Worst employee you have ever worked with?

bobwilliams · 10-02-2013 02:05PM

Arciphel wrote: »

Even in the private sector it can be very difficult to fire someone, it takes a year usually to gather everything you need in terms of written and verbal warnings and negative performance reviews. Of course I am talking here about someone who doesn't make it easy by doing something that falls under the umbrella of gross negligence it something like that.

how can you say usually? every case is different,if a person is taking the complete pish they would be out the door in a month or 2 easy.

B0jangles · 10-02-2013 02:06PM

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

I see the difference but you miss my point. Im not saying that all men are good workers or that all women are bad workers, Im saying that a huge number of male managers of female workers look the other way when they dont pull their weight because they are either too weak to discipline them, they dont want the hassle of it, or they tend to just ignore it and hope the other members (others both male AND female) will pick up the slack, its very common.

Have you any (non-anecdotal) evidence whatsoever to back this theory up?

ArtSmart · 10-02-2013 02:07PM

I'm beginning to see the difficult employee alright.

spankysue · 10-02-2013 02:12PM

I worked in a pharmaceutical factory years ago with a guy who was dangerously incompetent. We were doing visual inspection for tablets and the amount of unhygienic things I caught him doing were ridiculous.

He never used to wash his hands, used to re-use his gloves all day long, used to take off his hairnet when it pleased him and no matter how many times it was said to him, he just couldn't grasp basic hygiene skills.

The worst one was when I was inspecting with him one day and he had a cold, he picked a tablet up off the machine, blew on it, then tried to put it back on the belt until I stopped him. The tablets were going to people with kidney problems so ya know, their immune system was probably low as it was and this dope, (with his cold) tries to infect a whole barrel.

miamee · 10-02-2013 02:15PM

Wanderer2010, out of interest in your experience are these "weak bosses" mostly male or female? You didn't say.

Back on topic, used to work in a company where the office staff were 100% female so when a male credit controller was hired we were all excited for a new office dynamic. He got on great with most if the staff and he and I got on particularly well. Sound fella, I thought. About 4 or 5 months after he started he was just gone one day. Turns out he had a drawer full of cheques he'd never lodged and had basically done nothing since he got there and had been fired. The finance manager never bothered checking up on him despite constantly checking female staff's work. Yer man could have screwed up the whole company, very small company. It took the others quite a while to 'clean up' after him.

So yeah, that finance manager who was more excited about having a golf buddy than a member of staff who knew what he was doing was a numpty.

jammywammy · 10-02-2013 02:16PM

spankysue wrote: »

I worked in a pharmaceutical factory years ago with a guy who was dangerously incompetent. We were doing visual inspection for tablets and the amount of unhygienic things I caught him doing were ridiculous.

He never used to wash his hands, used to re-use his gloves all day long, used to take off his hairnet when it pleased him and no matter how many times it was said to him, he just couldn't grasp basic hygiene skills.

The worst one was when I was inspecting with him one day and he had a cold, he picked a tablet up off the machine, blew on it, then tried to put it back on the belt until I stopped him. The tablets were going to people with kidney problems so ya know, their immune system was probably low as it was and this dope, (with his cold) tries to infect a whole barrel.

Uggghhhhhhh yuck

tonycascarino · 10-02-2013 02:19PM

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

In the end she was just left alone to do nothing..

I wish I had that job

GalwayGuy2 · 10-02-2013 02:31PM

Jesus, what does Gender have to do with this:S

Anyway, I think I was the worst employee in my first job:o

token101 · 10-02-2013 02:35PM

It's not just one employee, there seems to be like a stereotypical type of moron in every company for almost every occasion. The people who hand you cards for every employee leaving and expect money. "Hey, John from risk management, you know the guy who was responsible for getting a kettle with a foot long, unpourable spout because hot water is a health hazard? The guy who's got such a low opinion of his colleagues he tethers the knives to the kitchen counter? He's leaving here's his card everyone's giving 2 euro". Nah, I'm ok thanks.

Or the staff who send text speak emails with ridiculous requests. "Hi hun, cn u plz cum 2 my desk n tell me hw i set up a mailin list? thnx bbz". No, I can't 'cum' over there, I'd be fired and likely jailed.

thebostoncrab · 10-02-2013 02:35PM

Used to work with a guy who often fell asleep at his desk, would sometime watch the 90s Spider-Man cartoon on his phone instead of working and when inputting data on locations, wouldn't bother trying to find the real location, just something close to it.

We were all temp workers but he was never released early and always got his contract renewed because his supervisior thought he was a funny guy. Used to infuriate us that actually worked hard and surpassed targets!

