Employee Is Surprised His Badge Is Not Working, Team Lead Reminds Him That He Left Work Early The Day Before, Saying He Was Quitting
People like to say to others to be careful what they wish for as it may come true. Maybe we don’t need to take it literally, but the things you say do have meaning and some of them have consequences.
If you announce at your workplace that you are quitting, it doesn’t matter that you don’t mean it, but in some places it can have a legal value and management may take it seriously, especially if they already don’t like you.
This one team lead took the opportunity to get rid of an employee who wasn’t very productive and had anger management issues by maliciously complying with their boss’ order to do as they see fit.
More info: Reddit
Team lead was allowed to make a call about person’s employment and they maliciously complied, which turned out to be a good thing
Image credits: Phil Sexton (not the actual photo)
The story takes place a few years ago when the Original Poster (OP) worked for an internet service provider and was a team lead. The way they described their work was “Basically we took the orders that sales made and provisioned circuits to facilitate the customers’ needs.”
Only the seniors like OP themselves and another teammate were assigned customers, but others would get them randomly and new ones every day.
The narrator was a team lead in an internet service provider company and had an employee that was a bit dramatic and hot-headed
Image credits: bubblehead_maker
There was one employee that didn’t like this system and was a hot head in general. The OP called him Ginger in this story. Ginger didn’t like that when the customers were assigned for the day, the OP would get skipped because they were handling assignments from his customers that he always did.
This one time, OP got more assignments from their customers than usual, so Ginger kept getting more and more. After a few of them, he got up and just left, apparently having had enough. These orders would take 2 or 3 minutes to finish, so no big deal, but it immensely irritated Ginger to get 2 in a row.
As the OP explained in the comments, “There was no requirement to have orders done in a certain period of time, there was no requirement for him to have today’s work done today.”
They didn’t like having customer orders sent to them instead of the team lead as they had assigned customers they worked with all the time
Image credits: bubblehead_maker
The manager acknowledged what happened and before going on vacation, asked the OP to tell him if Ginger showed up to work the following day. He actually did, but was in a worse mood than before and threatened to quit if he got any more orders. It didn’t take long for him to announce “That’s it, I quit.”
The team lead thought that this was worth mentioning to their boss despite him being on vacation, but the boss allowed the OP to handle it in their own way. So they interpreted the statement as a request to leave, called HR and terminated the work contract.
He left work early once because he was fed up with the orders and the boss told the team lead to keep an eye on the employee before leaving for vacation
Image credits: bubblehead_maker
That meant disconnecting his badge, removing his access, turning off his email and everything else. Which is important to note as the next day, Ginger came back to work and tried to use his badge, but it didn’t work.
The OP saw his argument with the security guard and interrupted it by acting surprised Ginger came as the day before, he had quit his job. The interaction ended here and the OP doesn’t know what happened to the hot-headed employee, but thinks of him sometimes. Not too much, because the team’s productivity went up, but you can’t help but be curious.
The next day, the employee did the same thing and announced they were quitting, which the team lead took as a resignation
Image credits: bubblehead_maker
The OP mentioned that they are in an at-will state, which means “that an employer can terminate an employee at any time for any reason, except an illegal one, or for no reason without incurring legal liability. Likewise, an employee is free to leave a job at any time for any or no reason with no adverse legal consequences,” as explained by National Conference Of State Legislatures.
The US is one of the few countries in the world where employment is mostly at will. Stephanie Jane Hahn explains that there are a few advantages for this system: “Because employers are able to change the employee’s terms of employment as they wish, the objectives of the company may be met more easily.”
She also adds that employers have more freedom to reward their employees based on their merits and employees “have control over their work situation and can choose to walk away when they wish to do so.”
It seemed that the boss was pretty happy as he didn’t want to do it himself despite knowing that it was what was bringing their team performance down
Image credits: bubblehead_maker
Image credits: Kecko (not the actual photo)
Another disadvantage that the lawyer doesn’t mention is that if you don’t mean to quit but say that you do, the employer may interpret it as a serious statement, as it happened in this story. The OP had a feeling that their manager didn’t want to deal with it himself and was actually relieved that it happened during his vacation.
What do you think of this story? Would you say that the team lead went too far? What is your opinion on at-will employment? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
While most people couldn’t understand how the employee was surprised they didn’t have a job anymore, some considered the termination evil
You are free to choose your actions but never free from the consequences. Good riddance.
