I work in the United States Postal service, and recently I had to fire an employee. They sent me a link to a post on this subreddit and I was shocked to see how many people were supporting them in the comments. So I wanted to share the full story.
The man in question is a life long friend of mine and a few years ago he developed a very serious drinking problem. When his drinking got worse his wife left and took the children, nothing formal, they aren't divorced, she just moved away. She said she'd only pursue a divorce if he tried to visit before he got sober.
Time and time again I have had to clean up his messes, and at the start of 2022 I made the mistake of getting him a job as a mail man. I thought having something to do other than laying around and drinking all day would help, I was wrong.
Last week he was arrested on the job for drinking under the influence, he was throwing mail onto people's lawns and ran into four mailboxes.
Now for my second mistake. I stepped in and used my local influence to get the charges dropped and have him remanded into my custody, thinking finally this would be the wake up call he's needed. I brought him to my home, fed him, and then in the night whilst I was asleep he left with one of my cars to go to his home.
I was going to fire him when we were both at work Monday morning but he never showed all week, so I chose to do it by text Sunday night, I told him not to come back into work, and that if he did I'd have to get the police to arrest him.
Below I will link his post so you can see the text conversation we had.
Hopefully now that the whole story is out there you can see this man is not one to be idolized.
https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/x6m11q/tw_mental_abuse_ableism_relapse_alcoholism/