A reader, “Stuart,” an IT manager at a young startup, thought he had made a good decision by implementing a system to monitor the lab freezers. However, things took a turn when an electrical contractor caused a massive meltdown by tripping every circuit breaker in the building.
Stuart’s initial mistake was trying to adjust the alarm thresholds after realizing that the freezer manufacturer’s specs didn’t match the actual temperatures in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. This led to alerts flashing across his dashboards, but he didn’t think it was important enough to fix over the weekend.
Luckily, the electrical contractor’s worse mistake saved Stuart from being blamed for his own error. The landlord was held accountable for not announcing the weekend electrical work in advance, as per their lease agreement.
In the end, Stuart’s freezer-monitoring system proved successful and popular among lab techies. It even led to an extension of its scope, but this time with a more thorough review of the specs. The story highlights how sometimes someone else’s mistake can save you from being blamed for your own errors.
Source: https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/23/who_me