Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

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:
JaneDoe8000 · 02/05/2019 15:00

"And he sounds like a twat. Based on what?"

"We have a new starter at work who is a pain in the arse"

"constantly disappears and is always off exploring rather than doing what he should be doing"

"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."

"*and told him to be really quick and off he goes.

15 minutes later he’s still not back *"

"he admitted he was in a different room and that’s why the code wasn’t working"

Happy to help.

TheInvestigator · 02/05/2019 15:00

As much as it feels like a funny thing to do and a 'serves you right' moment, it's really not OK.

If there had been a fire, it wouldn't have ended we for him. If he had a medical issue, it wouldn't have ended well. Even just needing the toilet... It's inhumane.

You're training him. When he picked up the pen and paper, it was your job to put your foot down and say no but you didn't. Instead, you gave him the codes and sent him off to somewhere he hadn't been before. When he didn't come back, it was your responsibility to go and find him. You absolutely shouldn't have just left him there. I hope he raises a grievance.

NorthernRunner · 02/05/2019 15:00

JaneDoe I missed the part where he lied??? She was going to leave chemical waste, he went to dispose of it. To be honest it’s probably good he went against the OP.

Saavhi · 02/05/2019 15:00

snooping where he shouldn't be

You don't know that perhaps he was lost.

onanothertrain · 02/05/2019 15:01

Sounds like he was acting professionally, properly disposing of clinical waste while you were going to leave it lying about. I hope to fuck you're not a nurse although you are certainly a bully.

tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz · 02/05/2019 15:01

In my experience the use of the term "snowflake" is also often used to justify bullying behaviour and/or just general crappy treatment of another human being. See also "It was just banter" Confused

adaline · 02/05/2019 15:01

I hope he complains and gets you in trouble. You behaved appallingly.

ThePerturbedPenguin · 02/05/2019 15:02

Depends if someone else could have let him out, how urgently you had to be elsewhere, if there is a way to get out in a fire etc...

HillRunner · 02/05/2019 15:02

How does doing the exact opposite of what you're being told to do earn somebody's respect?

Ok gave him the codes and sent him down there. She didn't have to do that, but she did. He may well have walked into the room by accident. If this is e.g. a hospital setting, the layouts of the non-clinical areas can be very confusing.

He made a mistake, that's all. Have you never been new and made a mistake?

The OP didn't make a mistake - her actions were deliberate. She is a bully and deserves sacking, frankly.

Thatdilemma · 02/05/2019 15:02

Assuming this is real he sounds irritating and in this case over keen but you were unprofessional and if you worked for me I would sack you.
I assume there were fire doors in an emergency?
If not you would have been fucked and so would your employer.
If you hadn't answered the first call and known he was stuck and missed his calls because you were driving then that's different. It's not hard to end up in the wrong room in a new workplace.

I'm not suggesting he's the same but my DD has some SEN and can be exactly as described and will be in the workplace shortly . It's bloody irritating and hard work but if this was her I'd be encouraging her to make a complaint.

Sorry op I don't get all the haha he deserved to be left locked in the dark and wet in a cellar for being overkeen and irritating.

How old is he?

Sparklingbrook · 02/05/2019 15:02

If this was your DH/DP/DS etc and they came home from their new job and recounted this story I am sure you would be pretty WTF wouldn't you?

HillRunner · 02/05/2019 15:03

OP gave him the codes, even.

Acis · 02/05/2019 15:04

When you spoke to him originally you should have given him contact details for someone else who could help him if necessary, or you should have contacted a colleague to go and sort him out.

wanderings · 02/05/2019 15:04

When opening this, I thought it was going to be about a child who'd wandered into a forbidden cellar, and got stuck there, and suffered the discipline of "natural consequences": a phrase much-loved on MN. Or maybe the OP likes the Crystal Maze: if you overstay your allotted time, it's an ALIS: an automatic lock-in situation.

JaneDoe8000 · 02/05/2019 15:05

only bullies or nasty people laugh when other people are badly treated

Who's laughing?

If you did a root-cause analysis on how the person found themself locked in a cellar, it's nobody's fault but their own. Unable to follow instruction, refuses to listen to existing team members with more experience. But I suppose in your world nobody is responsible for their actions and everybody's a victim.

LindsayDentonsWineBottle · 02/05/2019 15:05

If he was shadowing you and you knew he hadn’t returned why didn’t you go and find him? I’m assuming you work in healthcare, were there other people in the building?

Ifartglitterybaubles · 02/05/2019 15:06

If this is real....

only bullies or nasty people laugh when other people are badly treated
This!

Also, If I was your line manager and this incident was reported to me, I'd make sure you were gone by the end of the day.

What a vile way to treat a co worker.

JaneDoe8000 · 02/05/2019 15:06

When you spoke to him originally you should have given him contact details for someone else who could help him if necessary, or you should have contacted a colleague to go and sort him out.

Or the person who got locked in a cellar could have listened to what they were told first AND not gone into a room other than the one they said they were going to AND lied about it.

MRex · 02/05/2019 15:07

You were very unreasonable and should face disciplinary action for intentionally leaving a human being locked in a room they couldn't get out of. You should have taken him and the waste down there, you certainly should've have given him the codes to do on his own, you should have been checking on his welfare when he didn't come back and you should have sent someone to rescue him if you couldn't go immediately yourself. It's disgraceful behaviour.

Sparklingbrook · 02/05/2019 15:08

OP should have stood her ground and not given him the codes if she didn't want him going down there. She gave him the codes knowing he had form for wandering about. Confused

Also as a new starter he should be geeting regular feedback on his performance from his line manager.

TheGrey1houndSpeaks · 02/05/2019 15:08

It doesn’t help, Jane, but thanks anyway.
Op has behaved despicably and doesn’t realise this, so what she finds annoying may be suspect.
And he could only wander off to the cellar because she gave him the code. It actually sounds like she may have been in breach of protocol regarding storage of clinical waste, and he was trying to follow it despite her heavy resistance.
God love him being shown the ropes by someone like that.

grumiosmum · 02/05/2019 15:08

OP was being very unprofessional.

GraceMarks · 02/05/2019 15:08

I certainly wasn't suggesting that the OP should complain about this man. What I meant was, she should have raised her concerns with his line management that he wasn't engaging with the training she was trying to provide, instead of quietly getting more and more irritated with him. She should have done that ages ago. As it is, she won't be able to say anything now because she's relinquished the moral high ground by locking him in a cellar with the clinical waste for almost two hours, and I doubt if she'll want to bring that to anyone else's attention.

WellErrr · 02/05/2019 15:08

This is the kind of thing that people say should happen more in the world, but then complain when it does.

MRex · 02/05/2019 15:08

*shouldn't have given him the codes!