I hired a driver a few months ago. When the driver, Paul, came in to interview I noticed on his resume that he lived on the same street as my grandmother. It's a fairly large street, so I didn't think they'd know each other. I mentioned that in the interview. He asked who my grandmother was, and I told him. He knew her and he remembered my grandfather (who died in 1993). Apparently he grew up on that street and still lived there. Paul seemed like a very kind guy, and I ended up hiring him.
Things were going well at first. Then one day he got into a physical altercation with another driver in our parking lot. The driver worked for a vendor of ours and was delivering an order. We don't take that kind of thing lightly. I talked to him and wrote him up. I should have fired him right then, honestly. But he was very apologetic and seemed to really understand how terrible it was that have that happen.
We have GPS tracking on all our of vehicles. I check it periodically. While I was in DR, I asked our plant manager Justin to keep an eye on it. While I was out, Paul was making stops at unapproved locations for hours at a time. He also stopped at the American Legion Hall for 2 hours! That same day he told a warehouse employee that he was drinking during lunch!
I fired him this morning. I explained the reasons why (altercation in parking lot, theft of time). After I thought he was gone, Justin walks back in with Paul and says, "Paul wanted to ask you a question." Paul then asks me I will give him a reference. I told him no, that unfortunately I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. I mean, aside from what I terminated him for, I suspect he's drinking while driving! Hell no am I going to give him a reference!
Paul then says, "That fight only happened because the other drive said 'suck my dick' to me" (which is not true). At that point, Justin and I both said, "Ok Paul, it's time for you to go." He then turned around and said to me, "That's fine. I'll talk to your Grandmother."
And people. I saw fucking RED. I was in an uncontrollable rage.
I got up from my chair so fast, it slammed against the wall. I chased him out of the building. Our (brand new) warehouse manager witnessed the whole thing too, and grabbed Paul and hustled him out. Justin cornered me in the entryway and calmed me down, telling me it wasn't worth it. But I'm telling you, if Justin hadn't stopped me, I would have chased him down the street.
It took me a good 20 minutes to calm down. I'm still shaking. The owner called the police and we filed a report. I called my mom to give her a heads up as well (she's staying there and my Gma is coming home from the rehab facility tomorrow).
So, here's the lesson:
Never divulge personal info about yourself or your family, no matter how nice the person seems.
Trust your instincts. I wanted to fire him after the fight, but others convinced me not to.
Never let an employee back into the building once they've been terminated. I wish Justin had not let him back in.
So that's how my morning is going so far.