Worst work attitude you've ever witnessed

Sand · 19-07-2014 04:19PM

@partyguinness

Sounds to me like you couldn't manage to positively influence the behaviour of a 17 year old intern and had to get someone else to do it for you. The "dispute" you had with her could and should have been dealt with by you, there and then if you were such a bigshot at the firm.

That said, I generally have worked with pretty good people, so I guess I'm lucky. And I carry out the interviews and make the hiring decisions in my current job so I can continue to ensure I work with good people.

The worst attitude I've encountered was with one guy I "inherited" a couple of years ago. I was warned the guy was trouble when his team was transferred into mine. He had taken a HR case against his old management (he had gotten an average performance review with some gentle criticism - he thought it was outrageous that he wasn't considered to be absolutely brilliant), and part of the solution was him moving to my team. I still recall sitting in the first "meet and greet" session with the team and seeing first hand how much all the people working with him despised him. A real car-crash argument about he said/she said petty stuff between him and two others. I put a stop to it, but decided I'd give the guy a fair chance. He was on the surface at least, polite and wanting to improve. His two colleagues who hated him were moving to different teams, and maybe he'd improve under new management.

Long story short, I did my best to train the guy, give him new challenges to freshen things up, explained what I wanted from him (never any problem - yes, I can do that, etc), gave him criticism so he knew where he was going wrong, offered him praise to encourage improvement. But nothing seemed to work.

In his old role, he had managed to take one small task and turn into a full time job (leaving his old co-workers to carry the rest of the workload - hence the hatred). Despite that, he found it very hard to explain what the role was or to train anyone on it. I passed that role out to other team members (who got it done in an hour, tops). And he was asked to take on the same tasks as everyone else in team. He just wasn't up to it - kept on making really basic mistakes. Meanwhile team members are telling me that he wasn't pulling his weight (stats backed this - he was doing maybe a quarter of what the next person did - badly, with mistakes and errors), was difficult and unhelpful to them and was plain out lazy.

After about 6 months of the carrot approach and no improvement, and a near loss of several hundred thousand dollars thanks to his incompetence, I decided it was time to try the stick. Official meetings with him to (calmly) go over mistakes he had made, offering training and so on and basically making it clear he either had to improve or he was getting pushed out.

These rapidly escalated as the guy seemed psychologically incapable of recognising there was any problem with his performance and would flip into a full on childish refusal to even talk about an error. Several meetings ended up with him sitting arms folded, pouting, staring out of the window, refusing to talk to us (I very quickly realised I was going to need a witness with this guy). From his perspective, he seemed to truly believe he was an outstanding worker and this was all some evil plot to get him. He truly seemed to believe this - he was genuinely angry and frustrated that he was criticised. It turns out psychology papers have been written on people who are so bad at their job or a task, that they lack the ability to accurately judge how bad they really are. Really bad workers overrate themselves, top performers actually underrate themselves slightly. This guy was the former.

It ended up with this guy taking out a HR bullying claim against a colleague, then against me, then against my manager, and then against *their* manager. HR did a full investigation of his rambling, confused list of claims - all disproven, but it helped him to make the claims as it meant we couldn't manage him until we had been cleared by HR which took months. Went out on stress leave for weeks or months at a time, the usual.

The "stress" was quickly cured when the insurance company cut his payments. At the time the HR cases were still ongoing so he was put into a new area under new management doing an entirely different job. They gave him a fairly softly negative performance appraisal, and he then took out a HR bullying claim against them too! So he had 5 simultaneous bullying claims with HR, all rooted in him getting negative feedback on his performance. I don't think it ever dawned on him that if every manager you've worked with is not recognising your genius, then maybe the problem is you.

*Eventually* he was paid to PFO, but it took well over a year of antics. He should just have been sacked, but I guess it goes to show you don't need a trade union - just a toothless HR team. He was absolutely the worst performer I've ever had the displeasure of working with and I pity the poor bastards at the firm he is working in now. I actually feel sorry for him too in a way - with his behaviour and antics, he was clearly mentally disturbed. He is going to continue working entry level roles, never progressing and being frustrated at why the world doesn't recognise his genius.

