Immature co-worker

LegacyUser

I'm working in a multi national in Dublin over a year now. Good job, good teammates, it's fine.

They hire lots of foreign staff for language skills and one of my teammates is Spanish. Now I don't know what's acceptable in Spain but am I overreacting here?

He sends me texts about random stupid things close to midnight. Like a text "don't be late for work!!!!" He also calls and wakes me up. I got woken at 11:40pm last night, read the text and dozed off again and got woken by calls at 12:09. I work normal office hours, he does late shift and finishes around 8pm. I never reply to the texts or answer the calls.

I told him multiple times in work in person and by email to cut it out but getting nowhere. I threatened to go to HR every time too. The lad is 27,you'd think he is 9 years old with prank calls.

Always with the messing and inappropriate actions. The girls in the office think he is a creep with the weird emails he sends. He offended a girl this week by emailing about spiking drinks and having his way with her at our upcoming Christmas dinner.

People laugh him off, nobody takes him seriously and nobody will ever report anything. The office clown. I can have a laugh and banter with anyone, I do chat with the lad and I remember giving some grief about Spanish stealing Irish fish, that sort nonsense realy or laughing at him when he got rejected for a medical card. I probably also said "coming in here, taking ur jabs", the sort of stuff you'd find in After Hours. All said in a friendly manner as a joke.

If I go to HR here I start a process I cannot stop. Is there a way to deal with this without going to HR. We have the same teamleader and manager but they are very stressed and I don't want to land them with this. And I fear any comments I said months ago about the lad "taking jobs" would be thrown back at me.

How do I get a co worker to stop contacting me after office hours? He means nothing bad and there is malice in what he does, it's just all inappropriate and costing me sleep

Not that it makes any difference I am full time permanent and he is on a six month contract

tinkerbell

You've already asked him to stop texting or calling you. He has not listened. The next step is to involve your manager - tell your manager the facts and request that the manager speaks to this weirdo. If that doesn't work, you'll have to go to HR.

Regarding the calls, have you got a smartphone? You can get apps that can blocks numbers, I think. Can you not switch your phone on silent at night and just have it set up so that only a list of contacts like your parents, partner, etc, can contact you if there is an emergency as he phone will ring as normal - you can do that with a smartphone.

HOWEVER ..... Then you mention the email he sent a colleague ... eh that is completely screwed up ..... He's saying he wants to spike her drinks at the Christmas party so that he can have his way? My reading of that is that this guy has said he'd basically like to rape her? OP, forget the normal process here of giving this guy a chance before taking the formal route. If I was that girl,I d be forwarding on that email to her manager, his manager and HR. Normal people don't say fcked up things like that !!! He could do anything at the office party ....

LuckyLloyd

Don't delete the texts or the call logs, as you may be asked to produce the evidence. Ask for some time with your manager and explain the situation and they can take it from there.

Merkin

He sounds like he could have mental health problems. You absolutely need to report this to your team manager. Important that his inappropriate behaviour is documented so at least he can be issued with a warning and then it can be escalated to HR if needs be if he doesn't cop on to himself.

Approach this colleague and ask if they would be willing to approach HR over that email. Not only would it come across as sleazy, it would be considered as an unwanted sexual approach, and he is essentially saying that he'll rape her - joke or not, that kind of carry on is not acceptable whatsoever. I would imagine HR would take a pretty dim view to it.

iusedtoknow

I worked in Spain for close on 7 years - this isn't normal for Spain - Everyone was very respectful of personal space and time. Close friends sure would text late at night but this would be CLOSE friends, not even work mates - the most would be an email or something , but never a text.

Keep everything, talk to your manager about it and then involve HR if necessary. Your manager should deal with this first, but they may feel the need to get HR involved.

TwoGallants

I live in Spain too and this isn't Spanish culture. Every country has its share of whackjobs, just because he's Spanish...

LegacyUser

OP here and I think this is resolved

Had a meeting with the team leader and printed off screenshots from my phone so there was backup.The team leader asked me not to go to HR as once that process starts then management get involved and the lad would be sacked and he felt that would be harsh. So I let him deal with it promising I'd skip him and go to HR there was a repeat.

It's a large multi national, I read the handbook and HR have processes for exactly this sort of thing. All very serious reading in that handbook

The team leader then pulled himself into a meeting where it was discussed. I got an apology by email and no prank calls or stupid texts since. Well it's only been one night.

Regarding the girl who got an email about spiking drinks well I'm not reporting that on her behalf, that's realy for her to deal with I think. I can help but I'm not approaching over it

Thanks for replies