To wonder if every workplace has that person who is unsackable?

Previous job, I found that those who genuinely needed support rarely got it and were managed out. Those who were lazy, rude, and used policies to maximise fully paid time off were teflon coated. DDA abuse was rife. As a new manager, I tried stamping some of it out. The SLT was made up of 'besties' who were friends with the main offenders. I was in the firing line instead. I left.
Next job, an older man, obviously developing memory problems and caused problems, appeared to be Teflon, too. That was more, the manager not wanting to upset an established, well-respected staff member. Also, we had a young, lazy kid in probation, inexplicably passing it when he did minimal, and what he did was disastrous.
Moved on and I just do what's expected, no more, no less, give no more of myself than needed. It's not worth worrying for NLW.

One colleague continuously late since joined for almost one and half years. For four hour shift 30 minutes brakes instead 15 minutes break. Always on the phone, but manager liked her. Didn’t learn all the aspects of the job or didn’t bother.

I was an nhs manager for 5 years.
I had several tricky staff members in my Team - laziness, avoidance or manipulative behaviour the main issues. These pose a clinical risk and cause bitterness within the team.

As pps have said there are various strategies that people use to try and avoid being managed, such as claiming they are being bullied.
it is possible to ‘manage people out’ but it takes many many hours of work. Reading all relevant policies, going through every single required step. Prepping extremely well when there is an HR meeting usually with union rep (I actually welcomed the union rep being present as they ensure process is followed and there are no surprises or come back later that the manager should have considered clause 53 subsection A1 or whatever the potential loophole might be!)

After many days and weeks of dedicated record keeping, performance management and many many meetings, 3 people decided to move on. One (after a lengthy investigation into my conduct following her false accusations - none of which were upheld) decided to leave entirely.
Another decided to retire significantly earlier than planned, technically on medical grounds but really due to laziness.
Another moved on, sadly within the NHS still - this person complained in front of me during a meeting to their union rep ‘she can’t do that’ they said. oh absolutely she can said the Union rep, she is your line manager and is following the organisational policy.

Generally within my team I was respected, people understood that I had high standards for our service users. However it was exhausting, I became disillusioned that in many cases staff’s behaviour sometimes for years without being addressed had been allowed to continue. This disrupts the clinical work and the team morale.

I chose to return to clinical work 3 years ago which in comparison is like a walk in the park.

I've encountered this twice.

Once in a factory where it was rumoured that the supervisor in question was blackmailing one of the managers and again in a restaurant where the two most useless employees were the daughters of the manager's friends.

My boss replied that she was a militant black lesbian single mother who had converted to Islam so how much publicity did the MD want? She kept her job

We have a woman in our workplace who is bone idle, can't do her job and doesn't even try. But when her boss tried to sack her, she marched into MDs office and told him that if they even try, she will go to press (household name company) and cry discrimination.

This was about 6-7 years ago, she's still there, being shuffled around between projects to find where she could do the least bit of damage.

Yes, boss doesn't like conflict so won't deal with it, and also doesn't want the hassle of finding a replacement

Loads at my old place.
Massive organisation, notorious for it being unable to fire anyone - before I became management I presumed this was because the union had magic tricks up their sleeve and management were incompetent.
I then became management and discovered that it was that HR essentially didn't want the fight - they didn't train their managers at all on things like performance management and disability adjustments and how either of those things sit within employment law, which meant management didn't know what they were doing, which means HR were reluctant to bring cases forward as they knew management would likely have not documented/done something wrong, and then the person concerned would either raise a grievance, go off sick, or bring legal action. If you followed their own policy (which was actually incredibly generous and in favour of the individual and very careful to outline how you should look after someone's mental health while carrying out performance procedures) then you could get rid of people, but then HR would drag out signing off taking people to final stages and eventually people would just go off sick or documented errors would fall off their record as it happened 'too long ago' and the average error rate would then fall... never known anything more frustrating.
And don't get me started on the time we presented 8 different pieces of evidence (obtained through verbal and written work conversations, not fb posts!) that an employee was lying/making things up about their illness and needs... HR wouldn't even touch it. So they continued to be disruptive and obstructive and take up management time.

Once had a colleague who’d phone in sick the day after payday, every single month. Went on for nearly a year. I pointed it out and it never happened again…

Yep. Public sector. Goes off sick every year the exact same time of year for six months. Makes a miraculous recovery when her sick pay drops from full pay to whatever it drops down to. Takes all her annual leave about a month later in one go. Then sits on her arse doing sweet FA for five months. Rinse and repeat.

