Update on guy I fired

[ECB]

A few months ago I posted about my employee who I ended up firing. All I can say is THANK GOD I fired him when I did. About 4 months later, he filed an ethics complaint against me and my boss! It has now been officially closed, and long story short, it was basically a “nothing burger”. But – it definitely solidified my decision that he wasn’t a good fit. And - I wasn't entirely surprised by this!  


The complaint was based on that boss and I “violated the core values of our university”- specifically respect, integrity and innovation.


Some of the issues ex-EE brought up:


• I didn’t sent out an introductory email to our division (A best practice, but not a requirement)

• After he started working for us, I sent emails to his personal email. I looked this up- I did. One email, one meeting request. Totally by accident, but please note that he never told me this. There was never a “hey, ECB, I’m sorry I didn’t reply sooner but you sent this to my personal account”.


• He wasn’t added to our departmental DL. He wasn’t – total oversight but even my boss said that this DL is a thorn in our side. This is an ongoing issue.


• HR asked me if I supported and allowed my employees to sign up for events they find in our online newsletter. Yes, I do. But she even mentioned “tree planting”, and I told her that the issue there was that he signed up to take part in a tree planting during his 3rd week of employment and DID NOT TELL ME. I don’t care that he did it, but I shouldn’t find out when I say “schedule a meeting for Thursday morning” and he tells me he signed up for this other NON JOB RELATED thing. I later went and looked at his calendar – he had signed up for 32 different events/sessions that were dated from 11/1/22 to 1/6/23 – so barely 2 months. 32 different events!!!


• He says boss and I didn’t want him answering questions in a task force that he signed up for. Yes and no. If he REALLY knew the answer, sure, answer. But we both felt he was trying to present himself as a representative of our division – which being with us only 4 weeks at the time, this was NOT appropriate and he didn’t not clear this with us.


• He says he only worked 5 hours a week. She even asked him if he told ME that he didn’t have much to do. No, he didn’t. But I told her that by the end, this was true. Even during his first week – he did stuff that totally derailed my agenda and I very quickly realized he was about what HE wanted to do – and he did NOT communicate with me about a LOT of things. A LOT. And it really affected what I felt comfortable giving him!


There is more, but I’ll spare you. In talking to my boss, I found out that ex-ee complained about a “state of the University” cocktail hour that he attended and there was some complaint about oysters being served….


Then, in our close out session, I found out that:


• During HR onboarding, I do a 30 min session on IT Resources. That day, no one asked questions and I ended the session saying “You’re an easy group!”. He said this was offensive and that we should welcome questions. Um…. I ask for questions NUMEROUS times. And even the HR rep said that SHE told him that this is actually a common way to end sessions and it’s more about ending things and making the participants feel at ease.


• The next day, when he and I met, he says that I talked for an hour (this I’ll debate) about our leave policies, timesheets, how leave is calculated – and he didn’t feel he needed to sit through this because “he was hired to do a job”. Keep in mind – two weeks later, he had NUMEROUS questions around filling out his timesheet and submitting leave….


She even mentioned the fact that he didn’t bring up the issue around his deciding for himself that he could work from another city w/o approval from me. She doesn’t know if he doesn’t realize the gravity of what he did, or if he was just avoiding it.  


I told her that for his claiming we violated the values of respect and integrity – he did too. SO MUCH of what he brought up, a lot of it was a lack of communication on his part. I don’t feel he ever respected me as his supervisor and didn’t feel he needed to tell me things. And with the working from another city- he actually LIED to me about that. So much for integrity...


Again, there is some more to this. But HR seems to be on the same page as boss and I and they know that ex-ee simply wasn’t a good fit. And his inability to see his own contributions to the issues at hand…. I think he expected to come in and be given free reign to just do what he wanted to do and that we’d all be awed about how much he had to offer. He clearly had a VERY different interpretation of events than we did – and if he started a list like he did after such a short time, I can only imagine how keeping him around longer would have gone.

