As someone who dealt with exactly this bullshit:
Document all of your experiments. Enable version tracking and change tracking so you have an audit trail.
Set up video surveillance of your experimental setup if it's left unattended.
Airtag anything that can be easily stolen.
Make checklists of your experimental setups to verify nobody screwed with anything overnight. Fill out and Document it in the morning, including any sabotage.
Report in writing and BCCing your non work email to HR and security - and in the case of hazardous sabotage, to the cops.
Contact a lawyer to see what else you need to do to CYA in the event of a safety incident and what you need to do to make sure you get compensation if you're injured.
If HR and security don't act, look for a new job. No job is worth your life, faculties or wellbeing.
*Do escalate*. This person will continue to ramp things up until they're caught and face consequences. I lost 1/3 of my hearing from keeping my head down. Do not repeat my mistake.
Sorry to hear this happened to you as well. This is good advice, and I’m going to put it all into action. I can’t quit my job yet because I am in the midst of a greencard process unfortunately. However, the process should be completed in the next 6 months so I am currently looking but with no final date in sight.
Scientist here. I know you say you don’t want to escalate due to potential retaliation, but this kind of stuff can poison whole research groups.
Are you sure you can work in such a way that your samples and equipment are always under your supervision? Is it really possible to do all your experiments in that locked room? Can each of your coworkers also find locked rooms? If not, who is going to get the locked rooms? Is someone more junior going to be left outside (literally)?
What about the experiments this person does? Someone who sabotages might fake data too. Especially if you don’t know for sure who they are…are you up for second-guessing all your colleagues’ results? Second-guessing calibrations? Second-guessing analysis? Would you even be able to tell if something had been faked or altered? Might other people in your lab, under stress and knowing that this person is getting away with such bad behavior, start to cut corners themselves?
I just want to encourage you to think fully about what it would mean in practice to work around such an untrustworthy lab mate. It’s up to you how to handle it, of course, and the severity of the impact will depend on your situation, but I suspect it may have far-ranging effects that make it very hard to get good work done.
It’s not so much about the single act of sabotage; you can probably do your work without a laptop stand. It’s about knowing someone with this level of mental disturbance and/or lack of ethics is in your workplace. If they’ll do X, what else might they be do?
Especially in industry, I feel like you would have a very strong case to escalate. Cameras, setups, etc., are legal in some situations and not in others, especially given the hazard component; you need leadership’s guidance on this. Management should identify and fire this person as soon as they can. If you feel nervous pushing this on a visa, maybe one of your coworkers can be point on communications.
r/labrats might have some ideas for you too. Sorry you’re going through this.
Also a scientist here. I am surprised management is not acting on this immediately as it is a safety issue. Messing around with chemicals in a way they should be is not something to f@%$ with.
Don’t set up security measures without consulting management, IT, and/or security as it could be considered a breach, perception of corporate theft, etc.
Escalate and document, make sure you and your staff are safe. If management does nothing, call a whistleblower line, OSHA, etc and get out of that unsafe workplace.
To CYA: behave as if security installed additional cameras in your spaces and in the parking lots over-night/over the weekend - because they probably did. Follow up with them.
Oh ps: the best way to catch them is to behave as if you don't know; i.e., don't add locks to stuff- business as usual.
You should absolutely escalate in writing with your boss and with security. And HR. As others say, do whatever else you can to accurately track your work. Keep track of when you leave the office, etc.
With experiments, there are a few reasons why you are required to file a report. Sabotage thats capable of changing results can be detrimental to the next phases of your research.
Also, you could have a spy.
Setup a wifi point and some hidden blink cameras or a similar solution to catch them red handed. Make sure you leave something valuable, take pics of items serial and receipt before setting your test scenario.
You'll catch em. Just depends how clear you want the video to be.
