Employee of the month got fired today.

[Terry]

The employee of the month got fired from McDonald's today. He was still pretty new. He's only been there about a month. He's a pretty nice guy and pretty cool, but I guess you could say he wasn't "getting into the flow" of how things work. The reason he got employee of the month was because a customer called in and gave the GM a good word about how helpful and polite he was, which certainly does count when you work in a public service position, but there were other things that several managers didn't like about him.

He would ask if he could leave 10 minutes early very often. He also had a hard time listening to the trainer when he was being trained on something new. 3 days ago I was training him on the grille. He would keep walking off to do something else and I had to keep telling him "You don't need to worry about that right now, you just need to focus on what I'm showing you".

On several occasions when I had to ask him to come back over to the grille, he would go to the restroom without checking with a manager first. The first time he went, he went when I thought he was behind me watching me how to do something. I turn around and he was gone. About 30 minutes later, he said "I gotta go take a piss". I told him "I'm not the person to ask if you can do that. You need to check with a manager". He ignored me and went anyway. 30 minutes later, he says "I'm gonna go take a shit" and walks off to the restroom again. One of the managers asked me where he kept walking off to and I told her. When he got back she told him that he needs to check with a manager first before going to the restroom. He responded with a simple "Okay". When it came 10 til 8pm, he was asking if he could leave early. He asked this several times over the next 7 minutes and eventually the manager got annoyed enough to just say "I guess".

I wasn't really mad at him. He's a pretty cool guy. I like him as a person, but as a worker, he wasn't picking things up as quickly as needed.

[theredbaron47]

Thus illustrates one of my main problems with co-workers: the ones who are very cool people, but either don't catch on or just don't care.

I usually become friends with these people despite the fact that working with them drives me up the wall. It usually provides for many a headache.

But anyway, I guess it's a good thing he's no longer there. It sounds like he would have clogged up the workflow anyway.

Maybe if you exchanged numbers you could get together outside of work? I've found that to be the best solution, as you get the benefit of the person's company, without the stress of them not doing their job properly.

[myswtghst]

Thus illustrates one of my main problems with co-workers: the ones who are very cool people, but either don't catch on or just don't care.

I usually become friends with these people despite the fact that working with them drives me up the wall. It usually provides for many a headache.

I constantly have the same problem. I try to use our friendship as a way to gently shove 'em in the right direction at work, without making them angry, and just remind them that I'm showing them their mistake, not the manager.

One of my coworkers recently got a new job, outside the company. I'm actually rather happy for him, as he was not happy here, and made it very obvious in the way he worked/acted at work. So it'll be good to hang out with him outside work, now that he'll hopefully be much happier.

[blas]

I found it's not in the best interest to be too buddy buddy with trainees. I try to build a "circle of trust", trying to get the trainee to understand that I am not a babysitter nor a bitch, that I'm probably the nicest person who is going to remind you of something, and everything I tell you is for your own good.....

Good trainees don't even need to ever be reminded. Bad ones think I'm a bitch and test my patience.

[Terry]

I found it's not in the best interest to be too buddy buddy with trainees. I try to build a "circle of trust", trying to get the trainee to understand that I am not a babysitter nor a bitch, that I'm probably the nicest person who is going to remind you of something, and everything I tell you is for your own good.....

Good trainees don't even need to ever be reminded. Bad ones think I'm a bitch and test my patience.

I wouldn't say we were "buddy buddy". He was just more friendly and high spirited than most new people and that's what I liked about him. Also, I think it's perfectly fine for a trainee to make mistakes as long as they learn from it. In fact, trainers should EXPECT mistakes to happen. They're new, they're learning, they're going to make mistakes. It's all a part of the process of them "getting their hands dirty". Even the longest term employees make mistakes every now and then.

Testing of patience is another issue. If I know I'm doing my part as the trainer, then it's up to management whether or not the trainee has made enough improvement to keep them or not. I like to keep any hostility to a minimal. As far as I see it, if you're creating hostility, then you're creating trouble.

Testing of patience can go in the other direction as well. When it comes to some employees dealing with new people, to them it's "I've been here longer than you, I know more than, I'm better than you, and that's all that matters". When I'm a new employee at a company, I HATE when employees do that. Luckily, I'm not an easy person to break down into tears. I'm glad I have a high self esteem and can stand my ground. I don't like to turn the workplace into some kind of high school popularity contest. I don't care about who's Queen Bee.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

On the subject of employee of the month awards--I can't be the only person who thinks they're nothing more than popularity contests and a load of horseshit, can I?

Because when my store gave out employee of the month awards, they always seemed to go to the "popular" employees--those who had friends and did lots of brown-noising with the managers.

For example, one of my co-irkers, who could be downright abusive to other employees, won the award about 7 times. Every time she walked a customer to a product and answered their questions (which is just part of the job, something you are expected to do anyway and not worthy of any special praise), one of her buddies would put in a nomination for her, gushing about how she went "above and beyond" for the customer.

However, volunteering for extra shifts to organize backstock or the fixture room, consistently picking up shifts when asked to because co-workers called in sick, blew off work, or it just got uber-busy, and assembling small furniture items for elderly customers for no charge are evidently not going above and beyond.

This may sound like sour grapes, but in the 3 or 4 years we gave away Employee of the Month awards while I've been at the store, a grand total of maybe 6 or 7 people won all of them.

[myswtghst]

However, volunteering for extra shifts to organize backstock or the fixture room, consistently picking up shifts when asked to because co-workers called in sick, blew off work, or it just got uber-busy, and assembling small furniture items for elderly customers for no charge are evidently not going above and beyond.

Trust me, IPF, I know the feeling. It happens constantly at my work - it's often the people who do some small, side project that takes them off the phones but allows them to trumpet their "greatness" to anyone who listens who get the rewards around here. Whereas I work almost every extra weekend holiday shift offered, often stay several hours past the end of my shift if third shift is short-staffed, and do numerous helpful things, all while staying on the phones to do my job.

[Gurndigarn]

On the subject of employee of the month awards--I can't be the only person who thinks they're nothing more than popularity contests and a load of horseshit, can I?

Depends on the company.

[HavingAWonderfulTime]

The hotel I worked at had it based on votes, which was annoying, because someone in housekeeping would always get it, because there was like 20 people in housekeeping, and a max of 8 in any other department.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Store1 did EOTM for a while. I got it once. There was a box where you could put nominations. The winner got a $10 gift card for the store and 2 weeks of "preferred parking" (meaning you could park wherever you wanted in the lot). Every time I opened I parked in the spot right next to the handicapped spot so I could look out the window and wave to my car.

[tropicsgoddess]

On the subject of employee of the month awards--I can't be the only person who thinks they're nothing more than popularity contests and a load of horseshit, can I?

Because when my store gave out employee of the month awards, they always seemed to go to the "popular" employees--those who had friends and did lots of brown-noising with the managers.

IPF, I agree with you on that, even though my retail stint was only a month long, I noticed that it was the same people's names on the board for recognition cards and such every damn time. On top of that, at a certain call center hellhole I worked for 3 years ago it was always the same people that got the awards.