update: I’m about to inherit a bad employee who’s a jerk to our good employee

by Alison Green on June 14, 2023

It’s a special “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager and I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.

There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.

Remember the letter-writer who was about to inherit a bad employee (Dwight) who was a jerk to their good employee (Lucy)? Here’s the update.

I wanted to thank everyone for the advice and comments. My letter was actually posted while I was taking a vacation just before moving on to the store manager job. I hate that I couldn’t reply to more comments but I had only my phone and was on a train at the time! But I absolutely read every single comment and took so much of the advice to heart.

My old manager wound up retiring a little earlier than she planned, in part due to changes made in my company surrounding our labor budget. In short, corporate made us cut hours for everyone across the board and we lost a lot of good people who needed to move on to jobs that could give them more hours. This left my old store manager needing to be more hands on in the store’s day to day, which she was not interested in doing.

So I came into this job in October and since then, it’s been myself and Lucy for the most part. I could go on and on and on about the entire payroll budget situation but that isn’t the focus of your site, I know! Dwight is one of my employees who moved on but I have a few parting tales:

1) Dwight did apply for the assistant manager position and I interviewed him. I feel that I gave him a fair shot but at the end of the day, Lucy was always going to be the better choice both on paper and in what I’ve observed of her at work.

2) After I informed Dwight of this, probably a month later he sent an email asking HR and my Regional Manager whether a decision had been made. Not only does our application system automatically notify applicants when another applicant has been given the job, but I spoke with him when I made my decision and he’d had weeks of observing Lucy having the job! I was perplexed and slightly embarrassed that my RM and HR departments both got that email.

I did want to add that I have not been posting any schedules publicly; they’re available online and I can send or print a screenshot of that, with an employee’s schedule and no one else’s hours, if they request it.

I spoke with Lucy when I got back about Dwight to see if she felt uncomfortable or unsafe and unfortunately she did. She told me a few other stories about Dwight that I hadn’t heard about but my old manager had been told about – that he’d throw merchandise around and do things aggressively when Lucy was the only one in the room with him (like throw products past her onto counters or slam doors). She also told me about a time that he was grabbing a merchandise cart aggressively after a conversation with her and wound up wrenching another employee’s arm. I was very upset when I heard that my old store manager did nothing about this at all. I hadn’t realized that it was bordering on actual physical aggression.

Things have been smooth with Lucy. Dwight moved on about a month after I became the store manager and to be honest, I was very relieved to see him go.

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{ 94 comments }

{ 94 comments… read them below }

  1. Alex the Alchemist*

    Dwight was THROWING THINGS when alone with Lucy and your old boss DIDN’T BOTHER TO TELL YOU?! God I’m glad Dwight moved on.

    1. Where’s the Orchestra?*

      But at the same time I’m thrilled that the former manager has moved on as well. They didn’t do anything about reports of a coworker throwing things at other employees?!?!?! Yeah, manager who shouldn’t have been managing right there.

      1. Nobby Nobbs*

        Some people think throwing things NEAR instead of AT other people gives them plausible deniability in an “I’m not touching you” way. Other people fail to parse this as the nonverbal threat it is and bury their heads in the sand. Both of these kinds of people suck.

        1. Contrast*

          Other people fail to parse this as the nonverbal threat it is

          Including LW:

          bordering on actual physical aggression

          My dude, Dwight was not bordering on actual physical aggression. Dwight actually was physically aggressive. He injured someone. He should have been fired, not interviewed for a promotion.

          1. OP*

            You’re totally right.

            Just wanted to clarify that I did interviews a few weeks before I found out about the violence.

            1. Contrast*

              Thanks for your updates! The additional details on the timeline put things into perspective. I hope you never have to deal with an aggressive employee again, but if you do, you’ve gained some valuable experience and feedback to be able to deal with them!

            2. Observer*

              I’m glad to hear that!

              I guess you can use your former manager as a model of what NOT to do.

      2. Observer*

        But at the same time I’m thrilled that the former manager has moved on as well. They didn’t do anything about reports of a coworker throwing things at other employees?!?!?! Yeah, manager who shouldn’t have been managing right there.

        This, 1,000 x over!

        Former manager was a terrible manager, and that’s the kind version!

