Two Entirely Different Chips Off The Old Block

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.