He Put “Batman” on His Job Application… Twice [The Bad Hire Ep. 9]

00:00:00 Ever made a bad hire? Had an interview spiral into chaos? You're not alone. These stories can be hilarious, shocking, and sometimes downright painful. Welcome to The Bad Hire, the podcast that pulls back the curtain on hiring going wrong. I'm your host, Ken Monroe, and I work with companies every day to help them hire smarter and avoid costly mistakes. Each week, we'll dive into real stories from HR leaders and recruiters and talent pros who've lived through the worst of the worst, from nightmare interviews to first-day disasters. You'll hear it all, because behind every bad hire,

00:00:41 there's a lesson worth learning. Hey, welcome to The Bad Hire. We've got another episode coming up, and I'm with Nathan and with Dallin Wortham. He's the founder and CEO of Charter Connect. Happy to have you, brother. Oh, it's great to be here. I'm so stoked. This is going to be fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so tell me a little bit about Charter Connect. I wanted to let people understand what you do. The reason I love it, you're a CEO, and you hire people. You've got a growing company, and so you've got that. Maybe you have a story of your own, but I know you've had a long career, too, you could talk about. So what's up? Tell me about Charter Connect. Yeah, so I was an airline pilot, and to become an airline pilot, I worked at a market agency

00:01:22 to help clients grow their company, and one of our clients was a charter school, and it went really well. They kind of word of mouth told their friends, and pretty soon I had dozens of charter schools wanting me to help with them, with their marketing, and so I stopped flying, and I started a business, had no idea how to do anything in regards to running a business, and made a ton of mistakes along the way, but it's been a big blessing, a good experience, and here we are now with hopefully a little bit more knowledge than I had five years ago when I started it. Yeah, that's kind of a crazy path from airline pilot to entrepreneur. Yeah, it's been drinking through a fire hose.

00:02:04 Right, and you're in business with your brother, maybe, right? Yeah, I have a twin brother that looks pretty much just like me, like if I take off my glasses, and it's like, you can't tell. Really? And so now I'm Sean, and now I'm Dallin again. Okay, I didn't know that. I mean, I knew it was your brother, I don't think I knew it was your twin. Yeah, so if you want a cameo, I'll just... Yeah. Yeah, so it's been really good having someone to be able to ride the battle with. Yeah, for sure. That's awesome. So you know what we do here? We, you know, when we started the bad hire, I just love the idea of every time I'm hanging around with like talent acquisition pros and recruiters and stuff, when we're just chopping it up, it almost always turns to like guys telling funny stories.

00:02:46 Stories. You know, just about interview blowups, or somebody showed up like crazy on the first day, or like meltdown later. And as I was talking about, you know, doing a show, I was like, I just, I don't want to try to be an expert to anybody and try to like, I got to come up with some words of wisdom every single show. I just want to have fun and chop it up and enjoy. And so came up with the idea of the bad hire, and we just, you know, the goal is to get people to submit their stories to us. Right? Real life stories is just where hires went wrong. And I do think there's learning there. Yeah. Right? You know. So, yeah. I mean, as we talk about them, you can be like, bro, I know that story.

00:03:27 And, you know, we probably have all learned a lesson. And we realize there's a lot of stories out there. Yeah. A lot of bad hires. Yeah. That's what's crazy, is the amount of stories that we hear, and just some of the shenanigans that go on, and interviews, and all that kind of fun stuff. So what we did, we put together the show. I mean, we're like 10 episodes in or something. Maybe this is episode nine. And then to encourage folks to submit their stories to us, we put together a $10,000 contest. Best story of the season. The season that will be around 24 shows. Best story of the season. Our producers who help put this together, they'll help select that. We'll choose it. You have somebody $10,000 for the best story.

00:04:07 Right? Right. You love that, right? So are you going to submit one today? Oh, yeah. For sure you're telling a story now. I'm going to submit $100 if it's $10,000. Right. And what we need is great. We need great marketing to get people to submit stories. So, you know, we'll just lean into you for that because that's what you're an expert at. yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So that's, that's why I started it. And the first, I mean, I am having a t-shirt made. You got to listen to some of the shows that come out. Yeah. And when you hear this one, I'm having a t-shirt made says, don't be a cat nuzzler. Is it nuzzler? Nuzzler? No, I think don't be a cat nuzzler. Yeah. It's a memorable word.

