Her Text to Her Boss Got Her Fired [The Bad Hire Ep. 45]

00:00:00 She throws a garbage can at him and chases him to his car. HR gets involved and does essentially nothing. I went into her office and was surprised to find that she had left her bra on her keyboard. Why? It appears his references were fake, his address was fake, and his commitment to the job was apparently fake too. This is The Bad Hire, the show with the best stories about the worst employees. We fired him, of course. People are crazy. It's like an HR nightmare. Right? One bad hire stole all of it. Crazy stuff. She got what she deserved. Oh. I'm your host, Ken Monroe, and every week we dive into real-life stories from the wild world of work

00:00:41 and what can happen when the wrong person gets the job. These stories aren't just crazy. They're cautionary tales about lessons learned the hard way. Let's get started. Hey, everyone, and welcome back to The Bad Hire, the show with the best stories from the wild world of work and employees. And we love telling great stories of just absolute OG flameouts, first day blowups, interviewed smoke shows. I mean, whatever it is. Smoke shows? Do the smoke shows? I don't know. Did you say the smoke show? Burn it down. Like, good looking? Yeah, you're wrong. I was going to say, uh...

00:01:21 Yeah, I know what smoke show is. Okay. I think I was going to say another word, and I was like, ooh, I don't know if I can say this. So... Okay. That was an attempt at not saying anything offensive. Okay. But I'm joined by Morgan and Corey. They're two of my worst critics. Oh, my God. Corey is not... I get if you say that about me, but not Corey. Morgan, for sure. Corey is like, Corey's chill. I'm not chill, but Corey's chill. I appreciate that, Morgan. So what do you guys do? Tell her... I haven't asked you before. What do you guys do? Maybe for... I work in... Outside of The Bad Hire, which is... Well, I am a co-host of The Bad Hire and producer of The Bad Hire, but I work in marketing

00:02:04 for BeachX, and I don't even know how to describe all the things I do, because I do pretty much all of our outbound marketing, all of our email, all of our websites. I don't know. That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. That's fun, though. Yeah. And then I'm just an account executive, you know? Yeah. To make it a sale. Just account exec. It's pretty simple. Yeah. So Corey helps people figure out... Does some coaching with people to figure out, you know, what they need from a background check perspective to... Or send out an organization. Yeah. That's super cool. But we're glad you guys are here. And so if you've seen the show before, you know how it works. We get people to send us stories about employees, volunteers, whoever it might be.

00:02:51 Could even be someone's boss where you just had something crazy happen. And they just tell their wild work stories. And the show's called The Bad Hire, because sometimes these people were really, really bad hires. And so... But we're giving away $10,000 at the end of the year, at the end of the season, which is actually coming up. So we'll start going back and going through all the stories, I guess, and kind of reminding ourselves and pare it down to some finalists and try to get... and do some type of system to get them to vote. But we're going to give somebody $10,000 for having the best story of the year. And then we'll start some new contests after that, I assume. But we're looking forward to that.

00:03:34 So send your story to The Bad Hire. You can go to thebadhire.com. You can schedule an opportunity to be... do a video guest segment, or you can submit the story in writing. It can be anonymous if you want it to be. Or you put your name on it. It doesn't matter to us. You can do it anonymously. We'll run it anonymously. But we know who you are. So if you... If it's a great story and... Would you need your name? If you are going to get a check for $10,000, you need to know your name. We need to know who you are. Some capacity, yeah. But... We're sure. Yeah. So... Oh, but that's it. So let me start and I'll start out the... I'll start it out with this. First story. Okay. I was working as a case manager trainer in...

00:04:15 And so... Hold on. I want to back up. This story is a submitted story. It's anonymous. They didn't put their name on it. They didn't want their name out there. We know who submitted it. But... And so this is anonymously sent. But this was sent to us. So I was working as a case manager and a trainer in a community mental health clinic. I was invited to attend interviews. A woman submitted her resume, which looked perfect. She had a recent education. She had a recent education, strong experience, and her documentation appeared pristine. So when she arrived, she appeared a little more elderly and frail than one would expect for that job. So it was a high stress, very active job requiring home visits in high risk parts of town.

