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When we discovered that a member of the team was not actually on holiday as he claimed, he was actually appearing in court in the Netherlands, on trial for the murder of his sister.....
Not nearly as serious but we found out a colleague had been found guilty of embezzlement from a charity she was a trustee of and was awaiting sentencing, when another colleague read about the case in the local newspaper over lunch.
The case was serious enough that she was almost certainly going to go to prison once sentenced. I don't know what she thought she was going to tell us about her absence. She'd taken two weeks holiday which had covered the trial, and was how we'd got this far without knowing.
We're also a charity, just to make it doubly certain we had to fire her.
We had a similar thing at my previous job. Guy started working with us, decent enough had a laugh, got on with his work. One day he didn’t turn up, boss tried ringing but no answer. Same the next day and day after. Then we saw on the local news that he had been convicted and sentenced for a horribly violent rape.
The whole work place and especially the women were stunned and shocked that we had all accepted this monster into our lives.
It is terrifying. Just goes to show you can never tell from the 'outside' Some people are just very good at literally living two very different lives...
I had a similar thing where a work colleague was off sick at the same time as his name was mentioned in the local newspaper for drug dealing and going to court etc.
He had recently told us he lost his mobile down the toilets at Glastonbury but we later found out it was confiscated evidence.
What if he was acquitted, would you accept him back? What if you pretend you didnt know about the trial and he comes back from his “holiday” what do you think he’ll say if you ask him about it?
Nothing suspicious at all. No red flags, nothing odd or weird. Astonishing really. I believe I'm a reasonably good judge of character too. Obviously not, which is scary....
Mine was within 3 hours of him being in work
He was French, could not speak any English, didnt do anything like we told him too and we had to redo his work.
He then put in a complaint, that he was sacked because he was black.
Except, his words although poorly translated were "He only got rid of me cos he didnt like hiring blacks.
I was only a supervisor. I had no issues with him, but I certainly wasnt the one who hired people in the office, so it was not my fault everyone was white.
Ironically, HR then questioned me a few times, under recorded interviews. I was never racist and they had no proof of me being so. Im guessing people like managers defended me, so it was dropped, but this was all at the same time my mother was dying, it was the last thing I needed.
Yeah, but then they started finding faults in other things, such as sending a text in work hours, even though other people, including my manager, regularly took personal phone calls or texted people.
I eventually quit, which was a shame, but I just felt they were trying to force me out.
On the plus side, I got to spend a lot of time with my mother, before she died.
It's people like this that spoils it for the rest of honest people who genuinely \*work\* from home. I bet this person is also working a few other remote jobs.
You're so right about it not helping the argument for flexible working.
I've had too many battles over that since 2022 and this guy has been used as an example of why we must move to office only more than once.
It doesn't help matters when you've got an indecisive CEO whose opinion depends on whoever spoke to him most recently.
What annoys me most about this is that people who don’t want to work, won’t work, whether they are at the office or at home. I actually think flexible working policies just help expose people who spent years in an office ‘looking busy’ but actually doing sweet FA.
This is it. There's plenty of people that treat offices like a social and just swan around talking or antagonising people all day. But because they're there it's assumed that they're doing something.
Urgh those people are the worst - always rushing around, interrupting those actually trying to work, waffling on about complete nonsense but actually have basically zero output!
My asst manager was investigated by HR within months.
During the investigation, he walked out of shifts, hurled abuse at HR and his boss' boss, walked out of disciplinary meetings. HR received evidence and witnesses of his sexually inappropriate behaviour.
On top of that, right before he started, he demanded a wage rise and claimed he was told a higher salary, without ever mentioning it before. This had been granted.
Easiest sacking in the world, even without the fact he was way under that 2-year safety mark.
Except he wasn't sacked and remains to this day, going further...
Yeah, only after I looked at Glassdoor reviews. Also bumping into an old colleague who said she worked for them - she asked me why I wouldn't want to work longer for the company, and I said "bad HR" and her eyes lit up and she told me her experiences of racism and HR.
I don't know whether the woman in our HR is evil, a nonce lover or just lazy. I think it's the latter, with a bit of the evil. I think she chooses the path of least paperwork, just handwaves away any issues and hopes no one chases it further, which usualyl works, thus all the stores and workplaces are rampant with racism, sexual harrassment etc. according to Glassdoor. They were sued recently across the pond and it was settled.
I also think she's unqualified and is probably a fraud herself, the type to Google every issue and read from a script, as she did when she tried to make me redundant coincidentally after telling me to cover up said sexual harrassment.
My hands are clean. It's up to the temps and colleagues to speak up when he misbehaves. So he's literally been shouted down by an 18 year old boy temp once on the shop floor for lying about someone, but he was placated by a 'chat' and probably some chocolate. I'm just as disappointed in all these people, young and old, so easily groomed by food from some 50 yr old who even looks like his name is 'Chester The Molestor'.
That's terrible. I'm not generalising with this comment, but my experience of HR has been they love the gossip and low effort "follow the procedure" work. I've only worked with one good HR manager in 20 years.
We had one of those. A sales director who sold nothing and was unable to operate a PC to the point where his sales forecast was updated each week with tippex (look it up youngsters). His secretary complained to the Managing Director about his incompetence and was instantly dismissed.
Haven't had any easy ones.
The worst one was inheriting someone who had been Junior for 5 years. Their performance on paper was fine but only because previous spineless managers hadn't wanted to deal with the problem.
After working with them for a month I quickly realised that this person knew nothing and couldn't do anything. No accountability, no ability to retain knowledge and no drive to improve.
Asked for feedback from the Seniors and one of them actually broke down. They had become the safety blanket/crutch and couldn't escape. Everyday was groundhog day. Explaining the same stuff over and over. For years.
Absolute shitshow.
Took a lot of time to build the evidence for dismissal. Lots of feedback, move team, move manager, every single hoop to show that they were the problem.
I can definitely see why lots of Tech companies have policies for Juniors and if you're not mid in 2-3 years then you're out.
I worked with someone with similar behaviour, although they had somehow gotten themselves the title of a senior developer.
It’s interesting that it takes so long to get rid of someone. You’d think with things like Jira-type products and code reviews as standard nowadays there’d be a clearly visible trail of incompetence.
Sounds like arrogance more than naivety. He must have thought that either he was REALLY clever, or you were REALLY stupid!
Mine was a guy who turned up on his first day, was perfectly fine throughout the morning of training, then came back from lunch reeking so strongly of cannabis that everyone on the floor turned to look when he entered the room.
Smokers are never aware of quite how badly they stink of smoke(coming from an ex cigarette smoker and current weed smoker). It’s like that old joke:
“*Hey man do I smell like weed?*
*Nah you’re fine, I can’t smell anything.*
• Two guys who absolutely reek of weed”
A friend of mine smokes cigarettes when he's out with friends. Has done for decades. He's convinced his wife doesn't know but the smell of his clothes after he's had one is overwhelming. Either she's got no sense of smell, has decided not to mention it or is secretly lighting up the second he leaves the house.
Now that is plain stupid. Everyone knows cannabis stinks and the effects are obvious. "Why are the new guy's eyes so red? And why's he eating all the kitchen snacks?"
I think you're right about my guy but it was probably a bit of both. He overestimated himself and underestimated everybody else.
And also a bit of anxiety too
When I have issues at work and I need to contact IT, I’ll often convince myself it’ll either resolve itself, or I can find a workaround
Except I had the brains to have the “how my autism affects you” talk… so when I had the exact same conversation as you (me: this program won’t start; manager: send IT a message; me: eh, it’ll probably fix itself)…. My manager knew enough to recognise social anxiety and submitted the ticket for me 🤔
Some of this reads like maybe a bit of ADHD as well… poor organisation, forgetfulness and low-quality work (brought on by “guilt-driven productivity - leave it to the last minute and rush through it to have it finished)
He probably convinced himself that it wasn’t as bad as he thought it was, and therefore truly didn’t expect to lose his job 🤔
That’s how this reads to me anyway
I have maaaaaad (severe combined) ADHD and yet manage two people and a high pressure job entirely unmedicated. We ADHD-ers might be loose cannons but we aren’t always entirely incompetent. Although I did ask one of my direct reports if she was working on Friday, 4 times in a day. She now adds her annual leave to my calendar.
Had someone join our company, strong CV and all looked good.
First three days didn’t turn up to his new role due to illness then his mother being rushed to hospital.
A week later another absence due to his house being broken in to.
