Latest / NO FILTER / One Email Ruined This Guy_s Career _ EP 12

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One Email Ruined This Guy_s Career _ EP 12 · NO FILTER

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is The Bad Hire, the show with the best
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: stories about the worst employees.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: We fired him, of course.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: People are crazy.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: It's like an HR nightmare.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: One bad hire stole all of it.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Crazy stuff. She got what she deserved. Oh.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Ken Monroe, and every week we dive
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: into real-life stories from the wild world of work and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: what can happen when the wrong person gets the job.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: These stories aren't just crazy stories. They're cautionary tales about
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: lessons learned the hard way. Let's get started.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Hi, everyone.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to The Bad Hire. Emma, Morgan.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: You finally said it right. We've been asking him to
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: say it how he used to for a while now.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: All right. So welcome back. You glad to be here?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you are. We got to crush it.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Always.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Always.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: So I want to remind everyone about our $ 10, 000 contest.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Don't forget to submit your stories. Best story of the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: season wins $ 10, 000. So how do you submit? You go
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: to thebadhire.com. Go to the submit section. Fill out the form.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Post your story. Make it a good one. Can be happy.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Can be sad. Can be tragic. Whatever it is. But
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: take the time. Write a great story. Send it in
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to us. We'll read it. Oh, and if it's great,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: we'll read it. If it's really good or you or
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: you may be asked to come on the show and
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: read it or just be a guest and react, whatever
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: it might be.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: So it could be fun. We can do that by
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: flying you in or we can do it, I think, via.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: broadcast or via like a call in. So either way,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: we're happy to do it. So that should be fun.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: We should take phone calls one episode where we ask
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: people to call in and tell us the stories they have. Like,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: I got a call from Hawaii.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: It's like we're on a radio show or something. Oh, okay.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: That would be fun.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: That would be fun. I like that idea. If y'all
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: like this idea, please drop a... Just kidding. Like, subscribe. Like, subscribe.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Drop a comment saying, I would like to call in.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: So I'm just going to do one today. And this
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: one just hit me kind of hard in terms of
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: just what this person's potentially battling. And so I'll share
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: it and then we can react to it and talk
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: about it. So I had a young woman once who
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: at the start looked like an absolute win. She showed
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: up on time, professional, polite, had a great office etiquette.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: And I remember thinking, finally, this is the jackpot hire.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: For a while, everything seemed fine. Then one day, she
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: went out for a smoke break and just never came back.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: The next morning, I asked what happened, and she looked
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: at me completely dazed and swore she had come back.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I pulled up the time clock and even the security cameras, nothing.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: She just shrugged and said she had no idea what
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I was talking about. From there, it went downhill fast.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: She started missing shifts. On a busy Friday, she was
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: a no-show, and I couldn't reach her. Another employee who
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: went out for lunch spotted her lying in the street
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: outside the office, intoxicated. I went out to talk to her,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and she insisted she didn't even work that day. She
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: literally ran away from me. She missed her Saturday shift too,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: then emailed me on Sunday claiming she had been in
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the hospital with a liver infection and promised she'd be
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: back Monday. With the doctor's note. Monday came, no note.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Tuesday came, still no note. I finally told her I
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: needed to see it immediately. I don't know why this
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: note was such a big deal. She said she had
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: run home to grab it and never came back. The
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: whole thing was such a bizarre spiral. From perfect hire
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: to completely vanishing, And to this day, I still don't
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: know what really happened.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Sounds like she had a mental breakdown or psychotic.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Or just, you know, alcohol.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Something really sad. Yeah, that's really sad.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: She's in the street, drunk. And what got me here
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: at the end is like, hey, I need to see
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: that note. You know, like she was intoxicated in the street. Yeah,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: you saw her. An indication that you could see this
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: kind of undoing. It probably wasn't the time to demand
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a note for the mental breakdown. You had to kind
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: of read through someone who's suffering from alcohol or any
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: other addiction would certainly want to try to cover that up. And,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: you know, it would have been a great time for
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: that manager to try to get some help.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. And so, you know, in my career,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: I've seen two or three people just wreck their life.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I won't say wreck their career, but certainly wreck their position.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: You don't have to do a do-over because of alcohol.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: So if you see someone as a leader, you see
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: someone and you recognize it, try first.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: And you know they have a potential to be a
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: good employee because they've shown you they have a lot
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: of skills. And it just sounds like she's going through
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: a rough time in her life. Right.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, she was able to piece it together and
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: hold it together for a while. And which would indicate
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: she had, you know, she just relapsed with it. So,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think it's... When I read
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the end of that, she was like, hey, this is
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: really bizarre. I'm like, it's really not. It's probably kind
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: of common. People have these addictions. And that is, you know,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: as leaders, we can help people. So certainly help our team.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: So that's the only one I had today I wanted
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: to chat about. I think just because I thought it
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: was meaningful. And I thought maybe the lesson here would be,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: you know, look for opportunities to intervene. You know, I'm,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: as an HR pro, you know, we deal with all
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the time people, you know, when something bad happens and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: they almost always ask, well, did they pass their background check?