00:05:01 She answered our questions correctly and had good knowledge of the social work field. So we were concerned somewhat about her physical state, but she assured us she knew what the job entailed and she could do it. We were short staffed and could see no real reason not to hire her. Within a few days, she was clogging in and leaving the facility for medical appointments, which seemed to take most of the day. She was uncomfortable with general computer use and wanted me to sit with her while she typed. One day I went to the restroom and the co-workers sitting nearby told me not to go, told me not to go in, but I did anyway. The new hire had been in there and there was human waste all over the farro.

00:05:41 No. Oh, not that frail. Like she should like, where did this come from? On the bubble guts. Their plan was to require the lady to clean it up and she had started doing this multiple times a day and they were tired of it. Eventually she was moved to a semi-private office near a different restroom. One day she called me and said she was at another medical appointment for the day and asked if I could get something off her desk and put it away in a drawer for her. I went into her office and was surprised to find that she had left her bra on her keyboard. Why? What? Soon after that, the agency started building a case and encouraged her to retire.

00:06:27 It was a sad situation because she needed the insurance, but we were frustrated how she had misrepresented herself. We should have gone with our gut instinct and not hired her. Okay. Well, that's, that's sad. But at the same time, like pushing her to retirement, they should have just like let her go. Like, I'm really sorry. But like if she's making everybody's jobs harder and like for cleaning the bathroom multiple times a day, that's a lot. So you're anti elderly people. No, I'm not. I'm not ageist guys. I'm not. I'm not ageist at all. I think elderly people are very capable and can work for way longer than some of them do. But this is sad. Like that, that's like. Yeah.

00:07:08 I mean, it looks like she was. She should have been in an institution herself. Probably. I mean. Well, I mean, it sounds like she had to sell it. She needed a job. Yeah. And so she's pushing herself to get the job. Yeah. And she's physically unable to do the job because of, you know, the stuff, the stuff sometimes you have to deal with. And, and the heartbreak. Really? Leaving a brawl on a computer is crazy though. Like you're. That's weird. Like I get like the old part, but what's going on there? Like what were we doing? We know. Let me just take a load off. I think the older to get, the less you care, you know, the less you care about some things.

00:07:49 You're like a little more, you know, I hope that's not wrong to say, but I think it's the way it was in my family. You get older, I care a little less. So sure. Yeah. You know, I don't know. All right. So, um, so we've got, uh, oh, Bryce, uh, Bryce is a, Bryce submitted a story. He's got a, we interviewed him. Uh, he's got his guest segment here. Bryce is a business owner, founder, product design director at Dalcom tech. And so, uh, let's check out Bryce. Oh, this one was great. This happened a couple of times where I had people tell me they had a degree in something and you look at the resume afterward and notice that the graduation date was like three years

00:08:29 in the future. And you're like, that's not really, you can't say you have the degree. And then like, it will swallow itself with a significant missing pieces too. Like you'll give them a project that's low level in their claimed degree of ability. And they won't even know what the names of the parts are. And you're kind of like, Hmm, okay. And you end up redoing their work and you have to work your weekend and cover it. Or they mess things up. Like one of them messed something up that we still now have things separated onto two drives. And it makes it pin the bottom to try to coordinate production. I haven't had the time to fix it. It's just a mess. But again, that was a, that was the second person that claimed they had a degree that was years in the future. So these are young people then. Or they're like people that are like trying to go back and get their education.

00:09:13 Yeah. It sounds like he's struggling with two things. People like, well, not being truthful on the resume. You're like putting on there like they graduated when they're still attempting to go to school. Yeah. And, and second, you know, saying they could do a job that they can't. Yeah. Right. And we've seen so many comments and posts and everything. We're doing research for the show and for some other stuff that we do about literally people just lying on resumes, saying whatever they, you know, believe that it's just about okay to say anything to get the job. Yeah. And then you can try to, you know, then you can try to keep it after, you know, it's here. How common it is. Yeah. Like how many people will lie on resumes.

00:09:54 Yeah. It's, you'll never know. Yeah. Yeah. He literally just reacted to a video earlier today from the guy from Impractical Jokers, Murr, saying like his first ever job he got because he lied on it. Yeah. Like, so. Said, said he could build websites. And he had, he absolutely had no idea how to do, build a website. They asked him, can you build a website? He's like, oh yeah. Sure. Yeah. Why not? No, no problem. 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.

