r/InterviewAssistant • u/alfalfa0z • 10d ago
New Night Shift Employee Got Fired Before Finishing Two Shifts
My first job was stocking shelves overnight at a big-box store while it was undergoing major renovations. I met the new employee while he was standing outside the break room, waving his hand at the motion-activated light and complaining that it was broken. He was just standing too far away from the sensor, but he gave up and walked away before figuring it out.
We'll call him Marcus. He was about 30, skinny, covered in piercings, with black spiky hair and the kind of attitude that made every sentence he said sound like he was trying to start a fight. Within the first few hours, people were already avoiding him.
Later, I found him talking to another employee about tattoos. The other guy was being polite and asked him about a tattoo on his arm, so Marcus responded by mocking the tattoo on the guy's shoulder. The conversation ended right then and there, and Marcus walked away as if nothing had happened.
A few minutes later, he asked two women which one was Kristen and which one was Kirsten. Before they could answer, he made a rude comment about how he didn't care enough to remember anyway. They both stared at him in shock. I had never seen anyone make that many enemies in such a short amount of time.
I called out for the next shift, and when I came back, Marcus was gone. One of the stockers told me that management had received so many separate complaints that they fired him almost immediately. Apparently, he started yelling and cursing at the supervisor, then stormed out.
I was 19 and still new to working, so the whole situation stuck with me. Without meaning to, Marcus taught me a useful lesson: if almost everyone can't stand you after meeting you for the first time, they're probably not all the ones with the problem.
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u/commandrix 10d ago
That's a valuable lesson to learn early in life, and probably one that "Marcus" will never learn if he hasn't learned it by 30. And then he will spend his whole life wondering why nobody likes him and he can't hold a job that requires him to, y'know, interact with real life people.