Warning about not to work when they are on holidays?

It does read a little too passive aggressive.

It's literally bragging. The story's provocative lead ends with the words "Here is my story." as though told by the student, about an organization from hell.

But it's not his story!

The author is actually the bad guy! The thing that makes the experience hell is...him. He's just being a jerk, for numerous reasons. I hope he has $1 million lying around to contribute to cern's recruitment budget, because that's what his behavior costs as words of stories like this get around.

Just read the comments here at HN. In what possible universe is a public blog post like this an appropriate reaction? The only one damaging CERN's reputation is this guy.

Do they have a legal option other than eating the costs of the student messing up? Currently they are just bullying the student.

They probably *should( eat the costs. If your employee breaks your machinery, well, fire him and move on.

As someone who is hardly the student's best friend on this thread, I'm skeptical they could really stick him with the 30K bill, and even more skeptical that they could get any of it from him, since he is judgment-proof.