This specific coworker knew he was going to get fired for awhile. His aim, from what I’ve discerned, is pretty much to get me fired, as I was the new hire while he was clearly the worst employee there. (That and our boss told me.) Problem is, if he gets fired, he has nearly 15 years of experience behind him to get hired somewhere else. I have 3 months of experience if I’m fired.
As for me, I’m 19 years old, and have joined a night-shift, 12-hour long position that my company offers at the minimum age you can take it, as it requires an Associate’s. The average starting age is 30, and the youngest coworker that I have is 22. If my coworkers are to be believed, the youngest person in my unit’s history to be able to take the job is my 22-year-old coworker. Needless to say, this job takes a lot more psychological fortitude than is indicated in the company’s minimum age. I’m coping with it alright, but the coworker I’m describing above (what made an additional culture shock to me is that I’m older than his kids, and my kids are young enough to be his grandkids) is trying to make my entire life so much more difficult. Let me explain:
In my work’s disciplinary system, if you’re fired as opposed to quitting, then you’re labeled as unhirable across the entire company system. The problem is, in that specific position with that amount of money, that’s the only company available in a 60-mile radius. Meaning that if I wanted to work for the next closest one, I’d have to commute at LEAST an hour away from home. And the path to getting fired is getting reported by your coworkers for wrongdoings or omissions (which could easily be fabricated since anything other than using the company’s documentation system to prove that you did or didn’t do something is illegal in my country). My game plan if this escalates much further is to quit out of my own free will and reapply again 6 months to a year later rather than be fired and deemed unhirable, but on to the story.
This time, he accuses me of omission for something I’m 100 percent sure I did but can’t have any proof besides the company’s documentation system that I did, and reports it to our boss. From what our boss told me, he wouldn’t leave her office until he saw her type up the form for my written warning.
The problem with reporting someone for a written warning is that in my company, not only does an HR representative have to be there (and I have told him about my suspicions, but he said that there’s nothing we can do because I can’t prove that I did in fact do what I was supposed to do), but that my boss’ boss is also supposed to be there. Meaning that me, my boss, my boss’ boss, and the HR rep had to sit through the entire thing, and, because my boss’ boss was there, and my boss was understandably afraid of going through discipline herself, we all had to sit through the whole thing and make sure I signed and acknowledged the form. All because my coworker reported me.
So, just before I signed, against my better judgment, I broke down. I didn’t cry, but I was so nervous I had to repeat most of what I said, and my entire body began trembling. I told them how this is my first job working 12-hour shifts at night, and how this is my first job where it was noticeably understaffed. Add that to the fact that I was a new employee and so young/unprecedented and I think everyone kind of collectively felt bad for me…including my boss’ boss. The HR rep’s voice actually got shaky, and he said he was on the verge of crying and grabbed the bag of tissues! My boss asked my boss’ boss whether or not it was alright if we granted me an additional written warning chance before we proceeded to more serious disciplinary issues, and he said he’d go one step further and not only add one MORE additional written warning chance, but also cut the paycheck dock percentage by half if we ever progressed to that stage. I went ahead and signed the form, but, against all my better judgment, didn’t receive any documentation for the changes to the disciplinary system (although I’ve sent an email, a text, and a phone call to my boss about it; she hasn’t replied to any of them as of yet). The HR rep then said he thought I was going to quit on the spot, and my boss actually agreed and congratulated me for deciding to stay.
I suppose I walked out of the whole thing better than I came in. I suppose I didn’t expect the system to be so broken and the coworker to be so heartless, that’s all.
I also think it’s a sexism thing to some extent, as both my coworker and my boss’ boss are male (as well as the HR rep who told me there’s nothing I can do about it), whereas my boss and I are female. What also makes me suspicious is not only did my boss seem to be privy to the wills of both my coworker and my boss’ boss, but there was also a conversation I overheard on my way in where the HR rep insisted to wait in his car rather than in the office in between meetings. But it also could be just pure chance.
I suppose I’ll just have to hold on until a few more people get trained to accommodate for long-established staffing issues until he FINALLY gets fired.