New Guy is a Brown Nosing Boy Scout

[Anonymous]

Just before Thanksgiving, one of 5 analysts that report to me took a new job. No bad blood at all. I was happy for the young guy to make move and get a better role with more money. We interviewed 4 candidates for the replacement. Pretty much all 4 fit the bill so it came down to personality. Meaning who would work best in our environment. We picked Rob.

I did not pick up on this at the time (I mean, can you?) but Rob is... a weenie. He 'tattles' on the other analysts for...... coming in 6 minutes 'late', for not taking out the trash in the kitchen, for, I kid you not, parking badly in the parking lot. At first I chalked it up to eagerness to please a supervisor, but yesterday, first day back after the holiday break, my manager called me in and sad Rob told him he saw my computer screen showing LL Bean's website. I told him I was processing returns from Christmas. He really didn't care at all but now he is wondering if this guy might be a liability. He's worried he might contact clients and air dirty laundry, no matter how insignificant it is.

So, he's told me I can fire him at will. But I want to give the guy a chance to keep his mouth in check. What would you say to him? Or, would you just can theguy?

[Anonymous]

Are any of your other candidates still available? He sounds toxic.

[Anonymous]

Fire the weenie. He sucks.

[Anonymous]

Analyst? Sounds like a made up govt job, yo I shouldn't be doing anything but work during your hours as this is tax payer money

[Anonymous]

Get rid of him. It's not reasonable to be new and tattle for insignificant nonsense. It shows that he has no sense of social norms. Not a culture fit. Snitches get stiches and all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Analyst? Sounds like a made up govt job, yo I shouldn't be doing anything but work during your hours as this is tax payer money

Sounds like you don't know you ahole from your elbow.

[Anonymous]

I say give him more of a chance. It’s not *your* or your company’s job to rehab this guy.

But, if he never gets feedback he’ll move on and do the same thing somewhere else.

Feedback. It could be slightly painful. It doesn’t have to be mean.

He’s probably rigid so he won’t actually change…. But as I said, even if he moves on, he should know a little something of why it didn’t work out.

[Anonymous]

You need to catch him doing something reportable or at least embarrassing. How’s his grooming? How are his table manners? Any empty cups in his car?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of him. It's not reasonable to be new and tattle for insignificant nonsense. It shows that he has no sense of social norms. Not a culture fit. Snitches get stiches and all that.

This. I seriously doubt he'll take the second chance and keep his mouth shut. He's toxic.

[Anonymous]

You've only invested 1 month in this guy. The level of petty that he's showing leads me to believe this is his personality and you won't be able to counsel him in changing his behavior.
Plus, if you wait to fire him, it's likely that the other 4 candidates will no longer be available and you will have to restart a new search and new rounds of interviews.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t call him a Boy Scout - I would call him a snake.

Fire him. You won’t be able to trust him.

[Anonymous]

Fire him while you can. If you give him a few months and nothing chances, will your boss still be ok with letting him go?

[Anonymous]

Oh we had an employee who was a "tattle" (not sure what else to call her). She convinced a supervisor in the department that we needed her to join us (she was, not surprisingly, having difficulty with people in her department, at the time). She would write up reports to the head of the department each week and report who was doing what - when they arrived, departed, etc. Even what conversations they had, and what they did when. Not sure if it was busy work (because she had nothing to do, in spite of claiming "how busy" she was, and monopolizing meetings), or she knew the right person to slide her in the back door. Could have been both.

We were not really sure of her purpose within the department, or why she was hired. Turns out, she had very few responsibilities, but she did stir (overturn) the pot and cost quite a few good people and good workers their jobs. Unbelievably, she is still there, and now working remote, so I imagine she is doing even less, if that is possible.

OP, you do not want that kid of toxicity in your office. That type of worker only looks out for themselves, and whomever they have to take down to make themselves look good is of no matter to them.

They are counterproductive to the department's mission, but gaslighting is part of their M.O. Nothing good comes of keeping someone like this around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh we had an employee who was a "tattle" (not sure what else to call her). She convinced a supervisor in the department that we needed her to join us (she was, not surprisingly, having difficulty with people in her department, at the time). She would write up reports to the head of the department each week and report who was doing what - when they arrived, departed, etc. Even what conversations they had, and what they did when. Not sure if it was busy work (because she had nothing to do, in spite of claiming "how busy" she was, and monopolizing meetings), or she knew the right person to slide her in the back door. Could have been both.

We were not really sure of her purpose within the department, or why she was hired. Turns out, she had very few responsibilities, but she did stir (overturn) the pot and cost quite a few good people and good workers their jobs. Unbelievably, she is still there, and now working remote, so I imagine she is doing even less, if that is possible.

OP, you do not want that kid of toxicity in your office. That type of worker only looks out for themselves, and whomever they have to take down to make themselves look good is of no matter to them.

They are counterproductive to the department's mission, but gaslighting is part of their M.O. Nothing good comes of keeping someone like this around.

To add: the head of the department was also rarely present, and also not a positive force, but used/uses the person mentioned above as their "head puppet", and the department head was/is the "puppeteer". The rest just tow the line or kiss up, if they want to keep their jobs. There was no asking the most innocuous of questions, you were to follow the dictator, so as to not disrupt the status quo. That is what they wanted, yes men to serve them - not actual productivity or serving the mission of the department.

I can't even count how many people left for other departments, or left altogether, over just a couple of years. I had never seen that in any professional office setting that I or my family had experienced, in all my life. It was surreal.

Show him the door.

[Anonymous]

He’s already gone behind your back to your boss. He’s a nitwit. Get rid of him now before he starts to drive you seriously crazy.