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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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To have left him stuck in the cellar?

534 replies

FreddysTash · 02/05/2019 14:13

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?

OP posts:
LilQueenie · 02/05/2019 21:12

soupDragon I would feel the same. He kept pissing off to explore. Same if it was a woman.

rosenylund · 02/05/2019 21:14

The issue here is you forgot you were at work, not in a sitcom or playing out with your mates.

He may have been laughing when he came out, or he may have been putting it on to save face, or out of concern as to what action you'd take next. Workplaces are governed by policies which remind us we are at work - we need to act like professionals, and not dicks. If he complains, I hope you get bollocked.

Acis · 02/05/2019 21:19

How did your colleague get into the room he was stuck in if he didn't have the code?

Belenus · 02/05/2019 21:28

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.

This. The OP changed her tune quite rapidly once it became clear that not everybody thought what she had done was oh-so-hilarious. If someone is shadowing you, you train them better. Don't give in to pestering by giving them access codes and then take a coward's way out and strop off. As a new member of staff he isn't being managed at all well and if he is a complete PITA to manage the OP needs to be documenting why and reporting it to whoever manages her.

Belenus · 02/05/2019 21:32

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.

This. The OP needs to learn to manage people better. Don't give in to demands if there genuinely isn't time. Don't leave someone locked in somewhere. Make it clearer what it is you actually want from them. If they are proving really difficult, document the issues and then report this further up the line. What she actually did was spiteful, unhelpful and rather stupid.

Belenus · 02/05/2019 21:33

Oh great. I thought it had swallowed and lost a post of mine. Evidently it hadn't.

TheGrey1houndSpeaks · 02/05/2019 21:35

Indeed, Acis. A one way code that allows access only, no egress? Not very likely.

janetforpresident · 02/05/2019 21:35

He started getting irate saying it stunk down there, it was freezing, pitch black and the wind was hammering on the fire doors

I don't believe for a second that he wouldn't have used a fire door or called a colleague rather than subject himself to solitary confinement for an entire morning. How much trouble would he really have been in for accidentally going into the wrong room? So either it didnt happen at all or he had no way to get himself out and the drip feed was a lie

kazillionaire · 02/05/2019 22:00

I have worked with some nasty pieces before but my word I would have your arse on a plate if this had been me in that cellar. I hope he puts a formal complaint in about you I really do.

DishingOutDone · 02/05/2019 22:18

Still people coming on thinking the OP is a legend.

I was on a deleted thread the other day, was really annoyed so started a TAAT but then someone came on and said that actually the poster may have made the story up just to draw people out from the woodwork, to get people to feel "safe" to express some pretty nasty thoughts - those who talk a lot about others "deserving it" whatever it is, for some crime or other.

We don't know anything about the man shut in the cellar other than he's a bit of an arse, he's annoying. And we've only the OP's take on it. But according to her, if someone isn't up to scratch, if they are not "right" by her standards, she can do whatever she wants and expect to be congratulated for it.

LittleRen · 02/05/2019 22:23

Wow you’re a nasty thing aren’t you.

Biolama · 02/05/2019 22:25

I am very claustrophobic and I maybe wouldn’t have got out of the cellar if left for hours. What a very cruel thing to do. If he’d have had a panic attack / injured himself down there you would be in trouble with your employer AND the police. You sound like you need to grow up or find a job where you don’t have people ‘shadowing’ seeing as you clearly are not cut out for it. Disgusting and I also hope he gets heard and you get the book thrown at you

Ineedamanipedi · 02/05/2019 22:32

I am alternating between laughing my head off and then feeling sorry for the poor guy!

CheekyFuckersDontGetPastMe · 02/05/2019 22:35

Hang on, I don’t know any door locks that have a code to enter AND a code to leave?

mouldyhousemouldylife · 02/05/2019 22:39

Yabvu. That's fucking horrible.

VladmirsPoutine · 02/05/2019 22:50

Was this supposed to go the other way and be full of cheer-leading and hearty applause all round?

Ihatehashtags · 02/05/2019 22:56

You sound like a total bitch. I hope you get fired.

Sofagirl · 02/05/2019 23:06

You actually sound a nightmare of a colleague

Immature

Unprofessional

Neglectful

And then had cheek to laughter it off

I hope you do get fired actually

Princessfaffalot · 02/05/2019 23:16

That was a really awful thing to do to someone. If he was having to learn from you I really feel for him as you clearly have no morals and are unable to behave in a professional manner. I don’t care how irritating you find him, He was hired and is trying to learn. You are a nasty piece of work and as a manager I would not want you working for me. It’s inhumane to lock someone in a cellar.

blackcoffeeinbed · 02/05/2019 23:38

Rather than giving it the other 15 minutes to see if he returned you should've gone to check on him then. Regardless of wether he's annoying, you were given the responsibility of training him! You had other options, and time to help him. You could of done that and then spoke to your manager and explained he had been pushy in the first place etc. It would have been on his shoulders then especially if he's already been spoken to about his performance. You've acted highly unprofessional, and pretty mean. If I'd of been him I'd be frantic and embarrassed (not sure that's the best word to use) that someone was treating me so disrespectfully.

SnowyAlpsandPeaks · 02/05/2019 23:55

Thank your lucky stars there wasn’t a fire.

ThePerturbedPenguin · 03/05/2019 00:53

Jeez you lot are so sanctimonious Hmm

mouldyhousemouldylife · 03/05/2019 02:01

Jeez you lot are so sanctimonious hmm

For not thinking that someone deserves to be needlessly locked in a cellar for hours?

Think that says a hell of a lot more about you, Satan's mistress...

GreenDragon75 · 03/05/2019 03:54

I don’t think this is true for one minute. I can’t work out the point of making it up but don’t believe for one minute that anyone would behave like this in the first place of if they did it would go unreported.

NaughtToThreeSadOnions · 03/05/2019 05:05

Jeez you lot are so sanctimonious

I would have thought the sanctimonious one was the person who thought she was soooooooo much better than her colluege and drove off leaving him locked in a cellar satan

Sorry as many people have said cruel, vindictive, unprofessional and dangerous

There is a phase on here "no is a complete sentence"

"Where is the clincal waste stored?"
"Shall i take it down"
"No, it requires access codes and we are going off site shortly"
"Oh write down the codes for me, i'll be quick"
"No it really is ok"
"I'll be quick"
"No, are you ready to leave site?"

See no access codes given. He was shadoeing you so you are responsable for him. You didnt have to give him the access codes. You were planning on leaving him there longer weren't you??