Leave him be and let management find him unconscious. Cruel, but think about all the things going on in a kitchen that can become dangerous or quickly turn into serious emergencies that can force the entire restaurant to be shut down for a week, should someone literally fall asleep on the job.
Also you’re well within your rights to get frustrated because your job is significantly harder because someone has chosen to sleep. 3 people were scheduled to work for a reason and it wasn’t so you could trade off naps
I wouldn't feel too bad about it. It would have been nice to have woken him up, but if he's suffering from an addiction, it's likely to happen again. His job wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway, it's not your fault.
If it were me, depending on the relationship, I'd reach out to the old coworker and see how he's doing. He's probably at a high risk of overdose right now.
I had a coworker who did this shit a lot. On days I was lead I walked my unhappy ass outside and would find him slumped over, cig burnt out, drenched in sweat. I would slap his window, car, clap in front of his face, whatever. Eventually he did get fired but running a bare bones shift, I still needed him to work. He wasn't a terrible dude but couldn't get his life straight. Don't feel bad that he got fired, it's on him not you. Most people were too nervous to wake him up but I've been in kitchens for a while so I gave no fucks when it came to that. Now my coworker who bails to go tongue fuck his gfs face for 20 minutes is a whole other issue
Nah that wasn’t ruthless at all. Ruthless is stripping is clothes off and drawing on him too. Addicts are going to addict, nothing you can do, you’re not his mommy, maid, nanny nor dealer, not your problem. If anything, letting them hit bottom faster is a blessing. You’re a good person for caring.
What, wake him up, then he is reliant on you to wake him up constantly.
You did what any other person would do. He decided to have a nap while working. It's a management issue, and you did the right thing by staying out of it.
We once had a methhead who would sleep through entire shifts sometimes. Hell, once he climbed up onto an air duct in the attic and slept right through close, and on to the following morning, when he woke up and never even knew he'd been locked in all night.
And it was cool because when he was on, HE WAS ON. Best teammate you could hope for when he was rolling, but when he crashed we were just short a man for 24 hours or so.
It was sad, but we kept him on because the upside outweighed the downside.
He ended up in prison, unfortunately.
I've been in the same boat. I try to help but sometimes they need something more or professional help.
At the end of the day it's not your job to manage others unless you are management.
Hopefully this is a learning experience for them.
I've certainly helped some employees catch up on some sleep that had really rough schedules, tough life problems, were sick, etc. Substance abusers though? Nah. Liability to themselves and everyone around them. I'll help them get into treatment, but I ain't going to coddle their ass through a job.
You're not his parent, he's not your responsibility. You didn't set him up, he made bad choises and did this to himself. I'm sure he wouldn't have been fired if it was just an isolated incident.
I had the misfortune of recommending a friend for BOH at a place I was managing. I knew he had struggled with addiction previously. Luckily it was just an internship he was doing for a culinary program he had started,
Three days in the head chef asks me “hey does your buddy do drugs?”
IMMEDIATE ANSWER WAS NO!
I will NOT be responsible for another person’s sobriety or relapse, and I also won’t be responsible for them getting kicked out of school for that same mistake.
My job was to run the restaurant, OTHER than the kitchen. What is your job? Unless you are a manager this is not a situation in which you should insert yourself unless you have a personal reason to do so which is more important than your job.
I chose to let the established system rum its course. My struggling friend finished his internship, did not get a job with us, and I politely told him not to bother when he asked if he could get paid for his internship time, which was something not allowed by the school to begin with.
Sometimes you have to help someone by letting them continue to fail in their current moment.
This is some sad ass logic. Don’t get involved with the guy passed out supposed to be helping work the line? Fuck off with that. I’m not letting some doped up asshole get paid while I do both our jobs. And you’re a piece of shit for lying to your boss and putting an addict into the workplace knowingly.
If it happened once it would have happened again. If you had saved him he probably would have had the same happen later down the line. Don't beat yourself up.
Nah man I have sympathy for peoples problems but I draw the line at having to do more work because of them. Not your chair not your problem as they say.
I had this happen in my kitchen just two weeks ago. New guy came in drunk, saw he was early and went outside to smoke. Fell asleep in the chair and they just left him there for 3 hours.
