“Paul Never Answered Me”: Employee Upset Over Arrogant Colleague, Ends Up Teaching Him A Lesson
We can talk a lot about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on humanity, but what can be said for sure now is that it has definitely influenced the paradigm of office work and its exceptional efficiency. The world has seen that working from home can be no less convenient not only for the employee, but also for the company, and now it’s not so easy for employers to return staff back to the offices.
However, there are exceptions here. It happens that some employees, having received a certain amount of freedom with their working from home, began to openly overuse this freedom. Even to the detriment of the work process and other employees’ performance. What remains then? Perhaps petty revenge – as it happened in the situation with the author of this story we’re going to tell you today.
The author of the post does office work and has to conduct audits for the upcoming year
Image credits: Berkeley Communications (not the actual photo)
Almost all the employees are eager to help with data and information for the audit, except for one remote worker
Image credits: throwaway46808752
This guy, named Paul, had never ever answered any single call or email from the author
Image credits: LinkedIn Sales Solutions (not the actual photo)
Image credits: throwaway46808752
So when the author had to buy company shirts for the staff, they once more asked Paul about his size – and after zero answers, ordered him an extra-small one
So, the Original Poster (OP) says that they are doing office work – in particular, they were hired by a company largely to conduct an audit, to get the files prepared for the new year. During the work, a lot of unpleasant things became clear about employees missing many items – but the author gradually sorted out all the issues. Except, perhaps, one thing.
The company has one employee – the original poster calls him Paul – and we’ll follow that rule. So, Paul works exclusively from home, and almost never bothers to answer calls or emails. And the data from him also affects the results of the author’s work – so one can understand their indignation at such constant ignoring of any requests.
To top it all off, as the OP admits, Paul’s immediate boss is the owner of the company, and they seem to be pretty close friends, so reporting Paul likely won’t bring any results. So the original poster has to resort to all sorts of tricks in order to somehow compensate for being ignored by this elusive and unreachable guy.
However, it has been said more than once that revenge is a dish that is best served cold. So this time, the company’s higher-ups planned to buy employees new shirts as a gift, because they met the sales goals. The owner warned in advance that there would be no returns or exchanges, since it is impossible to please everyone with colors and styles – and the order was assigned to the original poster.
Now try to guess at once which of the employees never bothered to tell the author their size? Small hint: a four-letter male name that starts with Pa- and ends with -ul. So, when submitting the order, the original poster made sure to select a size extra-small for Paul. Maybe it’s not exactly revenge, but at least it’s definitely petty.
Image credits: Solen Feyissa (not the actual photo)
However, most commenters were still delighted with this idea, rightly believing that arrogance should be punished, even in such a petty way. Although, as some folks think, with such an attitude towards his colleagues, Paul doesn’t even care about the company shirt. “Amusing. Unfortunately, Paul probably couldn’t care less about a company shirt,” one commenter aptly wrote.
Unfortunately, the original poster rejected numerous suggestions to complain to management, since they were sure that this would lead to nothing – after all, Paul, as we noted earlier, is friends directly with the owner of the company. “Lot of nepotism in this company,” the author of the post sadly stated.
And people in the comments seriously doubt that Paul brings any benefit to the company. “Does he actually do any work or are they paying him just to pay him?” one commenter asked, and the OP answered directly: “I wonder that same thing every day.”
Well, if the owner of the company is willing to pay his friend for unknown reasons, it’s their business and their money. In any case, petty revenge took place, and the commenters liked it. “Revenge, a dish best served extra-small” – this was perhaps the wittiest comment ever. And what do you think in general about this situation, as well as about the method of petty revenge chosen by the author?
People in the comments were simply delighted with this sort of petty revenge, though presuming that Paul probably couldn’t care less for a company shirt as well
Image credits: Dane Deaner (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Austin Distel (not the actual photo)
If an employee is not sending you information, nor responding to emails, phone calls, voice mail, then create an email paper trail. Give them time to respond. And a reminder. If they don't respond bring others into the email loop. Email their manager and check whether the individual is on holiday as you are not able to get in contact with them, and when should you expect them to be back working. If nothing comes of this, rope in IT and check their email address is current, correct, and active. Then bring in HR, asking them to check their telephone number is correct... Bring in more people, at each point expressing your concern for the individual, and also mentioning it's only this person's information that is preventing you from closing the audit.
And that lays the groundwork for termination as, like so many above, I'm betting he's not actually doing any work.
Load More Replies...Where do people get these jobs? I want to go back to college and learn that. :/
But then the chance he could actually wear it would be higher than 0%.
Load More Replies...If an employee is not sending you information, nor responding to emails, phone calls, voice mail, then create an email paper trail. Give them time to respond. And a reminder. If they don't respond bring others into the email loop. Email their manager and check whether the individual is on holiday as you are not able to get in contact with them, and when should you expect them to be back working. If nothing comes of this, rope in IT and check their email address is current, correct, and active. Then bring in HR, asking them to check their telephone number is correct... Bring in more people, at each point expressing your concern for the individual, and also mentioning it's only this person's information that is preventing you from closing the audit.
And that lays the groundwork for termination as, like so many above, I'm betting he's not actually doing any work.
Load More Replies...Where do people get these jobs? I want to go back to college and learn that. :/
But then the chance he could actually wear it would be higher than 0%.
Load More Replies...
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