00:10:35 We help you hire the right people. Now, B-Checks plugs into over 100 HRIS and ATS systems. So your background checks run smooth, 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 dot I-O. I work for the state of Florida. Here's another story. I work for the state of Florida in risk management. Our job is to process property damage claims for state agencies. Buildings, facilities, vehicles, that type of thing. When a claim comes in, it crosses our desk, gets reviewed, gets approved, and a payout goes out.

00:11:15 It's a function built entirely around skepticism. Around asking hard questions about whether a loss actually occurred. So one of our people spent four years using it as a personal distribution system. Over about four years, she approved 220 claims. More than 200 of them are fraudulent. She built an entire network around it. 17 people are eventually charged. Co-conspirators submitted fake damage claims for facilities that were never damaged, repairs that were never done, and she approved every one of them. Routing payments to accounts.

00:11:56 She and her partners control. Everyone gets a cut of the deal. 1.7 million dollars in fraudulent payouts. When the charges come in, they read like a law school final exam. Grand theft. Aggravated white-collar crime. Money laundering. Scheme to fraud. Criminal use of personal identification information. Communications fraud. Official misconduct. And forgery. And what I keep coming back to is the position itself. Risk management. Exists specifically to catch this type of thing. It exists to review claims skeptically. Flag anomalies. And ask the hard questions before money goes out the door.

00:12:37 She spent four years sitting in that chair and running it and reverse pocketing 1.7 million dollars to the conspirators. It's insane. We hear this all the time with people who are in charge of money, though. And they just, they get away with it for a while. And then when you finally catch it, it's like millions of dollars have been like unaccounted for. Yeah. And it's like, honestly, sometimes you're like, I need an auditor for my auditor. And it's like, I don't know. It's a sad thing. What gets me is a lot of times you'll see these things and they'll get in trouble. And they're not, it's not forever. I mean, it's like, hey, yeah, they got, you know, probation. Yeah. Restitution. Got to pay it back, pay a fine. So, which means they're out looking for a job the next, you know.

00:13:22 Yeah. There you are. The next year, two years later, out looking for the next job. We saw an episode, well, last episode, we talked about a restitution that was like $1,000 a month. And I think all of our team members on the show that day compared it to like less than rent for most people. Yeah. There was a big, I remember it was like huge. It's like $4 million. Yeah. It's a huge thing. Yeah. You know, but, but the deal is they're, you know, it's the reason you got it. You got to be able to run background checks. You got to put them in. You got to do them. You got to be, you got to do a good job with them. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, you, you, you'd need to filter these people. If someone comes to you with that background, if you, you know, you may, you may see that on their background check report and go, oh, that's, you know, we're okay. We're going to let it go. But you're aware.

00:14:03 Yeah. Right. So you're aware, but you know, it's the reason you got to do them. Morgan, what do you got? All right. So my first story I'm going to show is actually a story submitted by Judith. I actually met with her myself. She was really cool. I had a great conversation with her. I loved her like energy, her personality. She's awesome. And a little bit about Judith. She's a founder and CEO of HR Media & Co. And she's, which is a minority owned HR consulting and recruitment firm specializing in executive and senior level recruiting for mission driven and public impact organizations. Judith was just such a cool person. So, yeah, here's a little bit from her. We had found a candidate. We thought this candidate was like the perfect fit.

00:14:45 The interview went well. The experience was aligned with exactly what we were looking for. And we were moving forward with the final stages of the hiring process. I always make sure in the past and now when I need to conduct reference checks that I conduct three. So the first reference check for this candidate came back. It was spectacular. And the second one came back and it was phenomenal. Now I can just go head on. And usually I usually like if I get two of the three and can't get in contact with the third person, then I'll just let it go through. Right. But this time I was like, let me keep going. Let me try anyway. And I call the third reference. That's when like everything completely changed. This person had shared a lot of concerns about the candidate, about their professionalism, their performance, their ability to work with others.

00:15:32 And I'm sitting there thinking, never had this happen. I was literally in shock. And then I asked the question I always ask during a reference check. I asked, would you hire this person again? And yet again, without hesitation, the reference was like, no. So that's crazy. The first two were glowing references. And then she said, I get to the third one. And it's a completely different story than the first two. Yeah. And then I think she, I don't remember if she hired that person. I can't remember the full story, but I remember that like not being a good candidate. Yeah. And so she was like, that was like, you know, kind of a wake up call to me. Like always make the third reference call. Like you don't need to stop at the two. Because like the two might be their closest friends or like they're good to experiences from employers or something.