Lumbo · 10-02-2013 02:42PM

bobwilliams wrote: »

how can you say usually? every case is different,if a person is taking the complete pish they would be out the door in a month or 2 easy.

Not necessarily. If its not a straight forward case of gross misconduct and the employee takes an unfair dismissal case the court will ask to see that the employer gave the employee reasonable time to improve performance, etc. Sacking someone in Ireland is a very difficult and can be an expensive business.

HondaSami · 10-02-2013 02:45PM

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Im with you there, but what made this situation really unfair was that if it was a man lazing off all day, he would have no problem demanding they get off the computer and do some work. Its a lot more common than you think- never mind the public versus private sector debate, the debate over the expectations from men and women is much more relevant. A lot of women want equal pay but not equal work, and men are never expected to goof off or be stressed.

He probably felt more comfortable talking to the men, it does not make it right.
Some men are well capable of taking time off with stress same as women imo.

I have no problem with anyone having an off day but would not be happy if it were everyday, saying that most people seem to think it's none of their business etc.

Grayson · 10-02-2013 02:52PM

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

I see the difference but you miss my point. Im not saying that all men are good workers or that all women are bad workers, Im saying that a huge number of male managers of female workers look the other way when they dont pull their weight because they are either too weak to discipline them, they dont want the hassle of it, or they tend to just ignore it and hope the other members (others both male AND female) will pick up the slack, its very common.

The diference might be what you hear about it. I know of people who have been diciplined where i work. Some of it I only hear years later. Crap might be happening about some of your coworkers, but it's confidential and they don't bother talking about it.

i71jskz5xu42pb · 10-02-2013 02:53PM

A few at current workplace

First, there is this supermodel wanna-be chick. Yeah, okay, she is pretty hot, but damn is she completely useless. The girl is constantly fixing her hair or putting on makeup. She is extremely self-centered and has never once considered the needs or wants of anyone but herself. She is as dumb as a box of rocks, and I still find it surprising that she has enough brain power to continue to breathe.

The next chick is completely the opposite. She might even be one of the smartest people on the planet. Her career opportunities are endless, and yet she is here with us. She is a zero on a scale of 1 to 10. I'm not sure she even showers, much less shaves her "womanly" parts. I think she might be a lesbian, because every time we drive by the hardware store, she moans like a cat in heat.

But the jewel of the crowd has got to be the fúcking stoner. And this guy is more than just your average pothead. In fact, he is baked before he comes to work, during work, and I'm sure after work. He probably hasn't been sober anytime in the last ten years, and he's only 22. He dresses like a beatnik throwback from the 1960's, and to make things worse, he brings his big fúcking dog to work. Every fúcking day I have to look at this huge Great Dane walk around half-stoned from the second-hand smoke. Hell, sometimes I even think it's trying to talk with its constant bellowing. Also, both of them are constantly hungry, requiring multiple stops to McDonalds and Burger King, every single fúcking day.

Anyway, I drive these rétards around in my van and we solve mysteries and shít.

missingtime · 10-02-2013 02:59PM

Pet peeve of mine is people who don't put a subject in the subject bar.

spankysue · 10-02-2013 03:01PM

Raegan Drab Earthquake wrote: »

A few at current workplace

First, there is this supermodel wanna-be chick. Yeah, okay, she is pretty hot, but damn is she completely useless. The girl is constantly fixing her hair or putting on makeup. She is extremely self-centered and has never once considered the needs or wants of anyone but herself. She is as dumb as a box of rocks, and I still find it surprising that she has enough brain power to continue to breathe.

The next chick is completely the opposite. She might even be one of the smartest people on the planet. Her career opportunities are endless, and yet she is here with us. She is a zero on a scale of 1 to 10. I'm not sure she even showers, much less shaves her "womanly" parts. I think she might be a lesbian, because every time we drive by the hardware store, she moans like a cat in heat.

But the jewel of the crowd has got to be the fúcking stoner. And this guy is more than just your average pothead. In fact, he is baked before he comes to work, during work, and I'm sure after work. He probably hasn't been sober anytime in the last ten years, and he's only 22. He dresses like a beatnik throwback from the 1960's, and to make things worse, he brings his big fúcking dog to work. Every fúcking day I have to look at this huge Great Dane walk around half-stoned from the second-hand smoke. Hell, sometimes I even think it's trying to talk with its constant bellowing. Also, both of them are constantly hungry, requiring multiple stops to McDonalds and Burger King, every single fúcking day.