Roquentin · 19-07-2014 04:26PM

Sand wrote: »

@partyguinness

Sounds to me like you couldn't manage to positively influence the behaviour of a 17 year old intern and had to get someone else to do it for you. The "dispute" you had with her could and should have been dealt with by you, there and then if you were such a bigshot at the firm.

That said, I generally have worked with pretty good people, so I guess I'm lucky. And I carry out the interviews and make the hiring decisions in my current job so I can continue to ensure I work with good people.

The worst attitude I've encountered was with one guy I "inherited" a couple of years ago. I was warned the guy was trouble when his team was transferred into mine. He had taken a HR case against his old management (he had gotten an average performance review with some gentle criticism - he thought it was outrageous that he wasn't considered to be absolutely brilliant), and part of the solution was him moving to my team. I still recall sitting in the first "meet and greet" session with the team and seeing first hand how much all the people working with him despised him. A real car-crash argument about he said/she said petty stuff between him and two others. I put a stop to it, but decided I'd give the guy a fair chance. He was on the surface at least, polite and wanting to improve. His two colleagues who hated him were moving to different teams, and maybe he'd improve under new management.

Long story short, I did my best to train the guy, give him new challenges to freshen things up, explained what I wanted from him (never any problem - yes, I can do that, etc), gave him criticism so he knew where he was going wrong, offered him praise to encourage improvement. But nothing seemed to work.

In his old role, he had managed to take one small task and turn into a full time job (leaving his old co-workers to carry the rest of the workload - hence the hatred). Despite that, he found it very hard to explain what the role was or to train anyone on it. I passed that role out to other team members (who got it done in an hour, tops). And he was asked to take on the same tasks as everyone else in team. He just wasn't up to it - kept on making really basic mistakes. Meanwhile team members are telling me that he wasn't pulling his weight (stats backed this - he was doing maybe a quarter of what the next person did - badly, with mistakes and errors), was difficult and unhelpful to them and was plain out lazy.

After about 6 months of the carrot approach and no improvement, and a near loss of several hundred thousand dollars thanks to his incompetence, I decided it was time to try the stick. Official meetings with him to (calmly) go over mistakes he had made, offering training and so on and basically making it clear he either had to improve or he was getting pushed out.

These rapidly escalated as the guy seemed psychologically incapable of recognising there was any problem with his performance and would flip into a full on childish refusal to even talk about an error. Several meetings ended up with him sitting arms folded, pouting, staring out of the window, refusing to talk to us (I very quickly realised I was going to need a witness with this guy). From his perspective, he seemed to truly believe he was an outstanding worker and this was all some evil plot to get him. He truly seemed to believe this - he was genuinely angry and frustrated that he was criticised. It turns out psychology papers have been written on people who are so bad at their job or a task, that they lack the ability to accurately judge how bad they really are. Really bad workers overrate themselves, top performers actually underrate themselves slightly. This guy was the former.

It ended up with this guy taking out a HR bullying claim against a colleague, then against me, then against my manager, and then against *their* manager. HR did a full investigation of his rambling, confused list of claims - all disproven, but it helped him to make the claims as it meant we couldn't manage him until we had been cleared by HR which took months. Went out on stress leave for weeks or months at a time, the usual.

The "stress" was quickly cured when the insurance company cut his payments. At the time the HR cases were still ongoing so he was put into a new area under new management doing an entirely different job. They gave him a fairly softly negative performance appraisal, and he then took out a HR bullying claim against them too! So he had 5 simultaneous bullying claims with HR, all rooted in him getting negative feedback on his performance. I don't think it ever dawned on him that if every manager you've worked with is not recognising your genius, then maybe the problem is you.

*Eventually* he was paid to PFO, but it took well over a year of antics. He should just have been sacked, but I guess it goes to show you don't need a trade union - just a toothless HR team. He was absolutely the worst performer I've ever had the displeasure of working with and I pity the poor bastards at the firm he is working in now. I actually feel sorry for him too in a way - with his behaviour and antics, he was clearly mentally disturbed. He is going to continue working entry level roles, never progressing and being frustrated at why the world doesn't recognise his genius.

sounds like the man in question was a narcissist. There is a lot of them suspected on this thread

InReality · 19-07-2014 04:34PM

partyguinness wrote: »

Her downfall was not that she did not assist during lunch but the back chat. She could have just kept her mouth shut and passed the message on. Hell she wasnt even being asked in the first place! It didnt matter a **** it was her lunch break.