      3. HotSauce*

        Unfortunately from my limited experience retail tends to be incredibly dysfunctional. I’m sure there are places that are great, but I never worked at any of them. I once had a manager that would literally slap people in the back of the head like Gibbs on NCIS. Seems funny on a TV show, but pretty horrible IRL.

        1. allathian*

          Yuck, I don’t think it’s funny even on a TV show. The store manager at my first job when I was 17 could be a bit… volatile, she was always either in a very good or a very bad mood, so I learned quickly when the most prudent thing was to stay out of her sight as much as possible, but she at least wore her mood very visibly on her face so there was no guesswork involved.

          Granted, I’m not in the US and employee rights are much better where I am. The vast majority of employees are on an employment contract that is binding for both parties, meaning that a new manager can’t change employment conditions on a whim.
          Freelancers/contractors and what we call “light entrepreneurs” also exist, but they’re more common in some fields than others. People who work for companies like Lyft or DoorDash are typically light entrepreneurs.

    2. Aggretsuko*

      AND NOBODY BOTHERED TO FIRE HIM?!?!

      I’m gonna recommend everyone read Maureen Ryan’s “Burn It Down” book anyway, but this totally talks about horrible showrunners/bosses doing literally everything awful and management is always “save the shitty employee!” Literally HE THREW THINGS AND NOBODY CARED. What if he injured Lucy? What if she sued? FFS.

    3. Michelle Smith*

      Or fire him immediately. It’s shocking to hear stories about workplace violence that just doesn’t get appropriately addressed. And yes, throwing things is violent and is wholly unacceptable unless you’re like, working as a baseball pitcher or something.

    4. Contrast*

      I am moderately curious as to whether the former manager knew about the violence. Sometimes people don’t volunteer this information, for various reasons:tThey might not realize it’s something people can be disciplined for, or they might be intimidated and afraid of retaliation.

  2. Alex Rider*

    Your employee had things thrown at them and your old SM didn’t do anything. How awful for Lucy. I’m glad Dwight moved on to something else.

    1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      I think it’s telling that OP writes that manager retired because labor cuts required her to “be” at the store more, not “work” at the store more.
      Manager did less than nothing, actively allowing in a thug going rogue.

      2. Richard Hershberger*

        The OP wrote that the manager had to “be more hands on in the store’s day to day”. I take this to mean that she had to spend her time restocking shelves rather than managing. This is a common technique in corporate retail. The manager is exempt, responsible for getting the work done, and prohibited from giving the hourly employees enough hours to do the work. The logical conclusion is that if those shelves need to be restocked, the manager is the one doing it.

        1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

          That is a more clear picture. I was absolutely thinking “hands on” managing, not laboring.

        3. goddessoftransitory*

          Yeah, that can be code for “we can’t/won’t hire more employees (or can’t keep them around) so the management team has to start doing the fun stuff like stocking and cashiering.”

  3. Allornone*

    Bye, Felicia (Dwight)!

    Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out. Or do. Whatever.

    1. Antilles*

      Seriously. Given that he copied your higher-ups, I think you’d have been fully justified (and probably a good CYA move) to reply-all stating that you’d discussed this last month and “asking for clarification” on what he was confused about.

    2. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      Im so angry about that.
      I’m going through this with an in-law right now.
      First off, there are lawyers involved, so we are at that point.
      Lawyer: Hey Tom,I-L said he didn’t know x.
      me: He did. here’s his text asking about it.
      Repeat.
      Even to Lawyer about conversations the two of them had!
      How are these people everywhere?

      1. marvin*

        I had a coworker who did this. He would tell clients that I was responsible for things that were 1000% his job and not anywhere remotely near my department and I would just end up looking bad when the clients asked why these things weren’t done.

        He was also supposed to provide me with a tiny amount of information so that I could help him with a task (which shouldn’t really have been my job anyway). I would pester him for weeks for this information and then he would turn around and tell his manager that he had no idea he was meant to provide it.

        If you want to know what he was actually doing all day, I think it was mostly bragging to execs about the interns’ accomplishments that he took credit for.

  5. Richard Hershberger*

    “corporate made us cut hours for everyone across the board and we lost a lot of good people who needed to move on to jobs that could give them more hours.”