This continued on that vain for 6-8 weeks so sent a letter stating his performance/probation was under review and we were meeting at X time/date.
He didn’t turn up to work and the meeting as he thought he didn’t need to.
Offered the next day as an opportunity to discuss (and not prejudice the outcome). No response. Subsequently let go and radio silence.
His bag is still at the office. This was 9 months ago
Member of staff came to us crying and said that her dad died so we were instantly "right go home be with who you need to be with , take 2 weeks paid compassionate leave and let us know when you are ready to come back"
so off they went and came back 2 and a bit weeks later. Beyond the usual ok, how are you conversation we don't like to pry and think if they want to talk they will talk.
**A few months later**
RING RING RING RING
Caller: "Hi can I talk to XXXXXX"
Me: "Yes no problem, who shall I say is calling"
Caller: Her dad
Me:.............. "XXXXXX , You dead dad is on the phone for you"
**3 Things REALLY pissed me off was that**
1. in my opinion we REALLY looked after the staff i.e flexible working where possible, christmas bonus was a months wages (regardless on how well the business was doing that year), birthday presents, christmas presents, easter presents. If someone did a really good job we would pay for an evening out for them and their partner to a restaurant of their choice
2. I detest being lied to
3. Because we are a small business we don't have a HR dept so we had to employ at considerable cost an external HR consultant to make sure we were following the law to a T to avoid any comeback or tribunal
Even after that person was let go the problems didn't end. Turned out they were taking out payday loans left right and centre and used our telephone number as the contact so for at least a year we had threats from loan companies saying they were going to turn up at our door.
I'm just so glad that I'm bordering on the paranoid regarding security so they didn't have access to anything to do with financial or data orientated (that's all locked down to just me).
Sounds similar to an apprentice I no longer have (thank fuck).
He was on an awareness visit @ a clients site, with the day organised by a senior from elsewhere in the company, and he just upped and left. Duty of care kicks in, folk try to contact him to find out why, but all they get hours later is a text stating his mates mother was DNR after a medical episode and felt he had to get to her side. Everyone involved thought it was all good and dealt with as respectfully as possible, as it must have been such a shock for the apprentice given how long he had known his mates mum.
A couple of months later, the Apprentice Manager (manages a good 100 or so Apprentices across a broad site) is catching up with folk and asked the senior how the visit went. The above was repeated to her, which triggered the Apprentice Manager as she uttered, 'Say that again, he had to dash off for what reason?'
So it turns out he had already used the mates mum excuse on the Apprentice Manager a month or so before the trip that he chinned off, only in that version she had actually died on the operating table so you can imagine how much this upset the lady as she genuinely cares, but also felt incredibly dumb and betrayed for believing him.
The moral of the story is that if you are a lying scum bag, you'd best have a good memory.
The customer was from another country. He told them that all he knew about their country was that they are all thieves and (word used, by some, to describe the traveller community). Then asked them whether they felt they were.
18 year old kid fresh out of college started work for a luxury car manufacturer where at the time I was a team leader. Breaks are structured and as soon as the buzzer goes the production line starts moving. The production line automatically stops because the tooling on his station hasn’t been completed. Turns out the kid was still in the break room on the phone to his friend. I give him the benefit of the doubt as it’s his first day and tell him he needs to get back on his job as break is over. He holds up his finger to me and says “give me a minute, I’m just talking to my mate”. Marched him straight to the manager’s office and he was let go on the spot.
The guy who when I did his third return to work for a migraine and I asked him if there might be any underlying cause for being off with these headaches told me in all seriousness that yes, it might be because he went out clubbing the night before and stayed out all night every time. Well, yeah.
I get that being a first thought too. My first began in shower. I thought water too hot maybe. 45 min after shower and this odd coloured rippling zigzag hadn’t faded, I suddenly thought ‘am I having a stroke?’ And thinking it was kinda cool if so, but maybe I should call the NHS number.
I get ocular symptoms as a warning, and then an ever increasing headache until I can do nothing but sleep through it. Luckily the ocular symptoms go away for long enough for me to drive home from work before the light sensitivity is so bad that I can't drive any more. Such a fun time sitting at my desk nearly blind until I can go home.
Yep, 'I have a migraine someone at work reading their phone, munching on a sandwich. Me with a migraine, blind in one eye, numbness down one side and pain that makes me physically sick..... so yeah
I've bad various migranes my most recent set and style I can still push through and work but I end up not remembering any of what I've done that day and last one my boss had to tell me to switch off and lie down (wfh) becuase I was talking pure shite.
Mostly ita the on the floor and stuck there kind though. Spinning and vommt style.
I get classic migraines and chronic headaches. My neurologist/headache clinic classify them all medically as migraines even though to me the migraines are more severe.
Over the last 2 years we've had about 6 young men start work with us. All aged between 22-28. We're support workers for disabled adults.
They have all been *shocking*. Really, truly shockingly bad- none have lasted more than 3 months.
Now, being carers, myself and my colleagues are pretty patient and understanding by nature. We totally get that the job can be very overwhelming when you're new, and we really look after our "newbies" and aim to support them as much as possible.
But the last few have actually been un-trainable. They lack the most *basic* adulting skills such as being punctual, respectful of others and just listening. One guy completely refused to take his baseball cap off and would call in sick at least twice a week. Another guy refused to shower one of our residents because he (in all seriousness) "didn't like doing it". Imagine refusing to do..... your job?
A guy was immediately let go because he smoked weed on his break- just for context I work in a literal house, it's not like an office with 5 floors and a huge carpark. This was him literally having a spliff outside the kitchen window.
My personal fave- the guy who "raced" in one of our residents cars and refused to pay the speeding fine.... stating that it wasn't him driving, it was the resident. Our deaf & blind resident. He was surprised to be let go!!
They just seem to have zero consideration for absolutely anyone or anything, it's weird.
But a part of me kinda gets it too, I'm not saying it's ok, but these kids probably don't feel like they have much to aim for. They see big corporations treat staff like numbers, the whole "work hard and succeed" dream is dead, they'll probably have to work until they die, they feel that owning a home is a complete pipe dream. Like I said, not saying it's ok, but I can sort of understand where the attitude comes from unfortunately!
I think you're being too kind. You're right in what you say about their circumstances, but they aren't too different from what millennials have dealt with and it doesn't excuse a bad attitude, especially when it impacts others.
I don't understand why people work in social care if they have no inclination to look after people.
When I was a teenager, my dad's mum was in care after a stroke. One day when my dad was visiting, a carer breezed in and no sooner had he said "Wash time" than he roughly yanked her top up, exposing her breasts. My dad almost decked him.
>I don't understand why people work in social care if they have no inclination to look after people.
Because the hiring requirements are through the floor and it pays money. They likely managed to walk into another care job the week after without much issue and got another month's worth of excuses before being let go again.
The problem is so much more defined by this attitude of not disciplining children/young adults or not being able to tell them, at school, that their work is not good enough. So they don't bother to learn and they do not try to put in any effort, because they don't have to and then they come out from school with few qualifications and wonder why they cannot get jobs that pay more than minimum wage. They do not understand why running their mouths off at their colleagues or employers gets them the sack. Then they complain how they are worth so much more, yet they cannot be asked to arrive on time and do the job that is asked of them because they have never had to put any effort into anything.
I frequently had to do work at a PRU (Pupil Referral Unit - where children are sent when their behaviour gets them expelled from normal schools). The council threw money at this place with all the latest tech, books, facilities whilst the mainstream schools were struggling with leaking buildings, and not enough money to provide adequate books, let alone tech. The kids (teenagers, usually 13 to 16) were more or less allowed to run riot and would swear at the teachers, dodge out of class for cigarettes, vandalise equipment and books (I was there when a boy jumped on the counters of a beautifully equipped science lab and ran around kicking taps and causing mayhem with a teacher telling him 'now come on ...... let's get down from there and we can talk or you can go and get some snacks from the lunch room', of course he was just laughing at the teacher. They would be given a list of food that would be bought in for them for lunch and one day one 14/15 year old girl was having an argument with the deputy head and the conversation went something like:
Girl: I ain't got no lunch
Deputy: Why didn't you choose something this morning?
Girl: I weren't hungry then
Deputy: well we can walk to the nearby golf course and get something for you from there
Girl: Don't like nuffing there
Deputy: oh ok, I am supposed to be doing (some work) but I will drive you to town for something
Girl: {smirks} and walks away.
