Grissom and Ecklie

The professional relationship between Gil Grissom and Conrad Ecklie is a strained one in the Las Vegas Crime Lab.

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Ecklie and night shift supervisor Gil Grissom have a very rocky relationship. ^{[citation needed]}

Grissom claims that Ecklie is more concerned with advancement than evidence. ^{[citation needed]}

Ecklie maintains that Grissom shows favoritism toward his subordinates. ^{[citation needed]}

In addition to earning him promotions, Ecklie's political skills have prompted favorable comparison over Grissom by superiors, some of whom feel Grissom is an occasionally inefficient investigator. ^{[citation needed]}

Part of Ecklie's distaste for Grissom seem to stem from his belief Grissom is as career-minded as he is. As such, Ecklie often assumes Grissom's requests for delays or equipment are attempts to sabotage him and does not appear to have qualms about retaliating, although this seems to have ended from season 6 onwards. ^{[citation needed]}

In part to spite Grissom, Ecklie split the night shift CSI team in the middle of season 5 and made Willows the swing shift supervisor, ignoring her repeated requests for transfer to days. In addition, he effectively demoted his former subordinate Sofia Curtis by transferring her into Grissom's team instead of making her acting supervisor position permanent. To the viewer, the decision is seen as being spiteful rather than Curtis being inadequate in her current position when she supports Grissom as a quality investigator; as Ecklie demotes her, he implies she would get along better with Grissom.

Despite animosity, Ecklie put aside all differences in the season 5 finale "Grave Danger" and helped the team locate and rescue a kidnapped Nick Stokes, putting his skills as a bureaucrat toward the task by showing his superiors ways in which the department could generate the required ransom. Since that time, Ecklie no longer seems to view Grissom as a threat to his position and his relationship with Grissom and the team, while not friendly, has become collegial.