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Did they look at their background? They always want to
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: go back and look and see if there was anything.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: And so you hear about the stories all the time.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: So you want to, you know, I've just developed this
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: kind of sense of a desire in our culture and
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to share with others, you know, these are the opportunities
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: given to you as leaders to help someone, right? And
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: More times than not. it's still disappointing. It leads to
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: disappointment and heartbreak for you as a leader trying to help.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: But you can also show your organization that you care
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: about your employees. And I feel like that brings more
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: of like a spirit in your office of like that
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: you are a good company and that you want to
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: help others. And I think it will encourage others to
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: also be that kind of leader who grows out and
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: helps others. So at the end of the day, I
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: think it's a good teaching no matter what, even if
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: it doesn't turn out the way you want it to.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: So it might touch somebody else who needs to hear
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: that or Be able to help somebody else. Yeah.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: All right. So good hire, turn bad. Yeah.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: My stories are like complete 360 of that. These are crazy,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: funny stories. This is a deep, meaningful one that's very important.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Y'all should take notes on this one.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Not so much.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Mine's a little stupid. All right.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Um, just jumping straight in. Mine is titled The Curse
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: of Live Television. So sometimes when you're a bat hire, like,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: you just kind of see it behind the scenes. Like, television, like,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: is there forever. You know what I mean? Like, there's
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: no going back from that. So anyways, it's April 20th, 2013,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: and in Bismarck, North Dakota, a young man named A.J.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Clemente is about to make his big break, fresh out
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: of West Virginia University. Clemente has landed his first real
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: TV news job at KFYR TV, the local NBC affiliate.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: It's his debut night, his very first live broadcast, and
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: he's sitting at the anchor desk next to his co-host.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: The cameras are about to roll. This is the kind
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: of moment you dream about when you're chasing a career
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: in journalism. But live television is unforgiving. As the show begins,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Clemente fumbles and his script nervous, overwhelmed, and thinking his
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: mic is still muted. He mutters under his breath, F-ing S. Unfortunately,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: his mic wasn't muted. The words go out loud and
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: clear across the state of North Dakota. His co-anchor doesn't
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: even flinch. She just keeps rolling.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Good for her.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Welcoming viewers. Good on her.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: She's just like, let's march on.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Say like that didn't happen.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: While AJ says they're frozen in the realization of just
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: what happened, the control room panics.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Your brain would go.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Oh my God. And you can tell because I'm about
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: to play the clip here in a little bit. You
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: can tell he's like internally like, oh my.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Gosh, what did I just do?
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: Oh my.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: So the control room panics, viewers are stunned, and within hours,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: so is the internet. Clips of the broadcast hit YouTube
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: the same night, racking up hundreds of thousands of views.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: By the next day, AJ Clemente isn't just a rookie
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: anchor anymore. He's trending worldwide. Social media mocks, memes explode,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: and national outlets are calling it one of the worst
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: debuts in television history. Back at the station, there's no
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: saving face. The dude's director suspends him immediately, reminding staff
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: of the golden rule of broadcasting. Always assume the mic
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: is live. Within two days, Clemente is fired. His career
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: in North Dakota ends before it really even begins. He
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: tries to apologize, tweeting to his viewers that it was
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: a rookie mistake and thanking everyone for the opportunity. He
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: even explains later that he was practicing a line with
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: a difficult name and let his frustrations slip. But the
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: damage is done, and that's the curse of live television.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: One slip of the tongue, one nervous moment can follow
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: you forever. Clementine's debut was only a few seconds long,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: but thanks to the internet, those seconds are immortal.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: It's kind of sad. Not sad, but like... I wouldn't
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: call him the bad hire. He was nervous. It's a
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: bad mistake.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: It sucks that... I feel like, I mean, sometimes you
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: cuss at work. That just happens, but it's just sad
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: because his is on TV.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Imagine if a camera was on you. Like all day long,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: just catching, you know.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'd be canceled. I'd be on this store.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I'm a good employee. So I feel really bad for him, right?