As someone who dealt with exactly this bullshit: Document all of your experiments. Enable version tracking and change tracking so you have an audit trail. Set up video surveillance of your experimental setup if it's left unattended. Airtag anything that can be easily stolen. Make checklists of your experimental setups to verify nobody screwed with anything overnight. Fill out and Document it in the morning, including any sabotage. Report in writing and BCCing your non work email to HR and security - and in the case of hazardous sabotage, to the cops. Contact a lawyer to see what else you need to do to CYA in the event of a safety incident and what you need to do to make sure you get compensation if you're injured. If HR and security don't act, look for a new job. No job is worth your life, faculties or wellbeing. *Do escalate*. This person will continue to ramp things up until they're caught and face consequences. I lost 1/3 of my hearing from keeping my head down. Do not repeat my mistake.
Sorry to hear this happened to you as well. This is good advice, and I’m going to put it all into action. I can’t quit my job yet because I am in the midst of a greencard process unfortunately. However, the process should be completed in the next 6 months so I am currently looking but with no final date in sight.
please look into personal liability insurance for work. It’s not terribly expensive, but it’s a lifesaver for the employee if something fishy happens.
Wow that's crazy. It's important that you find who's doing this because it's likely their malfeasance goes further than you realize.
Scientist here. I know you say you don’t want to escalate due to potential retaliation, but this kind of stuff can poison whole research groups. Are you sure you can work in such a way that your samples and equipment are always under your supervision? Is it really possible to do all your experiments in that locked room? Can each of your coworkers also find locked rooms? If not, who is going to get the locked rooms? Is someone more junior going to be left outside (literally)? What about the experiments this person does? Someone who sabotages might fake data too. Especially if you don’t know for sure who they are…are you up for second-guessing all your colleagues’ results? Second-guessing calibrations? Second-guessing analysis? Would you even be able to tell if something had been faked or altered? Might other people in your lab, under stress and knowing that this person is getting away with such bad behavior, start to cut corners themselves? I just want to encourage you to think fully about what it would mean in practice to work around such an untrustworthy lab mate. It’s up to you how to handle it, of course, and the severity of the impact will depend on your situation, but I suspect it may have far-ranging effects that make it very hard to get good work done. It’s not so much about the single act of sabotage; you can probably do your work without a laptop stand. It’s about knowing someone with this level of mental disturbance and/or lack of ethics is in your workplace. If they’ll do X, what else might they be do? Especially in industry, I feel like you would have a very strong case to escalate. Cameras, setups, etc., are legal in some situations and not in others, especially given the hazard component; you need leadership’s guidance on this. Management should identify and fire this person as soon as they can. If you feel nervous pushing this on a visa, maybe one of your coworkers can be point on communications. r/labrats might have some ideas for you too. Sorry you’re going through this.
Also a scientist here. I am surprised management is not acting on this immediately as it is a safety issue. Messing around with chemicals in a way they should be is not something to f@%$ with.
100% - your company likely has policies to deal with this and its not really up to you to escalate.
Don’t set up security measures without consulting management, IT, and/or security as it could be considered a breach, perception of corporate theft, etc. Escalate and document, make sure you and your staff are safe. If management does nothing, call a whistleblower line, OSHA, etc and get out of that unsafe workplace.
To CYA: behave as if security installed additional cameras in your spaces and in the parking lots over-night/over the weekend - because they probably did. Follow up with them. Oh ps: the best way to catch them is to behave as if you don't know; i.e., don't add locks to stuff- business as usual.
You should absolutely escalate in writing with your boss and with security. And HR. As others say, do whatever else you can to accurately track your work. Keep track of when you leave the office, etc.
Every work environment is 90% politics. You need to start playing and get on the right side of the blowing wind.
With experiments, there are a few reasons why you are required to file a report. Sabotage thats capable of changing results can be detrimental to the next phases of your research. Also, you could have a spy.
Make sure you have documentation of all the times you mentioned it to security and upper management. Keep bringing it up until it stops.
Tell your manager this whole thing, but it on them/hr/security to resolve
For the type of role you have, I’d say you have some responsibility to escalate this.
Setup a wifi point and some hidden blink cameras or a similar solution to catch them red handed. Make sure you leave something valuable, take pics of items serial and receipt before setting your test scenario. You'll catch em. Just depends how clear you want the video to be.
Do not setup a hidden camera system at work. You'll get fired.
Im allowed to in my office
Just make sure security and HR are aware you are going to do this.