Anyway, I drive these rétards around in my van and we solve mysteries and shít.

Yeah I know how you feel, I work with this insufferable pr1ck who wears a cravat every day. I've had many a daydream where I'm strangling him with it, then throwing him out the back of the van as it's moving.

ArtSmart · 10-02-2013 03:27PM

Raegan Drab Earthquake wrote: »

A few at current workplace

First, there is this supermodel wanna-be chick. Yeah, okay, she is pretty hot, but damn is she completely useless. The girl is constantly fixing her hair or putting on makeup. She is extremely self-centered and has never once considered the needs or wants of anyone but herself. She is as dumb as a box of rocks, and I still find it surprising that she has enough brain power to continue to breathe.

The next chick is completely the opposite. She might even be one of the smartest people on the planet. Her career opportunities are endless, and yet she is here with us. She is a zero on a scale of 1 to 10. I'm not sure she even showers, much less shaves her "womanly" parts. I think she might be a lesbian, because every time we drive by the hardware store, she moans like a cat in heat.

But the jewel of the crowd has got to be the fúcking stoner. And this guy is more than just your average pothead. In fact, he is baked before he comes to work, during work, and I'm sure after work. He probably hasn't been sober anytime in the last ten years, and he's only 22. He dresses like a beatnik throwback from the 1960's, and to make things worse, he brings his big fúcking dog to work. Every fúcking day I have to look at this huge Great Dane walk around half-stoned from the second-hand smoke. Hell, sometimes I even think it's trying to talk with its constant bellowing. Also, both of them are constantly hungry, requiring multiple stops to McDonalds and Burger King, every single fúcking day.

Anyway, I drive these rétards around in my van and we solve mysteries and shít.

he he he. ye had me all the way. ye bollix

tritium · 10-02-2013 03:28PM

Probably the psycho i worked with a few years ago. Sexual predator and a violent drunk with an alcohol problem. Turned out he'd left a previous job after committing a violent assault. He eventually left us just before he was facing the sack for similar. Unfortunately for him some of his sexual shenanigans made their way to his missus before he left. Oh how we laughed

Augmerson · 10-02-2013 04:00PM

Used to work with this extremely passive-aggressive girl, I don't know what the story was. When customers asked her about stock, she told them to ask at another desk (basically she didn't know but wasn't too keen on trying to find out either) and when I would ask her for help to do something, she would glare at me and just say no. Needless to say, this girl didn't stay very long with us. Maybe it was because she was young or her background was well off and she didn't get the idea of having to work, I dunno.

I hope that people don't think this thread is forming a bias because a lot of replies are about women. I've certainly no bias against women in the work place and I've worked with as many lads who were just as useless but she was harmful and really stuck in my head afterwards.

Cantona's Collars · 10-02-2013 04:11PM

Worked with an alcoholic,he had drink stashed everywhere & looked for every opportunity to get out of sight of his co-workers to have a quick sip.Caught him stealing drink from a shop one day,he got the sack shortly after.A supervisor spotted him hiding a bottle of vodka in the store room,went to investigate & found booze everywhere.

Another guy was simply the laziest human I've ever met & came up with every excuse not to do any kind of work.His best was that "it was too windy",all he had to do was get out of the truck to move a machine.

apache · 10-02-2013 04:16PM

worked with an absolute horrible specimen of a human being. he was always drunk and obnoxious and abused everybody. people hung out with him - i don't know why.
he shat himself a few times he was so drunk. he didn't even care.
he still works there but things are a bit stricter now. the amount of times people covered for him. even the bosses covered for him. why why why?

DebDynamite · 10-02-2013 04:17PM

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

I see the difference but you miss my point. Im not saying that all men are good workers or that all women are bad workers, Im saying that a huge number of male managers of female workers look the other way when they dont pull their weight because they are either too weak to discipline them, they dont want the hassle of it, or they tend to just ignore it and hope the other members (others both male AND female) will pick up the slack, its very common.

So those huge numbers of male managers are also not doing their job properly, so are therefore just as incompetent as the female workers they manage?

username123 · 10-02-2013 04:24PM

I worked with a weird psychotic guy once. I was actually a bit frightened of him. He would talk about weird stuff as though it were normal, things like how when he went camping he **** in a plastic bag or how he and his partner used to deliberately try to torment her ex husband.

He used to come to work reeking of alcohol, and always arrived in a mad dash, a few minutes late, and then would take a 10 minute smoke break once an hour - even when he quit. He would frequently sleep at the desk too.