00:16:17 And then the last one's like, maybe something you need to know. Yeah. But yeah, I had a great conversation about her. We talked a lot about reference checks in that call. I'm curious. I was just going to say, I'm curious as to from the talent, you know, the talent acquisition folks out there and the recruiters and all that. Those kind of professionals are, are, are they still doing them? Do they do them? Are you outsourcing it? When you, when you, when you do it, when we, when BeachX does it, we'll ask a bunch of survey questions. What questions do you want to ask? We'll get, we'll get them to, you know, score someone on this or make a comment or something like that. That's on a reference check. Then there's employment verifications, which is different. But yeah, you're not asking anything about performance or anything about, you're just saying, did they work there?

00:17:00 What was their job? What date to what date? Right. That's they, you know, you're confirming they work there. So two different things, reference versus. And so she's talking about the reference where you're actually going to ask a few questions that are, you know, maybe opinion level questions. And I wonder how many, how many recruiters are really still doing that and, and, and following up and that is great. Kudos to her. Yeah. She's awesome. For still doing it. We talked a lot about background checks on our call too. And, you know, the importance of them and how it's not just a background check, but also things like reference checks. And, you know, the whole picture is really important when you're hiring somebody. So I really enjoyed my conversation with her.

00:17:40 I know we have a couple more episodes where she'll be featured. So we'll hear more from her soon. But my next story is, so I work for the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the United States. We have a technical project manager whose job is to evaluate technology vendors, help determine contract awards and oversee implementation. A position with a significant amount of trust and financial responsibility behind it. She's very enthusiastic about one vendor in particular. Between 2018 and 2022, she steers $22 million in district contracts to a company called Enivi. I don't know how to say that. I think it's Enivi. Owned by a man she has private financial relationships with that nobody at the district knows about.

00:18:24 So the contract centers around a student information system we're building and come with her strong internal endorsements every single time. For this, she receives $3 million in kickbacks routed to various intermediaries to obscure or to obscure? What the heck? Obscure. Where am I coming from? Okay. The whole thing comes to light in 2022 when our employee attends a technology conference and a former colleague mentions offhandedly that something seems off about the connection between her and the vendor. That casual conversation at a conference table unravels four years of what looked from the inside like a complete legitimate work. Okay. She's charged in 2026 with money laundering and having a financial interest in a contract made in her official capacity.

00:19:07 This is a weirdly written story. I do not like this, how this is written. The vendor's owner is charged alongside her. If convicted, each phases up to seven years in county jail. $22 million in contracts, $3 million in kickbacks, four years. And somewhere out there, a different technology vendor submitted a fair bid and didn't get the contract. So pretty much, she's just skimming off the top and she's doing a deal with this person for a kickback. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Which should have been written way differently. She made around $3 million. Yeah. Did not like how that was written at all. Sorry. I don't know if that was a submitted story, but please do not submit a narcissist. No, that's not a submitted story. Okay. No, this is not a submitted story. Okay. This is probably. Yeah, this is a research story.

00:19:47 Sorry. Did not like this one. All right. Anyways, this is my next story. So I'm a manager and I've got a second shift employee whose shift starts right as the first shift is ending. Pretty standard overlap. Nothing unusual about it. Then first shift starts sending me photos. The lid is in back on the wipes. The desk is a mess. Little things, but consistent enough that I call second shift and ask her to make sure every area is clean when she leaves for the night. Easy conversation. Then I start asking a few more questions and find out that in the three months that she's been on second shift, first shift has never actually seen her. Not once. She's supposed to be there when he leaves. She never is. I reach out to her and ask what's going on. And she tells me that she hasn't been coming in on time because her GPS says she'll get there on time, but she never does.

00:20:30 And I want to be clear. She's not five minutes late. She's late by hours every single day. And to document this, she starts texting me a photo of her holding up her phone showing the GPS arrival time, if that explains anything. Then one day, she actually shows up on time, and the two of them get into an argument. She throws a garbage can at him and chases him to his car. HR gets involved and does essentially nothing. I adjust the shifts so they never have to be in the building at the same time, and I think the whole thing is behind us. Then she leaves her space heater running under her desk overnight and nearly causes a fire. When I email her asking why the heater was left on, she replies that her manager told her that she was not allowed to work one minute past midnight. I call her and explain that working a few minutes past midnight to turn off the heater is fine.

