Termination of Employee

[PepePeru]

A coworker in a small office's main job is managing databases. Well, one of his databases has had thousands of records get deleted from it. He claims he didn't do it, had nothing to do with it. Despite the fact, its his database. Who or why is irrelevant. What he fails to see is the blame lies solely with him.

So, of course my boss is livid over these records getting deleted.

They had it out on Tues. I could hear everything. Boss is chewing him out, questioning how this happened, etc etc.

He keeps claiming and whining that "he didn't do it, i didn't do it, i don't know"
blaming everyone else he can (he tried blaming me, as well) for his fuck up.

Boss keeps chewing him out, finally he SCREAMS at the top of his lungs, at the boss, I DIDN'T DO IT!!!!!

Boss goes through the roof. GIVE ME YOUR FUCKING KEYS MOTHERFUCKER, YOURE HISTORY, GTFO, DON'T YOU EVER YELL AT ME LIKE THAT. Boss was a Sgt. in the Army and knows how to scream and cuss....

So, of course, coworker immediately gets meek and shaky voiced and whiny, "I'm sorry I'm sorry, whine whine whine...blah blah blah"....

Well, he manages to weasel around and didn't ever leave and talked his way out of it. So, boss says "finish this and we're going to discuss your future at this firm"

So, boss comes and asks me to describe everything that this guy assists me with. Which isn't much. He set up the exchange server & the file server. Things I can learn how to do. We're a small firm. That is not a full-time job. Things we can just contract out. Nothing came out of this conversation, so far.

I tried making a power play a few months back after it was found out he wasn't backing up our server. Unfortunately over the years, he's convinced & manipulated my boss into thinking he's irreplaceable. When, in fact he's quite replaceable. I'd put good money on the fact that we can find another fat, know-it-all, greasy haired IT/Database guy that actually is competent in his job, in a heartbeat in this economy...

I've been here nearly 3 years, and this is about 4th time this guy's done something deserving of termination.

Unfortunately as more time passes from the screaming fight, the chances of him getting shit-canned diminish. I feel like the window is closing.

I want to get him fired. I would have a completely clear conscious in subverting this guy and getting him thrown out on his fat, worthless ass and hiring someone who's an asset to the firm, not a liability.

I need a course of action, though.

 

[tranceport]

Usually cannot treat employees like that.

I wouldn't work there.


On a side note... the deletion of records by his hand needs to be proved.

 

[Codewiz]

Do some research and figure out how the records got deleted. Even if he didn't do it, show it happened directly due to his complete and utter incompetence.

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: G Wizard
I want to get him fired. I would have a completely clear conscious in subverting this guy and getting him thrown out on his fat, worthless ass and hiring someone who's an asset to the firm, not a liability.

I need a course of action, though.

Document everything. Talk over your concerns with your boss and follow his direction on the matter - if your boss says let the matter drop, let it drop.

 

[ggnl]

so you're willing to damage the business to get this guy out of there? classy..

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: G Wizard
<snip>
I want to get him fired. I would have a completely clear conscious in subverting this guy and getting him thrown out on his fat, worthless ass and hiring someone who's an asset to the firm, not a liability.

I need a course of action, though.

Just tell the boss that all of his duties can be covered with your existing staff, temporarily, until they hire a replacement. Then remind the boss of the other stuff that should have gotten him terminated, and if he continues to be employed, that more stuff will fail. Let him know that you don't have anything personal against the guy, but you'd like to see the team run efficiently just as much as he does.

 

[PepePeru]

Originally posted by: ggnl
so you're willing to damage the business to get this guy out of there? classy..

No. I'm not going to sabotage the business.

In fact, I'm burning DVDs of our most critical information, to ward off sabotage from this guy if he does get canned.

 

[waggy]

sounds like the boss needs to fire 2 people..

 

[racolvin]

You sure YOU didn't delete the records, to get him fired?

 

[leftyman]

Sorry, but I would hate to have you as a coworker.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: leftyman
Sorry, but I would hate to have you as a coworker.

Yeah.

Express your concerns to your boss that's incompetent and that there are far more capable people out there right now in a professional manner. If your boss ignores your suggestion, then go back to your job. Don't try and ruin this guy's life.

 

[lupi]

Originally posted by: waggy
sounds like the boss needs to fire 2 people..

 

[fleshconsumed]

Originally posted by: tranceport
Usually cannot treat employees like that.

I wouldn't work there.


On a side note... the deletion of records by his hand needs to be proved.

There are two sides to every story. It's easy to mess up db. Anyone with sa password can just go and manually delete records, without even meaning to. Just do delete instead of select or forget about PK/FK relationship, delete a record and trigger cascade delete, or just put a wrong date in the where clause. It's also possible a faulty application failed somewhere which led to record deletion. I've seen MSSQL errors that led to corrupted records, although nothing to the order of magnitude of thousands. The point is it could have been a dozen different things that might have deleted those records. The biggest fault here is that there is no working backup from what I understand.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: G Wizard
<snip>
I want to get him fired. I would have a completely clear conscious in subverting this guy and getting him thrown out on his fat, worthless ass and hiring someone who's an asset to the firm, not a liability.

I need a course of action, though.

Just tell the boss that all of his duties can be covered with your existing staff, temporarily, until they hire a replacement. Then remind the boss of the other stuff that should have gotten him terminated, and if he continues to be employed, that more stuff will fail. Let him know that you don't have anything personal against the guy, but you'd like to see the team run efficiently just as much as he does.

