At sixteen, I was the only one of my friends with a job. My friends were drinking and smoking whatever while I had to get to sleep early enough for an early start. They laughed at my “bedtime” and mocked my responsibilities.

A few years later, I had finally got out of the training wheels and started to earn some decent money.

Friend: “You are so lucky with your job.”

Me: “Well, I have spent years working hard and putting in the hours.”

Friend: “But I mean you’re lucky to have that job now.”

Me: “Sure, lucky.”

Friend: “I wish I could earn some money.”

Me: “I told you already: pass the drug test and turn up on time for the first six months. They are always hiring.”

Friend: “Oh, I don’t know. I’m not sure it’s for me.”

Me: “I’m not going to force you, but the vacancy is there.”

Friend: “You are so lucky.”

Me: “Sure. Lucky. Thanks.”

They never applied because they knew they couldn’t pass the test. They would tell me how hard it was to earn money yet made no effort to improve themself. We grew apart, as all they wanted to do was smoke and drink, and they somehow couldn’t understand after all these years that I couldn’t drop everything to spend time with them at 3:00 am.

My promotion still hadn’t gone through, and the last guy in my new position hadn’t officially left it yet, despite already working his new role. He couldn’t stop meddling with my new job, including agreeing to transfers into my team without telling me. 

I found out that [New Team Member] was transferring in, and while I was furious, he had gone behind my back and it was already official. There was nothing I could do until she had at least a few months to “prove herself”.

[New Team Member] appeared one morning with a big box of her stuff and began unpacking. It wasn’t long before the team started to chat with her and asked her why she had taken the transfer. 

New Team Member: “My last manager was a d**k, useless, and didn’t know what he was doing. He constantly picked on me. So, I had to move.”

Team Member: “Wow, I would have never realised he was that bad.”

Me: “Yes, that’s surprising.”

I had met him several times and his team all seemed really happy.

New Team Member: “His loss. I think he will struggle; I did most of his work for him, too!”

Team Member: “Wow, impressive. Welcome to the team.”

Me: “Yes, welcome! Great to have you with us. Someone said you worked in the warehouse, too?”

New Team Member: “Oh, yes. Completely sorted that place out. Shame I had to transfer from there. But the manager there was a perv and an idiot.”

This same pattern carried on; every manager she had was useless, and in every department, she apparently sorted out all their issues for them. Alarm bells were ringing; it didn’t seem true at all.

Me: “Okay, [New Team Member], can I show you what you will be doing with us?”

New Team Member: “I think I should wait for [Old Boss].”

Me: “He is away with a customer today and most of tomorrow. I can show you.”

New Team Member: “Well, he is my boss.”

Me: “For the time being, yes, but I can teach you.”

New Team Member: “I’m going to wait.”

Me: “So, what are you going to do for two days?”

New Team Member: *Shrugs* “I dunno. Not my problem.”

Any attempt to show her anything was useless; any intrusion or rationale was useless. When I did manage to get the old boss to try to instruct her, she moaned and complained, making snarky comments about how he should be more organised and how she didn’t want to be trained by us.

Eventually, I took over the role officially. Still, [New Team Member] complained and got things wrong but would complain that it must be us doing it wrong. She tried to change everything and said that “she knew what she was doing; she had done this in other departments.

I transferred her out and put all her “fixes” back to how they should have been. Good luck to the next guy.

Our local coffee shop has an upstairs seating area. I pay for our drinks and food and carry the tray upstairs. I somehow manage to carry everything without spilling a drop. I get almost to the top when a pensioner steps onto the stairs. He is holding both handrails to steady himself and I have no way past.

Me: “Excuse me.”

Pensioner: “Just wait a minute.”

He takes another step toward me, again holding both handrails.

Me: “Can I squeeze past? I have a tray.”

Pensioner: “You are going to have to wait. I’m old. If you can’t tell.”

I look behind me. He is causing a queue of people to form behind me. Eventually, a younger woman rushes up to him; I presume she is his carer.

Woman: “Oh, there you are. Come on, let me help you down.”

She looks at me.

Woman: “Well, move, then!”

Me: “I can’t. No one can. Can he move aside?”

Woman: “He’s old. Can’t you just move?”

The long line of people is getting restless. A member of staff comes over to try and move things along. Finally, this seems to make it dawn on the woman that she actually isn’t in the right, and she moves aside, helping the pensioner to move, too.

I move past them only for her to make a snide remark.

Woman: “Some people have no respect for others.”

I couldn’t agree with her more.

I run a small but growing company. We are a tight-knit team and people really have to fit in, so when the father of one of our newest hires suggests his other son for a vacancy, I’m happy to interview him.

He gets the job and is a little slow to pick it up — nothing like his younger brother. I try putting him in the warehouse more, which seems to work, but he needs constant supervision or he does his own thing.

One afternoon, my warehouse manager needs to run an errand, so I decide to check on our new hire and make sure he is okay. I find him inside the warehouse, sat on a bale of cardboard, smoking a joint. 

I send him home. I’m furious… but not as furious as his dad when he calls me up later.

Lad’s Father: “Why did you send him home? I was at work!”

Me: *Flatly* “He was smoking drugs while at work and causing a fire risk.”

Lad’s Father: “He would never do such a thing! How dare you?! Right now, he isn’t coming back. Both of them quit.”

Me: “Your eldest isn’t welcome back; he’s lazy and clearly a liability. And if [Younger Brother] wants to leave, he will have to resign himself. However, I have already spoken to him and he wants to stay.”

Lad’s Father: “Well, that will change. Send him home!”

Me: “He finishes at four; he will leave then.”

He screamed and shouted down the phone until I hung up on him. I talked to [Younger Brother] again, again reassuring him that I wanted him to stay and that legally, as an adult, it was his choice, not his father’s.

He quit eventually — no doubt his dad’s work. But six months later, I got a phone call from a familiar voice. [Younger Brother] had moved in with his mother and wanted to know if there was any work. I hired him straight away.

At my company, at some point, if you want to earn more on your basic salary, you have to take a salary position. It’s more on your basic wage, but you lose overtime. You can start later and in a cool office, but you work later in the evenings. It’s not for everyone, but it works for some, me included; I took the role a few months ago, much to the amusement of my old workmates.

Coworker: “Why would you take a promotion for less money?”

Me: “It’s not always about the money.”

Coworker: “With overtime, I earned an extra ten grand on what you did.”

Me: *Annoyed* “And I’m at home on time every time, spending time with my family.”

Coworker: “Yeah, whatever. Good job with your ‘promotion,’ idiot.”

I was annoyed; he got to me. But I took the job for a reason and it was for the long-term. 

A year later, the economy took a downturn. Suddenly, orders weren’t coming through and work was drying up. We were pulled into a big meeting. All overtime was cancelled.

Coworker: “But what about them?” *Gesturing to those of us on salary* “Will they get a pay cut?”

Boss: “No one is getting a pay cut. We don’t have the work to keep going in normal hours, let alone at weekends, too.”

Coworker: “[String of expletives]. Well, we will walk!”

Boss: “In this economy? I wish you luck.”

He didn’t walk. A few of them tried to work slowly to get overtime anyway. They were just disciplined. Overtime didn’t really come back for another year it two, and not like it was before. At least I didn’t have his snarky comments for a while.