148
When sending out the invitation to the interview include a sentence like:
Due to limited space in our waiting area, please do not turn up
earlier than 10 minutes before the interview time.
This will also allow you to see if they can follow instructions.
Personally it would not bother me, I would just let them wait in the reception area and conduct the ...
141
The best course of action is to let him stay home at this point. It is no use to expect him to be productive while on a working notice, given that his performance was already lacking. Give him pay in lieu of notice and free up a desk.
121
So you fire someone for not being productive and then expect him to be productive?
Joke's on you.
He was already poorly motivated, now he's even less motivated.
You should have expected this and just put him on inactive status.
116
I agree with Joe Strazzere's comment and I will expand on that.
So any suggestion about an "appropriate" way to deal with that or just let them wait?
Appropriate way is not get annoyed or judge them for coming too early. They might be too excited and want to ensure they do not miss it. They may be hoping to have additional time to discuss or move ...
94
I have some legal training in employee law in Germany (but IANAL and this is not legal advise).
Your guess is probably right. By doing a minimum of work, he is bullet-proofing himself against further actions on your part. The bar for immediate termination is rather high in Germany, and if your company has a Betriebsrat and/or is unionized, even more so. And ...
86
You sacked someone and let them keep access to your network?
If you are lucky, all he's doing is being ineffective. If you're unlucky, he's writing a script that will anonymously execute in a few month's time and delete all your backups.
Never, ever, ever let someone with a cause for grievance against you anywhere near anything important. You lock them out ...
81
This is a choice you have to make for yourself. If the extra money and positive visibility doesn't make it worth it for you, and you aren't willing to sacrifice the time required, then don't volunteer. If the company can't get enough people to staff the on-call roster voluntarily, they will have to figure something else out, like contracting additional staff ...
75
Why not just give him 3 months pay as per contract and tell him to go home.
Problem solved.
And it will help the rest of the team as well.
73
I usually assume somebody would give me a very explicit warning before firing me
They did, but you didn't notice.
I do notice I get told when I do something bad but they're usually not said with urgency or seriousness
When people give you negative feedback, take it seriously. You're easily replaceable at that level. People are not going to waste time ...
72
To be blunt, it sounds like you are not acting like an adult.
I've dealt with people right out of college/university, and as you are finding out, they leave you woefully unprepared for the workplace.
Work is not college, nobody will hold your hand, nobody will warn you, and as you are finding out nobody cares about anything but your performance.
I suspect ...
67
If someone asks me to build an application using these from scratch,
I'm likely to fail...
If they asked you to do that during an interview, yes, you'd fail.
But at work, if they gave you a full week or two to hook up a new application to a database, I'm pretty sure you'd muddle through.
If you don't feel confident about that, maybe you should just prove it ...
66
If they arrived by public transport it is easily possible that they had to come an hour early to make sure to be there in time. If you have an reception just let them wait there and handle it by your receptionist staff.
This results in a simple time: It is appropriate to show up as early as it is required to be there in time for sure. This may be different ...
62
That's quite the history!
job 1 - poor performance, sleepy at the job, didn't always listen. Was fired after 2 weeks
"Sleepy" at the job can have medical causes - and I believe you stated in a comment that you had investigated this with a Doctor at the time. Companies may or may not be understanding on that side of things (you'd hope they would ...
39
2 weeks is a really short time to evaluate general performance. I've gone two weeks in jobs just reading documentation without even getting an assignment yet. There is likely something else going on, like:
A severe personality conflict.
Excessive tardies, absences, breaks.
Severe grooming/presentation issues.
Lacking very basic skills.
I don't know you, ...
35
People often learn in school to arrive early, and it also gives them time to gather their thoughts and concentrate on the impending interview.
The only issue I can think of is if they pester reception during their wait. Otherwise reception should be politely dealing with it the normal way by enquiring what they're there for and advising them where to wait. ...
