Nature’s careers feature “Seven tips for a graceful lab exit”, by Stephanie Melchor, gathers advice from group leaders and researchers on managing the move out of a lab. Pip appears as a founding member of SAFE Labs, the research culture initiative behind a freely available lab handbook that sets out what a group and a departing member should expect of each other. On when to break the news, Pip argues for doing it early: “I’d still much rather [they] told me as soon as possible, so we can prepare.”