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

[Whistleblow2024]

Because honestly one of DCs workmates seems unsackable and I'm curious if this is normal.

They are constantly late, they don't care, they make regular inappropriate comments to others they work with but also in front of clients and at training sessions.
They ignore management frequently, which has resulted in incidents which could have become much larger.
They have left things in an area with clients that shouldn't have been there which again could have been more serious.

They also did something pretty major after being not to which again could have been very serious

Trying to be intentionally vague for obvious reasons but before I worked from home I remember people like this too!

So do you have a cheeky fuck at your work and what can they get away with

He is not the first autistic man I've heard of behaving like this. It's always men not women. If anything the autistic women I know tend to work until they burn out and break down!

Senior bloke was the boss’ best mate. When his department was wound down, they all got the road. Except him. I’m not even sure whet he was repurposed to… He was fucking useless anyway!

100%

Buddy buddy with those at the top

Sadly our manager also takes a lot of time on the sick or off for childcare reasons and various other excuses. He basically doesn't manage people very well. He's a nice guy but very ineffective in his role. My colleague has been with the NHS for over ten yrs and has apparently always been like this so I can't see anything changing. Also, and I really hate to say this, all someone has to do is claim that x y or z is affecting their mental health and the NHS back down and let them carry on spending most of their working life on the sick.

None of that is because he is autistic. If anything, your employers are being ableist by implying that he does those things because he is autistic.

Yeh my last job a bloke punched the manager at a work function and still has a job. He's also rude, lazy, obnoxious and unkind. No idea who he's fucking but he's bullet proof.

Yep - ours is chummy with half the managers so that seems to protect her. She basically low level bullies everyone she works with but everyone ignores it. One manager even said "it's really hard work to performance manage someone" so that was the end of that 🙄

No one would believe it if they knew the true circumstances and situation in my workplace with a certain person and the company. Let’s just say they have the business by the balls and is getting away with full pay for zero work attendance the last 12 months.

I literally want to know their secrets! How do they do this? How do they manage it?

I admittedly haven’t been a great manager. One of the reasons that I found it difficult is because I think these days, the manager is not directly supervising their employees’ work. I had someone who made me cringe with the way she would come across and the mistakes that were made. Because it was a complex area, where we were developing a new approach, it was more of a safe environment to mess up. About half the people agreed with me, the other half thought she was great. Every time I would give any feedback she would accept it with great gusto. If there was any HR issue she would have all the policies ready and would have clearly spent ages going through them to make sure she was aware of any loopholes. It’s just bloody exhausting, I can see why the organisations I have worked for end up getting management consultants in to do things rather than the hassle of managing staff who push all the generous policies to the limits.

I have several - school .
Incompetent, lazy , late , off sick ..
complaints are made . Nothing ever happens- HR is just as unprofessional and the excuse often is that it's hard to recruit so just need to keep these people who are not anywhere near adequate.

Maybe these folk have it right though. Maybe all of us expecting a medal for grafting at work are the true mugs. 🤔

@Feckedupbundle applying for jobs when off sick isn’t gross misconduct.

Yes. She must know where the bodies are buried. Though she knows very little else.

We did, but they have just lost their job because they finally backed themselves into a situation that they could not get out of. It has taken years, though.

Is it Boris Johnson?

Oh god, I worked with one of these. Eventually sacked after ten LONG years. Incompetent at their job, yet full of self-confidence, fell out with pretty much every client - there was a long list of people they couldn’t work with. My team gathered cast iron evidence against them, went through the whole grievance rounds several times, but nothing doing. They even did something that in any other workplace would be gross misconduct, yet seemed to be Teflon coated. After my team were on the verge of walking out we eventually got forced through a pointless mediation session with them, only after we been dragged through this stressful process did they sack them. We used to joke they had kompromat on the MD, but I doubt it, I think we just had an incompetent HR department that didn’t want the hassle of firing them till we made it no longer an option.

We had a rule that you couldn’t take sick leave immediately before a holiday period, you had to take it as annual leave.

Yes, years ago. One was a drunk nurse. The other, more recently, was a care assistant who used to bully everyone, including the residents. The manager was a gutless wonder and was frightened of her. I reported her to CQC, but nothing was done. The manager was one of these weird people who gave the good workers hell, but constantly let the rubbishy ones off with everything. Couldn't stand it so I left. They failed their inspection a few months later.

Local authorities aka your local Council have people like this deliberately - they don't want smart folk with transferable skills who could move elsewhere and take the organisation's dirty secrets with them, they want to hug them close and encourage them to hold on for their pensions.
So those who've been there a long time will have dirt on the company and be part of the gang, or they'll have screwed up themselves and be culpable; will feel loyalty to the team for not having been thrown to the wolves.
Surrey County Council's Social Services, I'm thinking of you...

Yup

Her mum worked in HR

Civil service used to do voluntary early exit schemes every few years to get rid of dead wood but they can’t afford that any more.

Yes. The company i work for has two (and a third semi one). DH & another staff member. They've been there many years & have become so relied upon the small company would be stuffed without them. DH's counterpart is treated with kid gloves because of this. She decided to move & announced she was working remotely would quit - the company do not allow WFH. They allowed it. Doesn't wear the compulsory uniform, either, and dictates who does what. Gets overpaid massively. DH just knows he isn't replaceable so chugs along. The other semi non replaceable staff member, whose been there many years, demands to only work a couple of days a week from mat leave (child is two( and spends half that time on Insta.

The issue isn't incompetency - it's the opposite. They're the only ones who knows & understand what they're doing.

This is the companies fault, though, for their employment techniques. They hire people in my department on poor salaries, don't train properly & expect too much, so people leave. I will be as soon as I can get some time under my belt as the manager hates my DH & gives me the rubbush jobs. I know half the staff are looking too.

Yes. She was buddies with her line manager. He went, two months later she was made redundant. She blamed Covid, but it was just her laziness.

Oh yes there's always one. Civil service and she was beyond awful. If she had tried as hard at her actual job as she did trying to find ways not to work/turn up then she might have been pretty good.

Our head of unit finally put his foot down and refused to have her back after a period of time where she just didn't turn up. HR said we had to have her back but he held firm and said they should take her if they thought she was ok - and they did! And she's still there!

I have a friend who left who was her line manager and every time I see her (only 1/2 times per year) she asks me if C is still there. It was more than 18 years ago!! God knows if she's still the same.