[wildrice]

Oof. He sounds like a lot. I'm glad you were able to fire him and that your boss/HR has your back on these. Some people are just.... weird.

[laterz]

Glad you DTMF. Good riddance to him.

[achi]

Wow, just wow. Like SO much of this could have been solved by him having a very simple, 2 minute conversation.

As an HR Manager this kind of stuff makes me vomit in my mouth.

[pumpkin]

So glad this is all finally behind you.

[pixy0stix]

Who signs up for workplace activity shit when you're 3 weeks into the job?!

[litskispeciality]

Is this the employee who also started changing website text or codes or however you say it, with no training, within a couple weeks of starting a job? Either way this person clearly knew they were at risk for termination and started to keep track of very thin straws to grasp in case of said termination. OP you don't have to answer this, nor do I need to know, but I'm curious how many jobs this person has had in the last few years? I know the economy isn't great, but this gives me big red flags like the employee has been through a lot of jobs because of this behavior (not just you).

Also my hat is off to you that you handled so many of those onboarding pieces. In my HE experience I've always had clunky onboarding, but other newer employees had formal training with a payroll rep, canned IT training or whatever. I can't believe you had to handle all of those pieces on your own!

[litskispeciality]

Jul 13, 2023 13:39:50 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Who signs up for workplace activity shit when you're 3 weeks into the job?!

Or at least doesn't ask if it's ok or appropriate to sign up/join before registering? Also how do you get on a committee within a month? If you speak up you say "I'm new, but here's my thought", not go in like you're the expert.

[maudefindlay]

He complained you went over timesheets, policies....very common things people need to know? The other things are all obviously more serious issues, but complaining about a very relevant necessity really shows how out of touch he was. If you drink, and your avatar indicates yes, raise your glass to his departure!

[noodleoo]

He signed up for 32 events in his first 2 months?!?!

That's insane. He sounds nuts. Glad you are rid of him.

[mcmel]

Holy cow what an ass. Good call on firing him!

[ECB]

Jul 13, 2023 13:41:04 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

Is this the employee who also started changing website text or codes or however you say it, with no training, within a couple weeks of starting a job? Either way this person clearly knew they were at risk for termination and started to keep track of very thin straws to grasp in case of said termination. OP you don't have to answer this, nor do I need to know, but I'm curious how many jobs this person has had in the last few years? I know the economy isn't great, but this gives me big red flags like the employee has been through a lot of jobs because of this behavior (not just you).

Also my hat is off to you that you handled so many of those onboarding pieces. In my HE experience I've always had clunky onboarding, but other newer employees had formal training with a payroll rep, canned IT training or whatever. I can't believe you had to handle all of those pieces on your own!

Yes - same employee.  he did that on day 5 and that's what really started to derail my agenda.  Red flags went up fast!

And good question - I went and looked at his resume.  He's been in a couple different fields over the past 20 + years.  But for what I do/ am looking for - his experience started in 2020 and he had 4 jobs in 3 years.  That really should have stood out to me more than it did.  And actually - in 2022 alone, he moved around a LOT. I think I chalked some of it to "covid/ weird times".   In 2022 there was a job for 2 months and one for 5 months.  And now he has another one for 3 months to add!

Trust me - HUGE LESSONS LEARNED on my end with this too.  

[justemily]

Wow... he kept a running list of complaints??

Glad he's gone. What a handful.

[soccermama]

He sounds like a total idiot.

I am honestly so sick of people right now. ugh.

[court26]

What a tool!

[starburst604]

Jul 13, 2023 14:02:13 GMT -5 justemily said:

Wow... he kept a running list of complaints??

Glad he's gone. What a handful.

That's what I was thinking. Most people would be hard pressed to remember how someone closed out an onboarding session so he was gunning for ECB from the start. He just sounds like the textbook definition of mediocre male coworker who thinks he's more qualified than his female manager. 