00:04:48 Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to get us. Don't be real small. Cat nuzzler. So it just looks like I'm a cat nuzzler. But you look as close as. Yeah. That's an episode. It's just a great story. Is it, is it episode two? Yeah. Got a team's call, video call, literally like showing up to his team's calls, shirtless, more or less snuggling with his cat in bed. Yeah. Laying his cat in bed on a team. He knew the camera was on and still was bold. And I saw a video this week you shared with me. Maybe. It happened a couple times. Like someone telling a story about somebody who just laid in bed. Yeah. On a client call. Like shirtless in bed. Hang out with their cat. I don't know. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe that's how you read. Maybe you're. When you're not dressed up like this, maybe, maybe that's what you're doing at work.

00:05:29 I love my cat at home. Yeah. So I don't know. So anyway, we take those stories. These guys source some stories right now. We're sourcing stories off the internet to draw them and get them into the show. And then just, you know, really hopeful for engaging an audience that will, would love to tell their stories and have some fun. And I said, that's what we're up to. Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. All right. So, um, I mean, I'll kick it off and I'll read, I'll read one to you. Okay. And then, and you know, we'll just. I'm excited. Yeah. See what the reaction is. So this is, Hey, I work at an H I work at HR at a company with over 500 employees. So I'm used to dealing with wild situations.

00:06:09 At least once a week, I end up dealing with an incident. We had to fire a young woman for repeatedly taunting and harassing another employee. It wasn't a snap decision. There'd been complaints, documentation, warnings, but eventually it was clear. She couldn't stay. As, as part of the process, I escorted her back to her desk. This is, you know, everyone hates this part of letting someone go when you got to do the proverbial walk out, you know, walk out. See that. You're just like, Oh, this part sucks. Okay. I escorted her back to the desk so she could gather her personal belongings. Usually that part is uneventful.

00:06:51 It is like a shame. You're just like, let me just get out of here. I mean, people grab a coat, a few knickknacks, you know, quietly head out. Not this time. She opens her desk drawer, reached in, pulls out a full size bottle of wine. Okay. Apparently it's a screw top. Oh yeah. It's already there. It was this one. So she cracks open this bottle of wine. I'm assuming, you know, she didn't, it was a screw top there. So, you know, but before, before this HR person could even process it, she tips it back and just started chugging the wine. Right. This is post firing. Oh yeah. This is, this is her rebellious. Nothing to lose. You fired me. I'm going to get drunk on the job. You could have done this out in the parking lot.

00:07:31 No, she wanted to do this. Yeah. So she, yeah. It's your time. She chugs the whole thing. That's a lot. Yeah. All right. In college, there's a story. Okay. So that's a lot. She then pulls out a second one. Oh, all right. She had a collection in there. And did, did the same thing. So she's now, as people are standing there, she's just being rebellious and she drinks a second bottle of wine. And, uh, you know, just right in front of this person, right in the middle of the office, uh, lady says, it's so surreal that for a second, I didn't even, I didn't even know what to do. You know, I didn't know how to stop her. Uh, didn't know if she should call security or just let it go,

00:08:12 but they ended up calling the police. I assume. Oh wow. Two bottle of, two bottles of wine quickly, uh, would make you pretty belligerent if you're angry. And by the time the cops arrived, she had completely passed out. Wow. And so she was unresponsive, glassy eyed, staring into space and it got serious enough. They had to call an ambulance. Oh my God. So you think the story would end there, but later, um, they had to go through some of her company email and found that she had lots of stranger, dozens of notes. She had written to herself plotting stuff against the employees, plotting revenge. Yeah. Plotting revenge on different employees. So, Oh my gosh. Yeah. At least they caught her before anything happened. Right.

