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

Yes. Civil service... there is always one mad bag lady and one weird man. They do nothing. I don't know how the dispersal system works, but in every office- there's the bag lady and the creep.

Yes I had one. Rude. Would kick off if asked to work. Treated work like a social occasion Sat off ordering takeaway delivery. Finally she fell foul after being cocky to the new manager one time too many. Good riddance to her.

This is exactly it. I have had colleagues that my managers have been desperate to get rid of but the sacking is such a slippery slope these days. I think if they sack, the person sacked can so easily come back with unfair dismissal. They can't sack without X amount of warnings etc.

I have had useless colleagues, one of which my managers actively encouraged us to file grievances against.

I've also had useless managers who frequently ignore gross misconduct so they don't have to do any hard work! So you know.

But yes, I do feel I have unsackable colleagues. My manager has said "I wish she'd hand her notice in". Multiple times about a colleague when I can think of 1000 reasons why she could be given warnings and then dismissed. But they don't want to deal with the paperwork

Yip constantly skived, always on phone, constantly goes to the toilet so she can be on her phone. Carries her phone about the work space(phones should be in lockers) late often, phones in sick alot.

"But she's amazing with the clients! "

Yes, it does happen in most places. In my experience, it’s usually someone who is very well aware that they have the company, and its HR department, over a barrel because they tick numerous boxes under the Equality Act.

The company could sack them, but they are well aware that doing so would leave them facing expensive litigation, large compensation bills and the likelihood of damaging publicity.

I used to work for an HR Director. He told me of a case in a previous company where there was an employee who was much as you describe. There was an incident where she was doing something she had been expressly told not to do and the MD fell over her and broke his arm in two places. He told my boss that enough was enough, she was useless anyway and to get rid of her.

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.

I think companies do not want the hassle of going down the PIP/disciplinary/sacking route and would rather wait for the person leave/move or resign. Managers in my old company would prefer to move these people on within the organisation so they become someone else's problem. The trouble with that is when someone finally does take action the employee puts in a grievance because 'no one else in my X years at the company had a problem with my performance '.

We had a few people who trained with me for a job who just weren't good enough and therefore weren't given contracts to continue. Except for one, because the manager liked her, so she got moved from job to job within the company for about a year until they decided she really was untrainable so put her in HR 😂😂😂 It still makes me laugh now 10 years later.

Yep.

Often on her phone.
chats all day long
Has 2 lunches and various breaks due to eye strain.
low standard of work that we all have to double check and sort out.

I have no clue!