She needed to be reminded of her role...it worked.:D

Back chat ? Keep her mouth shut ? What planet are you master of ?

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5 · 19-07-2014 04:46PM

Once worked with this woman who was just awful. It was in a café, she'd ended up getting transferred to our branch because the branch she'd originally been hired to was far busier and she had the manager's head wrecked over there. Our manager, who was a very decent woman, said she'd take her on to see how she did rather than see her get fired, seeing as our branch was smaller and quieter.

But good god she was awful. She just very clearly didn't want to be in the job and put zero effort in. Couldn't be trusted with simple things like stock rotation. She was never put on for opening, if she was on for closing the place would be a disaster the next morning, nothing put away properly, bins not done etc. At busy times, we'd all be sure that she was on wash-up and nowhere near the till or sandwich machine - she'd get flustered at the till and pretty much just charge people random amounts, get panicked at the sandwich counter and make a mess of things just to get through them quickly. If there was a health inspector or any higher-ups coming in, she'd never be rostered for those shifts.

The most annoying thing wasn't the incompetence, it was the attitude. She didn't seem to realise that we were all covering for her, she actually thought she was being taken advantage of being put on wash-up all the time and being put to jobs like cleaning out fridges and doing bins. If the manager gave out to her about things she'd be bitching to the rest of us, not knowing that the manager had saved her fcuking job. And she'd never own up to a mistake. At one point we got a new dishwasher, I must have shown her how to clean it a good four or five times. But without fail, she'd put the pieces back together wrong when she was closing (again, she was always on that job for closing, because if we'd let her near the food someone would have got poisoned, probably), meaning that when it was turned on the next morning it wouldn't heat up properly and you'd have to turn it off, leave it cool down, put it together properly and turn it on to heat up again in the middle of the morning rush - cue a massive pile of dirty pans and oven trays still sitting there at nearly eleven when they should have been done by nine. About the sixth time this happened I called her up on it, said "were you closing the dishwasher last night" "Yes." "It wasn't done right" "I definitely, definitely did it right" "Look, unless you're saying that Hannah or someone else who was here last night took it apart and put it back together wrong" "Yeah, that must have been what happened" :eek:

partyguinness · 19-07-2014 05:35PM

artful_codger wrote: »

Just admit that you were harassing her, and that you thought she was your 'slave'. She wasn't lazy or inflexible, she was Rosa Parks taking a brave stand against White Male Privilege.

Guys LMAO here, this is great stuff...where do I start!!

I love the way nobody here has addressed the bad attitude from the employee. She was asked to pass a message to one of her colleagues when he came back from lunch about certain items of stationary running low (which is part of their remit and for everyone- not just me). That's all. Nobody was asking her to get off her chair during lunch and clean boots like some posters have formed in their own little heads.

Now she turned around and said "Do it yourself" and we are not taking in a jokey office banter manner. She was absolutely serious. Has anyone else done this I wonder? I am guessing not.

Of course she has now been elevated to a poor defenceless little girl oppressed by a big bad bully with a God complex..:rolleyes:

Heavan forbide any posters should address that that point or even read my posts properly. I guess the jobsworths here with their obsecure job titles and irrelevant positions are venting their own frustration. Good luck with that guys..

Yes a 17 yr old (now 19) with a bad attitude got ****ed from a height and guess what...it never happened again and she is a far better person today for it. Rammed home a few home truths...(her words not mine). But hey, if all you keyboard warriors want to waste energy getting all indignant on her behalf...knock yourself out.

That is the nub of the anomosity here. The vast vast majority of posters here are employess with asshole bosses/mangers/directors who feel some sort of empathy with the poor oppressed girl. I am not an employee and on the other side of the fence and I guess it's open season. There is a reason I am here and you lot are down there...

Now...I am off to bang my secretary and make loadsa money on the backs of all you minions out there....:D

Money never sleeps baby....