Or the OP can mind his own fucking business and let management deal with his coworkers. I've learned there are at least two absolute truths in a typical office environment:

1. Everybody thinks the person next to them does nothing.
2. Everything thinks management doesn't know what is going on.

And of course both of them are complete bullshit.

 

[Mide]

Assuming all is true, I would talk it over with your boss. If he doesn't think that the guy deserves to get fired then maybe you should try to look for an alternative job. I hate working for places that need change but it never happens because nobody has the balls to go forward.

 

[Sea Moose]

actually i know how the op feels. When i was an apprentice the tradie i worked with was shoddy and cut corners. By the time i was third year i could do all his work in half the time. But i said nothing, he made some professional mistakes and left from embarrassement. He was supposed to be the bosses friend, and he didnt give two shits about the business.


So yeah my advice is, keep being professional. You dont go to work to make friends, you go to work to be the best at what you do. Keep doing your quiet back ups and make sure you do your job 100%.

I wouldnt keep a record of bad shit the other person does thats very bitchy

 

[SonnyDaze]

Delete more files. That should do it. :thumbsup:

 

[PepePeru]

Originally posted by: leftyman
Sorry, but I would hate to have you as a coworker.

If youre the type that wants to blame others for your own mistakes, then yes.

You would hate me as a coworker.

If this guy would man up and take responsibility for it and say "I'll fix it, I'll take care of it" without trying to blame everyone but himself, for his database....He wouldn't be in the position.

 

[nakedfrog]

Maybe you should consider the possibility... that he didn't do it?
At any rate, look into transaction logs.

I know I'd be pretty irate if somebody was chewing me out over deleting records I didn't delete, and ignored me when I said I didn't delete them.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: G Wizard

Originally posted by: leftyman
Sorry, but I would hate to have you as a coworker.

If youre the type that wants to blame others for your own mistakes, then yes.

You would hate me as a coworker.

If this guy would man up and take responsibility for it and say "I'll fix it, I'll take care of it" without trying to blame everyone but himself, for his database....He wouldn't be in the position.

not sure what is worse. someone that blames others or one that thinks they are management and sabotages othes work. i hope you get caught doing it and get fired.

 

[ViperXX]

The guy is not doing backups and has no contingency plan, he's not doing his job. If you found that he wasn't doing backups and reported it and it wasn't corrected. Disciplinary action needs to be taken. But that's up to your boss and his HR department.


People around here delete stuff all the time. Usually unintentionally. It's why I do daily backups.

 

[Agentbolt]

If he's so incompetent, how is he still there? He sounds like the easiest target ever, but you've been unable to get him canned.

Sounds like you're not exactly the brightest bulb in the string either, OP. And don't come back with the "Oh well he's got the boss in his pocket and blah blah blah" excuse, you can't claim on the one hand that this guy's retarded but on the other hand he's some manipulative genius who plays Jedi mind tricks.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: G Wizard

Originally posted by: leftyman
Sorry, but I would hate to have you as a coworker.

If youre the type that wants to blame others for your own mistakes, then yes.

You would hate me as a coworker.

If this guy would man up and take responsibility for it and say "I'll fix it, I'll take care of it" without trying to blame everyone but himself, for his database....He wouldn't be in the position.

not sure what is worse. someone that blames others or one that thinks they are management and sabotages othes work. i hope you get caught doing it and get fired.

What are you talking about? Instead of owning up, the coworker tried blaming everyone and their unborn children for something he is responsible for. Whether or not he was at fault for the data loss, he was at fault for the lack of data recovery. The OP never mentioned anything about sabotaging the guy's work.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

let's pretend i'm a manager, and data has been mysteriously disappearing, and then i fire someone, and then OP knocks on my door with the missing data that he wasn't asked to back up. how does that look?

i'll tell ya how that looks. looks like you don't deserve an open-casket funeral. you must think i'm pretty goddamn stupid, don't you? i must be, for hiring such a worthless sack of shit like you in the first place. now clean out your desk and walk out the front door, or i'll throw you off the fucking roof.

that's if i were the manager.

 

[PepePeru]

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: G Wizard

Originally posted by: leftyman
Sorry, but I would hate to have you as a coworker.

If youre the type that wants to blame others for your own mistakes, then yes.

You would hate me as a coworker.

If this guy would man up and take responsibility for it and say "I'll fix it, I'll take care of it" without trying to blame everyone but himself, for his database....He wouldn't be in the position.

not sure what is worse. someone that blames others or one that thinks they are management and sabotages othes work. i hope you get caught doing it and get fired.

What are you talking about? Instead of owning up, the coworker tried blaming everyone and their unborn children for something he is responsible for. Whether or not he was at fault for the data loss, he was at fault for the lack of data recovery. The OP never mentioned anything about sabotaging the guy's work.

I did not and will not sabotage our databases or business.. This was just more of a rant about our fucked up, 4 full-time people office.

The only way I'm going to subvert this guy is just to get in my bosses' ear. That's my only hope.

Which is, what I did after we found the server wasn't being backed up. Which, even Waggy could admit, is a huge fuck up for a "IT" person. I use quotes for a reason.

It didn't work then, it woulnd't work now.

This guy's been here 8 years and this shit still happens...and with each successive time he gets saved from being fired, he gets more lazy, more hubris.

He's a tumor.