Why my lockdown co-worker didn’t cut the mustard
Over the last few months, I have been working from home.
Remote working is something I have done occasionally over the last few years, so it wasn’t overly difficult to adapt. We, fortunately, had a spare room capable of taking a small folding table and a couple of garden chairs. Job done. My partner Lindsey and I have been working here for the last 5 months now without issues.
Having to work from a kitchen or bedroom is tough, so we were very happy we had a dedicated space.
Not long into lockdown, we ended up with a new recruit. I was sceptical at first, but we knew we had to try and welcome them in (although our office was already at max capacity).
At first, things went quite well. They were very laid back. We don’t operate on strict shift patterns, so the fact they sometimes rocked up at random times to start work didn't really matter.
The lack of space is something we worked around. Our co-worker took up their fair share of this limited resource, but they were always finding the little nooks and crannies we weren’t interested in working from.
It was a few weeks in the big issues started.
Noise. We usually have a lot of meetings throughout our day, and our co-worker did not respect this. As we were in and out of calls, they would be making as much noise as they wanted, even though we repeatedly asked them to shush it up.
Smell. This is an incredibly awkward thing to try and bring up. No one wants to be told they smell, but on more than one occasion things got so stinky in our office we had to bring it up with them. Have they cleaned their teeth? When was the last time they washed their hair? Basic hygiene was something they were missing.
Lunch also became awkward, as our co-worker regularly tried to help themselves to what we were eating.
Discipline is obviously required when working remotely. Our new worker had barely any. Distracted easily, snoozing on the job. All red flags.
I eventually had to make the call. There was no reprise. You go to the toilet, they followed, pop outside to get some air, they’d be right next to you. Go make a cup of tea, again, right by your side.
Following 4 weeks of this, we sat them down for the chat.
“It’s not you, it’s us”, “You don’t quite fit the company profile” etc. It was rough, but they understood.
We do occasionally see them still, but things have been much better since we got our office back.
I do miss them, but I think our next recruit needs to be 2 legged rather than 4 legged.
PS: they’re a free agent now.