Tarzana · 19-07-2014 05:38PM

pampootie wrote: »

Every single employee I've ever managed or worked with that went on and on about not taking lunch or working overtime for free were rubbish at their job. They'd do the extra hours alright but it was a because they were so rubbish at time management they couldn't get their job done in the allocated hours like everyone else

Sometimes this is true, but sometimes people genuinely have ridiculous workloads that nobody would get done in regular office hours.

gctest50 · 19-07-2014 05:48PM

partyguinness wrote: »

Yes a 17 yr old (now 19) with a bad attitude got ****ed from a height and guess what...it never happened again and .........

and it might have been the wrong child you picked on

Their ordeal began in December 2004 when Steve Collins’s adopted son Ryan Lee refused Dundon entry to the family’s pub, Brannigan’s, because he was with his 14-year-old sister, Annabel, at the time.
Dundon made a shape of a gun with his hand and pushed it against Lee’s face, saying “f*** you, you’re dead”.

Less than 30 minutes later, a man wearing a helmet entered Brannigan’s pub armed with a sawn-off shotgun. He singled out Lee and shot him twice, in the knee and hip.

The pub where Lee was shot was burned down by the McCarthy-Dundons as Wayne Dundon awaited trial.

partyguinness · 19-07-2014 05:49PM

geeky wrote: »

Worth noting here - I spent three years dealing with SME owners day-to-day, and I can genuinely say I met the most unprofessional, small-minded and entitled people ever in this role. There are some brilliant people, plenty of very capable and professional individuals, but so many small businesspeople are truly hateful and lazy.

Very true, I have met a few like this. Funnily enough, a lot have them have set up their own businss simply because there were unemployable and nobody else would have them.

partyguinness · 19-07-2014 05:57PM

gctest50 wrote: »

and it might have been the wrong child you picked on

Will I didnt pick on her. As everyone keeps ignoring, I simply asked her to pass a message to a guy as he was out on lunch. Obviously I crossed some line and took massive liberties...:eek:

Interestingly, they both did the same job but I intentionally requested him over her. The girl did have a bad attitude and any request was met with stroppy 17 yr old sighs, huffing and puffing bad looks etc (not just to me). So much so everyone just didnt bother engaging with her or ask her for any assistance. 'John' was far more pleasant and obliging.

'JOhn' is still there, just got a pay rise and is being sent for further education and training and is well liked. He also got a fair few bollickings.

'Mary' has left and gone to some other 'admin' role. IMO that is what she will do for the rest of her life.

After a shacky start for both of them...John is blosoming. Goes to show how valuable a good attitude is.

porsche959 · 19-07-2014 05:58PM

waraf wrote: »

Why is that a bad thing? You don't have to work your month's notice but you still get paid for it.

Also some industries' reluctance to let leaving employees working out their notice is nothing to do with "taking it personally", it's because of a fear that the employee will use the time to try to encourage clients to go with him to the new employer.

porsche959 · 19-07-2014 05:59PM

razorblunt wrote: »

Boards.is?

Is that where we sit around making Palestinean jokes?

Once worked with a guy that would dissappear for close to hour outside his lunchbreak. He was once gone for over 3 hours and came strolling casually back in the door to sit down and continue "working". When pulled up on where he was he said "I met some friends for lunch, it was a long one".

Eventually got rid of him.

You have lived a rather sheltered life if some bloke taking the odd extended lunch is the worst work attitude you have witnessed!

partyguinness · 19-07-2014 06:06PM

Tarzana wrote: »

Sometimes this is true, but sometimes people genuinely have ridiculous workloads that nobody would get done in regular office hours.

I agree. I have worked with people who didnt take lunch and worked late. But in reality they were simply making up for not focusing during working hours- day dreaming, smoke breaks, chatting etc.

On the other hand, I know people (and I am one) and their workload is simply too great and have to work to deadlines outside of their control. If you dont do the job or withing expectation, the customer simply goes elsewhere next time and then you have no business.

porsche959 · 19-07-2014 06:15PM

Roquentin wrote: »

sounds like the man in question was a narcissist. There is a lot of them suspected on this thread

The guy in the story above certainly sounds like a loony but I have worked in places where the performance management system is basically used as an excuse to bully and distract attention from lack of competence of the senior management team, i.e., keep the middle management in line.

porsche959 · 19-07-2014 06:16PM

This is interesting and somewhat relevant:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2698361/The-richest-man-world-says-working-THREE-days-week.html

groucho marx · 19-07-2014 06:25PM

How many pages later and were still on the filing cabinet :-D brilliant!
should of just opened it yourself party guinness:$

pharmaton · 19-07-2014 06:25PM

some attitude lads, woeful.