00:08:52 I just, you know, some, I think it's interesting how, um, sometimes just people just like, don't like, they might actually be, you start out good and then something happens and they go off the rails. Clearly if someone's bringing bottles of wine to work, they, there's like this multiple, something you missed on the way in. Yeah. Or something a manager's overlooking. Yeah. And some people don't mind burning bridges. They're like, well, I'm out of here. Yeah. I remember the guy who was caught sleeping in the, the story about the guy sleeping on, on the job behind. Yeah. Uh, like he, he, he rips his shirt off and goes Hulk on everyone on the way out screaming and everyone like, well, we've come this far. I'm not coming back. This is not a why, why, why this is a chug,

00:09:33 chug, chug event. You know, it's like, actually, I actually, you know, uh, this one actually kind of hurt my soul a little bit. It's like, wow, you know, that's just not a great place for someone to be. Yeah. Yeah. Um, she, she did. And man, but you know, what these, what some of these HR people face, you know, it did strike me early in the deal. As you get, as you get bigger and you start growing your organization, you, you, you, you have these HR issues and they just become, you know, it's just bigger and bigger. People's lives. Yeah. You know, I mean, who knows what happens, but, and, and the HR is constantly intervening. And,

00:10:13 you know, this drama over here, that drama, this person's struggle with this or this, you know, maybe some pressure outside or conflict internal. Um, you know, there's all kinds of things, you know, those HR folks are just absolute heroes for coming in. All they have to deal with. Yeah. Right. Um, you know, I mean, I'm just thinking she probably didn't maybe have money for an Uber. So she's like, there's only one way I'm getting out of here. And it has sirens on top, but it's either a police car or an ambulance. Yeah. It's free ride. It's free ride. I'll get carried out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. All right. A while back, I had an intern who to this day still stands out as the worst I've ever supervised.

00:11:01 We've heard some bad intern stories. Interns are fun. That's, those are fun stories though. They, uh, yeah. Just speaking of interns. Yeah. You know, I'm always blown away now by, I mean, I think the story, I think I read it before it was, uh, before we came on, it's a little bit of that kind of entitlement, you know, Hey, I do this. I don't do that. You know, you're, you're finding that a lot in, um, Gen Zers is resistance to, that's not my job to, to flexibility. Yeah. Yeah. That's when the whole, definitely more selective. Yeah. Yeah. Like, so from day one, he was off, you know, he wasn't shy. He wasn't shy. He was inappropriate,

00:11:42 constantly asking how much money that I made. So how much money you make, bro? Tell me how much money you make. And not just once or twice, he'd bring it up all the time. We'd be in the middle of working on something and he'd just like drop. So seriously, how much money do you make? Wow. When I persist, you get that from like, if you, if you watch enough social media and you watch these things where there's actually these guys who just walk up to people. Hey, how much money do you make? It's like a normal thing then. Yeah. Just like, yes. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Tell me how you, you know, and of course they target people who look like they have money and then get them to tell their story. Right. But still a little bit different. So not in work, bro. Yeah. Right. And I'm not sure it was for the same, uh,

00:12:22 educational reasons. The guy on the, that does it, you know, on the street. Well, go ahead. I mean, when you're an intern, like your job is to kind of like learn, absorb, and like, I mean, kind of just shut up in color. Right. And to be out asking questions to your potential future. Yeah. Like what salary should I aim for your next couple of years? 15 years from now, when I'm your age, I just want to make sure if I make it. Yeah, exactly. It'll be the same in the chair. How much? It's not asking. How much is that person that started last year? How much are they making? So how much do you make? When I gave him assignments, he'd look me dead in the eye and say, that's not my job. I don't, sometimes we wonder how people,

00:13:04 why people stick with these people. Imagine hearing that from an interim. And then it escalated. He started asking personal questions. So out of the line, I almost couldn't believe that he said it out loud. One day out of nowhere, he blurts. So do you like adult movies? What? At that point, I was documenting everything. I finally reported him to HR and they didn't even hesitate. He was out of the internship program immediately. I thought that was the end of it, but no, you know, he now goes around telling people, I will win this life. Oh. Don't we get that a lot from these folks who like really crash and burn? And they've got like really weird, odd behavior,

00:13:44 you know, not great productive behavior. Yeah. And then they're angry when they're like terminated. Somehow it's not their fault. You know, it's almost like when the culmination of the bad thing finally happens, it's almost like they tag the person next to them when it happens. It's like burned in their brain. Their fault. You were there when the bad thing happened. So you're the bad juju. Yeah. Yeah. My life was great up until you. I was able to ask any question I wanted up until, you know. You still haven't told me how much money you made. Yeah. Right. There is a need. There is a need. And for, in fact, I think we're actually doing some here in another month for like just pure business etiquette training.

