Professional Darwinism: Update to OP on p.74

[kokopellimom]

About 18 years ago I worked for a veterinarian as a vet tech. Everyone who worked there had keys to the office, as we all needed to be able to get in if called in for an emergency.

One Sunday, I got a call to come assist on an emergency (dog run over by a car), and arrived at the same time as the vet. We were surprised to see the car belonging to "Mike", one of the guys who worked in the kennel, as it was late evening on Sunday, and Mike should have been long gone. Our patient had not arrived yet, so we went inside to turn on equipment and get things ready for their arrival. When I turned on the lights in the surgery room, I found Mike, stretched out on the floor insensible, next to the anesthesia mask. 

Needless to say, Mike was fired, and the vet called the police, who escorted him from the premises. I can't recall if he was prosecuted or not - it's been too long. I do remember that the dog survived!

[Doll Fiend]

I can't recall if he was prosecuted or not - it's been too long. I do remember that the dog survived!

I love how you remembered the most important part.

[BabyMama]

I'll add a few more:

*A contract employee got caught sleeping on the job by my supervisor's boss.  Needless to say, that guy isn't working here now.

I never get why people think this is okay. A couple years ago I posted here about a coworker who had fallen asleep at her desk at least twice (she was drooling and snoring at one point), and was telling people about it like it was funny. The consensus here, if I remember correctly, was that, well, it wasn't affecting YOUR work and she was pregnant so give her a break. I still don't think this is okay.

[kitty_ev]

When I turned on the lights in the surgery room, I found Mike, stretched out on the floor insensible, next to the anesthesia mask.

Egads that's dangerous!

[kingsrings]

My mother once worked a long-term temp job that she was hoping would lead to a permanent position. Eventually, she was told by the employer that they were going to hire someone else because that lady was much more qualified than my mom was. Apparently, what impressed this employer was that this woman had worked as an assistant for a very well-known financial big-wig. So the woman starts the job my mom had, with my mom assisting her in training as needed. The woman had to look up something on the Internet, and she called to my mom desperately for help. The problem? She had no idea how to navigate through the website. She didn’t know how to scroll up and down the pages, back and forth, through the pages. She had no computer skills what so ever! And this woman was chosen because she was much more qualified than my mother….. My mother figured that because this big-wig was so big, he probably had many assistants, and thus they each worked very specific jobs. This woman had a job that somehow didn’t involve computers.

[kitty_ev]

My mother once worked a long-term temp job that she was hoping would lead to a permanent position. Eventually, she was told by the employer that they were going to hire someone else because that lady was much more qualified than my mom was. Apparently, what impressed this employer was that this woman had worked as an assistant for a very well-known financial big-wig. So the woman starts the job my mom had, with my mom assisting her in training as needed. The woman had to look up something on the Internet, and she called to my mom desperately for help. The problem? She had no idea how to navigate through the website. She didn’t know how to scroll up and down the pages, back and forth, through the pages. She had no computer skills what so ever! And this woman was chosen because she was much more qualified than my mother….. My mother figured that because this big-wig was so big, he probably had many assistants, and thus they each worked very specific jobs. This woman had a job that somehow didn’t involve computers.

Did your mom continue to train this new lady or did she tactfully mention to her employer that the new recruit had no IT skills whatsoever?

[Nannerdoman]

*One girl was overheard telling a customer "What do you want me to do, hold your hand?".  Keep in mind this is a tech support help line.

Maybe she had one of the customers from Unsupportable:

http://www.customerssuck.com/index.php?categoryid=18
http://www.customerssuck.com/index.php?categoryid=19

My favorite Professional Darwinism story is a cautionary tale told to all ALTs entering Japan.  Japan has very, extremely strict drug laws.  Stuff that will get you a slap on the wrist in America will get you jail time in Japan.  Every ALT from any country who enters Japan is informed of this and told not only to stay away from drugs yourself, but to steer clear of anyone you know is doing drugs, since you can and will be brought in for questioning simply for having in your cell phone the number of someone who got caught with drugs.  You are lectured, you're told being caught with drugs (not even arrested) is grounds for immediate dismissal, you're made to sign a contract, etc.  In other words, there's no shades of gray about it.

Yeah, well, one brilliant ALT decided to grow his own marijuana behind his apartment building.  It got discovered by a little granny doing her gardening.  He was arrested, thrown in jail, fired, and then deported.  Hope the weed was worth it.

What's an ALT?

[Twik]

Yeah, well, one brilliant ALT decided to grow his own marijuana behind his apartment building.  It got discovered by a little granny doing her gardening.  He was arrested, thrown in jail, fired, and then deported.  Hope the weed was worth it.

I've just remembered this!  Last year I was teaching in a high-security prison, and they had sniffer dogs.  Cute, I say to the woman.  She then tells me the last tutor was caught by the sniffer dogs with drugs on her!