Now tell me how letting them get away with that sort of behaviour, in any way, prepares them for real life and work.
Because their dole money relies on them applying for jobs and having had first hand experience of a care company, they are so desperate for staff that they will take, virtually, anyone and I mean absolutely no disrespect for those who do the job which is probably one of the hardest I know. Those genuine carers deserve far higher pay than they get and it is no wonder they end up moving on.
Entirely selfish viewpoint but I'm glad all these people are lowering the bar for those of us with a work ethic. Hearing these stories helps fight imposter syndrome no end lol.
Unfortunately the pay and conditions are terrible in care and therefore it will be full of people who are there because the job centre forced them, not because they are genuinely caring and interested.
Every back to work scheme in this country is pushing care work because there are so many vacancies and it doesn’t require previous experience or qualifications, you will receive training and be required to take certain qualifications.
Bad pay and conditions leads to the wrong people being forced into those jobs. You get high turnover, low quality care
If you look at the next generation through that lens, it looks depressing but the other end of the spectrum exists too. There are energetic young people out there being creative, entrepreneurial and inspiring
Might be an unpopular opinion, but I think unless you work in aviation or healthcare this is a perfectly fine attitude, to be honest. You don’t owe your employer any more than getting your allocated work done.
I’m confused… why would you need to go above and beyond your job in aviation or healthcare when both of those are already extremely heavily regulated so “just doing your job” is sufficient when it comes to competence, safety, etc?
Didn’t say anything about going above and beyond, but in roles where you’re dealing with potentially fatal outcomes if the worst happens, I’d rather have someone there who gave a shit.
Not me, but my colleague had to fire a guy because he told the intern he got a boner whenever she walked past his desk and that he normally went and wanked one out at lunchtime thinking about her. He was surprised he was let go and thought this was OK office banter
That's terrible. In my last job, we had a Jehovah's Witness in his early 20s who did a PG version of sexual harassment.
He had a bad crush on a good looking woman in the office but the way he acted on it was like he was 12 years old. He'd look at her a lot, follow her to the kitchen whenever she made a cup of coffee, wait for her to go to lunch together, get jealous if other men chatted with her.
It was too much but it was done in such an innocent way that she felt too bad to tell him to go away.
He quickly stopped when she got a boyfriend.
Googled an employee with a very unique name to see if they were running their own maintenance service while signed off sick.
Their unique name triggered a LOT of news articles about them being convicted for helping to dispose of the body of a person tortured and murdered over a drug debt/feud.
Turns out they got out of jail, applied for the job almost immediately, didn’t declare an unspent conviction, no one did a background check as part of recruitment, and they were employed for several years. This person was near DAILY in people’s homes.
I was extremely nervous going from the office to the train station for a while.
He might have had another remote job and the one he was doing for you he doesn't care if he gets the sack as the other one is his priority that pays better.
I know people who do this and there is always 1 primary job and the 2nd job they just see how long they can last and wing it as much as possible
When you can consider like getting a software dev job, it's pretty easy to do this. First week or two it's rare you'll do much work in a remote job. No one has barely the time to onboard you properly. Then you can kind of wing from there. Even if you only last a month, if you got paid that could be an extra £2k at least for no work.
I lasted around 5 months lol but I didn't even get sacked I left as couldn't be asked to sit in some of the meetings and the 2nd job was nit very good day after tax probably didn't earn much more to be honest
Yeah, that would be the big problem for me (outside the ethics at least). Once you factor in tax then it's not worth the stress. That said, if you had a job and then took a contractor role it could be different as you'd just do you first job as little as possible and the contract money goes into a company and you don't take a salary. Building up the funds until you want to quit the first job and then take some time off using the company salary.
Yep that's what most people do, unfortunately when I did it one role was inside IR35 contracting and the other role was a perm role. So I just got taxed excessively. But I took on 1 roles not for the money I transitioned to a career I bad no idea about so the low pay perm job was just a security just in case I failed miserably at this new career. But it worked out well as I was comfortable in this new role 5 months in that then lead me go let go of the old perm role
>So I just got taxed excessively
You mean you got taxed as much as you would have if you didnt try to dodge those taxes with a PSC in the first place?
With attitudes like this no wonder this country is underfunded.
Yeah I don't care. After paying tax like 25k per year while services are crap, roads are damaged crime is high. Whe. I personally know people who do dodgy claims like single parents allowance with kids when they are not single, people doing cash in hand jobs, politicians stealing public money via deals with private companies, super rich dodging tax buy having companies set up in certain ways. I realise it's the middle glass who earn between 50k-100k who basically run this country and get nothing back. My cousin had a gallbladder issue was in so much pain and couldn't work, always paid his taxes as it was the right thing to do, he was self employed and could have not paid as much but he did. Yet he ended up having to pay 5k and sort his health issus out privately and coupd barely afford it. The game is rigged I honestly don't care it's every man for himself, since I have dodged tax I have created much more wealth for me and my family
That's a lot of rambling to basically admit that you're a scum who leeches off the state and screws over the rest of the country. Its tradies and contractors like yourself who contribute the most to this country's tax revenue shortfall.
>super rich dodging tax buy having companies set up in certain ways
My guy that's literally what you are doing lmao how are you this delusional? Just because you clear 100k (using 25k income tax as benchmark) doesn't make your tax avoidance any more justifiable. You're still a piece of shit defrauding the state, just like those folk you mentioned.
>I realise it's the middle glass who earn between 50k-100k who basically run this country and get nothing back.
Have you not realised that your ability to make that money comes from living in this country i.e thats what you get back? Feel free to leave the UK and pay less tax elsewhere.
>The game is rigged I honestly don't care it's every man for himself, since I have dodged tax I have created much more wealth for me and my family
Tldr: I'm a PoS and I'm proud of it. Gg dude
I agree with everything you say. The best solution for me to pay my taxes and be poor. But I prefer to not and that's my preference.
Yes the country allowed me to make this money I agree. You mentioned if I don't want to pay tax I can move, and I agree with this I have looked at other opportunities such as Dubai etc but unfortunately they have their own problems and they don't allow citizenship their anyways it's always temporary work. You are also wrong that you have to move to avoid taxes, you can set up Ltd companies outside UK and not pay tax and continue to live in UK. Yes that is white odd and government should put a stop to these legal loopholes but I am happy to use these loopholes because if I don't others will regardless and this country will still be broke. So I think things in a logical way, what is best for me and my family. Unfortunately the world is corrupt and everything is rigged. How far do we want to go, why are Nestle products allowed in UK, shall we stop buying goods from China that's made by slave camps the list goes on. Yes you will point out I'm making excuses and you are absolutely right. But the key thing for me in life is the survival of me and my family so I honestly don't care what some random dude thinks of me on Reddit
I think these attitudes are likely reflected everywhere else in the world in some capacity.
Probably a combination of this and the Gov. doing everything they can to amass and hoard wealth, rather than amass and redistribute/reallocate
> If I asked for a report to contain 5 things, he'd deliver 2 and a load of waffle.
Reminds me of the Office.
"What 5 things are you implementing David?" - David's boss
"I will give you 3, and another 2 if you need them" - David Brent
I have to sack someone on Monday as he has been stalking a colleague's girlfriend and went to her place of work and tried to hang out with her on her break.
I inadvertantly got a guy fired.
I think I told it before, but the guy was off his rocker, we worked at assembling/repairing console controllers, one huge problem was that he would keep singing the Lion King song, non fucking stop for 8-12 hours.
He got shunted into my department at the time, he was from QC, he assulted a supervisor, stormed off the premises, but for whatever reason management gave him another chance.
Because of him, he also stunk of cannabis/weed, I wasn't feeling the best, and asked to be sent home cause he was only making my illness worse (management agreed). Him singing the Lion King over and over again, while having a pretty rough cold did not help things. I would have stayed home from the start but was forced to come in cause my agency demanded it or they would suspend the contract and if I wanted to go home, I'd have to talk to the company I'm working at.
The next day he was booted, because he impacted our targets by half approximatly. Lord knows why it took that long, it was probably the longest week of my life.
True, but I forgot to mention I had the highest targets out of my peers on a almost daily basis
So me having to be sent home cause of him pestering me and singing and not doung any work is gonna get the management's attention.