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: You know, every, you know, that's what young people do
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: when they come to work. They make mistakes.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: That's a high stakes deal.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: And kind of feel like they scapegoated him. It would
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: not have been a big deal to be like, you know,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: because he actually... I thought he, you talked about how
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: he handled it. He came back. He said, here's what happened.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I apologize. I think he said rookie mistake. You know,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: calls himself, hey, it's a rookie mistake.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: He is a rookie.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: You know, that happens.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, he wasn't a seasoned person. This is his
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: first night on live television. So, yeah, I do feel
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: bad for him, I think.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's... I think about the number of people
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: we see cuss on TV.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: You watch sports, there's guys just F-bombing it left and right.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: You could absolutely read their lips as coaches and players.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: And they're like, oh, yeah. And this guy makes a mistake.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: You're like, oh, no.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah. This was what, 2013? Is that what you said?
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, 2013.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: That was a pretty long time ago.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Maybe it was different back then.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: I don't really remember.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: I don't know either.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: I was kind of young.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Ken's laughing like, okay, it wasn't acceptable then, but now.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, and just.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Cuss away. Yeah, I feel like even sometimes sportscasters say
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: bad words now too. So I don't know. But anyways,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: my next story is called Flying Low. That's the title
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: of it. All right. So picture this JFK International Airport,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: thousands of people moving through the terminals every hour. Behind
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: the scenes, a man named Gerard Robson, a security supervisor,
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: is trying to build respect in a job where authority
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: and professionalism matter.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: We're going to assume Gerard is a fake name.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: I think. I might go look and see if that's
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: his real name because I feel like saying the full
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: name makes it real.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: That's a pretty interesting name to make up.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah. One Friday afternoon, he's asked to file a simple report.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Nothing dramatic, just a minor fender bender in the parking lot.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: He grabs his work-issued BlackBerry, takes a few pictures of
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: the dented cars, and starts typing up his summary. He
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: attaches the photos, hits send, and off the email goes
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: to everyone. Not just two people who needed it. More
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: than two dozen co-workers, supervisors, and even high-level executives at
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: You can almost see what's about to happen.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Tucked in among the photos of the fender bender was
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: something else. Something not meant for work. An image of
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Robson himself, waist down, fully exposed.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: The email blast became instant legend. Phones buzzed, inbox pinged,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: and within minutes, staff at JFK were staring at disbelief.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Was this real? Was it a joke? It wasn't a joke.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Realizing what had happened, Robson panicked, and he tried to
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: recall the email to delete the photo remotely, but it
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: was too late. The damage was done. Yep, and soon after,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: a second email landed in everyone's inbox. An apology. His
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: attempt to explain away the unexplainable, the Port Authority didn't
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: find it funny. Neither did FJC Security, his employer. Within days,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Robson was fired, stripped of his security credentials, and banned
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: from JFK entirely. So he can't even fly out of
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: there anymore. A zero tolerance policy, they said. But the
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: story didn't end there. The tabloids grabbed it. Headlines compared
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: him to Anthony Weiner. Oh, that's not right. Sites like Gothamist, Metro, Jezebel,
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: and NBC said, Ran pieces with a mix of disbelief
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: and dark humor. On forums and social media, people were ruthless.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Jokes flew, memes were made, and the accidental junk shot
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: at JFK became one of those straight workplace scandals that
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: lives forever online. For Robson, it was the end of
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: a career at the airport. For everyone else, it was
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: a lesson. Double check your attachments. Keep your personal and
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: professional lives separate. And remember, once you hit send, there's
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: no going back. Yeah.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: Dang, Gerard.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's... Also, it makes me laugh because he took
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: those on his work BlackBerry.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, was it a work BlackBerry? It was.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, that makes it worse.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: So, like, personal phone, you accidentally, whatever, but your work
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: issued BlackBerry?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's... Why were you doing it?
