Simple? Never
Recently an employee of our company quit. While it actually came as no surprise, the way he went about it did.
From the beginning I must say I had a hard time figuring him out. This guy demanded that people give him respect but he had very little for anyone else or even himself. The smallest presumed slight would set him off but he would shrug of any mention that he had disrespected other employees or customers. We had our share of problems with him in the past but since even bad employees in his position are hard to find, we always tried to work it out. I admit that was a mistake on my part.
His biggest infraction was missing work, 13 sick days this year alone. He had failed a drug test after a work related accident, he took personal calls on his cell phone continuously and had a habit of disappearing on service calls . All of this was brought to his attention numerous times.
Despite all of this he recently came to our shop foreman and asked for a raise. When he was told raises are earned and he needed to do some changing, he became one unhappy camper. He immediately went on a campaign to sour all the employees concerning their wages. Hoping an employee revolt would score him a raise if everybody else received one. Of course I didn't know this was going on at the time. Luckily the rest of our employees are mostly satisfied and didn't want to be associated with this guy.
Then the beginning of the end. Two weeks ago he called in sick on two days he knew we would be short handed. There was no way to know if he was truly sick. When he returned to work on Friday he came in happy as a lark. As I was getting my morning coffee he approached me.
Employee: I know your pissed at me for missing two days
Me: I'm not pissed, you have miss a lot of days but you were sick, right?
No, I just had somethings to take care of. I set up my house closing and found out my girlfriend is pregnant.
I admit I was caught off guard with him lying about not being sick and the announcement of his first child in the same breath. He then followed me to my office and explained how he was frustrated with his pay and didn't come to work because he was mad about it. I again explained while he may in fact be able to make more money somewhere else, he would not have a job if he couldn't show up to work on a regular basis. Not happy with my response, he asked when he was eligible for this years vacation pay (WTF?) then he left my office leaving me to ponder what just happened. Unfortunately, my attention was quickly diverted by some network problems that frustrated me for the rest of the day.
As I have stated I'm a bit slow, so it took until the drive home for me to put together all the events to realize what was going on. Obviously an employee that boast about lying and ask for his vacation a few days before it's due is an employee about to leave. I resolved to talk to him Monday and say all the things I had neglected to say when he caught me off guard.
Well Monday came but he didn't, no call, no nothing. Tuesday went the same way. On Wednesday I received the following email from him
David sorry I haven't been in touch to let you know what is going. I just made yet another bad decision to change jobs and as I went to this other job it all fell apart. So again I left for more money and again it fell apart. Again I do apologize for the way I left, you know me the king of poor choices but I will drop my keys and uniform off by Friday. Thank you and the shop foreman for the opportunity to work with your company.
Employee
Seems he failed his drug test for the new job. Now he is unemployed with a house purchase pending in a week and a baby on the way. To make matters worse, he lives with and supports his girlfriend who has four children that are not his. Talk about karma coming back to bite you in the ass. Some may take pleasure in his demise but I find none.
I just can't understand why just leaving on good terms wasn't enough for him. Why not just give his notice and move on? Why the big set up to leave us short handed and try to harm us? Why was it so important for him to see my reaction to his lie? How could he have possibly thought we had been the cause of all his problems when it was obvious to everyone he is his own worst enemy?
He had another employee ask us if we would give him another chance. Of course the answer is no, besides the failed drug test I will always wonder what he's plotting next. Sad, because he needs a job and we need the help. Why can't things be simple?
6 comments:
Some people are just... some people.
I can tell you are consternated about the whole thing, but a vindictive drug user is a person that isn't going to make a whole lot of sense to those of us who are hard-working, responsible, and sober. Only he can fix his life... and you gave him more than enough chances to do it while remaining employed.
I'm just hoping at this point that there aren't other little surprises waiting to pop up... I hope that he wasn't able to damage your business in other ways while having his little tantrums. Might be worth the effort and time to follow up on his whereabouts and service calls those last few weeks, just to be certain.
Maybe I'm just paranoid...
Sorry you had to go through that!!
He feels the world owes him everything, talk about karma, every decision he makes is the wrong one.
If he never learns from his mistakes, which it seems he does not, he is on an overly hard road for the rest of his life. His life to live, his life to change.
You handled it fine.
I don't think you should judge him too harshly. I don't beleive it's karma either. He sounds like he's just not very clever, he doesn't deserve to be unemployed and be looking after 5 kids because he was a shit employee.
As for the lying and then admitting to lying and not leaving on good terms - it sounds like he's on some kind of self destruct mode. He's actually provoking people to act badly towards him - he called in sick many times and got no punishment, so he kept pushing and pushing still no reaction, he finally had to TELL you that he had lied to you. In some sick way he wants to be punished.
Well it looks like it's worked.
A psychologist would have a field day with him.
I wouldn't worry too much about it though. Theres only so much you can do for some people. You can't make him a good employee no matter how much you need him.
What was his actual job?
Daughter: Thanks, it has bothered me. In a small business you get closer to people than you should. Even though I figured out a long time ago that I don't go to work to make friends, you can't help but feel bad when you see people ruin their lives. Totally not my fault but I do have compassion for the people that count on him.
Yes, we had already put a stop to the extended service calls by assigning another person to the job. Your not paranoid, a mad employee can do much damage.
HB: Thanks, He feels the world owes him everything, talk about karma, every decision he makes is the wrong one. sounds like you've met him. He's 25 years old and I can honestly see him in the same situation 20 years from now.
20 Something: He is a diesel mechanic. We trained him and he left us for more money three years ago. After a year away he asked (begged) for his job back. Funny how the appreciation of getting another chance is soon forgotten.
I agree that he needs to work but until he points the finger of blame where it should be, he will lose every job he gets. He was punished for all the time he missed but he was of the mind set that if he didn't get paid for time off, what was the big deal? The big deal was he AGREED to work X amount of days a week and we scheduled business based on that agreement.
He told me about the lie not to be punished but because he thought he had another job and he thought he was untouchable.
But you're right, I couldn't make him into something he's not ready to be. A sad lesson learned.
RT - "Why can't things be simple?"
Jen - Because if things were simple they'd call this VACATION, but they don't they call it life.
;)
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