34
If the on-call work is voluntary and you don't want to do it, don't volunteer. Everybody, including management, seems to agree that you don't have to do it, so there's no problem. You shouldn't be penalized for not volunteering, and it sounds like you won't be. However, the people that do step up might be rewarded; right now, the reward seems to be extra pay,...
29
Realistically, you need to be talking to a professional-- a psychologist/ psychiatrist or a career coach-- not random folks on the internet. Getting fired after a handful of weeks several times is a very strong indication that there is some underlying issue that you're not seeing. If you're not seeing it, you're not telling us about it and we can't help ...
26
"What is the salary for this position?"
"Unfortunately, I need $xx.xx. Thank you for reaching out to me. Keep in mind for future opportunities that match my salary requirements."
20
You are currently in a very weak position: spotty work history, a 6 month unemployment stretch and 40 failed interviews. Your priority at this point should be to strengthen your resume. The best you can do is to take the job and make sure you perform well and keep it steady.
It's ok to do learning on the side (with or without a scholarship) but ONLY if it ...
20
Let me get this straight: you terminated this employee for unsatisfactory performance...
... and now you are expecting him to perform to your satisfaction.
Just... stop and think about that for a moment. In fact, think about it for a good long while. Think hard about it - really exert your brain.
Then, stop wasting everyone's time, and tell the former ...
19
Go get a new job. Interview, get a signed offer, serve notice period, leave, the normal way.
Also work on your own mental issues.
There is nothing else to worry about. You cannot be “held responsible” in any real sense for leaving a job, even if the “company collapses,” and to be honest they can hire another system admin to follow checklists in a very ...
18
There are various things at play here. First, I get the feeling that most of the people who have answered come from a corporate environment where the workplace is an office building with a receptionist and a waiting area. I have personally never worked in such a place, so it isn't what I consider the norm. Instead, my experience is from academic laboratories ...
17
I can see three ways this will pan out:
First - enough people volunteer so that the roster is no longer strained. This won't reflect badly on you since they will have achieved what they set out to do.
Second - no-one (or not enough) volunteers, and the status quo reigns. This won't reflect badly on you directly, they might be annoyed at everyone who didn't ...
16
I think you can just state that you would not switch jobs for less than $X, and then let them decide if that is within their range.
If you speak directly as to what it would take to hire you, I don't think there is anything jerk-like or boastful with such a statement. On the other hand, saying something like "there's just no way you can pay me", ...
14
Your job had to do with SQL etc. so you put that under experiences. It is rare to have a job where you design everything including the integration of all external systems from scratch. As long as you had to deal with a technology, it can go under experience with that technology.
If you group the technology skills by experience level, you can address it there,...
14
The other answers are good, but I want to add some aspects that you might be missing:
Why is there no hard warning?
An employee that expects being fired might start doing harmful behavior (copying sensitive data, introducing malicious software, whatever). 99% of employees will not do it, but the potential harm is so big that many companies may not give hard ...
14
You might motivate this person to do some actual work by giving him a task that can be done in less than a day/week when working at a normal pace. When the task is finished he can go/stay home for the rest of the day/week. Some might say this way of handling it rewards bad behavior. However if you just want him to do some stuff and don't get hanged up about ...
13
This may be a cultural thing. In Germany it would be very bad to be late. So a lot of people are taking all things into account. Like what happens if my car breaks down, there is a terrible traffic jam or the train has a problem?
So people take a train early or start their car trip 30-60 minutes early.
A friend of mine actualy lost his place in college, when ...
13
If we take this at face value, the reason why you get fired is clear: Your performance is significantly lower than what the employer expects. The only real solution here is to improve your performance, or find employers with lesser expectation. I won't go into detail about how to accomplish these things because those would be separate questions (and probably ...
12
Firstly re-check the interview invitation and make sure that you've not mistakenly asked them to arrive an hour before - it's pretty easy to type the wrong number and not spot it.
If they really have arrived an hour early, you can simply ask them to return at the correct time. In businesses where there's a reception area, they can wait there and the person ...
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