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MANGEMENT

What's my role and responsibility toward students who pilfer some lab alcohol for their parties?

Reader Question: I've noticed on our lab-supply requisition that we seem to be going through a lot more ethanol than our experiments can justify. Of course, I know what's happening. Full disclosure: 20 years ago when I was a grad student, many a Friday night party for the gang was lubricated with "purple passion" — a concoction of lab alcohol diluted with grape juice, water, and sugar. Our reagent-grade spirits had been "liberated" from the lab. (I'm sure the prof knew.) That was then. No audit of supplies, no drunk driving, no host liable for serving alcohol to underage people, etc. But in today's stricter climate, how much leeway do I give my grad students and post-docs without becoming the campus cop or Scrooge? (I personally do not attend their parties.)

Expert Comments: Here are some things to keep in mind from a legal perspective:

1. As PI, you’re responsible for everything that happens in that lab. That means not only the actual experiments but also the safety of all staff members. Your role is to communicate, follow, and enforce all institutional policies and procedures. Failure to do so can be seen as a breach of your duties as a manager — and that can be grounds for your own discipline up to termination, depending on the circumstances. Failure to enforce policies and procedures also frustrates the legal reasoning behind such policies, which is to protect the university from unnecessary liability.

2. As PI, you’re a member of management. As such, anything you know is imputed to your organization — it’s as if the organization knows it. That means your institution can be held liable for negligence. For example, if one of your staffers gets drunk on lab ethanol, then drives a car that hits and hurts someone on the way home, both the injured victim and the intoxicated staff member could sue your institution.

   After all, you as a manager knew about, or highly suspected, the parties, so the institution can’t argue unforeseeable employee misconduct. And you failed to supervise or set limits. A plaintiff's attorney might also pursue the fact that you should have known because you had knowledge of missing ethanol supplies and failed to investigate it. (The attorney likely would cross-examine you on that during legal “discovery”).

   Another example: If someone merely slips and falls after consuming lab alcohol, they could argue that, because you knew about the use, you failed to supervise them properly. Your institution could be on the hook for their medical bills.

3. It’s possible that you could be personally liable. There are areas of personal supervisor liability under the OSHA Act and other employment laws. Usually in these cases the safety or employment-law violations are particularly egregious and involve the supervisor flouting policies and procedures. In this case, you are on notice that there’s a problem and are ignoring institutional policies and procedures, so you’re on the road to personal liability if something goes wrong.

4. You don’t know the exact circumstances of the ethanol use. You may be assuming too much — e.g., that the missing ethanol involves parties in which staff members are bonding over a few drinks they concocted. That might not be the case at all. It could be that the pilferer is one individual alcoholic lab technician operating safety-sensitive equipment — say a laser, radiation equipment, or handling dangerous chemicals. Alcohol use on the job could not only cause problems with your experiments but also equipment damage or injuries.

5. As a manager, you’re obligated to investigate this further. You can report it to HR or campus security or conduct your own investigation. The key is to determine if someone is actually taking the ethanol — i.e., find out what’s happening to it. If you call on outsiders to investigate, they will advise you of the results and of the action that should be taken. It will then be your responsibility to impose discipline, which can mean measures up to and including termination or expulsion of those students. Failure on your part to comply with your legal obligations can lead to your termination and/or possible liability on your part.

So better safe than sorry here. Take your management responsibilities seriously and take action to find out what is going on; report the problem and take appropriate corrective steps to ensure the safety of all the students and employees.

Expert Comments by Melissa Fleischer, HR and employment law attorney, Melissa Fleischer & Associates, and president, HR Learning Center, Rye, N.Y., www.hrlearningcenter.com.

These comments are provided for general information only and may not apply to any given situation or case. Please consult your own attorney for legal advice for your particular circumstances.

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Additional Comments: The question here boils down to university policy (not to mention the law) vs. team morale.

On one hand, lab staffers are hard-working, and a little party/rebellion from time to time can help them blow off steam, strengthen their identity as a group, and improve team cohesion. Do you look the other way, risk damaging morale, and coming across as a killjoy? You recall fondly your own parties and appreciated your boss looking the other way.

On the other hand, what we're talking about involves stealing, which is against the law and against university policy. It exposes the university to the liability issues you mentioned and sets the tone that it's all right to break the rules. That's not a good message to send.

So the management issue ultimately involves finding a way to comply with the law and university policy without damaging team morale. How can you do that?

In my duties as dean, I would not advise a PI to look the other way while supplies are pilfered. But I would try to find a way to counsel the PIs to shut down the on-site parties and theft of supplies without damaging morale. Some ways to do that could possibly include:

• Acts of thoughtfulness. This can mean something as simple as bringing in gourmet coffee and pastries for the lab staff and post-docs. Or offering some more flexibility in their schedules — showing appreciation, essentially, for the hard work they're putting in.

  Lab staffers will know that you're doing your job when you shut down theft and parties, especially if you explain that problematic supply audits come down on your head. Mitigating the potential morale damage with some treats can send the message that you're not a killjoy but protecting the lab and the university.

• Informal suggestions of off-site (and safe) locations to meet for a post-shift happy hour. You don't want to do that officially, so perhaps just invite some staffers out for drinks after work at a licensed bar or restaurant, or suggest that be the gathering spot for “those interested”. That'll encourage all staffers to "take it off site."

There is a potential third issue: Are you afraid of using your authority? Once you're a manager, you're no longer "one of the boys/girls." You need to find your own way to be thoughtful and accommodating yet be a manager, too, holding the line on policies and procedures.

Expert comments by a research dean at a major northeastern university.

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Additional Comments: I guess all of us who have kept ethanol in our labs have had to deal with this. It's a tough issue, though not as tough as the parallel problem with controlled substances (I've known of a couple of real disasters there). I, too, enjoyed the traditional beaker martinis as a student.

But even as a young PI, I took the high road, more or less. I feigned obliviousness to any infractions that might have been going on, and every once in a while I would declare that abuse of the ethanol supply was illegal and irresponsible and could result in grave consequences — not only for the offending individuals but for the laboratory and the institution.

The main effect of such oaths seemed to be to discourage flagrancy — if not mischief.

At one point it seemed that things might have been getting a bit out of hand so I appointed a senior student as guardian of the supply. This certainly didn't eliminate the fun, but it did bring it back within bounds. Not being a politician, I'm never comfortable saying one thing and meaning another, but occasional pseudo-sincerity may be one of the burdens of being a PI.

Expert comments by Dr. T. James Matthews, Associate Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and professor emeritus of psychology, the Center for Neural Science, New York University.