Professional Darwinism: Update to OP on p.74

[geekette]

This hit the media last week.  A state employee (not my department, but Human Services) left their work laptop in their car and it was stolen.   

All of our state laptops are locked so that if you have not logged into it using a hardwired campus connection before trying to use it away from campus, you cannot log into it at all. Which is a bit of a pain, when one of your colleagues has taken the laptop you usually use, so that you have to take the time to crawl under your desk, disconnect your cable from your tower, and plug it into the laptop... but it does give us a little security so that if your laptop is stolen it will do the thief very little good. I suppose the thief could still eject the flashdrive and put it into another computer, though. But then, I don't carry anything more confidential than student papers on mine. And God knows that NO ONE wants to read those...

I absolutely shouldn't admit this, but...
One of the first events I coordinated at my current job involved a group of very bright high schoolers from a variety of backgrounds (read that as...at least 50% were from troubled backgrounds, and of those, a good 25% of the troubled ones were in 'alternate' school programs because of problems, many having arrest/gang histories).  The kids were great but something (I have no idea what) came up and I had to have a room to warehouse these kids for 20 minutes while we dealt with the crisis.

I herded them into a room that is similar to a library space--big room, desks, chairs, about 5 computers.  I left a few adults (not as many as I would have liked, but adults) in there with them, they weren't unattended. After the 20 minutes, they headed on their way--no harm no foul

The following week, I got complaints that the computers in the room didn't work. 
The little scamps had, without attracting any attention, cracked the cases, pulled out the component parts that had resale value, and sealed them back up again (at least mostly).

No PD because I could never prove who did it (couldn't even prove it was that group of kids, although we all knew it was likely).  To bad we didn't know who they were, my IT guy said that he was impressed as heck with how much they could do in 20 minutes

And that is why the computers at the school and university I attended had great big padlocks going through the corner, so that they sealed the sides of the case together. Too bad it leaves such an ugly looking hole.


With Easter this week, my work will be running on skeleton staff. Several of the staff who didn't get the week off are newbies, and so their manager asked another manager to keep and eye on them while he wasn't there in case they had trouble.
Said second manager then tried to convince the newbies that they were going to be working on his pet project that week, instead of the work their own manager had allocated. He wasn't happy when the newbies went to their own manager to confirm this. A third manager will be helping them out if needed, instead.

[ladyknight1]

Our staff member that no called, no showed for three weeks then has been on extended leave was given an ultimatum. Either the staff member would come back today and be in their office at the appointed time or they would resign.

They resigned.

This particular staff member has not worked one day since August 20th. 8 months, and it has been unpaid leave. Now we can hire a replacement.

[darling]

Our staff member that no called, no showed for three weeks then has been on extended leave was given an ultimatum. Either the staff member would come back today and be in their office at the appointed time or they would resign.

They resigned.

This particular staff member has not worked one day since August 20th. 8 months, and it has been unpaid leave. Now we can hire a replacement.

Wha??? Wow...

[ladyknight1]

Bureaucracy makes it very difficult to actually force people out of a job.

[becktheriddler]

Actually, just posting for the updates. I love this thread.

[weeblewobble]

My brother, Ted, turned this one in for his coworker.  His coworker, Ashley, applied and lobbied for the chance to attend an extended professional development training (think several weeks at the company's national headquarters in a big city, several hundred miles from her home.) And when she arrived, immediately started complaining about the training program, how she didn't think she was getting anything out of it, she was homesick, etc.  So as part of their training, the trainees are expected to help run a weekend event for the company. Ashley just didn't show up.  The program coordinators were very concerned and called her cell multiple times to make sure she was OK, but she never picked up.

On Monday, Ashley came into training and her supervisors asked 1) why she didn't attend the mandatory weekend event and 2) why she didn't pick up her phone when they called.  Her response? I didn't think it was reasonable for you to mandate a weekend event, so I went home for the weekend to visit my family.  And I didn't pick up my phone because it was the weekend and you don't have the right to my time on the weekend.  She then told them that her family had encouraged here to quite the training program, which she was doing immediately.  She only came back to pick up all of her stuff.

Ted doubts very much that Ashley will have any opportunity for advancement or extra training after this.

[Amara]

^ ^ ^ Why would she still have a job???