00:21:14 What's not fine is leaving it on is almost burning the building down. She tells me that she had to leave in a hurry because she wasn't feeling well. Again, HR does nothing. A week later, she can't come in because she can't find her car. She sends me a photo of an empty parking lot spot and a tow notice. The following week, her catalytic converter is stolen. Now, we work for a company that manufactures electric vehicles. Electric vehicles do not have catalytic converters. This is not a minor detail we might have missed. This is literally our product. I guess she's driving that product. Yeah. The week after, there's a missing sensor on her vehicle. I'm still not entirely sure how any of this ends because I'm not sure it has. So, it's... Still going. That person's still there. Yeah. The bad employee.

00:21:55 Like, we need to make that bad, you know, higher in the past, you know? Oh, my gosh. I was just... She, uh... Habitually late. We... Okay. Finding a picture of your GPS to your wife is... The bad stories people give for being late is just nuts. Yeah. Like... Like... My GPS. I'm two hours late, but it was... Where does she live? Like, if she... My GPS said I would be there. She been in your car for three and a half hours? Also, she's working in night shift. So, like, who's out on the road? Yeah. Like... Okay. I don't know. Like I said, HR essentially does nothing. Yeah. It's about time to get the police and... Yeah. Yeah. The early HR, but, you know.

00:22:36 Almost burns a building down. Assaulted someone with a trash can. Literally. And chases him to his car. Like, oh, it's okay. No, it's just her being her. Corey, what have you been up to? Oh, sorry. Um... Yeah. So, I got a... We got a submission from Jeff. Okay. Uh... Jeff is the founder and CEO of Huckabye. I hired Huckabye. He was a senior vice president of marketing and analytics at Overstock. Yeah. Oh, we've seen him a couple times. This guy, Clint, he was a terrible hire. Couldn't sell Huckabye on his own. Spent a ton of money hiring reps. And then I didn't fire him soon enough.

00:23:17 I had a CTO that I believe during COVID developed basically some mental illness. And I showed compassion rather than getting rid of him. But then he did some unethical things. Not, I think, even intentionally. He just had kind of lost his mind. He was really, like, that brilliant on the spectrum. And he just did it and was like, you can't do that, dude. And I had to fire him. And then he, like, stole a bunch of stuff and stole our code base. And it's sort of fallen off the map. I have no idea what he's doing. We're all kind of worried about him. COVID was an interesting... You know, people handled it. Some people did great, thrived.

00:23:58 And then some people it, like, really kind of destroyed. Because he was a single guy. He didn't have a dog. He didn't have anything to come home to. And I think it really took its toll on him. And it ended up his demise with Huckabye. That's for sure. That's so sad. Wow, that is sad. Yeah, he's sad. Yeah, I mean, I like Jeff. Because his natural reaction was compassion. Yeah. Right? Like, hey, you know, he's not acting right. But, man, jeez. You know. And he's right. There was so much. Yes. So much going on in COVID. And so many people really, really had a really difficult time.

00:24:43 And, you know, for some, you get, you know, you get, now you're at a house with your family. Like, this is the best year of your life. You know? COVID was the best years of my life, honestly. I hate to say that. Like, I know that people really struggle. But I, like, had a good routine. I got outside more. Like. Online school. Literally. It was just amazing. Like, there was nothing wrong with it. Right. I think. But then I know other people. That is true for some people who just. What the cocoon they were able to build. Yeah. Was family. And, you know, they were able to operate. And, you know, in some stages it was easier than others. Yeah. But they were able to, you know, like, thrive in that. And then there's others, especially for folks who weren't near people. Weren't, you know, were, you know. Secluded in an apartment. Didn't have a dog.

00:25:24 Had nothing. You had an apartment by yourself every day. It's really sad. You know, I could see. You know, you could see where it would just have a tremendous mental effect on them. And, you know, how that manifests itself inside the workplace later. Mm-hmm. It is, is a pretty interesting. And I'm curious to like, you know, HR's take on, you know, that kind of post-COVID, you know, wave of issues that they had to deal with. Maybe even during COVID. Yeah. Of, you know, these things that are evolving. I was just this completely, you know, a different time and they're faced with things they'd never seen before. Yeah. You know, and having to deal with issues like that.