    This is modern American chain retail in a nutshell. I commented on the original post that I had worked for Walmart. This would have been around 1990. Walmart’s secret sauce in its earlier growth phase had been the early adoption of computerized inventory management. The increased efficiency let them underprice everyone else, while fully staffing the stores. By 1990 everyone else (by which I mean Target) had caught up on the tech side, so Walmart transitioned to keeping costs down through a combination of squeezing its suppliers and cutting down on store staff. (It was never clear to me if home office staff was similarly reduced.)

    The predictable result was that Walmart became a less pleasant place either to work or to shop. This is, however, the kneejerk response in corporate retail. Note that hours are cut across the board, rather than (for example) reducing staff by attrition if possible or layoff if necessary. This is strategic, to be overstaffed with employees who are given few hours. It is thought to increasing scheduling flexibility. But of course it also increases turnover. Losing Dwight was a win, but it could have been Lucy who sought greener pastures.

    1. Contrast*

      I’m amazed that Lucy stayed–she’s being threatened at work, and then her hours were cut. She either really really needed that specific job, or Dwight quit before she had a chance to (or both).

    2. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

      This is strategic, to be overstaffed with employees who are given few hours. It is thought to increasing scheduling flexibility.

      I think the real reason is to avoid providing benefits like subsidizing health insurance. Part time jobs rarely have that expectation the way full time jobs do.

      1. Richard Hershberger*

        These are both true. We could add the fear that a worker simply laid off is more likely to apply for unemployment benefits than a worker whose hours have been reduced.

      2. Kammy6707*

        Agreed – I worked at a Walmart for several years while I was in HS/College. I was a “part-time” employee that was regularly scheduled for 40 hours in the summer while “full-timers” had their hours cut so much that their health insurance was in jeopardy.

      3. in England*

        “Part time” retail contracts just as common in the UK where this isn’t a consideration. I imagine the companies see this as a lovely little bonus to something they wanted to do regardless

        1. allathian*

          Yes, the same thing applies in Finland. I had absolutely no issue with a part-time retail contract when I was a high-school and college student. But now many retail employees are among the working poor because while they could live on their wages if they were working full time, PT work, even if they get a bonus for inconvenient working hours because they work on Sunday or after 6 pm/before 6 am, which is a possibility in stores that are open 24/7, just doesn’t pay well enough to live on in a high-COL area.

    3. Antilles*

      Losing Dwight was a win, but it could have been Lucy who sought greener pastures.
      I’m guessing the main reason it played out like this is because there was a promotion on the table that made Dwight irritated enough to leave when it was clear he didn’t even have a real shot at it.
      If it was just “20% reduction in hours, no other changes”, I suspect it would have gone the exact other way. Dwight would still be around to be a pain in OP’s butt, while the reduction in hours would push Lucy to look for a job with more hours plus no Dwight.

      1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

        I’m also thinking that OP communicated with Lucy (STRONGLY) that she should apply for the promotion, because if everyone else was finding another job, Lucy could have, too.
        It’s not a job hopping sin that they cut hours across the board and the job no longer meets her needs.

  6. Wait but*

    So…. after learning that Dwight was throwing merchandise and physically attacking another employee, he was not fired, just allowed to “move on” in his own time?

    1. Pippa K*

      I’m not even a little bit surprised. I’ve seen more than one case of men behaving similarly badly in academia and allowed simply to decide for themselves when (or if) they’re ready to leave. The people with the power to stop it aren’t the people who are being hurt by it, so their calculation about the best way to deal with it is very different from the people who are the targets of the behaviour.

      1. Angery [sic] Former Academic*

        Depressingly, I’ve observed this in (US) academia too. Including senior faculty knowingly (IMO) breaking the law by hushing up Title IX cases instead of reporting them.

        To anyone with authority over people: if you come to learn of any case where an employee feels unsafe at work, please, please take it seriously. Don’t give in to the temptation to sweep it under the rug or dismiss it as a misunderstanding. You may know the perpetrator as a good person, but if you have authority, they have an incentive to be on their best behavior around you.

      2. Jinni*

        This is the same in BigLaw – which is why that revelation (?!?) last week about partners behaving badly was hardly a shock. There’s a lot of thought that if their compensation is lowered (300K seems to be the idea of poorhouse wages) that they’ll move on. Sometimes that happens. Often it doesn’t.

        1. Wait but*

          If the behaving badly you’re talking about was 10+ years of open racism and sexual harassment by a couple of partners leaving their Big Firm, even that didn’t happen. There was no attempt to push them out or lower their compensation. They left the firm and started a new one.