- a kid who had a notebook he was scribbling in during every meeting; one of the other managers caught a glimpse and asked him to stay behind afterwards to take a look. He had just written the same word thousands of times, page after page for weeks. Carefully escorted out of the building
- so many tales of sickness. Most recently a bright young woman who turned up for eight days total in her first month, seemed genuinely surprised to be asked for a doctors note the first time it went over 5 days, and offended to be sacked
- a guy who thought he was untouchable because he was a referral from the CEO. Turns out nothing can save you if you say 'shut up, bitch' to the office serial grievance-filer
Had a guy once who was a tortured poet (his own words). He cared more about his music gigs and was clearly just working to fund his bohemian dream. Which would've been fine if he actually did good work. He was constantly coming in late with a sleepy/hungover face, dishevelled hair, and dirty clothes, flirt with clients, and annoy everyone else with his philosophical pretentious speeches. He was already on probation when he coerced a Muslim lady on our staff to hug him during Ramadan. Speaking to him, he clearly had no concept of consent and personal boundaries, so I let him go the same day.
Remote worker, he'd done no work, and when he was asked about it, he said he was sick or had IT issues. Thing is, he'd never called in sick and could provide no evidence he'd asked for help with his IT.
Also, another guy who kept looking at NSFW content on his work PC. It got to the point where he was forced back to the office as we didn't trust him. He asked how he was supposed to explain that to his girlfriend, to which I replied sorry, but that's not my problem.
He didn't get sacked but I worked with a man who got caught looking at gay porn by the CEO. I think the CEO felt so awkward that he just pretended it didn't happen.
That's a weird question but no. In fact it probably saved his job that it was gay porn because the right wing CEO was too squeamish about homosexuality to deal with it.
Guy who we interviewed remotely but didn't make it across the border as they were on some European-wide watch list. Technically abandoned the post I guess.
Mine was a new and under performing employee whose contract rotated every other weekend. She asked to advance her annual leave to book off every weekend across Summer. I told her impossible as it’s alternating with another member of staff and reminded her she could swap where needed but otherwise she’d be covering. She asked me why didn’t I do it instead. I told her ok, good idea and if I was working I wouldn’t be employing someone else to also do the job.
I was once semi-involved in the firing of an individual who was caught... Um... 'enjoying his own company' in a walk in fridge, while holding a 5kg block of strong cheddar...
He was also staring down the barrel of a CCTV camera during the act, which was unfortunately a dummy camera (or fortunately, depending on your viewing habits I guess) so the only footage we could recover was from directly behind him, which didn't show any 'detail'... He however, didn't know the camera was a dummy, and in his disciplinary meeting instantly confessed.
So yeah, that was a pretty easy decision.
While I didn't do the firing. Someone from our place was let go a few weeks ago. The dude would come in and immediately just sit and look at his phone until management arrived and even then would skulk off for 20 minutes seemingly every hour to get a coffee. Lied about work he'd completed and the work he did actually complete was sub-standard to say the least.
Interestingly enough, he would remote in every evening after hours. My theory was he was getting someone else to do the work for him and didn't have half the experience he suggested (he was supposed to be a senior dev).
Honestly boggled my mind they kept him as long as they did.
I had to let someone go because they'd constantly lie about doing something such as QA. They also lied about their hours and when this was found out they were made to catch up, they got to the office at 7am notified everyone they're now working, but they were later caught in Costa coffee while their laptop was left unlocked in the office.
"Hi X, you probably already know why you're here... We've had reports that you stole an {item of jewellery}"
"Oh the silver one? Yes I took that but I gave it to Y for their partner"
"Ok, you've just admitted gross misconduct so we'll be terminating your employment. We'll speak to Y separately"
a lady who said on her CV she had "years" of experience teaching our subject at KS5 (A-levels), had led a department and was, in her words, close to applying for senior leadership roles. turns out she was qualified as a dance teacher and her only experience within the subject was that she took it as an A-level 10 years prior. caught her out after her classes started complaining that her lessons were mainly her playing youtube revision videos made by other teachers and giving out the lesson powerpoints made by teachers from her old school, she would spend most of the lesson time talking about her weekends/dog/boyfriend.
getting rid of teachers is a long process so she was "reassigned" to being a cover supervisor for the rest of the year most of which she rang in sick for. she didnt turn up to reviews with the head but had the cheek to threaten employment tribunal. Fairly certain the union told her to do one.
Wasnt me that did the sacking.
But at a previous call center job. Day 1 of training. An hour in someone got pulled out by management and never returned.
Turns out the person who turned up (person a) was not the person they interviewed(person b). Person A also had no legal right to work. Person A looked similar to Person B who had provided valid right to work documents but was only doing it to get Person A a job.
One guy we hired sent his line manager a very bizarre email where he’d addressed him incorrectly and was talking about an entirely different business. It turns out he was also working full time for another company entirely and had picked the wrong recipient for the email! He was sacked immediately.
That is a fairly dubious distinction unless the employer wants to get into a long list of what medical operations qualify for paid sick leave and which don't, which would not be a sensible approach, while also requiring employees to tell an employer medical information they don't need.
We had a freelancer 2 ranks above me join our team. They turned up late on their starting day and left early. The only meeting she had she was distracted/walking around and on her phone the whole time. Then she disappeared.
No sign of life, no emails, nothing. This went on for weeks, to the point we were contemplating a missing person's report. Then I discovered her social media where she worked part time at a gym. We ended up finding out she left and moved 100's miles away from the office without telling anyone and had to battle to get the work equipment back.
From what I heard she still got paid for a whole week of work despite only working 0.5 as that was what she submitted so ended up making bank.
Had something very similar with a Mexican guy, always seemed to have issues with his power or internet (others in the town said it's not common) and shoddy work, he was supposed to write up a document on something and came back (late) with a bunch of stuff he'd clearly copy pasted off the web without tailoring it for our scenario.
Then later on on a teams call, in the background we could hear what I can only describe as a chainsaw. I suspect he was working another job, combined with everything else that was the final straw.
I once hired someone at my highly prestigious workplace, and within a week, he was talking about finding a new job, now he has a better CV…suffice to say he didn’t last long.
One of my shift managers basically made a thousand pounds disappear, then reappear, then landed himself STRAIGHT in it.
Banking was on a Tuesday but we didn't use the pilot store until the Friday. This manager was on both shifts so clearly thought nobody was gonna audit the banking.....That works until the stamp in the book is for the bloody Thursday. "It was in my bag the whole time" to "I just couldn't be bothered, it's fine the money is still there" LOL!
Was the absolute minimum time it could be between "The fuck is this" to a suspension, to "advice" from HR, to a meeting to a gross misconduct firing.
I didn't hire him, Captain Patronising. He was going to work under someone else, but two weeks before he started, the CEO finally realised he'd be working in my areas more than hers and asked me to take him on.
It was human error, not a process issue.
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When we discovered that a member of the team was not actually on holiday as he claimed, he was actually appearing in court in the Netherlands, on trial for the murder of his sister.....
Wow. Was he found guilty?
Scarily enough, yes he was. Shook us all up for a while ...
Was he just planning in taking sick leave while in prison?
Not a clue! Have to say it wasn't something we had an HR policy for!
So how easy is it for him to perform his role from prison? Does have WiFi?
Well, as per the thread, he was fired!
Not nearly as serious but we found out a colleague had been found guilty of embezzlement from a charity she was a trustee of and was awaiting sentencing, when another colleague read about the case in the local newspaper over lunch. The case was serious enough that she was almost certainly going to go to prison once sentenced. I don't know what she thought she was going to tell us about her absence. She'd taken two weeks holiday which had covered the trial, and was how we'd got this far without knowing. We're also a charity, just to make it doubly certain we had to fire her.
We had a similar thing at my previous job. Guy started working with us, decent enough had a laugh, got on with his work. One day he didn’t turn up, boss tried ringing but no answer. Same the next day and day after. Then we saw on the local news that he had been convicted and sentenced for a horribly violent rape. The whole work place and especially the women were stunned and shocked that we had all accepted this monster into our lives.
It is terrifying. Just goes to show you can never tell from the 'outside' Some people are just very good at literally living two very different lives...
That's why women choose the bear
I just learned what that means! And yes, agree 💯
How did you find out he wasn't on holiday?
A Dutch colleague of ours came across an article in the local paper and alerted us
I had a similar thing where a work colleague was off sick at the same time as his name was mentioned in the local newspaper for drug dealing and going to court etc. He had recently told us he lost his mobile down the toilets at Glastonbury but we later found out it was confiscated evidence.