Who brings drugs into a high security prison knowing there will be sniffer dogs???

And the woman said, "Oh yes, but you see, she was drunk!"

That tutor got fired.

And we put one mark in the "Drugs CAN make you stupid" column. (Though, to be fair, she may have started out that way!)

[Piratelvr1121]

I thought of a few, all from the same office.

1)  This was back when "Twilight" was huge, before the first movie came out.   Many of the girls, and some of the women too, were really into the series, swearing it was "SOOO good" and saying the author had been compared to J.K. Rowling.     I'll admit, I read it from "Twilight" to "Breaking Dawn" to see what the hype was about and because well, I got sucked in too.  

Another girl got into the hype later than the rest of us, and told a few of us on a Thursday that once her pay showed up in her account (Payday was Friday but direct deposit usually showed up around 5 of the day before) she'd buy all the books and take the whole next day to read the books.   She called in the next day saying her son was sick, then on the following Monday confessed to some of us that he wasn't, she just wanted to take the whole day to read the whole series.   She didn't get fired for this, but down the road she did.

2) This I heard from a friend who still works there, as it happened after I left.  This girl had Special Snowflake written all over her.   SS told everyone she needed to quit because she was going back to school and wouldn't have time to work and study/attend classes.    She put in her resignation and the doctors gave her a $100 gift card towards buying school supplies.  Nice, right?

They found out later she wasn't going back to school at all, she'd gotten a new job.  The docs were understandably PISSED.  I would be too, but I don't know what they did about it other than they'll probably be more careful about doing something like that again without checking to be sure it's true.  

3)   This happened within a few months of my starting the job, summer of 2007.   The friend with whom I'm still in touch, A, was engaged with her wedding coming up shortly.    She worked in the front office, but had been looking to become a medical assistant.   One of the doctors was soon to lose his MA because she had been offered another job so right before she left for her wedding, she was told that upon her return she would start the training to be Dr. R's MA.   A was THRILLED!  All this and getting married, too?  We were all happy for her too, as she's a really sweet girl and we felt she deserved it.

Well, most of us did.  Another girl, who was sort of the unofficial front office manager at the time, had been there longer than A and thought she deserved the position more so than A did.  But thing was that B was not as qualified as A was.   Well B knew that if she quit, there wouldn't be enough people at the front desk so A would have to stay up front instead of training to be an MA.  So B quit, giving only a week notice instead of the customary and required 2 weeks.   The head doctor had her sign a form saying she understood that she would not get a favorable reference from them if she put them down as one.

But the best part?  Her plan didn't work.  The office just hired another 2 people for the front office to take both A & B's places, and A still was able to train as an MA.   So B pretty much screwed herself out of a possibly good reference for no reason at all.

Last one!
4)  BG/ One of the benefits offered for FT employees was of course insurance, and the company would put $1500 in a medical expense account for you if you signed up for the insurance.   You only had to be working there for about 3 months to qualify to sign up. /BG

This girl was with the father of the child, but they weren't engaged until shortly before the baby was due.   Come the 3 months, she signed up for the insurance, as since she wasn't married to the father, his insurance wouldn't cover her and she of course needed insurance before the child was born.   Shortly before her due date, Dr. F called her into his office to be sure she would return once maternity leave was over.    "Oh sure, Dr. F!! I love working with you, of course I'll come back!"

They found out later she'd lied through her teeth.  She'd had absolutely NO intention of coming back after her maternity leave, and she'd only been working so she could get the $1,500 the practice put towards the employee's medical expenses to cover for the baby then she was going to quit.   Dr. F was both furious and disappointed.  He and this girl got along really well, better than he had with any of his other assistants, and she'd lied right to his face.  

[Dindrane]

I can't really fault someone for saying she had every intention of returning to work after taking maternity leave.  That is precisely the advice that is often given to women who are pregnant and employed, so that they receive the full benefits they are entitled to.  Besides that, what you think you'll do before you have your baby isn't necessarily what you end up wanting to do once your maternity leave is up.

And frankly, if the company didn't want someone taking the $1,500 for a medical expense account under those circumstances, they should change the rules.

[kingsrings]

My mother once worked a long-term temp job that she was hoping would lead to a permanent position. Eventually, she was told by the employer that they were going to hire someone else because that lady was much more qualified than my mom was. Apparently, what impressed this employer was that this woman had worked as an assistant for a very well-known financial big-wig. So the woman starts the job my mom had, with my mom assisting her in training as needed. The woman had to look up something on the Internet, and she called to my mom desperately for help. The problem? She had no idea how to navigate through the website. She didn’t know how to scroll up and down the pages, back and forth, through the pages. She had no computer skills what so ever! And this woman was chosen because she was much more qualified than my mother….. My mother figured that because this big-wig was so big, he probably had many assistants, and thus they each worked very specific jobs. This woman had a job that somehow didn’t involve computers.