[minzy]

Jul 13, 2023 13:48:21 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

He signed up for 32 events in his first 2 months?!?!

I am agog at that/think it’s hysterical. I mean I’m all for volunteers and tree planting to boot, but what the fresh hell!? ECB, I’d Google him every so often and see what you find in another few years. We had a guy who did a few things like that and after he left us, he went on to have a stunningly embarrassing career and his pisspoor professional conduct got him a few lawsuits and a ton of bad press. So glad your guy is out of your hair!

[ECB]

Jul 13, 2023 14:25:28 GMT -5 starburst604 said:

Jul 13, 2023 14:02:13 GMT -5 justemily said:

Wow... he kept a running list of complaints??

Glad he's gone. What a handful.

That's what I was thinking. Most people would be hard pressed to remember how someone closed out an onboarding session so he was gunning for ECB from the start. He just sounds like the textbook definition of mediocre male coworker who thinks he's more qualified than his female manager. 

I didn't look at it this way, but yeah, probably. And can you imagine that list if I had kept him around longer?  Oy.  

[ECB]

Jul 13, 2023 14:28:15 GMT -5 minzy said:

Jul 13, 2023 13:48:21 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

He signed up for 32 events in his first 2 months?!?!

I am agog at that/think it’s hysterical. I mean I’m all for volunteers and tree planting to boot, but what the fresh hell!? ECB, I’d Google him every so often and see what you find in another few years. We had a guy who did a few things like that and after he left us, he went on to have a stunningly embarrassing career and his pisspoor professional conduct got him a few lawsuits and a ton of bad press. So glad your guy is out of your hair!

YES!  I go back and forth between these 2 reactions!  

There were a number of things that floored me starting on day 5, and the fact that he signed up to be away from work for 3 hours during his 3rd week at work and didn't think he needed to ask me.... SO MUCH of the other stuff he did really fell in line with this. He didn't seem to feel he needed to ask permission on anything.

But - he nailed his own coffin shut when he pulled that with working in Orlando> THANK GOD I asked him to come in the office that following week. I mean - I was still on the path to fire him, but when he did that, that was IT.  I was done. If he hadn't done that - it may have been drawn out a couple more weeks. 

[hbtk]

I don't think I have participated in 32 company events in my 20+ years in the workforce.

Good riddance to him.

[cleo29]

He sounds exhausting. Glad that everything turned out well for you!

[Deleted]

Oof, I'm so glad he's gone and that HR sees him for what he is, too. He'll be someone else's problem, unfortunately. Imagine the amount of effort he put into keeping his list of grievances and finding ways around doing his job, he could have put that towards actually just doing his job and not acting like a turd.

[mrsd2006]

What a complete disaster of an employee. Good riddance!

[litskispeciality]

ECB , not quoting you in case you want to delete. In your defense, depending on how long you've been working professionally as well, the younger folks are supposed to be more for job jumping now. I've had my hand slapped for saying "oh this person only stayed 1 year, 2 years etc." however long, when looking at resumes on search committees. ETA: for us folks who started work further back, we were raised to stay at a job for a while. Depending on where you fall changing jobs, esp during the craziness of COVID lockdown, might not be a flag per se. Overall though yeah this person isn't learning their lesson and must keep getting fired or resigning from said positions.

This is also petty, and creepy, but I hate the Linkedin feature that you have to pay to search privately. A former colleague of mine was finally let go, not exactly same situation but another I know more than my female boss, yet have nothing to show for it because I do nothing all day (and bleeping complain how I'm underpaid!). Employee PM'd me on Linkedin asking me not to look at their page once they were gone from the job. I was already gone from that place, but what caught my eye to search their LI was an article they posted in the main thread. All I wanted to see was if this person landed a new job. I get it though, they assumed I was team "glad that person was fired" (which I was). Small community too running in to people who knew this person professionally they all said "oh I know them..." and that was it. Hopefully you get to do that someday to give someone else a heads up.