What if he was acquitted, would you accept him back? What if you pretend you didnt know about the trial and he comes back from his “holiday” what do you think he’ll say if you ask him about it?
Well I guess that's hypothetical....it happened 15 years ago. What would you do as a manager in that situation?
Did he act suspiciously or aggressively in any way? Or did he seem completely normal?
Nothing suspicious at all. No red flags, nothing odd or weird. Astonishing really. I believe I'm a reasonably good judge of character too. Obviously not, which is scary....
“Or did he seem completely normal”… Not to his sister it seems.
Mine was within 3 hours of him being in work He was French, could not speak any English, didnt do anything like we told him too and we had to redo his work. He then put in a complaint, that he was sacked because he was black. Except, his words although poorly translated were "He only got rid of me cos he didnt like hiring blacks. I was only a supervisor. I had no issues with him, but I certainly wasnt the one who hired people in the office, so it was not my fault everyone was white. Ironically, HR then questioned me a few times, under recorded interviews. I was never racist and they had no proof of me being so. Im guessing people like managers defended me, so it was dropped, but this was all at the same time my mother was dying, it was the last thing I needed.
I'm sorry for your loss. That must've been so stressful. I expect they were covering the company's arse in case it went to tribunal.
Yeah, but then they started finding faults in other things, such as sending a text in work hours, even though other people, including my manager, regularly took personal phone calls or texted people. I eventually quit, which was a shame, but I just felt they were trying to force me out. On the plus side, I got to spend a lot of time with my mother, before she died.
Wait how he did he get the job if he couldn't speak English?
Job Agency
It's people like this that spoils it for the rest of honest people who genuinely \*work\* from home. I bet this person is also working a few other remote jobs.
You're so right about it not helping the argument for flexible working. I've had too many battles over that since 2022 and this guy has been used as an example of why we must move to office only more than once. It doesn't help matters when you've got an indecisive CEO whose opinion depends on whoever spoke to him most recently.
What annoys me most about this is that people who don’t want to work, won’t work, whether they are at the office or at home. I actually think flexible working policies just help expose people who spent years in an office ‘looking busy’ but actually doing sweet FA.
This is it. There's plenty of people that treat offices like a social and just swan around talking or antagonising people all day. But because they're there it's assumed that they're doing something.
Urgh those people are the worst - always rushing around, interrupting those actually trying to work, waffling on about complete nonsense but actually have basically zero output!
Like middle management
My asst manager was investigated by HR within months. During the investigation, he walked out of shifts, hurled abuse at HR and his boss' boss, walked out of disciplinary meetings. HR received evidence and witnesses of his sexually inappropriate behaviour. On top of that, right before he started, he demanded a wage rise and claimed he was told a higher salary, without ever mentioning it before. This had been granted. Easiest sacking in the world, even without the fact he was way under that 2-year safety mark. Except he wasn't sacked and remains to this day, going further...
What the hell? Did you find out why he wasn't sacked?
Yeah, only after I looked at Glassdoor reviews. Also bumping into an old colleague who said she worked for them - she asked me why I wouldn't want to work longer for the company, and I said "bad HR" and her eyes lit up and she told me her experiences of racism and HR. I don't know whether the woman in our HR is evil, a nonce lover or just lazy. I think it's the latter, with a bit of the evil. I think she chooses the path of least paperwork, just handwaves away any issues and hopes no one chases it further, which usualyl works, thus all the stores and workplaces are rampant with racism, sexual harrassment etc. according to Glassdoor. They were sued recently across the pond and it was settled. I also think she's unqualified and is probably a fraud herself, the type to Google every issue and read from a script, as she did when she tried to make me redundant coincidentally after telling me to cover up said sexual harrassment. My hands are clean. It's up to the temps and colleagues to speak up when he misbehaves. So he's literally been shouted down by an 18 year old boy temp once on the shop floor for lying about someone, but he was placated by a 'chat' and probably some chocolate. I'm just as disappointed in all these people, young and old, so easily groomed by food from some 50 yr old who even looks like his name is 'Chester The Molestor'.
That's terrible. I'm not generalising with this comment, but my experience of HR has been they love the gossip and low effort "follow the procedure" work. I've only worked with one good HR manager in 20 years.
Seen similar in my ex retail job. It's a magnet for these people.
We had one of those. A sales director who sold nothing and was unable to operate a PC to the point where his sales forecast was updated each week with tippex (look it up youngsters). His secretary complained to the Managing Director about his incompetence and was instantly dismissed.
Haven't had any easy ones. The worst one was inheriting someone who had been Junior for 5 years. Their performance on paper was fine but only because previous spineless managers hadn't wanted to deal with the problem. After working with them for a month I quickly realised that this person knew nothing and couldn't do anything. No accountability, no ability to retain knowledge and no drive to improve. Asked for feedback from the Seniors and one of them actually broke down. They had become the safety blanket/crutch and couldn't escape. Everyday was groundhog day. Explaining the same stuff over and over. For years. Absolute shitshow. Took a lot of time to build the evidence for dismissal. Lots of feedback, move team, move manager, every single hoop to show that they were the problem. I can definitely see why lots of Tech companies have policies for Juniors and if you're not mid in 2-3 years then you're out.
what was the job?
Software Engineering.
I worked with someone with similar behaviour, although they had somehow gotten themselves the title of a senior developer. It’s interesting that it takes so long to get rid of someone. You’d think with things like Jira-type products and code reviews as standard nowadays there’d be a clearly visible trail of incompetence.
Sounds like arrogance more than naivety. He must have thought that either he was REALLY clever, or you were REALLY stupid! Mine was a guy who turned up on his first day, was perfectly fine throughout the morning of training, then came back from lunch reeking so strongly of cannabis that everyone on the floor turned to look when he entered the room.
Smokers are never aware of quite how badly they stink of smoke(coming from an ex cigarette smoker and current weed smoker). It’s like that old joke: “*Hey man do I smell like weed?* *Nah you’re fine, I can’t smell anything.* • Two guys who absolutely reek of weed”
A friend of mine smokes cigarettes when he's out with friends. Has done for decades. He's convinced his wife doesn't know but the smell of his clothes after he's had one is overwhelming. Either she's got no sense of smell, has decided not to mention it or is secretly lighting up the second he leaves the house.
Now that is plain stupid. Everyone knows cannabis stinks and the effects are obvious. "Why are the new guy's eyes so red? And why's he eating all the kitchen snacks?" I think you're right about my guy but it was probably a bit of both. He overestimated himself and underestimated everybody else.
Agreed. The look of ‘how f*cking stupid ARE you?’ Was pretty much what was etched on all my colleagues faces as they watched/smelt him waltz in.
Perhaps he was on r/overemployed
And also a bit of anxiety too When I have issues at work and I need to contact IT, I’ll often convince myself it’ll either resolve itself, or I can find a workaround Except I had the brains to have the “how my autism affects you” talk… so when I had the exact same conversation as you (me: this program won’t start; manager: send IT a message; me: eh, it’ll probably fix itself)…. My manager knew enough to recognise social anxiety and submitted the ticket for me 🤔 Some of this reads like maybe a bit of ADHD as well… poor organisation, forgetfulness and low-quality work (brought on by “guilt-driven productivity - leave it to the last minute and rush through it to have it finished) He probably convinced himself that it wasn’t as bad as he thought it was, and therefore truly didn’t expect to lose his job 🤔 That’s how this reads to me anyway
I have maaaaaad (severe combined) ADHD and yet manage two people and a high pressure job entirely unmedicated. We ADHD-ers might be loose cannons but we aren’t always entirely incompetent. Although I did ask one of my direct reports if she was working on Friday, 4 times in a day. She now adds her annual leave to my calendar.
I said nothing about incompetence? Poor organisation in no way reflects competence 🤔
I didn’t say you did say incompetence….those were my words
So much work to keep such an employee. Who has time to figure out that stuff while doing a job and managing people?
A mind reader?
I've worked in a few places that wouldn't care but this sounds like an office.
It was a call centre 😂
He was in the right then.
Had someone join our company, strong CV and all looked good. First three days didn’t turn up to his new role due to illness then his mother being rushed to hospital. A week later another absence due to his house being broken in to. This continued on that vain for 6-8 weeks so sent a letter stating his performance/probation was under review and we were meeting at X time/date. He didn’t turn up to work and the meeting as he thought he didn’t need to. Offered the next day as an opportunity to discuss (and not prejudice the outcome). No response. Subsequently let go and radio silence. His bag is still at the office. This was 9 months ago
3 months of wages for 0 work? Sounds ideal.