Our line manager despairs but there's little that can be done without effort from HR / senior management etc. And then the same organisation claims it's in a budget deficit.

It can be frustrating to work alongside incompetent people, but as long as we as a society require most people to work for a living, the incompetent have to be employed somewhere!

A former workplace had one of these. Seemed to struggle with every single task. Was moved around various roles but never did a good job in any of them. Extremely sensitive and touchy about everything so people were conscious of not upsetting her as she was also quite a vulnerable person for whom the job was like her life. Made several monumental cock-ups. Eventually made redundant during lockdown as I suspect they felt that was an easy way out - cost cutting etc.

I'm also dealing with another now. It's taken months to sort as they have health issues; there are worries about discrimination claims etc. But there's only so long yo can underperform for.

In our tiny company of 12 employees we have someone who really isn't up to the job at all. He makes constant mistakes and really does fuck all, all day. I once witnessed him spending 2 hours ordering some white card from Amazon when he could have walked to our local branch of WH Smith, bought the card, and walked back in 20 minutes. But he's an old friend of the boss ...

Presumably people will then bitch that we are 'playing the disability card' 🙄

Yeah cheers @DoraSpenlow , throw a black woman under the bus in the meantime with your story

Yes and the manager sucks up to her, although it’s obvious the manager is scared of her and will not stand up to her. She’s late most days and leaves early. Passes a lot of her work onto others. Spends half of her day sat on her phone watching videos or shopping. She has been the reason many staff have left due to her bullying them, one took the department to tribunal and won for constructive dismissal, another moved to different area and another has left that area of work completely as they ended up having a breakdown leading to 6 months off work and then couldn’t face returning. She’s now been given a promotion!

Yep. We have one woman who has been there for donkey's years. Turns up late, always on her phone, skives in another department, works as slow as a snail and is apparently unsackable. My boss won't grow some and get rid. Fortunately she plans on retiring in a year or so.

Yep we've got a guy in our department who is always off work and has been for years. He seems to reappear for a day then go again. He will reappear say 'oh I will take that forward' and make loads of positive noises then not take anything forward cos he goes off sick again.

Maybe I'm supposed to be supportive but it's been this way for years and it's a pain in the arse.

I think it is important to be careful around people off sick. I have an invisible condition that means I am immune suppressed. My line manager and HR knew, noone else needed to. So people can work damn hard and be very committed and still take a fair amount of sick leave. That's a poor example to give

Oh yes. We have one who arrives late almost every single day, spends most of her day loudly sorting out her various life dramas on the phone, takes a long lunch and then finds an excuse to fuck off early. Nothing comes of reporting her as she is best mates with the manager.

I've given up and am just waiting for her to retire at this point.

I actually don't mind people who are unintentionally a bit crap at their job, it's laziness that drives me up the wall.

@Caffeineneedednow Surely there’s evidence to the contrary so her claims will be thrown out? Especially if there’s GBH, that’s an actual crime.

I worked with one before I became self employed. She was often off sick,spent a lot of time on the phone to her kids and made errors that had customers ringing up to complain about and it was me who had to deal with them.
When the company was bought out,we were asked to volunteer for redundancy. I jumped at the chance,but was refused as they used the opportunity to remove Ms Useless. I was told this face to face by my manager. Ms Useless spent the rest of the time leading up to her redundancy,telling us about the garden room that she was going to have built using her pay off,so that she could start a new business.
A relative works in a school. One of the teachers there has only done 11 days work in the past 6 months. Not only that,but she's been applying for jobs whilst off sick,which is gross misconduct,but no one seems to care.

I work in the civil service and they just get moved around. It just causes other people to leave as it’s so demotivating to get paid the same as people like that

What does playing the race card actually mean? Just confused because surely poor work performance has nothing to do with race and everything to do with being mismanaged? If there’s clear protocol and procedures in place to provide adequate training, performance reviews etc., then I’m not sure how anyone can play a race card? I’m genuinely confused.

Yep there is one in my office who is annoying but can live with.

However I work in higher education I know someone who got fired and sued for wrongfully dismissal based on discrimination as she was female.

However the reason she was finished was for relentlessly bullying her students to the point she threw her against a wall and broke her arm.

There's always a way to sack people, it's just useless management that is the issue.

It really shouldn't be tolerated and defines a toxic company if it's just ignored.

I've taken a bit too long to action some redundancies and I can see my staff getting so fed up and looking to me, it undermines everyone else work ethic and just spreads.

I think it's lazy management.