[sofamonkey]

If you count getting a donut on Tuesday when the big boss brings them in, I too have attended 32 work functions. LMAO this guy is a real peach! Glad you’re done with his extreme nonsense!!

[rubytue]

Jul 13, 2023 14:00:54 GMT -5 ECB said:

Jul 13, 2023 13:41:04 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

Is this the employee who also started changing website text or codes or however you say it, with no training, within a couple weeks of starting a job? Either way this person clearly knew they were at risk for termination and started to keep track of very thin straws to grasp in case of said termination. OP you don't have to answer this, nor do I need to know, but I'm curious how many jobs this person has had in the last few years? I know the economy isn't great, but this gives me big red flags like the employee has been through a lot of jobs because of this behavior (not just you).

Also my hat is off to you that you handled so many of those onboarding pieces. In my HE experience I've always had clunky onboarding, but other newer employees had formal training with a payroll rep, canned IT training or whatever. I can't believe you had to handle all of those pieces on your own!

Yes - same employee.  he did that on day 5 and that's what really started to derail my agenda.  Red flags went up fast!

And good question - I went and looked at his resume.  He's been in a couple different fields over the past 20 + years.  But for what I do/ am looking for - his experience started in 2020 and he had 4 jobs in 3 years.  That really should have stood out to me more than it did.  And actually - in 2022 alone, he moved around a LOT. I think I chalked some of it to "covid/ weird times".   In 2022 there was a job for 2 months and one for 5 months.  And now he has another one for 3 months to add!

Trust me - HUGE LESSONS LEARNED on my end with this too.  

We recently had a bad hire (who has sense been managed out) and I feel like we fell into some of the same traps. A lot of moving around the past couple of years chalked up to Covid, relocating, taking a low job just to have something, etc. But really, it was difficult to work with.  This person “reported” me (when I was a temporary supervisor) for asking why they wanted to attend an external committee meeting for a project they weren’t involved with. 

So glad you got rid of him. 

[TR]

Jul 13, 2023 15:27:57 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

ECB , not quoting you in case you want to delete. In your defense, depending on how long you've been working professionally as well, the younger folks are supposed to be more for job jumping now. I've had my hand slapped for saying "oh this person only stayed 1 year, 2 years etc." however long, when looking at resumes on search committees. ETA: for us folks who started work further back, we were raised to stay at a job for a while. Depending on where you fall changing jobs, esp during the craziness of COVID lockdown, might not be a flag per se. Overall though yeah this person isn't learning their lesson and must keep getting fired or resigning from said positions.

This is also petty, and creepy, but I hate the Linkedin feature that you have to pay to search privately. A former colleague of mine was finally let go, not exactly same situation but another I know more than my female boss, yet have nothing to show for it because I do nothing all day (and bleeping complain how I'm underpaid!). Employee PM'd me on Linkedin asking me not to look at their page once they were gone from the job. I was already gone from that place, but what caught my eye to search their LI was an article they posted in the main thread. All I wanted to see was if this person landed a new job. I get it though, they assumed I was team "glad that person was fired" (which I was). Small community too running in to people who knew this person professionally they all said "oh I know them..." and that was it. Hopefully you get to do that someday to give someone else a heads up.

You don't. You just have to change your settings. And then you can't see who's looking at you, either. THAT'S what Premium does, allows you to creep privately, but also see who is looking at you. But you can change to view privately to stalk and then change it back. Not that I've done that.

[cattledogkisses]

I'm dying to know what his complaint about oysters was.

[notsopicky]

Jul 13, 2023 13:39:50 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Who signs up for workplace activity shit when you're 3 weeks into the job?!

This, for real. I've been at my current building for 5 years and don't sign up for shit. 

[ECB]

Jul 13, 2023 16:00:17 GMT -5 cattledogkisses said:

I'm dying to know what his complaint about oysters was.

so do I!! I figured that item, though, probably put him solidly in the “who the f is this guy??” Camp with HR. 😂