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Like, who were you sending them to before?
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's kind of sacred. Yeah. Yeah, it's rough.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: I mean... So.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, the.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Pictures themselves, you know, okay.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, whatever.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, people make mistakes. Because if it was on his
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: personal device, that's not tied to work at all. This
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: is obviously something that he had his work issued Blackberry with.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I can guarantee you that the... Humiliation of that was
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: way worse than the firing. He's like, I can find
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: another job. My God, these are my friends. I know
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: these people.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because especially as it wasn't just at JFK where
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: it was shown, it was all over the internet. Yeah,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: I guess the tabloids got all of it. Anyways, we'll
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: have to look up if that's his real name too.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Before we dive back into the chaos on the bad hire,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: this episode is brought to you by B-Checks. Hiring shouldn't
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: feel like rolling the dice. Background checks should come with
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• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Protect your sanity. Go to bchecks.io. That's B-C- All right, Emma.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: What do we got?
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: All right, here we go. This one's a little long,
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: so bear with me.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: I work in HR for an organization that had not
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: previously had an HR position, but had grown to the
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: size that it was necessary. When I realized that not
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: a single person in upper management cared nor wanted an
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: HR department because it interfered with how they always done things.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Hmm.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: I ran as fast as I could. Here are some
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: of the horror stories I encountered while employed there.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: It is a hard shift.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: You know, HR professionals will bring some process, rules, regulations,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: all stuff you need.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: For sure.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: But you ain't never had that.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That's just how we do things.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Big resistance.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: Okay. The organization hired a woman for the business department.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: Candidates were limited as it was a smaller town. On paper,
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: her resume looked pretty reasonable and experience looked as if
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: it would fit well for the vacant position. Her interview
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: was mediocre, if not subpar. When asked about her knowledge
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: of Microsoft Office, she wasn't aware of what that was.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Had to explain it was a suite of programs used
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: frequently in business settings such as Word, Excel, Access, etc.,
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: She then explained she was familiar with said programs.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I know those things.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Just didn't know all of it together with Microsoft.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Well, I didn't know. It was, yeah.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Honest mistake.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: She then, oh, wait, I just read that. Sorry. Hiring
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: manager still thought she would be a good fit, went
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: against my advice, and hired her.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Todd was a hiring manager is what I wanted to say.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: Desperate hiring.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Desperate hiring.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: After a month of training, she still couldn't figure out
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: how to handle email attachments, Excel, or basic computer functions.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: Had to be let go due to inability to perform
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: even the most basic job functions. Same organization also routinely
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: placed people in management positions without adequate training or experience
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: and let said people hire people completely on their own
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: without obtaining proper hiring paperwork. Had a manager once ask
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: an employee under the supervision... under their supervision for specific
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: medical information regarding a workman's comp case. I had to
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: intervene and explain that what she was asking was not
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: legal nor information she needed to accommodate the injured employee.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: And that is all it says.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, that sounds like the bad hire was the company, right?
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: She had to work for a.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Bad.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Well, it's not really bad.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: I mean... yeah yeah but you know you should should
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: have seen at least the red flag in the interview
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: you don't know what microsoft microsoft office is applying for
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: a special kind of.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Hr professional that can go in someplace and take it
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: from zero hr to yeah all the way good yeah
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: sure right i mean to build the processes because it's
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: going to be you're going to have people doing things
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: like the the comp issue and Yeah. Just like breaking
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: the law and the way they do things and, you know,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: getting the company at risk. But, you know, tough to
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: get them through that process. Yeah, for sure. But they
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: didn't do background checks either before she showed up.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Maybe not.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Evidently.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Not. If that's... I'm sure that's not how they had
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: always done things.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Background checks?
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: What's that?