00:14:27 Mm-hmm. Right. Like, you know, how to, how to, how to, just how to be a pro. Yeah. How to be professional. Yeah. How to be a pro. Yeah. How to be normal. Yeah. You know, and it's really needed. You know, I get it all the time. And, you know, sometimes, I don't know that I'm disappointed, but when I see young folks in, in, you know, coming up in their career and watching them struggle with, you know, how to act, you know, what's appropriate, you know, and, and I'm not trying to create some type of crazy over controlling culture, but there is just a way to act. It's just like positive juju into your organization. That comes through professionalism

00:15:07 and knowing how to act, you know. Yeah. So, and, that's not my job. It's never a good thing to say when you're an intern. It is, I don't even like it. I don't care who you are in the organization. If you look at me and say, I'm not, that's not my job. We're like, bro, it wasn't mine. It's the opposite way. I feel like you're, you're a positive impact when you're, on your culture, when you're able to like, oh, I'll take that on. I'll help support, you know, whatever way I can. Yeah. Instead of just be like, ah, no, no, thanks. Well, and there's such a difference between, that's not my job and setting up boundaries and saying, hey, like, this is my priority right now. Yeah. And if you want me to be able to do that, I can, but do you, would you like me to let this other priority go so I can help you with that? Like, that's okay. Like setting boundaries, but then,

00:15:48 you know, say like, that's not my job. It's like, okay, well, actually nothing's your job anymore. Cause you're gone. Yeah. Right. You don't have to worry about it. You actually don't have to. I am not going to entret on it. Right. It's not your job anymore. Yeah. Before we dive back into the chaos on the bad hire, this episode is brought to you by B-Checks. Hiring shouldn't feel like rolling the dice. Background checks should come with great tech, seamless integration, and customer service that delivers. That's B-Checks. Lightning fast results, unmatched accuracy, built in fraud prevention. We help you hire the right people. Now, B-Checks plugs into over 100 H-R-I-S and ATS systems. So your background checks run smooth,

00:16:29 fast, and backed by top level service. Protect your team, protect your reputation, protect your sanity. Go to B-Checks.io. That's B-C-H-E-X.io. Who's up? Who's got one? You want to share? I think Dallin has some stories. I don't know. I think Dallin. Cause he's a baller. Dallin, you got some stories? Well, this is perfect because about, I don't know, maybe two months ago, right before I got the invite to be here, I was having dinner with a friend of mine who, they were an owner of a franchise that sells cookies and it rhymes with stumble. Oh. And they had a few different locations.

00:17:11 Oh, by the way, I love it. I love Bumble cookies. I love stumble cookies. Yeah. And so they have, they recently sold, but they had multiple different locations. And I can, I mean, this lives rent free in my mind, this story. They had an employee. We'll call him Richard. And Richard was showing some inappropriate media to his coworkers when they immediately went to the manager to say, hey, hey, like, this is what Richard's doing. The new guy's kind of being a little weird. And so obviously they had to let Richard go because Richard's doing some inappropriate things. They walking out to his car and he's kicking and screaming, not wanting to leave, demanding an explanation.

00:17:55 But then they say, hey, come back on Monday for your final check and whatnot. And we'll send you on your way. And so he didn't want to come back in person because he was embarrassed. He was completely. Yeah, totally. God, I cannot imagine. Yeah. But they said, no, you need to come in person because we had like the paper check for you. Just come in. And so this man completely covered in black with a ski mask, sunglasses, everything walks in and goes up to the counter and it doesn't say a word. He's just standing there. And the person, terrifying. Yeah. Like, can I help you? Can I help you? Yeah. Do you need anything? Wasn't, wouldn't respond.