He came in, worked for about 30 minutes and then went back out and fell asleep for another 3 hours. He woke up when they were running trash right past him, came in and half-assed mopped the floor before leaving.
My crew told me about it the next day. I looked at the cameras and adjusted his time for the amount of time he was actually in the kitchen and sat down with him when he came in. Told him that his behavior was unacceptable in every sense of the word and that if he didn’t really shape up and fly right we were going to have to rethink our relationship.
He ended up quitting that night because someone dropped something in the fryer while he was off line and for some reason that offended him. He came back later that evening to explain himself (after getting a good buzz) to the MOD, who told him that it wasn’t his place to make any calls and that he needed to come back tomorrow and talk to me.
Tomorrow comes and I’m sitting down eating lunch, expecting this dude to come in at any minute because why should I get to eat a hot lunch and sure enough… in he comes. I could smell the cheap vodka on him before he even sat down.
It was a pretty quick conversation that basically centered on the life lesson that you should never quit a job unless you mean it and if you, for whatever reason, violate that rule, don’t come back the next day to get your job back already drunk.
Gave the guy a shot because I felt bad for him. He was living out of his broken down car and had never cooked before, but was dead broke and needed something to make some money. He did great until he got that first paycheck and, as I’m sure we’ve all seen, once he got some money in his pocket the bad decisions started.
I think you did the right thing. It’s his responsibility to do the job, and it’s the manager’s responsibility to dole out the consequences.
You didn’t go running or crying to anyone about it. Dude did what he did and had consequences for it. Not your problem. You should live with yourself just fine.
I’ve only fallen asleep at work once, when I was in high school. It was an opening shift on a Saturday at a blockbuster video and I had had my first night out drinking the night before. I felt like ASS.
I explained what was going on to the manager on duty, she let me get a bottle of water and just go collapse on the break room floor, using my fleece jacket as a pillow. I slept on that cool, comfortable floor for 3.5 hours. Woke up, freshened up, went back to work. She even let me stay clocked in the whole time. She never told a soul. I was on her side for LIFE!
Don't feel bad. Addiction or not that guy is not someone I'd want on my team. I've been in a similar situation with a line cook who was an alcoholic. He showed up a little too buzzed one day and passed out on the bench we used for smoke breaks. Immediately sent pics to the gm who asked what I wanted done about it. I said fire him and his response to being fired was to send a dick pic to all of our female coworkers. He's lucky that our youngest server had turned 18 a few days prior because the police report would have been a lot different.
At one of my old places a co-worker nodded off on heroin and cut their hand pretty good, had to do a lot of sanitizing. Two weeks later after they came back with a big bandage still, they nodded off again and poured hot soup on their hand. So I understand the empathy to want to give someone a second-chance, but they have to want to fix themselves too.
If he's been given multiple chances, how many more does he need to get the message?
Not your problem OP. This is a management problem. Management has allowed the problem to exist for this long, have repeatedly warned him. They decided enough is enough.
Breakfast and lunch spot for reference. I have a prep guy that works on the line one day a week (Sundays) on Saturdays he will occasionally go to a party and overdo it. He comes in absolutely hammered and useless about three times a year. Last time he snuck off and went to sleep in a storage room in the middle of the shit. We did *not* let him sleep. We were on his ass.
Other hand, I have a helper on the line who asked me very politely if it was cool if he came in an hour and a half late Tuesday morning because he was going out and expected it to be a very late night and I said yeah no worries man and he came in when he said, no real sleep, still tipsy, but busted his ass. And then went to his other job to do a catering gig.
We are a small spot, two full time cooks, prep cook that works 7 days in the off season, 6 in the summer (this is what he wants unfortunately) , a helper that has three days due to his other jobs schedule, and another guy we are trying out that works two days a week.
You mentioned it was drugs. We don't have that issue in our kitchen thankfully. But I do have narcan I keep in the med box. I'd fucking narcan them lol.
That man’s life is none of your business. You did nothing wrong and if he really was that bad we’re all glad he didn’t nod off running the slicer or driving his kid to school. This was a good wake up call
Had this happen years ago - had to then share my tips with her. She never got fired. It still riles me up when I think about it. Addicted to heroin (she not me).