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: We know these people. We're a small town.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Of course.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: We hear that.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: All the time. Here's my next one.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: I'm in HR now, but at the time... Was in
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: a different job. So this story is set when they
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: were in a different job.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: So they hire this contractor to do some IT work
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: on the website. Guy seems nice, super eager to please.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: Then the weirdest weirdness started. Guy claimed he could not
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: be arrested for any crime in any state in the
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: USA due to his CIA credentials. Then he said he
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: flies to the Playboy mansion every weekend to party and
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: spends $ 3, 000 on his wife every week.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, his wife?
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Playboy and a wife in the same sense.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: That's what it says.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Hey, I deal with the Playboy mansion during the week.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: I'm just reading. With the wife the other time. I
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: was just reading what he wrote.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: Okay. Then he claims he not only works for us,
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: but Microsoft, Bing, and.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: A bunch of other huge companies.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Giants. Okay. He would set his phone. He had multiple
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: phones to ring and he would take important fake calls.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: Just on and on, the guy could not help himself
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: with the lies. So another compulsive liar story. Finally, he
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: went around telling everyone he was a hiring manager for
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: the contract company he worked for and tried signing up
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: full-timers to work for this company because he would get
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: $ 500 for each person he recommended. He also promised everyone
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: huge raises if they did. Well, he was not a
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: hiring manager, and when his boss found out, he was
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: fired immediately. When are y'all going to learn to stop lying?
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Also, talking about the Playboy mansion with your employer is
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: not something I would bring up. Maybe spoiling your wife, sure.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: I spend a ton in it to tell people you
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: spend three hells and hells a week.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: For real. I'm like, I'm paying you too much.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, he's just said he's got five jobs. He's working
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: for four or five companies. That's a thing now. People
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: are Working, you know, I've had it happen to me.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: You know, where people, I believe it's happened to me.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I know it's happened to me.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Where people have done that. And it's crazy. Offshoring your
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: work is now a thing. Like you get somebody, you
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: get paid, then you hire someone somewhere else. And then
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: they do your work. They go to your email. They
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: sign in as you. They stay active.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I just feel like you're robbing yourself. of like the
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: responsibilities that you have been like.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: The moral character to do that is to, yeah, it's
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: not cool.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know how to build culture.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: You can't build great culture with a bunch of people
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: like that. And I mean, everyone calls me crazy and says, I'm, I'm,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: you know, it's just cause I'm, I'm old or not
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: in the generation of, I've never heard anyone call him
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: older crazy. But not really loving remote work. Even though
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: we have a chunk of our staff that work remote,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: it's been more disaster and more positive. And I hear
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: people all the time throw stuff around going, oh, it's
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: so much more productive. And we've got real tools that
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: measure real productivity. And it is not an absolute.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: In my experience, I feel more connected to the company
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: and the mission when I'm here every day. Like when
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: I see everybody around me and I can connect with
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: them face to face, I just feel more present in
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: my work. And I feel more passionate about all the
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: work I do for my company. When I'm home, I'm disconnected.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: I don't care as nearly as much as when I'm
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: in here.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I think there are people who are good at it.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: And so I'm not like a... you know, hey, this
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: is bad. What I have learned doing this through a
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: lot of people is that there are certain jobs that
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: are good for it. And then there are certain people
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: that are good for it. And you have to have
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: both for it to be successful. If any one of
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: those is missing, then you probably, it's probably going to
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: lead to, you know, outcomes that you don't want. But
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: For sure.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I still have a lot of story reminding me of.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Probably because he was Working for multiple jobs. Working for
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: multiple jobs because you don't, you can't, it's tough to
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: do that. It's tough to do that while you're here,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: which sounded like he was actually there.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Like setting up the.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: You can't give your.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: This is my Microsoft phone. This is my, this is
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: my ping phone.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: It's crazy.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: If he was even working for those people.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that was total.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. All right. I've got one more.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: I had an employee who had a workplace accident that
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: we don't believe happened at work. She offered modified work
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: We offered modified work, and she took this to mean
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: she could take as many breaks as she wanted. She
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: did little work during her shift. When she was called
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: out by a supervisor, she replied that she was injured
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: and could do what she wanted. We started progressive discipline
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: to address the behavior. She brought in a letter from
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: a medical practitioner that states she... Needed to take micro
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: breaks to rest her injured body part. It doesn't say
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: if it's her leg or her arm.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: It just says body part.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: Over a period of a few months, she was suspended
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: for leaving work without permission because she didn't like a
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: conversation she had with HR. She was still abusing the
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: micro breaks to hide in the bathroom. Okay. Her manager
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: and I met with her to talk about how she
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: was seen with her feet up on the desk instead
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: of working. This person lost it. The manager called the
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: meeting to an end after two minutes and told her
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: to leave the workplace. Now, I had an idea this
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: meeting wouldn't go well, so I had our biggest, most
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: intimidating supervisor outside the meeting.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Forward thinking HR manager right there.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: After being told to leave the building, the employee continued
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: to lose it, yelling in red face. She came at
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: me twice while my supervisor got between us and tried
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: to get her to leave the premises. The employee only
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: left with threat of calling the police. The workplace was
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: put on lockdown for 14 days while we dealt with
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: some logistical issues.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: 14 days?