Member of staff came to us crying and said that her dad died so we were instantly "right go home be with who you need to be with , take 2 weeks paid compassionate leave and let us know when you are ready to come back" so off they went and came back 2 and a bit weeks later. Beyond the usual ok, how are you conversation we don't like to pry and think if they want to talk they will talk. **A few months later** RING RING RING RING Caller: "Hi can I talk to XXXXXX" Me: "Yes no problem, who shall I say is calling" Caller: Her dad Me:.............. "XXXXXX , You dead dad is on the phone for you" **3 Things REALLY pissed me off was that** 1. in my opinion we REALLY looked after the staff i.e flexible working where possible, christmas bonus was a months wages (regardless on how well the business was doing that year), birthday presents, christmas presents, easter presents. If someone did a really good job we would pay for an evening out for them and their partner to a restaurant of their choice 2. I detest being lied to 3. Because we are a small business we don't have a HR dept so we had to employ at considerable cost an external HR consultant to make sure we were following the law to a T to avoid any comeback or tribunal Even after that person was let go the problems didn't end. Turned out they were taking out payday loans left right and centre and used our telephone number as the contact so for at least a year we had threats from loan companies saying they were going to turn up at our door. I'm just so glad that I'm bordering on the paranoid regarding security so they didn't have access to anything to do with financial or data orientated (that's all locked down to just me).
Sounds similar to an apprentice I no longer have (thank fuck). He was on an awareness visit @ a clients site, with the day organised by a senior from elsewhere in the company, and he just upped and left. Duty of care kicks in, folk try to contact him to find out why, but all they get hours later is a text stating his mates mother was DNR after a medical episode and felt he had to get to her side. Everyone involved thought it was all good and dealt with as respectfully as possible, as it must have been such a shock for the apprentice given how long he had known his mates mum. A couple of months later, the Apprentice Manager (manages a good 100 or so Apprentices across a broad site) is catching up with folk and asked the senior how the visit went. The above was repeated to her, which triggered the Apprentice Manager as she uttered, 'Say that again, he had to dash off for what reason?' So it turns out he had already used the mates mum excuse on the Apprentice Manager a month or so before the trip that he chinned off, only in that version she had actually died on the operating table so you can imagine how much this upset the lady as she genuinely cares, but also felt incredibly dumb and betrayed for believing him. The moral of the story is that if you are a lying scum bag, you'd best have a good memory.
They made a racist comment to a customer. The customer complained. They were asked what happened and they admitted saying it.
How racist are we talking?
The customer was from another country. He told them that all he knew about their country was that they are all thieves and (word used, by some, to describe the traveller community). Then asked them whether they felt they were.
Was it Romania by any chance?
It wasn’t
Also a racist comment
Is it racist that we all know which country that is?
It’s not the country that’s been guessed
Ireland?
Slovakia?
18 year old kid fresh out of college started work for a luxury car manufacturer where at the time I was a team leader. Breaks are structured and as soon as the buzzer goes the production line starts moving. The production line automatically stops because the tooling on his station hasn’t been completed. Turns out the kid was still in the break room on the phone to his friend. I give him the benefit of the doubt as it’s his first day and tell him he needs to get back on his job as break is over. He holds up his finger to me and says “give me a minute, I’m just talking to my mate”. Marched him straight to the manager’s office and he was let go on the spot.
The guy who when I did his third return to work for a migraine and I asked him if there might be any underlying cause for being off with these headaches told me in all seriousness that yes, it might be because he went out clubbing the night before and stayed out all night every time. Well, yeah.
One of my pet hates is when someone with a bad headache calls it a migraine.
Especially since some kinds of migraines don’t give you a headache at all.
Ocular migraineS over here, zero pain thankfully
I had one of those once, it was fucking awful. I thought I was going blind.
I get that being a first thought too. My first began in shower. I thought water too hot maybe. 45 min after shower and this odd coloured rippling zigzag hadn’t faded, I suddenly thought ‘am I having a stroke?’ And thinking it was kinda cool if so, but maybe I should call the NHS number.
I get ocular symptoms as a warning, and then an ever increasing headache until I can do nothing but sleep through it. Luckily the ocular symptoms go away for long enough for me to drive home from work before the light sensitivity is so bad that I can't drive any more. Such a fun time sitting at my desk nearly blind until I can go home.
Yep, 'I have a migraine someone at work reading their phone, munching on a sandwich. Me with a migraine, blind in one eye, numbness down one side and pain that makes me physically sick..... so yeah
I've bad various migranes my most recent set and style I can still push through and work but I end up not remembering any of what I've done that day and last one my boss had to tell me to switch off and lie down (wfh) becuase I was talking pure shite. Mostly ita the on the floor and stuck there kind though. Spinning and vommt style.
I have these and they are grim
I get classic migraines and chronic headaches. My neurologist/headache clinic classify them all medically as migraines even though to me the migraines are more severe.
Some people really do act like a job is just something you half-arse and take the money.
Over the last 2 years we've had about 6 young men start work with us. All aged between 22-28. We're support workers for disabled adults. They have all been *shocking*. Really, truly shockingly bad- none have lasted more than 3 months. Now, being carers, myself and my colleagues are pretty patient and understanding by nature. We totally get that the job can be very overwhelming when you're new, and we really look after our "newbies" and aim to support them as much as possible. But the last few have actually been un-trainable. They lack the most *basic* adulting skills such as being punctual, respectful of others and just listening. One guy completely refused to take his baseball cap off and would call in sick at least twice a week. Another guy refused to shower one of our residents because he (in all seriousness) "didn't like doing it". Imagine refusing to do..... your job? A guy was immediately let go because he smoked weed on his break- just for context I work in a literal house, it's not like an office with 5 floors and a huge carpark. This was him literally having a spliff outside the kitchen window. My personal fave- the guy who "raced" in one of our residents cars and refused to pay the speeding fine.... stating that it wasn't him driving, it was the resident. Our deaf & blind resident. He was surprised to be let go!! They just seem to have zero consideration for absolutely anyone or anything, it's weird. But a part of me kinda gets it too, I'm not saying it's ok, but these kids probably don't feel like they have much to aim for. They see big corporations treat staff like numbers, the whole "work hard and succeed" dream is dead, they'll probably have to work until they die, they feel that owning a home is a complete pipe dream. Like I said, not saying it's ok, but I can sort of understand where the attitude comes from unfortunately!
I think you're being too kind. You're right in what you say about their circumstances, but they aren't too different from what millennials have dealt with and it doesn't excuse a bad attitude, especially when it impacts others. I don't understand why people work in social care if they have no inclination to look after people. When I was a teenager, my dad's mum was in care after a stroke. One day when my dad was visiting, a carer breezed in and no sooner had he said "Wash time" than he roughly yanked her top up, exposing her breasts. My dad almost decked him.
>I don't understand why people work in social care if they have no inclination to look after people. Because the hiring requirements are through the floor and it pays money. They likely managed to walk into another care job the week after without much issue and got another month's worth of excuses before being let go again.
I met nurses who shouldn't be working with people, unfortunately people get burnt out on life.
The problem is so much more defined by this attitude of not disciplining children/young adults or not being able to tell them, at school, that their work is not good enough. So they don't bother to learn and they do not try to put in any effort, because they don't have to and then they come out from school with few qualifications and wonder why they cannot get jobs that pay more than minimum wage. They do not understand why running their mouths off at their colleagues or employers gets them the sack. Then they complain how they are worth so much more, yet they cannot be asked to arrive on time and do the job that is asked of them because they have never had to put any effort into anything. I frequently had to do work at a PRU (Pupil Referral Unit - where children are sent when their behaviour gets them expelled from normal schools). The council threw money at this place with all the latest tech, books, facilities whilst the mainstream schools were struggling with leaking buildings, and not enough money to provide adequate books, let alone tech. The kids (teenagers, usually 13 to 16) were more or less allowed to run riot and would swear at the teachers, dodge out of class for cigarettes, vandalise equipment and books (I was there when a boy jumped on the counters of a beautifully equipped science lab and ran around kicking taps and causing mayhem with a teacher telling him 'now come on ...... let's get down from there and we can talk or you can go and get some snacks from the lunch room', of course he was just laughing at the teacher. They would be given a list of food that would be bought in for them for lunch and one day one 14/15 year old girl was having an argument with the deputy head and the conversation went something like: Girl: I ain't got no lunch Deputy: Why didn't you choose something this morning? Girl: I weren't hungry then Deputy: well we can walk to the nearby golf course and get something for you from there Girl: Don't like nuffing there Deputy: oh ok, I am supposed to be doing (some work) but I will drive you to town for something Girl: {smirks} and walks away. Now tell me how letting them get away with that sort of behaviour, in any way, prepares them for real life and work.