00:26:05 And, you know, here's Jeff showing a guy compassion. And, you know, the story doesn't play out well for Jeff because the guy ends up stealing from him and all that. But I think in the end, you know. I think Jeff knew that wasn't him, like his character. Yeah. That's what I mean. That's what you said. It's like, you know, he still feels bad. You know, it costs him to be compassionate. And sometimes it does. Yeah. You know, that's just the cost of giving somebody compassion. Sometimes it costs you and they don't do everything you wish as him. But, you know, good for Jeff. I love, I love this, uh, love this first thought on how to, how to be, how to be there for that guy. Yeah. All right, Corey. All righty. Buckle in. We got a book. Oh, God. Oh, we do. Oh, no.

00:26:45 Some of these stories are like, we've gotten hate comments about like reading the stories. But like, guys, they're long and they're hard to read sometimes. They have like some, like you're reading company names you've never heard before. Half of Harry Potter. Literally. All right. So a few years ago, I hired a woman for a staff accountant position. She didn't have a ton of experience, but she interviewed well. Came across as eager to learn. Her references checked out and the accounting team liked her. Everything pointed toward this being a solid hire, which it always does. Yeah. Uh, about two months into her employment during one of our department meetings, she shared some exciting news. Her youngest child had just received a full ride to their dream school after a long wait and would be leaving home soon.

00:27:29 The whole team celebrated with her. Later that day during our one-on-one, she admitted she was having a hard time with the idea of becoming an empty nester. I was in my late 20s and she was about 25 years old. 25 years older than me. She has children of my age. I had never been married, didn't have kids, and honestly had no clue how to respond. The best I could come up with is, I'm really sorry. That sounds incredibly hard. If you need a couple of days off to help your child move in or spend some extra time together, let me know. We'll make it work. She ended up taking two days off and the team, including me, covered her work without any issues.

00:28:11 When she came back, everything seemed great. She thanked everyone repeatedly for covering her work and even sent me a team's message that stuck me as a little unusual. Hey, I really appreciate the opportunity you gave me with this job and I really appreciate everything you do for me. It felt a little over the top, but I figured she was just grateful, so I thanked her and moved on. The following week during another one, one-on-one, she apologized for bringing negativity into the office. Honestly, I hadn't noticed anything. She had been professional, friendly, and pleasant to work with. That's when she told me her husband had served her with divorce papers.

00:28:57 Once again, I found myself completely out of my depth. Here was someone old enough to be my mom asking for support through something I never experienced. I simply told her, I'm really sorry, this sucks. But, if it helps at all, you've handled everything incredibly well. You've been nothing but professional. She thanked me and we wrapped up the meeting. About two weeks later, I was getting ready to leave for a bachelor party in Las Vegas. I was taking Wednesday through Friday off and plan to work remotely Tuesday before flying out. Then, on Sunday morning, I got a text from her. Her sister had overdosed and passed away the night before. At that point, my heart just broke for her.

00:29:39 In the span of a few months, she became an empty nester. Her marriage was ending, and now her sister had died. I told her how sorry I was, let her know I had to coordinate behavior. Bereavement. Bereavement. You can tell. My eyes are everywhere. Until my first year out of college. Bereavement. Never heard of it. You're doing great. Communication major. Leave with HR. Assured her we'd handle all of her work and told her to focus on her family. Then, she told me she needed to give me the office mailbox key. I explained that it really wasn't necessary. I'd only been in the office Monday, and someone else on the team could easily grab the mail.

00:30:21 She insisted it had to be me. I didn't want to argue with someone who had just lost her sister, so I agreed to meet her that afternoon in a Chick-fil-A parking lot about 40 minutes from my house. Sounds a little suspicious. The last text she sent before we met was, Thanks for being such a great person. When I arrived, she was already sitting in her car crying. She got out, wiped away her tears, and before she was even close to me, I could smell alcohol. Oh, boy. She was still several parking spaces away, and the smell was un- Unwissakable. Thanks, Morgan. Way to be the cousin. Assist here. She thanked me again, and- She thanked me again and told me she felt like her sister had ruined her life because she'd-

00:31:07 Now she'd have to care for their elderly parents by herself. The whole interaction felt strange, trying to wrap things up. I said, I'm really sorry you're dealing with all this. Do you have the key? I've got somewhere I need to be. She handed me the key. Then she asked if she could have a hug. Oh. I figured she was grieving, so I said yes. I expected a quick hug. Instead, she held on. She rubbed my back the way someone would hug a romantic partner. Oh, no. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. The second she let go, I practically power-walked back to my car, reminded her not to worry about work, wished her the best, and got out this.