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: She doesn't work for us anymore, and there's a bunch
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: of legal stuff going on, so can't elaborate. I was
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: convinced she would have attacked me without my supervisor present.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: So what did they do for the 14 days? Would
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: they just not work? Not sure. And what's logistical? Does
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: that mean security? Like for.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: It doesn't say. Goodness.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know. HR pros are just warriors.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: You know, the stuff they have to deal with.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Right. And that person, it's like how often people just
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: try to take advantage.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Right.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: And your line of defense is those HR pros who are,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: you know. She used the term progressive discipline. I was like, oh,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: that's so HR pro.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: It's progressive discipline. We start here. Gentle parenting. You know.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, gentle parenting.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: We don't want to, you know. It sounded like the
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: manager then just went straight to the end of the progressive.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they were like, all right.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: The progressive, boom, fired to get out.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't blame him either. I would do the
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: same thing. Like, that's a lot to get up in
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: somebody's face.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: I love how he had the supervisor waiting outside the door.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, you know, I will.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I hate to call the first, the first story, the
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: story I still a bad hire, but you know, the
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: reality is it didn't work out. So, but I mean,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: these stories are just a reminder that there's a couple
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: of them. We hear all, you know, you hear these
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: and all these stories is like, yeah, started out great.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: It's like, start here. And then sometimes it's like a cliff,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: you know, and then, you know, ends bad and started
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: out as perfect, ended up disappearing, you know, turned out
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: to be a bad hire.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. The jury's out on employees
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: for a while. And what's interesting, some of these stories,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: some happen right away. Like day one is like, day
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: one is like a big deal. There's like a lot
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: of day one stories, right? And then there's others where
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: it's like way down the line. You know, it's like
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: two years, three years down the line, there's, you know,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: some incident and somebody finally, you know, I don't know.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: For me, it speaks to culture and how hard it
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: is to hang on to great people and the type
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: of environment you have to build where people don't get
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: worn down into a place to have some type of.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: I agree.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Breakdown like that.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sure.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Well, thanks. Y'all rocked it. You like my stories?
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of funny stories.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: I knew you would.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: I knew you would. The.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: The.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: The.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: The.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Poor dude on TV, man.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, no. Oh, my gosh. I feel bad. And flying low.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: I liked flying low.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: Tragic.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, don't forget our contest. The $ 10, 000. You
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: submit a story. If it's the best of this season,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: we'll send you $ 10, 000. So go to thebadhire.com. Check it out.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Find the submit section. Figure out how to submit your story.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Write a great story. Tell a great story. The way
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: it should be told on a podcast, the way you'd
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: like to hear it told. It can be happy, it
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: can be sad, it can be tragic, whatever it might be.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Doesn't have to be one genre or another, but send
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: it in and we'd love to tell it. If it's
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: a great story, we might invite you to come on
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the show. Have you tell your own story or just
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: be a guest and hang out with us for a
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: couple of shows. That would be fun. Or you could
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: video conference into the show to tell your story. So
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: either way, that might be cool. But you can stay anonymous.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: You do have to tell us who you are, but
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: you can keep everything anonymous if you want to protect
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: those that need the protection. But we appreciate it. Great show.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: We'll see you guys again soon.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Bye, guys.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: Bye.