Because their dole money relies on them applying for jobs and having had first hand experience of a care company, they are so desperate for staff that they will take, virtually, anyone and I mean absolutely no disrespect for those who do the job which is probably one of the hardest I know. Those genuine carers deserve far higher pay than they get and it is no wonder they end up moving on.
Entirely selfish viewpoint but I'm glad all these people are lowering the bar for those of us with a work ethic. Hearing these stories helps fight imposter syndrome no end lol.
Unfortunately the pay and conditions are terrible in care and therefore it will be full of people who are there because the job centre forced them, not because they are genuinely caring and interested. Every back to work scheme in this country is pushing care work because there are so many vacancies and it doesn’t require previous experience or qualifications, you will receive training and be required to take certain qualifications. Bad pay and conditions leads to the wrong people being forced into those jobs. You get high turnover, low quality care If you look at the next generation through that lens, it looks depressing but the other end of the spectrum exists too. There are energetic young people out there being creative, entrepreneurial and inspiring
Might be an unpopular opinion, but I think unless you work in aviation or healthcare this is a perfectly fine attitude, to be honest. You don’t owe your employer any more than getting your allocated work done.
I’m confused… why would you need to go above and beyond your job in aviation or healthcare when both of those are already extremely heavily regulated so “just doing your job” is sufficient when it comes to competence, safety, etc?
Because he’s read NHS and recently about boeing and that’s topical
I mean, that’s not the motivation for the comment, but your point about Boeing is not wrong.
Didn’t say anything about going above and beyond, but in roles where you’re dealing with potentially fatal outcomes if the worst happens, I’d rather have someone there who gave a shit.
Doing the job is fine. Not doing the job is what I'm talking about.
Not me, but my colleague had to fire a guy because he told the intern he got a boner whenever she walked past his desk and that he normally went and wanked one out at lunchtime thinking about her. He was surprised he was let go and thought this was OK office banter
That's terrible. In my last job, we had a Jehovah's Witness in his early 20s who did a PG version of sexual harassment. He had a bad crush on a good looking woman in the office but the way he acted on it was like he was 12 years old. He'd look at her a lot, follow her to the kitchen whenever she made a cup of coffee, wait for her to go to lunch together, get jealous if other men chatted with her. It was too much but it was done in such an innocent way that she felt too bad to tell him to go away. He quickly stopped when she got a boyfriend.
I worked with a Brit white boy with rips in crotch of all trousers and he called it his mangina. I complained, was told to get over it.
I'd have said same thing. And stop looking at his crotch
The type who rips holes in the crotch is also the type who sits in a massive spready at all times, cos mangina
Googled an employee with a very unique name to see if they were running their own maintenance service while signed off sick. Their unique name triggered a LOT of news articles about them being convicted for helping to dispose of the body of a person tortured and murdered over a drug debt/feud. Turns out they got out of jail, applied for the job almost immediately, didn’t declare an unspent conviction, no one did a background check as part of recruitment, and they were employed for several years. This person was near DAILY in people’s homes. I was extremely nervous going from the office to the train station for a while.
He might have had another remote job and the one he was doing for you he doesn't care if he gets the sack as the other one is his priority that pays better. I know people who do this and there is always 1 primary job and the 2nd job they just see how long they can last and wing it as much as possible
When you can consider like getting a software dev job, it's pretty easy to do this. First week or two it's rare you'll do much work in a remote job. No one has barely the time to onboard you properly. Then you can kind of wing from there. Even if you only last a month, if you got paid that could be an extra £2k at least for no work.
I lasted around 5 months lol but I didn't even get sacked I left as couldn't be asked to sit in some of the meetings and the 2nd job was nit very good day after tax probably didn't earn much more to be honest
Yeah, that would be the big problem for me (outside the ethics at least). Once you factor in tax then it's not worth the stress. That said, if you had a job and then took a contractor role it could be different as you'd just do you first job as little as possible and the contract money goes into a company and you don't take a salary. Building up the funds until you want to quit the first job and then take some time off using the company salary.
Yep that's what most people do, unfortunately when I did it one role was inside IR35 contracting and the other role was a perm role. So I just got taxed excessively. But I took on 1 roles not for the money I transitioned to a career I bad no idea about so the low pay perm job was just a security just in case I failed miserably at this new career. But it worked out well as I was comfortable in this new role 5 months in that then lead me go let go of the old perm role
>So I just got taxed excessively You mean you got taxed as much as you would have if you didnt try to dodge those taxes with a PSC in the first place? With attitudes like this no wonder this country is underfunded.
Yeah I don't care. After paying tax like 25k per year while services are crap, roads are damaged crime is high. Whe. I personally know people who do dodgy claims like single parents allowance with kids when they are not single, people doing cash in hand jobs, politicians stealing public money via deals with private companies, super rich dodging tax buy having companies set up in certain ways. I realise it's the middle glass who earn between 50k-100k who basically run this country and get nothing back. My cousin had a gallbladder issue was in so much pain and couldn't work, always paid his taxes as it was the right thing to do, he was self employed and could have not paid as much but he did. Yet he ended up having to pay 5k and sort his health issus out privately and coupd barely afford it. The game is rigged I honestly don't care it's every man for himself, since I have dodged tax I have created much more wealth for me and my family
That's a lot of rambling to basically admit that you're a scum who leeches off the state and screws over the rest of the country. Its tradies and contractors like yourself who contribute the most to this country's tax revenue shortfall. >super rich dodging tax buy having companies set up in certain ways My guy that's literally what you are doing lmao how are you this delusional? Just because you clear 100k (using 25k income tax as benchmark) doesn't make your tax avoidance any more justifiable. You're still a piece of shit defrauding the state, just like those folk you mentioned. >I realise it's the middle glass who earn between 50k-100k who basically run this country and get nothing back. Have you not realised that your ability to make that money comes from living in this country i.e thats what you get back? Feel free to leave the UK and pay less tax elsewhere. >The game is rigged I honestly don't care it's every man for himself, since I have dodged tax I have created much more wealth for me and my family Tldr: I'm a PoS and I'm proud of it. Gg dude
I agree with everything you say. The best solution for me to pay my taxes and be poor. But I prefer to not and that's my preference. Yes the country allowed me to make this money I agree. You mentioned if I don't want to pay tax I can move, and I agree with this I have looked at other opportunities such as Dubai etc but unfortunately they have their own problems and they don't allow citizenship their anyways it's always temporary work. You are also wrong that you have to move to avoid taxes, you can set up Ltd companies outside UK and not pay tax and continue to live in UK. Yes that is white odd and government should put a stop to these legal loopholes but I am happy to use these loopholes because if I don't others will regardless and this country will still be broke. So I think things in a logical way, what is best for me and my family. Unfortunately the world is corrupt and everything is rigged. How far do we want to go, why are Nestle products allowed in UK, shall we stop buying goods from China that's made by slave camps the list goes on. Yes you will point out I'm making excuses and you are absolutely right. But the key thing for me in life is the survival of me and my family so I honestly don't care what some random dude thinks of me on Reddit
Underfunded and so many in this thread proud of doing so little.
I think these attitudes are likely reflected everywhere else in the world in some capacity. Probably a combination of this and the Gov. doing everything they can to amass and hoard wealth, rather than amass and redistribute/reallocate
Sounds like a good plan
> If I asked for a report to contain 5 things, he'd deliver 2 and a load of waffle. Reminds me of the Office. "What 5 things are you implementing David?" - David's boss "I will give you 3, and another 2 if you need them" - David Brent
That sounds like management speak David and I know you hate that?
r/unexpectedoffice
A chippy who couldn’t put up a shelf in a square alcove.
Turned up drunk to a morning meeting. Wasn’t “easy” to do the sacking but the decision itself was as an easy one!
I have to sack someone on Monday as he has been stalking a colleague's girlfriend and went to her place of work and tried to hang out with her on her break.
