Stupid (and now former) new employee

[kranky]

Another department hired a guy out of college, civil engineering. Probably around $55K a year. A couple months later I get a note to remove him from the list of recipients for certain reports, which seemed odd. I asked the manager about it.

The guy was leaving work in the middle of the day for a couple hours a few days a week, but was careful to get back before the end of the day so he could be seen when others in the group started to go home for the day. Manager started to get suspicious so he asked the facility manager for the data on the guy's electronic badge use. That seemed to indicate what was going on, so the manager monitored the guy carefully for a week. Three days that week he snuck out around 1 and came back between 3:30 and 4.

The confrontation:
Manager: Bob, I need you to explain why you have been leaving work for hours in the middle of the work day.
Bob: I don't do that.
Manager: I want to know why.
Bob: Uh, you told me when I got hired that you have flex time.
Manager: That's true, and I explained exactly how that works. Do you think it meant you could work 30-35 hours a week and record that you worked 40?
Bob: No, I work 40 hours.
Manager: You were only here about 32 hours last week, and your time sheet shows 40 hours.
Bob: I work the rest of the hours at home.
Manager: Bob, you are fired.

So we'll never know what the guy was up to, but for someone right out of school to blow a good opportunity like that really shocks me. The guy's manager thinks the guy simply thought he could get away with it, and wasn't as clever as he thought he was.

 

[Oil]

lol $55k? He was probably selling dope to get some extra income

 

[highland145]

lol $55k? He was probably selling dope to get some extra income

Now he can devote 100% of his time to it.

 

[kranky]

lol $55k? He was probably selling dope to get some extra income

We don't have any trouble filling entry-level openings with good candidates, and have little turnover. Must be a competitive wage.

 

[LookBehindYou]

lol $55k? He was probably selling dope to get some extra income

Ahh ATOT, laughing at a 55K job....

 

[gorcorps]

lol $55k? He was probably selling dope to get some extra income

That's almost spot on for the average entry level engineer salary for the common types like electrical, mechanical, etc. What would you expect when you have absolutely no experience to prove you're worth a shit? This kid just showed why entry level engineers can't make a whole lot more... you just can't trust them until you get some time out of them.

 

[Vette73]

So was he doing all his work?

I don't care if someone worked 10hours a week as long as I got at least 40hours worth of work out of them.

 

[gorcorps]

So was he doing all his work?

I don't care if someone worked 10hours a week as long as I got at least 40hours worth of work out of them.

Everybody's 40 hours worth of work is different. 10 hours worth of work is still only 10 hours of work, so you should be expecting 4 times that. I'm sure each company is structured differently, but in the places I've worked there's not really any way of quanitfying what you've done. You're ALWAYS working on something, so the only way to get "40 hours worth" of work is to actually work 40 hours. Those 30 hours of time you're not there is time you were paid to be doing something.

 

[Vette73]

Everybody's 40 hours worth of work is different. 10 hours worth of work is still only 10 hours of work, so you should be expecting 4 times that. I'm sure each company is structured differently, but in the places I've worked there's not really any way of quanitfying what you've done. You're ALWAYS working on something, so the only way to get "40 hours worth" of work is to actually work 40 hours. Those 30 hours of time you're not there is time you were paid to be doing something.

No if that were the case then you would not be able to post here, or are you saying you do not give 40hours of "work"?

I can do about a full days of work in 4-5hours if I push myself.

If you tell someone to be at the office 40hours a week they will be there 40hours. That does not mean you will get 40hours of work out of them. If you tell them this is what I want from you this week and after that you can go I bet they work just that much harder to get out a hour or more a day or that week. Same as you don't pay someone to put a roof on your house by the hour, you pay by the job and its quality. Its now in their best intrest to finish sooner with as good or better quality then you expect so they don't have to do it again.

 

[rcpratt]

That's amusing. I am curious if he was actually getting his work done, though.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

lol $55k? He was probably selling dope to get some extra income

I imagine that is a decent salary for a new grad in civil engineering.

 

[Vette73]

That's amusing. I am curious if he was actually getting his work done, though.

shhh... who wants someone that can do the job well. They need mindless zombies that do a good 1hour of work a day and then veg out the rest.

/office space

 

[rcpratt]

I imagine that is a decent salary for a new grad in civil engineering.

Meh, he's just flaunting the fact that petroleum engineers are grossly overpaid.

 

[classy]

lol $55k? He was probably selling dope to get some extra income

$55K entry level, right out of school is a good salary.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Meh, he's just flaunting the fact that petroleum engineers are grossly overpaid.

Yeah, they must be.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

$55K entry level, right out of school is a good salary.

And it is certainly much better than his new salary of $0.

 

[Anubis]

$55K entry level, right out of school is a good salary.

also if you live someplace where the COL is low 55k is very nice

 

[Tweak155]

Reminds me of my wife's stories of an intern they had. Left for hours and at random times throughout the day. Needless to say he doesn't work there anymore.

 

[PottedMeat]

lol. seemingly smart people do stupid things. i remember a guy in one of my classes got arrested for stealing equipment to put on ebay from a place he was interning. yeah sure, tech companies don't track things worth >$1000 and are assigned to employees.

 

[Regs]

Ouch, that's pretty stupid. And 55k is a good start.

 

[Krynj]

Glad he got the boot. Why on Earth would he ever think that he could get away with that? And fired on the spot? Awesome. These days there's usually a few weeks' worth of paperwork and processing to be done before somebody is fired like that. I wonder if he'll try to collect unemployment.

Hopefully he has a hard time finding a new job, and a few months of zero income will help him realize what a stupid mistake he made.

 

[TwiceOver]

Heh. That happens here every day. I left at two yesterday and was taking calls from the lake.

 

[highland145]

Heh. That happens here every day. I left at two yesterday and was taking calls from the lake.

Dang, Bob. You lost a $55/yr job? Crazy.




j/k

 

[Vette73]

Heh. That happens here every day. I left at two yesterday and was taking calls from the lake.

And you should be fired right now on the spot. I don't care if you get your work done and you are a good employee.
We pay you to sit in the cube so just work slower and don't do as good a job so there is more work to do the next day.


/deeerrrrrr....

 

[Texashiker]

lol $55k? He was probably selling dope to get some extra income

With todays job market, the guy should have been glad to have a job at all.