A Vicious (Re)cycle(r)

I had a coworker who would collect the company recycling and turn it in for cash. It was probably just a few dollars a week, so management didn’t care. After he moved on to another job, he asked if he could continue to come by and pick up the recycling. Again, management agreed.

In the beginning, he showed up every Friday morning like clockwork. After a month or so, he said he had a family emergency and could not come out. We understand, things happen, so we put the recycling in the storage closet.

The next week, he had an issue with his car and could not come out — another bag in the storage closet. On the third week, he simply didn’t answer our calls. We had several bags of recycling piling up and it was getting in the way. Management told him that if he did not pick it up by the next Friday, we would throw everything away and the deal was off. He did not respond, so someone else offered to take it in.

Several weeks after my former coworker stopped responding, he showed up one Friday morning expecting to pick up everything he had neglected. Management informed him that someone else had taken over the recycling since he had basically dropped off the face of the earth.

He was furious. He claimed that we had never reached out, that we were stealing from him — anything he could come up with. He demanded that the person who was now taking the recycling reimburse him for whatever they had earned in his absence.

Management showed him the call log and then showed him the door.