Don't surround yourself with yourself, move on back to squares

We tried a new guy out at work yesterday and, despite his impressive pedigree, he was a bust. We interviewed Ross last week. He had been running a rental store, much like ours but smaller, and grew dissatisfied with the environment after a few years. It seems the owner of the place didn't supply Ross with any help and hardly ever came in the store himself. So, after seven day shifts and back-breaking work, Ross flew the coop and decided to work for us. He seemed to have a good head on his shoulders: he was going to college, lived with his sick grandmother in order to take care of her, had good manners, etc.

The expectations were high.

We had two large and involved jobs going out yesterday and I only had three guys at my disposal to help me put them together. One of the orders had about fifty items on it, most of which had to be ordered in from somewhere else or needed to be eked out of section of the warehouse I'd never even walked through before. In other words, a scavenger hunt.

Because time was of the essence, we had to be precise in our work while being quick about it. I had Ross by my side the whole time helping me pack stuff and we weren't twenty minutes into it when he started with the complaining. Strange, because I wasn't asking him to do much. Here's an example of what I'm referring to:

"Hey Ross can you tie up the bags we have on those chafing pans?"

"The bags aren't long enough to tie."

"Alright then, you'll have to put new bags on."

"What's the point, man? They're already mostly covered."

"Well, first of all it's about the presentation and more importantly, any item that food will be
served in needs to be secured."

So I left him with the task and went on to one of my own. As I walked away, I heard Ross muttering quite loudly to himself about how "ridiculous this all was" and other choice complaints. I didn't have the time to dress him down so I left him to it, hoping that his behavior wasn't a sign of things to come. It was.

Ross complained about almost everything throughout the rest of the day. He questioned every action I took and repeatedly informed me that Karen and I planned the whole day wrong. Aside from a couple of comments, I held my tongue. He was pissing me off, though, and I looked forward to a time when every second of it wasn't accounted for so I could let this punk have it.

I had Ross deliver one of the orders we put together. As I handed him the paperwork, he exclaimed "You're sending me by myself on this? What the fuck!" Though putting together the order was a complicated affair, delivering it should not have been. Most of the items on it were easy to carry; an eight year old with Lupus would make quick work of it.

"You think this is a two man job?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah, man. What the fuck? (he said that often) Karen better not expect to do this type of shit in the future 'cuz it's not going to happen. Fuck that!"

Well put, young Ross. Well put.

Astounded at what a piece of shit this kid was turning out to be, I sent him out on the road without commenting back. If I had, he probably would have walked out and I needed him to make this delivery.

I talked to Karen on the phone about him after he left. She was as flabbergasted as I was about his behavior. For a guy who supposedly operated a rental store by himself, he should have found what I threw his way to be easy. Instead, he acted like an infant with soiled diapers. We'll probably let him go--Karen seems to want to --but it's too bad, because our hopes were so high with him.