00:18:36 And so after about 20 seconds of just like no response from this man and all in black, who's probably scaring her, she goes back to the manager and says, there's a guy in black. I think it's Richard. That looks like Richard's body. He won't respond. I think he probably came in for his, his check. And so they go out and like, Richard, is that you? Nothing. Won't say anything. And so he finally, on a piece of paper writes, I am the twin brother of, Richard. Okay. This is Ricky. And so he passes them the note. This is a twin brother story. Yeah. The twin. Right. And I'm a twin. yeah. If,

00:19:16 if you really are the twin brother of Richard, like we can't give you the check, can you give me your ID? And after, you know, what, everything, he finally gives them the ID and they pass the check. He goes out, but that's not the end of the story. He keeps coming back to kind of taunt. And, uh, he starts like writing things on the windows and kind of vandalism and things of that nature. And then, um, they get like, um, I don't know if it was, uh, something legally where he couldn't come, uh, around anymore. Like a restraining order kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. You think it's over, but then he starts doing door dash orders.

00:19:58 I got your food. And he, he's no, so he's ordering from this place. Yeah. He is now, he's giving his paycheck back. Yeah. He is no longer next level strategy. The, the twin of Richard. And he's no longer this black mask man. He's just Richard. And they're like, Richard, you can't be here. And he keeps taking these door dash orders. And finally like Richard, go home, Richard. You can't be here anymore, Richard. And they're like screaming at him and just like, shoot, shoot, get out of here, Richard. And so now that he's kind of a, I mean, I I've heard that he doesn't come around anymore, but yeah. Um, pretty wild story. Dang. That's crazy. Yeah. So he finally stopped coming around. Yeah. I, maybe. And I never confirmed if it was actually him or twin brother.

00:20:39 Cause with the ID, like to say brother's ID. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. So I think some people lose, it's kind of crazy. The stories that we get of people who like when they lose their job and they should have. Yeah. Right. And they, it just reveals is like there must, there's like this, there's like a different person right under the surface that they were just trying to conceal. Yes. Yeah. And, and then this comes out, it just comes out. Yeah. And, um, it happens a lot in retail cause you know, um, you know, retail just has such high demand for people. It's so hard to find, you know? Well, you just, and I feel like, you know, when you're a kid and you're like playing hide and seek and you're hiding,

00:21:22 and someone finally says like, Hey, I see you. You're right there. And you'd like, don't move. And like, right. I see you. You can move. And you're like, still not moving. Like, Oh, I don't want to be caught. I feel like that kind of happens when people fall into this, I don't know, fantasy land of like this lie. And they just don't want to let go of it because it's painful to realize like, I got caught. It's unbelievable. Yeah. You, you know, humility, embarrassment, humility are, are really powerful. Really powerful emotions. Embarrassment. Yeah. That stopped people from being able to take accountability to, to, to, to tell lies and to do other things. Um,

00:22:03 that is such a tough emotion. So Nathan, what's up? What you got brother? All right. I don't have any of my own, my down ass. I think these are from Reddit. So, all right. As an office manager, I once hired a new employee on his very first day. He was told to fill out his new higher paperwork, pretty standard stuff. I put, I put him into an office. He came back a little while later. He handed me the forms. I scanned them over to HR like usual. And about 20 minutes later, I get an HR or I get a call from the HR rep and the HR rep is laughing. And she tells me that he's filled out his name in all the forms as Batman. So I sit Batman down.

00:22:45 I sit him down. I tell him to redo the paperwork with his actual legal name. He nods. No problem. Sorry about that. He fills out again. He hands it back. And it says Batman. It doesn't say like Bruce. No, still Batman. Yes. No, he's not giving away. That would have been good. That would have been good. By the end of the day, I had him on a call with HR where they explained very directly. If he does not fill out this paperwork correctly, he would not have the job. And it should have ended there, but it did not. From that day forward, it was one ridiculous thing after another with this guy. At least once a week, he'd be in my office for some weird issue. Then one morning, he comes in completely serious and announces that he's officially,

00:23:27 legally changed his name to Batman. So he saw that came through. Yeah. So fine. We'll give him a fresh W-4, new paperwork. He fills it out again, proudly signing Batman. Yeah. So, but then HR comes back and says, Hey, we need proof of your name change for the system, like legal, legal proof. So I, he, uh, I told him he needs to provide documentation. He said, no problem. I'll bring it tomorrow. And the next day comes in the next day and the next week, weeks go by excuse after excuse. And he lost it. He forgot it. It was at home. Finally, we figured out the truth. He never actually changed it at all. He just wanted to be called Batman. Yeah. Bro, I get it, man. I love that.