I started work on a scambridge last week, its been delightful. I've been pretty much put on post duty and I spend eight hours a day folding letters and putting them in envelopes. I'm supposed to be training for a role which I've spent the previous year studying for, but they no has password for me yet so by Wednesday I was starting to give less shíts and spent most of my not folding paper time on my fone or eating sweets just to keep myself occupied. Its a placement in the public sector so I thought I'd have plenty to keep me busy while getting some great experience and learning new things but by Friday I was practically horizontal at my desk eating hula hoops. I managed to tell a senior staff member who passed a sarcastic comment about how lovely my job is, that she too could also be this lucky for just fifty euros a week. I feel like I have the right attitude though, I'm definitely going places me.

Roquentin · 19-07-2014 06:31PM

groucho marx wrote: »

How many pages later and were still on the filing cabinet :-D brilliant!
should of just opened it yourself party guinness:$

in the words of jim lahey: hes entered a **** tornado to oz

Roquentin · 19-07-2014 06:32PM

pharmaton wrote: »

some attitude lads, woeful.

I started work on a scambridge last week, its been delightful. I've been pretty much put on post duty and I spend eight hours a day folding letters and putting them in envelopes. I'm supposed to be training for a role which I've spent the previous year studying for, but they no has password for me yet so by Wednesday I was starting to give less shíts and spent most of my not folding paper time on my fone or eating sweets just to keep myself occupied. Its a placement in the public sector so I thought I'd have plenty to keep me busy while getting some great experience and learning new things but by Friday I was practically horizontal at my desk eating hula hoops. I managed to tell a senior staff member who passed a sarcastic comment about how lovely my job is, that she too could also be this lucky for just fifty euros a week. I feel like I have the right attitude though, I'm definitely going places me.

hey man your lucky. i cant even get on a job bridge.

partyguinness · 19-07-2014 06:34PM

groucho marx wrote: »

How many pages later and were still on the filing cabinet :-D brilliant!
should of just opened it yourself party guinness:$

Yeah it's tedious.

But seriously, where do any of my posts say anything about opening filing cabinets or me on some power trip refusing to do it myself. I have tried to explain it as best as possible in clear English. That's not what happended at all!!

It's amazing what posters read and what forms in their head. Like two different versions of a car crash.

pharmaton · 19-07-2014 06:39PM

Roquentin wrote: »

hey man your lucky. i cant even get on a job bridge.

In my defense, I did a lot of legwork and spent three months chasing that particular role, contacted several areas of HR personally and made my case as it is in an area I'm still studying in. I actually did a paper on the organization itself so knew it inside out and when it came to interview I gave them the whole nine yards. I'm using the experience and completing my studies simultaneously as it has practical application but yeah...so far I feel like the Water boy in that Adam Sandler Movie. I think my final report is going to be massive though.

partyguinness · 19-07-2014 06:43PM

pharmaton wrote: »

In my defense, I did a lot of legwork and spent three months chasing that particular role, contacted several areas of HR personally and made my case as it is in an area I'm still studying in. I actually did a paper on the organization itself so knew it inside out and when it came to interview I gave them the whole nine yards. I'm using the experience and completing my studies simultaneously as it has practical application but yeah...so far I feel like the Water boy in that Adam Sandler Movie. I think my final report is going to be massive though.

Have you consider the UK? We could do some guys like you around here...will even line you up for a bolloxing if you like....and then I can post it here for the indignant masses ....:D

groucho marx · 19-07-2014 06:44PM

Roquentin wrote: »

in the words of jim lahey: hes entered a **** tornado to oz

The winds of sh!t lol

partyguinness · 19-07-2014 06:45PM

porsche959 wrote: »

This is interesting and somewhat relevant:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2698361/The-richest-man-world-says-working-THREE-days-week.html

I'm all up for 11hr per day 3 days a week but it's a problem if we are the only company doing it.

groucho marx · 19-07-2014 06:47PM

partyguinness wrote: »

Yeah it's tedious.