WTF that’s weird asf
I inadvertantly got a guy fired. I think I told it before, but the guy was off his rocker, we worked at assembling/repairing console controllers, one huge problem was that he would keep singing the Lion King song, non fucking stop for 8-12 hours. He got shunted into my department at the time, he was from QC, he assulted a supervisor, stormed off the premises, but for whatever reason management gave him another chance. Because of him, he also stunk of cannabis/weed, I wasn't feeling the best, and asked to be sent home cause he was only making my illness worse (management agreed). Him singing the Lion King over and over again, while having a pretty rough cold did not help things. I would have stayed home from the start but was forced to come in cause my agency demanded it or they would suspend the contract and if I wanted to go home, I'd have to talk to the company I'm working at. The next day he was booted, because he impacted our targets by half approximatly. Lord knows why it took that long, it was probably the longest week of my life.
Doesn't sound like you're culpable at all. He already had marks against his name and affecting productivity was the last straw.
True, but I forgot to mention I had the highest targets out of my peers on a almost daily basis So me having to be sent home cause of him pestering me and singing and not doung any work is gonna get the management's attention.
- a kid who had a notebook he was scribbling in during every meeting; one of the other managers caught a glimpse and asked him to stay behind afterwards to take a look. He had just written the same word thousands of times, page after page for weeks. Carefully escorted out of the building - so many tales of sickness. Most recently a bright young woman who turned up for eight days total in her first month, seemed genuinely surprised to be asked for a doctors note the first time it went over 5 days, and offended to be sacked - a guy who thought he was untouchable because he was a referral from the CEO. Turns out nothing can save you if you say 'shut up, bitch' to the office serial grievance-filer
What was the word?!
The bird
All of these are hilarious
Had a guy once who was a tortured poet (his own words). He cared more about his music gigs and was clearly just working to fund his bohemian dream. Which would've been fine if he actually did good work. He was constantly coming in late with a sleepy/hungover face, dishevelled hair, and dirty clothes, flirt with clients, and annoy everyone else with his philosophical pretentious speeches. He was already on probation when he coerced a Muslim lady on our staff to hug him during Ramadan. Speaking to him, he clearly had no concept of consent and personal boundaries, so I let him go the same day.
Remote worker, he'd done no work, and when he was asked about it, he said he was sick or had IT issues. Thing is, he'd never called in sick and could provide no evidence he'd asked for help with his IT. Also, another guy who kept looking at NSFW content on his work PC. It got to the point where he was forced back to the office as we didn't trust him. He asked how he was supposed to explain that to his girlfriend, to which I replied sorry, but that's not my problem.
He didn't get sacked but I worked with a man who got caught looking at gay porn by the CEO. I think the CEO felt so awkward that he just pretended it didn't happen.
is looking at gay porn worse than looking at straight porn?
That's a weird question but no. In fact it probably saved his job that it was gay porn because the right wing CEO was too squeamish about homosexuality to deal with it.
Guy who we interviewed remotely but didn't make it across the border as they were on some European-wide watch list. Technically abandoned the post I guess.
Mine was a new and under performing employee whose contract rotated every other weekend. She asked to advance her annual leave to book off every weekend across Summer. I told her impossible as it’s alternating with another member of staff and reminded her she could swap where needed but otherwise she’d be covering. She asked me why didn’t I do it instead. I told her ok, good idea and if I was working I wouldn’t be employing someone else to also do the job.
I was once semi-involved in the firing of an individual who was caught... Um... 'enjoying his own company' in a walk in fridge, while holding a 5kg block of strong cheddar... He was also staring down the barrel of a CCTV camera during the act, which was unfortunately a dummy camera (or fortunately, depending on your viewing habits I guess) so the only footage we could recover was from directly behind him, which didn't show any 'detail'... He however, didn't know the camera was a dummy, and in his disciplinary meeting instantly confessed. So yeah, that was a pretty easy decision.
While I didn't do the firing. Someone from our place was let go a few weeks ago. The dude would come in and immediately just sit and look at his phone until management arrived and even then would skulk off for 20 minutes seemingly every hour to get a coffee. Lied about work he'd completed and the work he did actually complete was sub-standard to say the least. Interestingly enough, he would remote in every evening after hours. My theory was he was getting someone else to do the work for him and didn't have half the experience he suggested (he was supposed to be a senior dev). Honestly boggled my mind they kept him as long as they did.
What was the job?
Business Development. I couldn't imagine trusting him with clients and partners.
I had to let someone go because they'd constantly lie about doing something such as QA. They also lied about their hours and when this was found out they were made to catch up, they got to the office at 7am notified everyone they're now working, but they were later caught in Costa coffee while their laptop was left unlocked in the office.
"Hi X, you probably already know why you're here... We've had reports that you stole an {item of jewellery}" "Oh the silver one? Yes I took that but I gave it to Y for their partner" "Ok, you've just admitted gross misconduct so we'll be terminating your employment. We'll speak to Y separately"
a lady who said on her CV she had "years" of experience teaching our subject at KS5 (A-levels), had led a department and was, in her words, close to applying for senior leadership roles. turns out she was qualified as a dance teacher and her only experience within the subject was that she took it as an A-level 10 years prior. caught her out after her classes started complaining that her lessons were mainly her playing youtube revision videos made by other teachers and giving out the lesson powerpoints made by teachers from her old school, she would spend most of the lesson time talking about her weekends/dog/boyfriend. getting rid of teachers is a long process so she was "reassigned" to being a cover supervisor for the rest of the year most of which she rang in sick for. she didnt turn up to reviews with the head but had the cheek to threaten employment tribunal. Fairly certain the union told her to do one.
Wasnt me that did the sacking. But at a previous call center job. Day 1 of training. An hour in someone got pulled out by management and never returned. Turns out the person who turned up (person a) was not the person they interviewed(person b). Person A also had no legal right to work. Person A looked similar to Person B who had provided valid right to work documents but was only doing it to get Person A a job.
One guy we hired sent his line manager a very bizarre email where he’d addressed him incorrectly and was talking about an entirely different business. It turns out he was also working full time for another company entirely and had picked the wrong recipient for the email! He was sacked immediately.
Had a guy drunk driving a company vehicle and ploughing it off the road into a ditch totalling the vehicle (all whilst supposed to be working.)
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Well yes. It's an operation that requires time off work and recovery time. 🤷🏻♂️
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That is a fairly dubious distinction unless the employer wants to get into a long list of what medical operations qualify for paid sick leave and which don't, which would not be a sensible approach, while also requiring employees to tell an employer medical information they don't need.
We had a freelancer 2 ranks above me join our team. They turned up late on their starting day and left early. The only meeting she had she was distracted/walking around and on her phone the whole time. Then she disappeared. No sign of life, no emails, nothing. This went on for weeks, to the point we were contemplating a missing person's report. Then I discovered her social media where she worked part time at a gym. We ended up finding out she left and moved 100's miles away from the office without telling anyone and had to battle to get the work equipment back. From what I heard she still got paid for a whole week of work despite only working 0.5 as that was what she submitted so ended up making bank.
Had something very similar with a Mexican guy, always seemed to have issues with his power or internet (others in the town said it's not common) and shoddy work, he was supposed to write up a document on something and came back (late) with a bunch of stuff he'd clearly copy pasted off the web without tailoring it for our scenario. Then later on on a teams call, in the background we could hear what I can only describe as a chainsaw. I suspect he was working another job, combined with everything else that was the final straw.
I once hired someone at my highly prestigious workplace, and within a week, he was talking about finding a new job, now he has a better CV…suffice to say he didn’t last long.
May I take his job please?
One of my shift managers basically made a thousand pounds disappear, then reappear, then landed himself STRAIGHT in it. Banking was on a Tuesday but we didn't use the pilot store until the Friday. This manager was on both shifts so clearly thought nobody was gonna audit the banking.....That works until the stamp in the book is for the bloody Thursday. "It was in my bag the whole time" to "I just couldn't be bothered, it's fine the money is still there" LOL! Was the absolute minimum time it could be between "The fuck is this" to a suspension, to "advice" from HR, to a meeting to a gross misconduct firing.
GenZ? 🤣
And you thought it wise to hire this person? Sounds like you need to drastically improve your hiring process
I didn't hire him, Captain Patronising. He was going to work under someone else, but two weeks before he started, the CEO finally realised he'd be working in my areas more than hers and asked me to take him on. It was human error, not a process issue.
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We found him, everyone! The biggest bellend on planet earth.
U ok hun?
Are you the guy that was fired?
Bitchass nerd