00:24:07 I'm part, part of me is on his side a little bit. Yeah, no. I mean, if you could be called Batman, you know, Dallin, what if you could just like tell people, just call me Superman, bro. Yeah. I'm just super confusing though. Cause I, I guess they know his name and the interview process. Like, is he on LinkedIn as Batman? I just got to tell you some of these stories, man, there's like, there's a sign so early and they don't like just cut, you know, they just, just keep going. And you're like, have you ever seen that, that tick tock where the guy goes to interviews online and he's just like, like a bit of them. He's like sitting at a drive-thru eating and he's like, no, no, no, I'm not at a drive-thru. And she's like, you're clearly at a drive-thru and he's like,

00:24:48 no, no, no, I'm not at a drive-thru. I'm a French fry and I don't get a stun. Like how long they, they're like, no, you aren't. And they haven't, you know, tried to get back to the interview. And I'm like, some people are just desperate to hire. I guess it just really speaks to how hard it is to find great talent. You know, you're just like, wow. If you're willing to stay on the phone after, you know, and this guy does crazy stunts up with them and maybe, maybe he's the best, mass crusader and accounting and maybe having the best. I don't know. I mean, we're, we're just taught ever since we're little, like, don't judge a book by its cover. Like, like if people, you know, a chance to treat others like you like to be treated and, and fight and balancing that with like,

00:25:30 this dude thinks he's Batman. So, all right. What's up? All right. Second one, last one for the day. At a small company I worked for, we hired a receptionist. Let's call her Jen. At first she came across as friendly, maybe a little bit quirky, but I started noticing some, small lies in her stories. Nothing huge at first, just weird details that didn't really quite add up. I didn't really think much of it. One day HR sent out an all staff email and it said that Jen's husband had passed away. And so naturally everyone had felt awful. We collected money, said flowers. Oh my God. We gave her two full weeks off for bereavement. And when she came back, she really looked apart. She was shaken. She was quiet.

00:26:11 You know, the whole office was walking on eggshells around her. A few weeks later, I happened to be covering the desk for her when the phone rang. And I answered her as a man's voice on the other end and said, this is Frank. It's Jen's husband. And I froze. Frank, the husband that we all thought was gone, was on the other line. Yeah. He resurrected. She immediately was like, it's a miracle. He's alive. So then later over drinks with HR, I'm telling them the whole story and I'm expecting shock and awe. And instead they kind of shrugged. They already knew. It turns out that Jen had faked her own husband's unaliving to get extra vacation time. And the only reason that she got away with it was because she threatened to expose the company president's affairs if anybody pushed back.

00:26:56 Oh. So it was an inside job. Yeah. The drama stacks. Yeah. So it was just multiple layers of some lies, some drama, and also it's a big cover up. So it was a multi-tip problem. And Jen was a pro. Yeah. He was collecting information to run her scan. Well, I would make her at least give the money back. I don't know. People actually raised money for her. Took up some collections around the office. Yeah. That's like the backbreaker for me. It's like if you're an organization and you're like, I gave Frank 20 bucks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just crazy. I just don't understand how. Do you have a bereavement policy yet? That's a really interesting thing.

00:27:37 No. I've had a, you know, over the years I've had multiple that happen. And, and we had one of our employees lose his wife, another husband, you know, and it's just bereavement, the bereavement policies that come standard, right? Yeah, that's exactly right. So, um, it was just nuts when, you know, you're faced with it and you're like, this bereavement policy, what? He gets seven days, you know, like, yeah. Yeah. You're just like, I, if my child died, I would, you, you better,