00:31:47 At that point, I was definitely uncomfortable, but I convinced myself she was grieving, had been drinking, and had gone through more loss in a few months than most people experience in years. A few days later, I was in Las Vegas. One afternoon, she texted, hey, just checking in to see how things are going. I replied, please don't worry about work. Everything here is taken care of. She responded, you're no fun. I didn't reply. This is awkward. I was on vacation. Later that night, I was sitting with friends at Caesar Palace. Oh, excuse me. Watching a game when my phone buzzed again. It was another text from her. Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I really like you.

00:32:28 Oh, do it. Yeah, I did do that a little. Yeah, you did. A little. I mean, it's needed. It's okay. Go ahead. Okay, okay. Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I really like you. If you like what you see, let me know. If not, just ignore this message and I'll pretend this never happened. I'll continue treating you professionally. Oh, pretty professional, huh? Hey. Hey, Ken. Hey. Five seconds later, a completely nude picture of her appeared on my phone. I don't think I've ever locked my phone that fast. The next morning, I called HR and my boss.

00:33:08 I walked them through everything that has happened over the previous several weeks and politely made one request. I wonder what that request was. No kidding. I know this is serious, but she's been through an unbelievable amount lately. I don't want one terrible decision to ruin her life. If there's any way to avoid firing her, I'd appreciate it. Wow. To their credit, they agreed. Instead of terminating her, they moved her under my boss so she would no longer report to me. We all thought that solved the problem. It didn't. If you meant a few months later, she started sending similar messages to my boss. My boss was nearly as forgiving. Wasn't nearly as forgiving.

00:33:50 Sorry. She was terminated almost immediately. To this day, I still feel bad for everything she went through. So, holy. That's really sad, but holy cow. That horrible, long story. This is a submitted story, too. Call that. Yeah. I have lots of thoughts on this. This is sad, but, I mean, obviously it does a nice speech for behavior, and this dude is like 20 years old. So. Yeah, he's 25. She's. Yeah. This is a child. 50. She's. Yeah. That's. I'm sorry. I can't get over. People like what you see. It's so. Bad. That's bad. This is real bad. Kudos to this.

00:34:31 I mean. Kudos to this young man. I hope she actually went all this, through all this stuff, too, because. Kudos to this young man who this whole time. Yeah, he was so professional. He's been there for her, isn't it? Yeah. Like, as she's struggled through different things, he's provided support. Yes. Provided, you know, what he can add to him, the resources. He sounds like a big boss. Yes. And then, and even when she does that to him, he still is, you know, hey, you know, she's not in the right place. Let's not ruin her life. Yeah. Right. You know, any, any, any, yeah, he reports it immediately, which was really, really, really smart. Yeah. And then also offers compassion. And, you know, you gotta, you gotta believe it.

00:35:13 I'm glad he reported it, because how awkward would that be when you go back to work? Yeah. And, like, you don't say anything about it, you just don't respond to her texts. Like, how does that even work? Yeah. Like, talks to him. Yeah. For sure. Now, he did a good job. He handled that really well. Definitely. Alrighty, and then my last story. We hired a teacher for a sixth grade math team, and I'll call him Casper, because he truly was a ghost. On paper, Casper looked great. Huh. Like, yeah, everyone looks great. Don't look good on paper, bro. No one looks bad on paper. His resume was solid, the interview went well, and we actually enjoyed talking with him at length this spring, at length this spring before the school year.

00:35:55 We offered him the job, he signed the letter offer, he signed the offer letter, and everything seemed normal. Over the summer, we stayed in touch. In fact, the day before new staff orientation, he emailed me his lunch order for the next day. Ham and Swiss on a sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions, plus a Diet Coke. And he even sent his t-shirt size for staff swag. Very engaged, very specific, very promising. Then orientation day arrives. All the new teachers were greeting each other, settling in, finding their way around, and Casper was nowhere to be found. At first, we thought, okay, maybe he's running late. No big deal. I had just heard from him less than 24 hours earlier.

00:36:39 I knew he was planning to be there. Two hours passed, then three. By lunch, we were no longer casually annoyed. We were officially worried. Calls, texts, emails, nothing. No response. At that point, the concern stopped being, where is this guy? And started becoming, oh no, is he okay? Did something happen? Car trouble? Trouble? Hospital? Did we somehow miss a very tragic life event? That night, I kept trying to reach him. Still nothing. I called his references, and somehow no one answered there either. Which was odd, because they had seemed strong when I spoke to them the previous spring.

