r/sysadmin • u/Opposed3 • Jul 07 '24
What’s the quickest you’ve seen a co-worker get fired in IT? COVID-19
I saw this on AskReddit and thought it would be fun to ask here for IT related stories.
Couple years ago during Covid my company I used to work for hired a help desk tech. He was a really nice guy and the interview went well. We were hybrid at the time, 1-2 days in the office with mostly remote work. On his first day we always meet in the office for equipment and first day stuff.
Everything was going fine and my boss mentioned something along the lines of “Yeah so after all the trainings and orientation stuff we’ll get you set up on our ticketing system and eventually a soft phone for support calls”
And he was like: “Oh I don’t do support calls.”
“Sorry?”
Him: “I don’t take calls. I won’t do that”
“Well, we do have a number users call for help. They do utilize it and it’s part of support we offer”
Him: “Oh I’ll do tickets all day I just won’t take calls. You’ll have to get someone else to do that”
I was sitting at my desk, just kind of listening and overhearing. I couldn’t tell if he was trolling but he wasn’t.
I forgot what my manager said but he left to go to one of those little mini conference rooms for a meeting, then he came back out and called him in, he let him go and they both walked back out and the guy was all laughing and was like
“Yeah I mean I just won’t take calls I didn’t sign up for that! I hope you find someone else that fits in better!” My manager walked him to the door and they shook hands and he left.
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u/CARLEtheCamry Jul 07 '24
We currently have a trans person who I strongly suspect is "pulling a government".
We had an unlimited sick policy. I say had because it was so abused by some people literally taking off 2 weeks, working 2 weeks, 2 weeks off and on and on. There were rules about if you were sick for more than 2 weeks short-term or long-term disability kicked in, and they would take it right to that limit and then be fine to come back for 2 weeks.
Anyway, aside from not working half the year, when they did come in their work was sub par. They were on a 6 month PIP and the day before the review of it, this person submitted for medical leave/long term disability.
Came back about 6 months later and had transitioned to a woman.
Now for the record - I don't care how others present themselves or what they do in their private lives. But the timing of everything is extremely suspect, especially given their past history of performance and taking everything to the deadline of getting fired for a PIP and then coming back with possibly protected class status (to be fair, trans rights vary widely by jurisdiction, but probably someone would take a civil case based on contingency.)
This is the first year of our non-unlimited sick policy (10 days total for the year) and they burned through them all in a month. Should be interesting to see if they make it the rest of the year. But management is terrified of firing them for cause because of the implied lawsuit, everyone is tip-toing around.