That's not entirely true about what Initial_school7286 said about Canada and constructive dismissal. This doesn't sound like a situation where there was a voluntary quit over a breach of contract. He just couldn't handle the job. Employers in Canada actually have a lot of immunity when it comes to letting employees go. They can fire you for "just cause" reasons, and are not obligated to keep an employee, even if it's for no particular solid reason. But it would take a real jackass of a boss to actually do that. It does happen, though. The only thing this employer would have to do is state to EI that the employee voluntarily quit after walking out and saying he quit. The proof is in the witness and the time logged.
I work for a guy that has multiple companies. He felt one of his companies was underperforming and went in to office of the president to meet with him. He started to define the changes he wanted. The guy said "Heck, I have half a mind to quit". My boss said "Your resignation is accepted. Have your office cleaned out by the end of day". He then walked out. He then called the office manager and asked him to lock the guy out of the system and watch him to make sure he didn't leave with anything he wasn't suppose to. I knew the office manager - he told me the ex-President just sat at his desk for the next 15 minutes staring into space. Don't threaten if you don't mean it.
“I have half a mind to quit” isn’t the same as “I quit.” (Manager in the US can fire someone for almost any reason, but in terms of the interaction, it makes no sense.)
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The opposite happened to me, we were encouraged to chip in with ideas to improve the logistics at our business, the owners wanted to hear where we could make savings or make lives more manageable for the drivers, but whenever we went through the correct procedure with our line manager he’d say ‘if you don’t like it I’ll accept your resignation right now and you can leave’. One week (when I knew I had another job lined up for two weeks later) I made a suggestion, the boss trotted out his line and that night I emptied my wagon, loaded all my kit into my car, posted my wagon keys and rang him. Let him know that I wouldn’t be in for the shift the next day and I was off. That night my phone and email went nuts, I explained to the owner what my line manager kept threatening and instead of backing down or deferring to him I’d taken up his offer. Three months later, line manager was sacked but I was still glad I’d left!
I couldn't say no. A customer asked if I could print 50 maps and first make 10 or so at 2 pm or something, so 4 hours to do that, but he didnt know it would be impossible. Oh my goodness. I didnt know what to do anymore. Got a nightmare at night that he was gonna shoot me if I didnt hurry up. It was a really sweet man. I just walked out. Manager saw me leave. He called me. Hey I saw you leave. What's the matter? That rotten pc doesnt hurry up and that inkjet printer takes 20 mins for one print. He said: okay. Gave me a new pc. Ordered a new printer. Sent me to a course to say no. From now on someone arranged who did what and if it was too much I could tell them and they'd handle it. Best boss ever. So sweet.
We had amanager who would pout, start to cry and threaten to quit if she didn't get her way at managment meetings. The Supervisor would not do anything and often caved to her demands. We finally got a new supervisor and first time she pulled this he said something to the effect that he was sad to see her go but please have her resignation on his desk by end of the day if she was leaving. Ended that. She did leave about a year later.
To zookeeper, the guy did not return the next day and apologize, "sorry about yesterday...my dog dies." He had a pattern of throwing tantrums. It is not management's job to teach grown up behavior. The only management failure was the poster's supervisor not firing him the first time he threw his tantrum.
To zookeeper... the responsibility to act professional is on the employee. He returned the next day, not with an apology and explanation "sorry I lost it yesterday...my dog died" his boss is not responsible to teach him work ethics, that's a parents job. The only management failure was waiting so long to fire his a*s.
Ginger sounds like an attention-seeking drama queen. Everything always has to be about him; special accommodations have to be made for him and he has to receive a certain amount of attention every day. I bet the entire workplace was relieved when this whiny little brat was removed. If you have a sweet gig with decent pay keep your head down, do your job and don't cause trouble. If you do, maybe you get promoted and then find out if your supervisor really does have an easy job.
So... No presure to get it done on time and he does that? Guy would not survive 30 minutes of intense activity on my job where you have 10seconds to get thecall before it cuts off and counts as missed, wether you have finished loogin the previous call or not
My thoughts precisely! "Ginger" wouldn't have lasted one day at the call center and customer service jobs I've had. He would've thrown a temper tantrum over the first queue of the day for sure.
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Guy sounds lazy, but be mindful, we are only seeing one side of the story. It seems like something else was going on to elicit such a dramatic response even if the person was a bit of a drama llama
From the side we did see, it’s pretty clear the guy’s objection was that he was assigned multiple tasks from the general queue in a row, while OP was assigned none. But Ginger was apparently unaware that tier-1 and tier-2 reps have different duties, and thought he was being abused because OP was tier-2.
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There was another situation on BP where a college student quit college verbally to parents and now after a year or so is surprised that the parents took it as gospel. Careful what you say or do.
