Unfiltered Story #312415

Many years ago I managed a small team in a communications company. I’ll be nice and describe the business as thrifty with pay and my team was very much at the bottom rung of the business ladder.
This meant when I needed to hire new people I often didn’t get the best candidates to pick from but as a high school drop out myself I preferred to take a chance on someone I saw a spark of potential in; sometimes this paid off and a lot of my old staff are now very successful but sometimes it didn’t.
Most of those who didn’t work out either quit or just stopped showing up because a 9-5 lifestyle wasn’t for them but there was one guy who I had to fire before he even started.
I can’t remember his name so I’ll call him Chris. Chris was a young guy, interviewed pretty well other than going way to heavy on the lynx Africa body spray, was well spoken, seemed keen for the opportunity and could start immediately. I checked his references and all was fine so I offered him the job and he accepted right away.
His first day comes and he’s on time and dressed well so I start to take him on a tour of the office pointing out the toilets, kitchen, etc and introducing him to the people who were at their desks already. He was friendly and greeted everyone as we went around.
When we reached the customer service team there were a dozen or so people already at work on calls or typing as we went through and everything is normal until we get to one guys desk who I’ll call James.
I introduce Chris to James and at first Chris doesn’t say anything he just stares at James and James is starting to move back looking a little scared.
Suddenly Chris lunges at James and grabs him by the neck and starts yelling “Am I too unstable now!?” over and over as he keeps trying choke James.
James manages to slip free and crawl away coughing and it takes me and the Customer Service manager to subdue Chris while we wait for building security to arrive and escort him from the building.
It turns out the James and Chris had dated briefly and James had ended things when it became apparent that Chris had serious anger issues.