00:28:17 I'll see you next year, brother. Yeah. I'll be a federal. I mean, yeah. And so, uh, I don't know. I, I just, I, I think about that. I, we, we, we really extended ours and, and, and just went full blown where, you know, and, um, I think we just kind of crafted it to, instead of having the days we just did, it was just a lot of trust implemented into the processes. Like we're going to give them the days they need, right? Not you get 21 days. And by the way, on the 22nd day, yeah, you gotta be back. Yeah. Because I mean, if they come back, they might be back physically, but yeah, I mean, yeah. It's just, you know, it's,

00:28:58 it's just, I think it's just one of the responsibilities as a CEO, as a company, you just take on, it's like, if I'm going to build a culture in which everyone loves to work here, right. And we love each other and we're after this common vision, if someone's life has changed and altered in such a terrible way. Yeah. Right. I mean, I, how do I approach that with some rubber stamp way of, yeah. You know, Hey, you know, so sorry. You lost your loved one, your kid, your husband, whatever it is. We're going to give you five days. And after that, you know, we're all talking to him to pay you. HR people probably think I'm crazy, but it's just, you know, our, our, our mentality after facing that was like, we, we, there is no one size fits all here.

00:29:40 Some people need to get back to work. Some people like, this is how I, you know, this is how I, this is how I move forward. And others are like, I just want to lay in bed for, you know, six months and, you know, you gotta be okay with either. Yeah. 100% everyone deals with it differently. Yeah. I think it's harder, certainly harder when you become a massive organization, you know, certainly much, much harder. So many moving pieces. But we, you know, where we're at in our, in our journey is, it's just like a really good place. You know, it's a really good place. It's, yeah. Is it, as a CEO, it's, you're able to, it's just, you're able to turn knobs and affect culture. And I, I love that part. So, yeah.

00:30:20 All right, guys. Um, I wanted to wrap up, but before we did, I just wanted to, I wanted to remind, um, uh, remind us that we've got this $10,000, uh, contest. Yeah. That, that, uh, is absolutely trying to win. Yes. Uh, he's, he's going to rewrite his story and send us a picture of Batman. Uh, that's, if you win this, we will, we will like put this Batman dude up and do this whole video montage. We should do, we should, we should, okay, here's what we have to do. Let's go opportunities for it. We're going to, let's put together a video. Of that story of like this dude constantly wearing a Batman costume and word.

00:31:01 Yeah. We have a Batman around here. Have you ever seen that? No. Oh, we have an employee who likes to put on the Batman. Is he Batman? Yeah. Everyone's well. And some of the events we've had, he's been Batman. It's pretty funny. I've been his story. I don't know. But we've got this episode. We've got this contest going on. Uh, we've got about 24 episodes in a season. The best story. If you submit it gets 10,000, we'll win $10,000. So you can go on our website, the bad hire.com, go over to submit, check it out. It's a, it's a, uh, go through a process of submitting, answering a bunch of questions. Um, check out some rules there and submit the story. Uh, if it's a good story, it'll end up on the show. So you get to hear it. And, uh, if it's, if it's really cool, uh, you know, producers will potentially reach out to you and they say,

00:31:42 Hey, do you want to come on the show? Yeah. We'll either phone you in, you know, or, um, video, video in or get you to get here. And, uh, and if we do that, then we'll pay for you to get here. And then, uh, uh, or you could end up just winning the whole thing. Right. So you could end up a guest on the show or, uh, reading or whatever. So it's pretty cool. Right. I just encourage everyone, send us your stories. I know you have them. I've listened to them. They're awesome. I haven't met anybody when I told them about this podcast, they'd be like, dude, there's this time. I've got a story. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone. Yeah. So I love that. So, um, so let's get those some, you know, go to the bad hire.com, submit the stories. We'll love it. And, uh, that's,

00:32:22 that's all I've got. And don't, thanks for being here, man. Cool stuff. I think you're here for one more episode. We'll shoot today and then that'll be fun. That'll be fun. And we'll knock out another one, but, uh, thanks. Appreciate it. It was good. Happy to be here. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for tuning in to the bad hire. Don't forget to follow rate and share the show. It really helps us grow the podcast. Got a story of your own. We'd love to hear it. Visit us at the bad hire.com to submit your story or connect with me on LinkedIn at Ken Monroe. Until next time. Remember, don't make your next hire the bad hire. Bye.

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