          1. goddessoftransitory*

            Stealing a lot of clients on the way, so Big Firm retaliated by releasing their email caches.

      1. Juicebox Hero*

        Either he moved on to a position that didn’t require reference checks, or used the retired manager, who never acknowledged his bad behavior at work so why would she start now.

      2. AD*

        I’m actually curious why OP decided to let Dwight interview for the assistant manager position at all — before even thinking about Dwight’s next role (he’s gone, so who cares).

        Unless the timing was different — did OP not know about Dwight’s aggression when she gave him an interview?

        1. BuildMeUp*

          My read was that the OP didn’t find out about the physical aggression until after Dwight left.

          1. AD*

            I got from the letter that OP learned this after they “got back” from the trip they were on when the first letter was posted. Which is at least a couple of months before it sounds like Dwight left?

            It’s not a huge deal but I am curious. It sounds like Dwight leaving worked out well for everyone but doesn’t sound like there was a strong response to his behavior either before OP was in the senior role or afterwards.

            1. Michelle Smith*

              I reread the original post before the update and I think people are forgetting Dwight had a recent medical leave and there was concern that firing him for past behavior that had gone unaddressed by the previous manager would constitute grounds for him to sue. This would be under a theory that his behavior had not been a problem for years and years, but all of a sudden now that he had a medical leave it was being taken seriously. Better for everyone involved that Dwight moved on on his own and is no longer anyone at OP’s company’s problem.

              1. AD*

                I’m not forgetting that! But a recent medical leave would not rule out at all an employee being questioned or even disciplined for aggressively grabbing a coworker’s arm. It sounds like the ball was dropped here by all sorts of people — including HR (if they were even looped in at any point).

                1. AD*

                  And it doesn’t answer my question above — why OP decided to courtesy interview Dwight for the asst. manager role. Luckily it worked out for everyone, but this whole situation sounds like it was passively dealt with by everyone. A learning lesson, I hope.

              2. Observer*

                there was concern that firing him for past behavior that had gone unaddressed by the previous manager would constitute grounds for him to sue

                That doesn’t explain why he was given a chance at the promotion, though.

        2. OP*

          Hi, OP here!

          My whole promotion was a whirlwind, since I needed someone to come into my previous role. I interviewed Lucy and Dwight both as soon as I got back from my vacation, and promoted Lucy that week. Then I talked with Lucy about everything and found out about the throwing things after this.

          Hours being cut, Dwight actually had about two shifts under my management. I found out about the violence and he quit soon after; payroll cuts were really that severe that I believe he worked about 16 hours in one month.

          1. Wait but*

            You have a couple of problems here with your company’s culture and management.

            1) An employee who threatened violence (that’s what the throwing was) and actually assaulted another employee should have been fired as soon as you, the manager, found out about it. Once you were on notice the company was on notice.

            2) The other employees did not report Dwight’s behavior even though it resulted in an injury (that’s workers’ compensation material). This tells you that your employees do not feel safe reporting even clearly intolerable behavior by a co-worker. What else are they not comfortable reporting? Again even if the company doesn’t care about the safety of its employees it should care about bad publicity and having the daylights sued out of it.

            1. Giant Kitty*

              OP stated in the update that the employee DID report the violence to the old manager, who did nothing and also failed to inform OP

          2. goddessoftransitory*

            If the chain you work for is pulling this, you and Lucy should both put your promotions on your resumes and start actively looking–sounds like your upper echleons are nowhere near through shredding your wages and ability to hire.

      4. Dawn*

        Bold of you to assume that most retail jobs check references for front-line positions.

        There’s a reason Dwight has remained in a bottom-rung retail job for years on end, and he likely went and found another one.

    3. CommanderBanana*

      I had a director who would throw things at people and slam doors in their faces. He actually slammed a door in my coworker’s face and caught her hand in the door and injured her.

      It took years after this for the board to finally oust him and the alcoholic executive director. Like literally years.

    4. Mattieflap*

      This was my immediate reaction. She took over, found out the problem employee was violent, and instead of firing him immediately she just… waited him out?

      Frankly, no one here is managing anything well.

      1. Lenora Rose*

        OP’s updates in the comments give a clearer timeline picture and the time between her finding out about the violence and Dwight moving on on his own was actually rather short.