[VorFemme]

That was about the worst way to quit a job that I ever heard of.  She did quite a number on making it very, very hard to get any kind of a reference or another job after that stunt...

[weeblewobble]

^ ^ ^ Why would she still have a job???

Sorry, that last line was my unclear, smart aleck way of saying she'll probably be fired.

[Seraphim]

My Dad told me a great one this weekend.

The PA for one of the government organisations he works with was very lazy. Her managers and co-workers were used to having to pick up the slack and eventually all her duties excluding answering the phones and sorting the mail were reassigned.

As Madam-Lazy-bones was a government employee, and a minority as well, she was pretty much untouchable. That is until the day her boss walked in and caught her shredding unopened mail.

You see, even though all her day entailed was opening mail and answering phones, it was just too stressful for her. So Madam-Lazy-bones was just feeding the mail into the shredder as it came in the office. Cheques, invoices, statements, notarized documents, all being fed into the shredder. She was fired on the spot.

In the aftermath her coworkers had to call as many suppliers and customers as they could and get new payments etc sent in. This is when it was discovered that Madam-Lazy-bones wasn't answering the phones either. She would just let it go to voice mail and delete the entire inbox unread as soon as it filled up.

When IT went in to clear her computer they noticed that in a 38 hour work week, Madam-Lazy-bones was spending on average 35-39 hours a week on various online dating/friends with benefits chat sites.

Lovely. 

[PastryGoddess]

My Dad told me a great one this weekend.

The PA for one of the government organisations he works with was very lazy. Her managers and co-workers were used to having to pick up the slack and eventually all her duties excluding answering the phones and sorting the mail were reassigned.

As Madam-Lazy-bones was a government employee, and a minority as well, she was pretty much untouchable. That is until the day her boss walked in and caught her shredding unopened mail.

You see, even though all her day entailed was opening mail and answering phones, it was just too stressful for her. So Madam-Lazy-bones was just feeding the mail into the shredder as it came in the office. Cheques, invoices, statements, notarized documents, all being fed into the shredder. She was fired on the spot.

In the aftermath her coworkers had to call as many suppliers and customers as they could and get new payments etc sent in. This is when it was discovered that Madam-Lazy-bones wasn't answering the phones either. She would just let it go to voice mail and delete the entire inbox unread as soon as it filled up.

When IT went in to clear her computer they noticed that in a 38 hour work week, Madam-Lazy-bones was spending on average 35-39 hours a week on various online dating/friends with benefits chat sites.

Lovely. 

The jaw drop smileys jaw cannot drop far enough to adequately convey my shock at this person's actions.  WHO. DOES. THAT???

[pierrotlunaire0]

She shredded the mail?!?!?!?  The voice messages are bad enough, but the mail?  Legal documents and checks.

This is not professional Darwinism.  This is someone with an intense anger towards her employer.

[Hillia]

The county treasurer where I live was found to have several hundred thousand dollars worth of undeposited checks stashed in various places around her office.  Political appointees don't often work out well.

[Ginger G]

I had to terminate a man with 16 years with the company this morning due to an inappropriate relationship between him and a female employee he supervised.  Even worse, both employees are married.  It wasn't just the inappropriate relationship, he lied repeatedly when we started investigating.  She eventually admitted it, but even knowing that, he continued to lie and say there wasn't anything going on.  He finally admitted it when confronted with pages and pages of emails between them that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.  Emails that they sent on company computers on company time.  The female employee had told me that he thought he had a way to permantly delete the emails.  He was wrong.

[knitwicca]

Speaking of applicants, some people really not know how to behave when looking for employment.

At my former job I was reception and it was baffling the number of people coming in for interviews who were flat out rude to me, either on the phone prior or in person at the interview. Don't you realize the second you hang up/leave I'm going to go over to the person who interviewed you and say, "I did not like him, he was disrespectful" and they're immediately going to toss your application in the trash? Be nice to the lowest person on the totem pole, it matters.

Any time I'm in a position to mentor students or young workers, that's always always the information I pass on. (I usually say "secretaries rule the world." ) Anyone who treats my staff poorly, I will know about it and it will affect my opinion of you. Support staff are hugely important and can make your life so much easier or so much harder after you're hired too! Always maintain a good relationship.

In my past, I have been a receptionist at a few different jobs.
People who were deliberately rude often were put on hold....permanently.