Did your mom continue to train this new lady or did she tactfully mention to her employer that the new recruit had no IT skills whatsoever?

No, because at that point her assignment was ending, so she figured what was the point.

[sparklestar]

I can't really fault someone for saying she had every intention of returning to work after taking maternity leave.  That is precisely the advice that is often given to women who are pregnant and employed, so that they receive the full benefits they are entitled to.  Besides that, what you think you'll do before you have your baby isn't necessarily what you end up wanting to do once your maternity leave is up.

And frankly, if the company didn't want someone taking the $1,500 for a medical expense account under those circumstances, they should change the rules.

Last one!
4)  BG/ One of the benefits offered for FT employees was of course insurance, and the company would put $1500 in a medical expense account for you if you signed up for the insurance.   You only had to be working there for about 3 months to qualify to sign up. /BG

This girl was with the father of the child, but they weren't engaged until shortly before the baby was due.   Come the 3 months, she signed up for the insurance, as since she wasn't married to the father, his insurance wouldn't cover her and she of course needed insurance before the child was born.   Shortly before her due date, Dr. F called her into his office to be sure she would return once maternity leave was over.    "Oh sure, Dr. F!! I love working with you, of course I'll come back!"

They found out later she'd lied through her teeth.  She'd had absolutely NO intention of coming back after her maternity leave, and she'd only been working so she could get the $1,500 the practice put towards the employee's medical expenses to cover for the baby then she was going to quit.   Dr. F was both furious and disappointed.  He and this girl got along really well, better than he had with any of his other assistants, and she'd lied right to his face.   

And this is why women still don't have equality in the workplace - because we ask for special treatment as mothers and then do things like this!!!

Professional Darwinism doesn't just affect these special snowflakes though - unfortunately every single woman of child-bearing age gets tarred with the same brush and discriminated against (albeit not openly) as a result. 

[Maujer]

I can't really fault someone for saying she had every intention of returning to work after taking maternity leave.  That is precisely the advice that is often given to women who are pregnant and employed, so that they receive the full benefits they are entitled to.  Besides that, what you think you'll do before you have your baby isn't necessarily what you end up wanting to do once your maternity leave is up.

And frankly, if the company didn't want someone taking the $1,500 for a medical expense account under those circumstances, they should change the rules.

Last one!
4)  BG/ One of the benefits offered for FT employees was of course insurance, and the company would put $1500 in a medical expense account for you if you signed up for the insurance.   You only had to be working there for about 3 months to qualify to sign up. /BG

This girl was with the father of the child, but they weren't engaged until shortly before the baby was due.   Come the 3 months, she signed up for the insurance, as since she wasn't married to the father, his insurance wouldn't cover her and she of course needed insurance before the child was born.   Shortly before her due date, Dr. F called her into his office to be sure she would return once maternity leave was over.    "Oh sure, Dr. F!! I love working with you, of course I'll come back!"

They found out later she'd lied through her teeth.  She'd had absolutely NO intention of coming back after her maternity leave, and she'd only been working so she could get the $1,500 the practice put towards the employee's medical expenses to cover for the baby then she was going to quit.   Dr. F was both furious and disappointed.  He and this girl got along really well, better than he had with any of his other assistants, and she'd lied right to his face.   

And this is why women still don't have equality in the workplace - because we ask for special treatment as mothers and then do things like this!!!

Professional Darwinism doesn't just affect these special snowflakes though - unfortunately every single woman of child-bearing age gets tarred with the same brush and discriminated against (albeit not openly) as a result. 

A lot of women are quietly "let go" as soon as they announce their pregnant, even if they've worked for a company for years and earned those benefits.

[MariaE]

I can't really fault someone for saying she had every intention of returning to work after taking maternity leave.  That is precisely the advice that is often given to women who are pregnant and employed, so that they receive the full benefits they are entitled to.  Besides that, what you think you'll do before you have your baby isn't necessarily what you end up wanting to do once your maternity leave is up.

I can! Saying you fully intend to return to work, because it's the truth at that time, and then changing your opinion once you have your baby is one thing. I would never fault somebody for doing that.

Intentionally lying I can definitely fault someone for. I would lose every little bit of respect I might have had for a person, if I heard they pulled a trick like that. Since when did lying become acceptable, as long as you get something out of it?    

[Piratelvr1121]

As a mother, I can understand changing one's mind about wanting to work after the baby's born, there's nothing wrong with that.  What I have issue with, and everyone there did, was that she told the doctor she'd come back when she knew she wouldn't be.   

There's changing your mind, and then there's lying.