Fire aftermath (or fallout)

[aurordice]

Well, he was pissed off I told the boss. I kind of figured I had to, though I may have been better off giving him the chance to himself.

Timeline:
Sent this email to boss last night:
"I don't want to get anyone in trouble, but there was a minor fire in the lab this afternoon that resulted in the loss of a trash can. Evidently a diethyl zinc syringe

Comments

[loveweasleys04]

I chose the last two options. :p

In most cases I would say that you should have given him the chance to tell. But in this case it didn't really seem like you had a choice. You let your boss know via email which you had or should have done and then your boss asked you. You can't lie or just shrug it off, so you were in kind of a pickle.

So, I probably should have chosen the first option too O.o,

[lash_dresden]

This wasn't this guy's first "ooops!" in the lab. What reason did you have to think he would say anything to the boss himself? He threw himself under the bus. And you (nor anyone else in the lab) had no responsibility to save him from himself.

[lillbet]

Eh, when property gets destroyed and no one's fessing up, you gotta give your boss the 411. I can't tell if it was personal, but you don't seem like the type to tattle, so I don't imagine you did this to get his goat. So if your coworker seriously stops giving you rides to the airport because of this he's an idiot.

[deichrodler]

I'd usually say you should have given him a chance first (before the email was written, but then I've no clue about labs and how fast this kind of stuff should be dealt with), but it does not sound as if he actually had said anything. I trust you in that judgement. In any case you couldn't do anything else than saying his name while being asked directly and you didn't throw him under the bus. For particular since your boss was more than relaxed.

Snape had been funnier to watch since he hadn't been that fair. ;)

[mexicantt]

I kind of already told you this, but when safety becomes an issue time is of the essence. Your boss was far more relaxed than I thought he would be about the situation and your labmate could have said something himself yesterday. He didn't. You did it last night, and if he hadn't told the boss by then chances are he wasn't planning on it.
There was no bus. He didn't get canned, and it doesn't seem like anything in the way of disciplinary action happened at all, so there was nothing to crush your labmate. He's being a baby about it and not using his head. He could have gotten people hurt. There are consequences to that. Well, apparently not in this case, but there should be. If he isn't going to step up, someone needs to know.

Anyhow, you did something that needed to be done that likely wasn't going to be done if you didn't. Does that make sense? It feels like that sentence is confusing.

[aurordice]

No disciplinary action, yeah. Just a quick "here's what to do in the future". It's the embarrasment factor I think (and he's really jumpy, he doesn't take criticism well *note pot calling kettle black on that, i don't take it well either sometimes*)

[mexicantt]

Hey, we all have times where we don't take criticism well, and it's a hard pill to swallow when you know you can't refute it. But it kind of still needs to be done. :/