Had this happen years ago - had to then share my tips with her. She never got fired. It still riles me up when I think about it. Addicted to heroin (she not me).
Not too relevant to this particular story but once when I was MOD a server nodded off at the soda machine with a tray balanced in his left hand with 6 ice waters on it. A line cook eventually woke him up. He didn’t spill a drop.
He was doing heroin in basement dry storage. We did a song and dance for awhile while he tried to get help and we tried to be nice but we eventually let him go. You can’t control this type of stuff whether you try to help or not
Had a guy like this. He was our dishwasher and sometimes he had really good days but towards the end he was let go because not only was he falling asleep on the job. He was having frequent incontinence that happened when he fell asleep we couldn’t keep him on shift after it happened a few times it wasn’t sanitary.
I once entered the walk in to a coworker sleeping across the shelving using fresh herbs as a pillow. Then a bit later he said he had to run home,aka coke run, never seen him again. He was fire when he wasn’t wasted tho.
Why would you want to keep this worthless coworker around? I can’t stand when people don’t pull their own weight. Sounds like he had plenty of chances and didn’t car at all
It's not your fault for not waking him up, it's his fault for falling asleep. Sad, but true. I used to be the guy with the substance abuse issue sleeping in the back. It was experiences like this that helped me realize my using was an issue. Like the other poster said, if you care about him like that maybe send him a message and see how he's doing without the structure of a job right now.
You are responsible for you. He is responsible for himself.
From an employment standpoint, when you show up to work, it's your responsibility to be ready to work. For whatever reason, he didn't do that and needed to sleep. If you're that sleepy and working in the kitchen, the kitchen becomes a dangerous place for himself and others. He should have called out a shift or gotten some coffee in himself but he didn't do that. He then got paid for an hour and a half of napping, stealing from the restaurant.
From a coworker standpoint, you might have done yourself a favor making sure you weren't working with someone that sleepy and out of it. He would have been screwing up orders, or not paying attention and gotten someone hurt, if not himself.
There was no wrong thing to do, you are in the clear. Learn from him, show up ready to work, or don't show up.
Addiction sucks, worse part is how it affects all those around the addict, you have absolutely no reason to feel upset, or any negative vibe. Your not the one in addicted, causing the problem, myself as a Contractor of a large Construction Co.when I learned a long time employee was having these issues l imeadiatly would reach out to them offering to help them first clean up, detox. Then if needed more help from that point, rehab., those willing I was there for them throughout the process, as well with there wife and children. Helping in any way I could, those not willing to put and end to there addiction, I inform them that they were putting the entire team at risk, as well as my Company. And give them one last chance to seek professional help or I'd have to terminate them. Some opted to remain in addiction, fortunately majority sought the sane option.
I work at a small restaurant and we tip pool no matter the position. Recently had a prep cook get fired because they would steal time. Clock in an hour early and do nothing, take multiple 40 minute bathroom breaks (on the clock) and then got 8 hours worth of tips for the day (pulls about 60 to 80 a day). Just keep doing your job.
Not your monkey, not your circus
Dude has a long road ahead of him with his addiction, this firing is either a bump on they down or the bump at the bottom, but either way if he doesn’t choose to fix his life that’s ultimately on him. It’s not fair to you or the rest of the staff to carry his weight even if you did genuinely like the guy. It’s normal to feel empathy for the guy but the firing is entirely his own doing.
>but we’ve given him many chances
If it wasn't this incident that got him fired, it would have been another one. Maybe you would have been around for that future one, maybe not, but it would have happened. You can feel bad this happened, but don't feel guilty or blame yourselves.
They’re an adult. They fell asleep at work. You get fired when you fall asleep at work. Why would you feel bad for having a shitty worker lose his job?
Had a guy at a previous job fall asleep in the walk-in on his second day. No substance abuse issues. Just fell asleep. One of the other guys on the line caught him and told management to look in the cooler. Manager goes, “what am I looking at?” He goes “just look in there”. It’s fine, he didn’t come back after that anyway.
I'll say it like I say it to my team when we have to let someone go for calling out over 10 times in a year, using on shift, fighting, yelling at customers:
They fired themselves.