  7. BellyButton*

    LW is so lucky that Lucy wasn’t the one who quit before Dwight. I really hate when a bad employee drives the good employees away and management refuses to acknowledge or address it.

    1. Aggretsuko*

      Bad employees have much more value than good ones somehow, and I can’t figure out why. I guess the good/bullied employee is The Problem and if you just get rid of her, everything’s fine! (No, it’s not, the bully finds someone else.)

    2. Blarg*

      Right? I’m currently looking to leave my job partially because of toxic behavior by a couple employees — that isn’t even towards me. I just know about it and am pissed that we won’t do anything about it. I’m baffled that a couple of the targets are still here (one just left), and want to encourage them to get out. It doesn’t have to be this way!

      1. Aggretsuko*

        One of my online friends has an office where one guy has been reported by pretty much everyone and now an exodus of employees is going on. Will they do anything about him? They’ll coach him! Because he’s more important to keep!

    2. MrsThePlague*

      From my reading of it, it sounds like OP didn’t find out about Dwight’s behaviour until after he’d left.

    3. Juicebox Hero*

      OP didn’t have authority to do anything about Dwight until they were made store manager, a month before Dwight left.

      I doubt that Lucy would have stuck around if Dwight had been allowed to keep acting like an aggressive jackass after OP took over.

      1. AD*

        No, that timing doesn’t work. OP was already in the manager role and actually interviewed Dwight for the assistant position (I’m guessing it was a courtesy interview as clearly she had no plan to consider him).

        I’m glad for everyone’s sake that Dwight is gone but I’m curious if he hadn’t left on his own steam if/what disciplinary action(s) OP might have taken.

      2. SarahKay*

        Well, that’s a whole month in which OP didn’t fire Dwight for his behaviour.
        I mean, I’m glad he’s gone, but I think OP could have done more than they actually did once they became the store manager.

        1. Giant Kitty*

          OP says above that Dwight only worked 2 shifts after she became manager, THEN she found out about the violence, but then he quit.

  9. Lissa Evans*

    I guess I just want to say that I’m glad Dwight moved on, but please use this time and space to prepare yourself to deal with problems that come up going forward – please be determined that you will never be the manager that allows things like this to happen, and that you will proactively resolve issues with problem employees or fire them if you need to do that (and someone sure needed to do that with Dwight).

  10. Zarniwoop*

    Did Dwight “move on” within the same organization? If so I hope the information about him throwing things follows him.

  11. Julia*

    Retail jobs can be soul crushing. And retail managers seem to be so poorly trained and pretty much useless. I knew a few decent retail managers (shoutout to Stephen that was the AP manager at a Walmart in Georgia) but many just do not have the skillset, mindset or tools needed to manage. And corporate often never helps. As long as that money is rolling in, they will let stuff go.

    1. Peanut Hamper*

      Seconded. Most of the retail managers I’ve worked with are promoted to that level because they are good at bringing in sales (which is tied to their bonus) and rarely because they have the people skills required to manage.

      They’re still just drones, just fancier drones.

      The few managers I’ve worked with that were really good at their jobs either didn’t last long or didn’t care what the central office said or both.

    2. Quake*

      I don’t know about all retail places but when I was in WalMart they literally didn’t train anybody. You were immediately thrown to the wolves and had to figure everything out yourself. It was brutal. Management had just as much turnover as regular staff so I doubt there was any kind of management training or support either.

  12. Observer*

    OP, did you interview Dwight before or after you talked to Lucy? Because if it’s after you found out about his behavior, your management is a problem too.

    As others noted, this guy should actually have been fired for his behavior. The idea that he could even get an interview for a promotion is really beyond the pale.

    This would be true even if this really were just “bordering” on physical aggression. But, this wasn’t that. The second he actually managed to hurt a coworker, he lost any shred of plausible deniability.

    It’s clear to me that you want to do the right thing by your employees. But part of the is recognizing bad behavior for what it is, and then following up on it. I get that retail is a fairly dysfunctional field, and that it’s hard to get and keep staff. But stuff like this only makes things harder.

    1. Observer*

      Having seen your other responses, I see that you’re doing pretty well.

      I do want to reiterate that what you described goes well beyond “verging”. (Which makes your former manager even worse!)

      Also, as someone else mentioned, you don’t always need other witnesses to bad behavior. Given the pattern that *you* were seeing, and also the fact that he was a problem for more than one employee, that is enough for you to be able to take action.

