To have left him stuck in the cellar?

[FreddysTash]

We have a new starter at work who is a pain in the arse. He’s shadowing me and constantly disappears and is always off exploring rather than doing what he should be doing. This morning we were in the office and he asked me where he should put clinical waste. I told him we put it in the cellar but that we didn’t have time to do it now as we had to go out of office. He said he’d be quick. I said no because it takes ages to get down there, he’d need codes for the lift down there, and two different doors. He grabbed a pen and paper and asked me for the codes. Getting frustrated I wrote down the codes and told him to be really quick and off he goes.

15 minutes later he’s still not back so I check time and decide if he isn’t back by half past I’d do without him. Half past came so I packed up and headed to my car. I’d just set off when I got a frantic phone saying he was stuck in one of the rooms in the cellar. I told him to repeat the code he had and it was right so I said he’d just have to keep trying. I drove off. 5 minutes later he started ringing again. I ignored it. All in all 4 missed calls. I rang him back and he admitted he was in a different room and that’s why the code wasn’t working. I told him I’d be back at lunch. It was 9.45 at the time. He started getting irate saying it stunk down there, it was freezing, pitch black and the wind was hammering on the fire doors. I left him until 11. AIBU as he got stuck because he went where he wasn’t supposed to go?

Ffs your lucky there wasn’t a fire and he ended up dead or injured. Surely you could have rang someone else to alert him. I’d be reporting you to hr!

This has got daily fail pick this up written all over it.....

You knew exactly what you were going to do as soon as you gave him the codes OP.

In fact I would bet money on you pissing off as soon as he had got round the corner, laughing to yourself as you went. I don't believe you waited 5,10 or 15 mins for him before you left I think you thought you were teaching him a lesson and you'd be hailed as a super hilarious hero.

You shouldn't have done it, but I see why you were frustrated. I think you could get into serious trouble for this. You should have contacted your line manager and told them he had trapped himself due to being a prick and not following instructions. Then explained you had an appointment to keep and could they let him out. He was somewhere he shouldn't have been, he would have been fucked if there was no reception on the phone or a bloody airlock on a refrigerated unit.

I would guess it isn't some spy-novel restricted area, but simply some codes on doors to stop the general public from going where they shouldn't. I imagine the clinical waste was safe in a tub/bucket- type disposal unit, and would just be emptied in the cellar.

Interesting that everyone has assumed the guy was young, just because he is a trainee.

He is a fully functioning adult who CHOSE to stay where he was, rather than do as the OP advised and ring someone else.

This wasn't bullying - this was a nosey trainee wandering into areas he shouldn't be in. He then is given clear instructions as to how to get out, but chooses not to, because he knows he has already had a bollocking for doing similar earlier in the week ( and would probably jeopardise his job)

I am a bit that people have called him "keen". Keen would have been hurrying down to dispose of the clinical waste and returning quickly as he had both been instructed to , AND more importantly said he was going to do.
If he had done so, they could both have continued on with their work/out of office meeting. As a manager, I would be pretty pissed off with someone who said they were going to do x and then saw it as an opportunity for a bit of a skive and a nosey around.

As it was, OP waited HALF AN HOUR for him, before leaving to continue with her job.

NONE of this is Op's fault. She could have handled it better, though.

She should have reported him earlier. She should have contacted him to check where he was ( in case of injury/sickness) + to say that she was leaving and to do xyz until her return.

I have low tolerance for people who wander off when there is work to be done.

If he had made a genuine mistake, he should have rung someone else to let him out and have been doing something constructive until OP got back. As it was, he didn't do that. That tells me that he was skiving and in an area that he wouldn't easily be able to explain away.

I don't think OP is a bully. I think she actually needs to learn to be more assertive - I certainly wouldn't be bullied into giving codes/agreeing to a skiving mission just before I was due to take a trainee to a meeting off site. The Trainee sounds like a waste of resources to me.

Whilst at first I found it amusing...the mistake you made was allowing him down there by giving him the codes. You should've put yr foot down saying no we dont have time. I wouldve said that he's over eager to impress but if hes musding a lot and then he has gone into a different room then he sounds immature and needs leashing in. The ideal solution shouldve been to discuss it in a supervision session. If this is a healthcare environment and you are a qualified health professional then you will be aware that you are ultimately responsible for him and for steering him in the right direction.

What a nasty thing to do

I would report you immediately

There’s something called duty of care, health and safety and negligence

You definitely deserve to be disciplined for this

What a thing to do! Hope it’s you next time left somewhere

Tbh, I think if he could have called someone and chose not to, then that is his own look out.

Yep

Op should not have left without him in the first place. She said there wasn't time to go down there but then let him go anyway. After saying "be quick" she should have called him to get a move on or see where he was and tell him she was leaving. After getting the missed calls she should have called someone else in the office to go and let him out. He should not have been dictating what happened when he is the trainee and OP should not be letting him as the manager.

Awful behaviour by the op

I think you need to be prepared to take some responsibility for it.

told him I’d be back at lunch. It was 9.45 at the time. He started getting irate saying it stunk down there, it was freezing, pitch black and the wind was hammering on the fire doors. I left him until 11. AIBU as he got stuck because he went where he wasn’t supposed to go?

In the OP no mention of telling him to call one of the other numbers, just that she'd be back at lunchtime to which he got irate..... why not mention he could've got himself out but chose to stay there..... very very odd updates to a massively important part of the OP.

The updates were purely because the thread didn’t remotely go the way op fondly imagined it would.

Tbh, I think if he could have called someone and chose not to, then that is his own look out

The idea that he would have stayed, by choice, in a dark and smelly place, for hours, having no reason to believe that OP would finally show up, when all this time he knew how to get out is so improbable, that is easy to assume is what OP is convincing herself of to make her feel better now that she is told that what she did was in no way funny.

Well I think it's bloody brilliant. YANBU. Hopefully he will see this as a learning experience

And why would he have called OP 4 more times after she didn't answer whrn it was clear she was making a point not to answer if indeed he could have called a colleague?

That doesn't make sense either.

I think you've been so unprofessional.

Well I think it's bloody brilliant. YANBU. Hopefully he will see this as a learning experience

A grown man in a cellar for a few hours a learning experience; as opposed to failing his probation which would've been a proper learning experience. This is not a 15 year old.

YWVU not to have phoned someone to let him out - but Kudos OP.

A learning experience?

What nasty talk on here

Hope it comes right back at you

Karmas a bitch you know

The fact that you building has a cellar with multiple rooms indicates that it's a rabbit warren. He either genuinely took a wrong turn or was having a quick look around. A cellar for storing clinical waste isn't my idea of fun and he didn't deserve to be left in there. OP even your opening description of your colleague makes you sound like a nasty girl in the school playground. I hope he makes a complaint against you.

I think so too girlcalledjack
In fact I'm not sure that the drip feed isn't bull because the thread didn't go as planned.

I'm curious to know how it would go if the reverse was posted and someone came and said their husband had been given the codes to move so e waste, got lost and his boss left him in a pitch black cellar for over an hour.

Would the people who think it's absolutely brilliant think the same if it had been a man leaving a woman locked in?

Why didn't he just use the codes?