I can't help but notice your disposition when calling this co-worker 'Ginger', a slang and derogatory term for a red haired person...and the fact that you claim to have given him 'the easy orders'. I call b******t. To even claim such a thing, tells me that you very clearly were cherry picking the work load and I highly doubt that you deliberately took all of the difficult orders in order to...what? Help a co-worker that you clearly dislike and bully? I think not. You are as transparent as cellophane and I feel there is much more to this story than him just walking out because he got 5 orders in a row. What you claim is downright absurd and you, personally, sound like a horrible person to work with. No wonder he walked out. I hope he found better employment than he had with you. And I agree with what was stated earlier. You were the team lead so lead. You failed this employee miserably and want recognition for it? You don't call your employees N***** or Blackie so why Ginger?
You equate calling someone ginger with calling someone the "N" word? Please! That statement negated everything you said previously!
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i worked as a phlebotomist in a small-ish hospital and ended up as a shift lead. In practical terms it meant if anyone f****d up, i got an a*s chewing but i didn't have authority to fire, or suspend anyone. The hospital was not big enough that we were running a marathon every shift. Several floors the nurses did all but the tough blood draws and we mostly did out patients, outpatient surgery, and blood sugars. I had one kid, this was his first job with real responsibility, and he'd grown up (-ish) in a family that was never hurting for money. He also had no patience and anger issues, but wasn't mature enough and didn't have real work experience to know what "expressing your frustrations appropriately an professionally" meant. So when he had a large stack of blood sugar tests for that hour he'd get b****y, yell at his coworkers, and occasionally throw things. I tried to help him learn how to have a job and looked out for him when i could. When i left, he got fired 3 weeks later.
Should have complained to HR that you were experiencing a hostile work environment by being given responsibility without any authority to correct subordinate misbehavior.
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In the U.S. if you quit a job without just cause, you won't qualify for Unemployment Compensation. 😁
Imagine getting upset and quitting because you're expected to do your job.
Worked for a big box store when another employee asked me to help them punch in for work cuz they were having trouble. Tried to punch in for them, message said they were terminated...HR didn't even have enough respect to tell the employee they were fired
I was at company, where I had some issues with my colleagues - I was and I'm hard worker, the issue was there were lazy and I didn't gave their way, so they complained to boss. Almost every week or two I had sit-down with boss about it, to the point I got tired and said I'm done and quit. Mind you - it has to be written with 2 weeks notice. Never handed her anything. New boss came in, after 2 months of the same BS - worsened by he inability to actually step up on these people I just handed her my resignation. The shock oh her face was priceless.
"Provisioned circuits to facilitate customers' needs," sounds like you made that up.
An at will state means employees do not have to join a union as a condition of employment. It has nothing to do with employee terminations.
No it definitely also has to do with terminations. At will employees can quit or be fired at any point. They do not have a set term contract where if either party ends it early they need a very specific and narrowly defined allowable reason or they pay severe penalties. I have done both at will and contract jobs - the contract jobs had to continue to pay my salary for the full term of the contract time even when things changed and they disnt have enough work for me, but I also couldnt get a competing job within that contract time or I would have had to repay a huge % of what I earned to pay for the training of my replacement. At will jobs either party could end when we chose with a set notification period.
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I suppose this isn't the worst thing in the world, but why wasn't the team lead trying to make him a more effective employee? Do managers these days just think they get the extra pay because of how awesome they are and that this isn't an actual job that needs to be done? I wouldn't take the bloke back, but if I was the managers manager I'd be saying "you're next" for being such a worthless little coward.
If you let s**t like this slide it sends the wrong message to the team. Let's not worry about laws and rely on common sense, here... Employment is being compensated for executing a set of desired behaviors. Don't wanna execute? No worries, just no paycheck. GTFO.
Employers shouldn't hang onto toxic employees!! In California, they're so afraid of a lawsuit. Cut your losses, fire the employee and if they file a a lawsuit against you, most likely that will cost you much less than the lost production, loss of good employees, moral, etc. Our company kept such a toxic employee for far too long, she would constantly make false HR complaints, always out on a Covid paid "vacation", did absolutely nothing all day (nothing!), etc. At the time, I had been working here for 22 years and her - 3 months. I was called into HR 4-5 times because of her and I was still expected to train her. It was obvious all the mgrs and head of HR in the room knew she was manipulative but had to "protect the company". Eventually she quit, filed a lawsuit against them, got her "payoff" because that's cheaper than dragging it on. I end up with a severe case of anxiety, which I still have two years later.
You are free to choose your actions but never free from the consequences. Good riddance.