But seriously, where do any of my posts say anything about opening filing cabinets or me on some power trip refusing to do it myself. I have tried to explain it as best as possible in clear English. That's not what happended at all!!

It's amazing what posters read and what forms in their head. Like two different versions of a car crash.

I dont think they do I am joking. No offence meant.

Tarzana · 19-07-2014 06:54PM

pharmaton wrote: »

some attitude lads, woeful.

I started work on a scambridge last week, its been delightful. I've been pretty much put on post duty and I spend eight hours a day folding letters and putting them in envelopes. I'm supposed to be training for a role which I've spent the previous year studying for, but they no has password for me yet so by Wednesday I was starting to give less shíts and spent most of my not folding paper time on my fone or eating sweets just to keep myself occupied.

I hate Jobbridge.... but internships will involve menial labour sometimes. You've only just started! Hells, even paying jobs with titles and standing can involve menial labour. Sometimes shít just needs to get done. I don't think anyone should think themselves above that kind of work because often, in any job, there is just stuff that needs to be done and needs people of all levels not to be namby pamby about doing it.

One of my jobs was lab- and office-based, and my line manager, with 40 years experience and an incredibly stressful job, would down tools to help us clean the labs if someone was out sick or at a course or whatever and we were short-staffed.

TGJD · 19-07-2014 06:56PM

InReality wrote: »

Back chat ? Keep her mouth shut ? What planet are you master of ?

Its the big smile and that she needed to be reminded of her role part that gets me. It reeks of someone on a power trip. The big dog never has to say they are the big dog, this man seems to be trying to convince a group of strangers that he is amazing. It is not going well.

pharmaton · 19-07-2014 06:58PM

Tarzana wrote: »

I hate Jobbridge.... but internships will involve menial labour sometimes. Hells, even paying jobs with titles and standing can involve menial labour. Sometimes shít just needs to get done. I don't think anyone should think themselves above that kind of work because often, in any job, there is just stuff that needs to be done and needs people of all levels not to be namby pamby about doing it.

One of my jobs was lab- and office-based, and my line manager, with 40 years experience and an incredibly stressful job, would down tools to help us clean the labs if someone was out sick or at a course or whatever and we were short-staffed.

I very much agree, I'm not complaining really, in fact I told my supervisor how much I liked it there including a satisfied smile just to make sure she got the message. I've done far far worse things to earn my money and I know its genuinely just a matter of going through the motions til I get to the next phase of what I'm personally looking to accomplish. They haven't met my kind yet.

partyguinness · 19-07-2014 07:01PM

TGJD wrote: »

Its the big smile and that she needed to be reminded of her role part that gets me. It reeks of someone on a power trip. The big dog never has to say they are the big dog, this man seems to be trying to convince a group of strangers that he is amazing. It is not going well.

Christ lads..there isnt much wrong with ye if posts from stranagers on the tinterent 'gets' to you so much....:rolleyes:

Tarzana · 19-07-2014 07:04PM

pharmaton wrote: »

I very much agree, I'm not complaining really, in fact I told my supervisor how much I liked it there including a satisfied smile just to make sure she got the message. I've done far far worse things to earn my money and I know its genuinely just a matter of going through the motions til I get to the next phase of what I'm personally looking to accomplish. They haven't met my kind yet.

Give it time, it sounds like you've only been there a couple of weeks! Now, you could be right, and it could just turn out to be a complete crock of shít. But just make sure to do all you can to make more out of it. Be enthusiastic. If that doesn't work, at least you can say "Well, I tried!"

I applied for a non-Jobbridge internship a few weeks back and they were very upfront about the fact that there would be a lot of envelope-stuffing! :pac:

TGJD · 19-07-2014 07:04PM

partyguinness wrote: »

Christ lads..there isnt much wrong with ye if posts from stranagers on the tinterent 'gets' to you so much....:rolleyes:

I mean gets more in a humourous sense than anger. But no, thankfully I must admit there isn't much wrong with me at all. Life is pretty sweet for me these days.

Worst work attitude you've ever witnessed

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