John Tregoning’s office. A vaccine immunologist at Imperial College London, Tregoning sticks some money in the beaker every time someone in his laboratory has a paper published. If the group publishes ten papers in one year, he doubles the cash. The proceeds fund a team dinner at the end of the year. “I quite like the cash as a physical reminder of the motivation,” he says.

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Nature 635, 1029-1030 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03829-w

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