ESD Protection in the Lab

At a previous employer then we were making very high value avionics parts in very small quantities and couldn't afford to take any risks and thus the anti-static policy was tight and wrist straps were checked daily on pain of death. By the nature of ESD damage then it is hard to predict the extent of the damage so QA would not grant flight status to any product which was suspected to have been mishandled without copious and expensive retesting.

At my current employer then anti-static protection is much more relaxed. The production department receive the boards already assembled and coated in a thick humiseal so they are less susceptible to damage. In R&D then we don't use much at all but then we rarely handle production products. However, I'm sure that over the years some component failures could be attributed to ESD so when we move to our new site later this year then I intend to implement a more stringent standard but I won't go so far as insisting on daily strap checks and the like.

That depends entirely on the kind of project. ESD measures can be quite relaxed, to the point of not caring at all, if you're sure none of the prototype/debug hardware will ever escape to a customer, and that there are NO special parts (expensive or hard to procure) on those boards.

In the end of the day it's the balance between expected costs of fully enforced ESD protection and those of electrocuted prototypes that drives the decision.