That's not entirely true about what Initial_school7286 said about Canada and constructive dismissal. This doesn't sound like a situation where there was a voluntary quit over a breach of contract. He just couldn't handle the job. Employers in Canada actually have a lot of immunity when it comes to letting employees go. They can fire you for "just cause" reasons, and are not obligated to keep an employee, even if it's for no particular solid reason. But it would take a real jackass of a boss to actually do that. It does happen, though. The only thing this employer would have to do is state to EI that the employee voluntarily quit after walking out and saying he quit. The proof is in the witness and the time logged.
I work for a guy that has multiple companies. He felt one of his companies was underperforming and went in to office of the president to meet with him. He started to define the changes he wanted. The guy said "Heck, I have half a mind to quit". My boss said "Your resignation is accepted. Have your office cleaned out by the end of day". He then walked out. He then called the office manager and asked him to lock the guy out of the system and watch him to make sure he didn't leave with anything he wasn't suppose to. I knew the office manager - he told me the ex-President just sat at his desk for the next 15 minutes staring into space. Don't threaten if you don't mean it.
“I have half a mind to quit” isn’t the same as “I quit.” (Manager in the US can fire someone for almost any reason, but in terms of the interaction, it makes no sense.)
Load More Replies... The opposite happened to me, we were encouraged to chip in with ideas to improve the logistics at our business, the owners wanted to hear where we could make savings or make lives more manageable for the drivers, but whenever we went through the correct procedure with our line manager he’d say ‘if you don’t like it I’ll accept your resignation right now and you can leave’. One week (when I knew I had another job lined up for two weeks later) I made a suggestion, the boss trotted out his line and that night I emptied my wagon, loaded all my kit into my car, posted my wagon keys and rang him. Let him know that I wouldn’t be in for the shift the next day and I was off. That night my phone and email went nuts, I explained to the owner what my line manager kept threatening and instead of backing down or deferring to him I’d taken up his offer. Three months later, line manager was sacked but I was still glad I’d left!
I couldn't say no. A customer asked if I could print 50 maps and first make 10 or so at 2 pm or something, so 4 hours to do that, but he didnt know it would be impossible. Oh my goodness. I didnt know what to do anymore. Got a nightmare at night that he was gonna shoot me if I didnt hurry up. It was a really sweet man. I just walked out. Manager saw me leave. He called me. Hey I saw you leave. What's the matter? That rotten pc doesnt hurry up and that inkjet printer takes 20 mins for one print. He said: okay. Gave me a new pc. Ordered a new printer. Sent me to a course to say no. From now on someone arranged who did what and if it was too much I could tell them and they'd handle it. Best boss ever. So sweet.
We had amanager who would pout, start to cry and threaten to quit if she didn't get her way at managment meetings. The Supervisor would not do anything and often caved to her demands. We finally got a new supervisor and first time she pulled this he said something to the effect that he was sad to see her go but please have her resignation on his desk by end of the day if she was leaving. Ended that. She did leave about a year later.
To zookeeper, the guy did not return the next day and apologize, "sorry about yesterday...my dog dies." He had a pattern of throwing tantrums. It is not management's job to teach grown up behavior. The only management failure was the poster's supervisor not firing him the first time he threw his tantrum.
To zookeeper... the responsibility to act professional is on the employee. He returned the next day, not with an apology and explanation "sorry I lost it yesterday...my dog died" his boss is not responsible to teach him work ethics, that's a parents job. The only management failure was waiting so long to fire his a*s.
Ginger sounds like an attention-seeking drama queen. Everything always has to be about him; special accommodations have to be made for him and he has to receive a certain amount of attention every day. I bet the entire workplace was relieved when this whiny little brat was removed. If you have a sweet gig with decent pay keep your head down, do your job and don't cause trouble. If you do, maybe you get promoted and then find out if your supervisor really does have an easy job.
So... No presure to get it done on time and he does that? Guy would not survive 30 minutes of intense activity on my job where you have 10seconds to get thecall before it cuts off and counts as missed, wether you have finished loogin the previous call or not
My thoughts precisely! "Ginger" wouldn't have lasted one day at the call center and customer service jobs I've had. He would've thrown a temper tantrum over the first queue of the day for sure.
Load More Replies... Guy sounds lazy, but be mindful, we are only seeing one side of the story. It seems like something else was going on to elicit such a dramatic response even if the person was a bit of a drama llama
From the side we did see, it’s pretty clear the guy’s objection was that he was assigned multiple tasks from the general queue in a row, while OP was assigned none. But Ginger was apparently unaware that tier-1 and tier-2 reps have different duties, and thought he was being abused because OP was tier-2.
Load More Replies... There was another situation on BP where a college student quit college verbally to parents and now after a year or so is surprised that the parents took it as gospel. Careful what you say or do.