00:37:22 We got so concerned that members of our team actually drove to the address, the address he had given us. No one was home. We even called the local hospital because he had seen. So be in positive about joining us that it was hard to imagine he simply vanished. Meanwhile, I'm one week away from the start of school, and suddenly I have no math teacher. So I scrambled, arranged for a substitute that day, and after a full week of zero response, I finally sent a certified letter resigning. Rescinding. Rescinding. The offer because he had never reported the word.

00:38:03 To this day, it's still a mystery. But at this point, it appears his references were fake, his address was fake, and his commitment to the job was apparently fake too. And then about six weeks later, we finally heard from him. He had the audacity to apply for unemployment, and apply for unemployment, and claim that he had fired him. We had fired him. Fired him. The man never worked a single hour of his contract. So yes, bad hire indeed. That's like somebody who's doing elaborate scams to get unemployment. Yeah, I like to keep it going, where you could say I was hired. Yeah, and you give a good face, be like, yeah, I want to do this,

00:38:44 read my t-shirt. I love ghosts. I hate ghosters. I just, I hate it. Yes. It's the word. We get these stories all the time where people just ghost, and you're just like, it's got to be harder to do that and face yourself than it is just to dismiss your fault. You just, you're ready to change your mind, bro. You just stick on the phone and be like, hey, I got another offer. Changed my mind. It's not a great fit. You know, as I got closer, it became more clear to me. Or at least work a week, and then ask, and then get fired by doing something. The hardest part is over. Yeah. You already got it. Yeah, it makes no sense to me. And then, but this, yeah, you're right. This, this, this could have been a scam.

00:39:25 Yeah. To, to just keep unemployment rolling. You know, you got to be able to get a job. You go and you're in Duplicate. Yeah. The, the unemployment courts are sometimes the, the little judicial or hearings that they have are so, so favorable to employees. They want to err in their favor. And I, and I totally understand that. Yeah. You don't want to, you know, you don't want companies to win. Yeah. It's stop people from getting unemployment. Yeah. I mean, they really should. Yeah. So, you know, err on the side of the employee, but, um, man, I mean, uh, yeah, maybe that's what this was. I don't know. All right, man.

00:40:06 Well, that's it for us today. Thanks for listening to the bad hire. You know, late at, Hey, listen, subscribe, review, share. Um, we, we love it. We've we're, we're getting, you know, a couple million views a month at this point on, on the show and the show clips. And so we think that's super cool. And, uh, it, it, and it's because you are liking them and you're sharing them and you're commenting on them. So keep it up. We appreciate it. Uh, and don't forget your story could win $10,000. So we've got our $10,000 contest. We're coming up to the end. So if you've been thinking about it, uh, I don't know that we'll do another $10,000 contest. So, you know, if you would, you know, put it in between now and about a month from now, because then we'll, we'll, you know,

00:40:47 we'll do the cutoff date and that'll be it. And you'll, you'll lose that opportunity. It's either this or $10 Starbucks. Yeah. Right. All right. So, um, so if you want to be a guest on the show and you saw the clips that we did today, if you want to be a guest, go to the bad hire.com. Um, you can fill out a form there, say you're interested. We'll, we'll work it out with you. So you could submit anonymously. You can put your name on it. Um, and, or you could do a video and, and just do a video segment and talk about bad hires. If you're, if you listen, if you're in HR talent acquisition, if you're a recruiter, if you're in any of those places where you spend your time hiring, we know you've got great stories, um, uh, that, you know, honestly, you, we, they don't all have to be funny

00:41:30 and, and, and a joke. I mean, some of them are, are comical in the sense that, you know, it, it didn't go well or, but you, you know, you could learn from it. People can listen to it, learn from it. Um, it could be a heartbreaking story. It could, it could be a real winning story. It could be a redemption story of someone who maybe didn't start off, maybe look like the bad hire and turned out being, and turned out being awesome. So, uh, but we know you've got great stories because you're in the people business. And so if you can submit your stories, we'd love to read them. We'd love to share them. And we'd love for you to share with us. So until next time, thanks for listening. And we will see you later. Bye guys. See ya.