Chemist Mislabeled Several Compounds In A Biotech Lab, So His Colleague Reported Him To Their Boss Instead Of Speaking To Him
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Workplace mistakes happen… but do you have to report every single mistake to the bosses?
In this story, a chemist accidentally mislabeled several compounds in a biotech lab.
His coworker immediately reported the mistake to their bosses instead of speaking to him.
As payback, he created a new system that was much safer but considerably more time-consuming for the other scientist.
Check out the full details below.
Accuse me of mislabeling things, fine I’ll come up with a new system that requires 10x the effort for you to figure out what is what.
About 5 years ago, I had just started at a new biotech as a medicinal chemist.
We didn’t have a compound management group, so distributing compounds to the assay chemists fell to the chemists.
Essentially, I made compounds and then gave them to another scientist to test and see how effective they are.
I would make the compounds, put them in a vial, and slap a label on them with the identifier code and the chemical structure.
Then, I would walk over and give the guy the samples.
This chemist mislabeled a couple of compounds.
One day, I accidentally mislabeled 2 to 3 compounds… which, hey, my bad!
I am not infallible, and it messed up the results.
Instead of doing the normal thing and coming to talk to me about the mix-up, he decided that it was necessary to send an email to my boss and his boss.
He said how unprofessional the situation was and how this can’t happen, etc.
What the guy didn’t realize was that I had a great relationship with my boss and his boss.
His bosses told him to be more careful next time.
They both forwarded me the email and said:
“We know accidents happen, but be careful. This guy seems like a real headache, so just be extra careful.”
Here is where the petty revenge happened.
I decided to come up with a “foolproof” system that would protect me but also add about 2 to 3 hours to his workload.
What I ended up doing was no longer putting the identifier code or structure on the vial.
Instead, I only used barcoded vials.
He made the other chemist’s work harder.
I would put each compound in a barcoded vial.
And then create an Excel sheet that had what each barcode corresponded to which compound.
This required him to scan each vial with a barcode reader.
Then, go through the Excel sheet to determine what it corresponded to.
This required him to spend about 5 to 10 minutes determining what each compound was.
I debuted this system on a set of 200 compounds.
It was the best 3 months for him at the workplace!
Watching him ask in our company Slack if anyone had a barcode reader made me giggle.
The best part was that he asked me if we could go back to the old system.
I politely said no because my bosses were legitimately stoked about the new system.
It was easier for them to keep track of where everything was.
We eventually hired a compound management group that made my system unnecessary.
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But it was a glorious 3 months.
Lol! That’s a simple but petty revenge.
The chemist probably regretted escalating a simple mistake after realizing how much extra work the new system created for him.
OP was a creative genius, and the best part? His bosses genuinely preferred the new system.
It may have been petty, but turning an unfair complaint into a legitimate workplace improvement was a pretty clever move.
Do you agree? Let’s see how others reacted to this story.
This user shares their personal thoughts.
Here’s another honest opinion.
This one makes a valid point.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who was denied a raise for “not being dedicated enough,” but then went on to discover what was really going on behind the scenes.
Finally, here’s a different perspective.
Sometimes, the best revenge comes with a barcode scanner.
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