I can't help but notice your disposition when calling this co-worker 'Ginger', a slang and derogatory term for a red haired person...and the fact that you claim to have given him 'the easy orders'. I call b******t. To even claim such a thing, tells me that you very clearly were cherry picking the work load and I highly doubt that you deliberately took all of the difficult orders in order to...what? Help a co-worker that you clearly dislike and bully? I think not. You are as transparent as cellophane and I feel there is much more to this story than him just walking out because he got 5 orders in a row. What you claim is downright absurd and you, personally, sound like a horrible person to work with. No wonder he walked out. I hope he found better employment than he had with you. And I agree with what was stated earlier. You were the team lead so lead. You failed this employee miserably and want recognition for it? You don't call your employees N***** or Blackie so why Ginger?
You equate calling someone ginger with calling someone the "N" word? Please! That statement negated everything you said previously!
Load More Replies... i worked as a phlebotomist in a small-ish hospital and ended up as a shift lead. In practical terms it meant if anyone f****d up, i got an a*s chewing but i didn't have authority to fire, or suspend anyone. The hospital was not big enough that we were running a marathon every shift. Several floors the nurses did all but the tough blood draws and we mostly did out patients, outpatient surgery, and blood sugars. I had one kid, this was his first job with real responsibility, and he'd grown up (-ish) in a family that was never hurting for money. He also had no patience and anger issues, but wasn't mature enough and didn't have real work experience to know what "expressing your frustrations appropriately an professionally" meant. So when he had a large stack of blood sugar tests for that hour he'd get b****y, yell at his coworkers, and occasionally throw things. I tried to help him learn how to have a job and looked out for him when i could. When i left, he got fired 3 weeks later.
Should have complained to HR that you were experiencing a hostile work environment by being given responsibility without any authority to correct subordinate misbehavior.
Load More Replies... In the U.S. if you quit a job without just cause, you won't qualify for Unemployment Compensation. 😁
Imagine getting upset and quitting because you're expected to do your job.
Worked for a big box store when another employee asked me to help them punch in for work cuz they were having trouble. Tried to punch in for them, message said they were terminated...HR didn't even have enough respect to tell the employee they were fired
I was at company, where I had some issues with my colleagues - I was and I'm hard worker, the issue was there were lazy and I didn't gave their way, so they complained to boss. Almost every week or two I had sit-down with boss about it, to the point I got tired and said I'm done and quit. Mind you - it has to be written with 2 weeks notice. Never handed her anything. New boss came in, after 2 months of the same BS - worsened by he inability to actually step up on these people I just handed her my resignation. The shock oh her face was priceless.
"Provisioned circuits to facilitate customers' needs," sounds like you made that up.
An at will state means employees do not have to join a union as a condition of employment. It has nothing to do with employee terminations.
No it definitely also has to do with terminations. At will employees can quit or be fired at any point. They do not have a set term contract where if either party ends it early they need a very specific and narrowly defined allowable reason or they pay severe penalties. I have done both at will and contract jobs - the contract jobs had to continue to pay my salary for the full term of the contract time even when things changed and they disnt have enough work for me, but I also couldnt get a competing job within that contract time or I would have had to repay a huge % of what I earned to pay for the training of my replacement. At will jobs either party could end when we chose with a set notification period.
Load More Replies... I suppose this isn't the worst thing in the world, but why wasn't the team lead trying to make him a more effective employee? Do managers these days just think they get the extra pay because of how awesome they are and that this isn't an actual job that needs to be done? I wouldn't take the bloke back, but if I was the managers manager I'd be saying "you're next" for being such a worthless little coward.
If you let s**t like this slide it sends the wrong message to the team. Let's not worry about laws and rely on common sense, here... Employment is being compensated for executing a set of desired behaviors. Don't wanna execute? No worries, just no paycheck. GTFO.
Employers shouldn't hang onto toxic employees!! In California, they're so afraid of a lawsuit. Cut your losses, fire the employee and if they file a a lawsuit against you, most likely that will cost you much less than the lost production, loss of good employees, moral, etc. Our company kept such a toxic employee for far too long, she would constantly make false HR complaints, always out on a Covid paid "vacation", did absolutely nothing all day (nothing!), etc. At the time, I had been working here for 22 years and her - 3 months. I was called into HR 4-5 times because of her and I was still expected to train her. It was obvious all the mgrs and head of HR in the room knew she was manipulative but had to "protect the company". Eventually she quit, filed a lawsuit against them, got her "payoff" because that's cheaper than dragging it on. I end up with a severe case of anxiety, which I still have two years later.
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