But the scariest part was that he would periodically jump up from his desk and run over to where the coat rack was, search frantically in his coat, take out a thick folded up piece of paper, turn it round for ages, unfolding and searching, find a blank spot, and scribble furiously, then spend time refolding and turning it over in his hands. One day it was on the floor by the coats, and I bent to pick it up, he saw I had bent down, knocked over a chair to get to me and grabbed it off me like I was trying to steal it, but not before Id glanced my own name among the scribbles. I dont know what was written but it was the scribbling of a madman.

Another day I was called over to his desk by the boss and while pointing something out on the screen I noticed a post it note with my home address written on it in his handwriting on his desk - this I immediately pointed out, in front of the boss and he made some excuse about finding it on the floor.

I think the last straw was when he kept fiddling at his desk drawer and he went home one day and the drawer was left open half an inch, naturally I glanced inside and there was a voice activated dictaphone so that he could record our conversations when he wasnt there. Worse, under it, there was a list in the drawer with every staff members name written on it and a list of scary personal comments under each name.

He was there for years, did no work, caused a lot of problems, generated a lot of fear and hatred, but the boss hated confrontation and just pretended it wasnt happening. It also turned out his entire CV was made up and he had no actual professional qualifications. Eventually he got made redundant due to the recession.

Wanderer2010 · 10-02-2013 04:24PM

^ Yeah pretty much but they have no problem pulling men up on problems, which makes them not only incompetent but also inequal.

woodoo · 10-02-2013 04:27PM

A guy where i work is a big save the environment type of guy and he never flushes the toilet. Not even after a number 2. You could arrive into the toilet after him and be greeted with yellow water and a turd staring up at you... disgusting

Oh hai · 10-02-2013 04:35PM

ArtSmart wrote: »

he he he. ye had me all the way. ye bollix

And me ha ha! Totally fell for it! Funny fecker!

Lunni · 10-02-2013 04:41PM

Funny you should ask.

I work with a woman who might be the most annoying colleague in the world. She moans about anything and everything and has done since the beginning. Everything that comes out of her mouth is one long stream of negativity. At the beginning, I used to try to jolly her along and change the subject but I got so worn down that I ended up just nodding and agreeing or moaning myself. More of that later. She's just a ghastly person, one of those people who notices EVERY flaw in everyone else and thinks they themselves are perfect. She called another colleague rude for coming in and putting a paper on her desk without saying anything (she was in the middle of a conversation with me - I imagine he was trying to be polite by not interrupting!), she accused me of ignoring her by walking past her at the train station, when I genuinely never saw her standing there (and if she saw me, why didn't she say hello?

) and best of all was the time she accused our boss of being a paedophile for smiling at a child. This was when I realised she was definitely a complete and utter lunatic as well as a nasty piece of work.

She ended up getting really jealous and bitter when I was given Fridays off (unpaid) due to a health issue and started ranting at me that I was rude and unfriendly, and best of all, that I was really negative and never stopped complaining. I just stood there, stunned, and said 'you think I'm negative and you're not?' And she said yes. I just couldn't believe that I'd spent the last 4 months trying my best to be friendly and listening to her ridiculous rants and lunatic ravings and now she was trying to make out that I was in the wrong.

I hate her so much that I just handed in my notice last week. It was so hard for me to do because I quite like the job and the kids I teach but she's such a toxic, horrid person that she brought me down and made me feel sh*t all the time. It's been such a horrible experience that I'm considering becoming a freelance teacher/writer and doing away with colleagues altogether.

branie · 10-02-2013 04:50PM

Not on a job, but when I was on a training course years ago, one of my colleagues would interrupt with questions while the instructor was speaking. She had to be corrected several times.

Niles · 10-02-2013 04:53PM

Had a Christmas job years ago in well known retail firm (so obviously not public sector). We were told that the best performer would get kept on. I'd like to think that most of us were hard working, but there was one who went out of their way to find an 'easy' task to do everytime there was a heavy job on hand. They were given extra hours to come in and do the supervisors work when not he was off, yet would regularly still have nothing ready by the time the rest of us came in. Naturally the full time job was given to him. Turns out he was friends with the supervisor all along. And people associate nepotism with the public sector...

In contrast, as a student I had summer jobs in the public sector, and some of the people I worked alongside are the some of the most dedicated, hardworking people I've ever met. So it irks me a little when you see posts branding the public sector as lazy and overpaid.

juan.kerr · 10-02-2013 05:56PM

apache wrote: »

he shat himself a few times he was so drunk. he didn't even care.

Sharts or full sh*ts? He sounds obnoxious.

Worst employee you have ever worked with?

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