      Also, think about getting cameras in places not open to the public such as the store-rooms.

  13. Firecat*

    I hope you consider being more active in your managment OP. Your update was very passive and didn’t mention having a discussion with Dwight or actively managing the situation at all. Apart from not posting the schedule it sounds like you did nothing to address Dwights violence and other poor behaviors.

    It’s great you spoke to Lucy and found out she felt unsafe, but unless you left it all out of your update it sounds like there was no follow up to that? You were in the position for at least a month (Dwight emailed HR a month after Lucy had been in the old ASM told). That was plenty of time to start managing Dwight.

    If I were Lucy I wouldn’t trust you to manage these issues and have my back if they were to come up again.

    1. OP*

      I understand where you’re coming from, but the month went like this:

      Week one: Onboard as manager, interview for assistant manager, Dwight has one shift.

      Week two: Hire Lucy, onboard her

      Week three: At some point discuss situation with Lucy; was not a top priority, since at the time I’d no idea violence had taken place and payroll cuts meant I had one additional employee on at a time. Lucy had the lions share of hours; Dwight and all others had two shifts in a month. Talking to Lucy about Dwight was not a priority, everything with him was at least a few months old and there was a lot of training we were focused on.

      Week four: Dwight has one shift, emails HR and over my head to ask about Lucy’s job, quits at the end of the week.

        1. OP*

          Yes, he worked one shift after that, with me as his only coworker. Lucy and Dwight never worked together while I was managing them.

          There are nuances such as: the throwing things incident happened months ago, under another manager, no reports were ever made about it, and I have upper management who has to approve of any disciplinary action.

          I’m willing to protect my employees, that’s my biggest job as a manager.

          1. Teapot Wrangler*

            I would suggest that you write up a note of the whole situation and send it off to your head office with a note saying that now that you have found out about these things, if he ever reapplies you wouldn’t be willing to rehire him. Just to close the loop in case he comes back and expects to walk back into a role!

        2. Loredena*

          To me it sounds like the OP found out about it right before Dwight’s last shift – and may not have been able to fire him or remove him from the schedule that fast, if HR needed to be involved. Which, given the medical leave (yes, I know it should be irrelevant, but that doesn’t mean HR will think so) OP definitely needed to do.

      2. Contrast*

        I get that talking to Lucy was not a priority so that you waited until Week 3 after your promotion. Makes sense, given that you had additional work with onboarding and probably stocking shelves to make up for employee shortages.

        After talking to Lucy, though, your highest priority should have been initiating the process to fire Dwight and removing him from the schedule in case you couldn’t fire him immediately.

        1. OP*

          I don’t disagree, and I did ensure that Lucy and Dwight never worked together. At the time I had been in the role for fifteen business days, and frankly even though I believe Lucy – this is an incident from months ago that was never documented at the time, with no witnesses, that one of the involved employees told me about after I asked her for more details. At the time I thought the best course of action was to keep them separated and weigh my options.

          I think if Lucy had come to me first or been more concerned with the situation, I would have treated it differently but we were both caught up in training and our jobs and getting 7 people’s jobs done with just the two of us.

          1. Lady_Lessa*

            +100 for doing what you could. Especially keeping Dwight and Lucy separated, and by making sure that he couldn’t see her schedule.

          2. The Unspeakable Queen Lisa*

            OP, I think you did alright. I understand why you couldn’t just fire him instantly. I do want to note, though, that “there were no witnesses” is neither true nor necessary. Lucy was a witness to Dwayne’s behavior. Nobody else needs to corroborate her. It’s not a court of law.

          3. Zarniwoop*

            Is Dwight elsewhere within the same company? If so please make sure Lucy’s experience is officially reported to HR.

  14. NonprofitLyfe*

    I’m also set to inherit some bad employees. the current president is elderly so I could take over tomorrow or in five years, no one knows. my future dealing with the “bad” employees is what keeps me up at night.

  15. Just me*

    OP- it sounds to me like you covered as many bases as you could in the time you had. Your priorities were covering the basic needs of each day in addition to making sure problem guy and great new to position person were never on schedule together and getting her trained to what her new duties included. You didn’t have time or bandwidth to chase after old problems! You chose instead to keep new ones from developing. To my mind you made the right choice.

Comments are closed.