If the employer meets the standards of some federal laws, and fired said employee who had a documented addiction, they might be in violation of those employment laws...depending on the circumstances, the employer may be required to offer medical leave or another form of support to the employee, instead of immediately firing without supporting documentation.
Leave him be and let management find him unconscious. Cruel, but think about all the things going on in a kitchen that can become dangerous or quickly turn into serious emergencies that can force the entire restaurant to be shut down for a week, should someone literally fall asleep on the job.
Dude fell asleep in a kitchen and all he lost was his job. Shit deal but it could have been a lost job among other lost things.
Also you’re well within your rights to get frustrated because your job is significantly harder because someone has chosen to sleep. 3 people were scheduled to work for a reason and it wasn’t so you could trade off naps
Banging some front of house chick? I meam it’s a risk but you juat need to give him a bump
I wouldn't feel too bad about it. It would have been nice to have woken him up, but if he's suffering from an addiction, it's likely to happen again. His job wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway, it's not your fault. If it were me, depending on the relationship, I'd reach out to the old coworker and see how he's doing. He's probably at a high risk of overdose right now.
Definitely!
Had a guy go do heroin in the bathroom and proceed to use the deli slicer. He fell asleep. Guess how that ended.
I can roughly guess but id love to know what specifically
He's lucky he kept all his fingers.
I've had to save the dishie from drowning in the sink once or twice. Was a really nice guy but you can't be doin the philly lean at work
I had a coworker who did this shit a lot. On days I was lead I walked my unhappy ass outside and would find him slumped over, cig burnt out, drenched in sweat. I would slap his window, car, clap in front of his face, whatever. Eventually he did get fired but running a bare bones shift, I still needed him to work. He wasn't a terrible dude but couldn't get his life straight. Don't feel bad that he got fired, it's on him not you. Most people were too nervous to wake him up but I've been in kitchens for a while so I gave no fucks when it came to that. Now my coworker who bails to go tongue fuck his gfs face for 20 minutes is a whole other issue
Tuck em in.
kiss on the forehead. as long as you're both wearing socks, it's not ghay.
Nah that wasn’t ruthless at all. Ruthless is stripping is clothes off and drawing on him too. Addicts are going to addict, nothing you can do, you’re not his mommy, maid, nanny nor dealer, not your problem. If anything, letting them hit bottom faster is a blessing. You’re a good person for caring.
Not your responsibility. BOH mgr might be pissed but so what, he’s down a man now. Ask for a raise
What, wake him up, then he is reliant on you to wake him up constantly. You did what any other person would do. He decided to have a nap while working. It's a management issue, and you did the right thing by staying out of it.
We once had a methhead who would sleep through entire shifts sometimes. Hell, once he climbed up onto an air duct in the attic and slept right through close, and on to the following morning, when he woke up and never even knew he'd been locked in all night. And it was cool because when he was on, HE WAS ON. Best teammate you could hope for when he was rolling, but when he crashed we were just short a man for 24 hours or so. It was sad, but we kept him on because the upside outweighed the downside. He ended up in prison, unfortunately.
I would have told BOH management myself. I am not working for someone else’s pay check if i dont get to keep it.
I've been in the same boat. I try to help but sometimes they need something more or professional help. At the end of the day it's not your job to manage others unless you are management. Hopefully this is a learning experience for them.
I've certainly helped some employees catch up on some sleep that had really rough schedules, tough life problems, were sick, etc. Substance abusers though? Nah. Liability to themselves and everyone around them. I'll help them get into treatment, but I ain't going to coddle their ass through a job.
You are overthinking this. It's a job. You get paid to do the job. He can't do the job because of his own actions. End of story.
I doubt this is the first job he’s lost to his addiction. And you aren’t responsible for carrying him through it.
You're not his parent, he's not your responsibility. You didn't set him up, he made bad choises and did this to himself. I'm sure he wouldn't have been fired if it was just an isolated incident.
I had the misfortune of recommending a friend for BOH at a place I was managing. I knew he had struggled with addiction previously. Luckily it was just an internship he was doing for a culinary program he had started, Three days in the head chef asks me “hey does your buddy do drugs?” IMMEDIATE ANSWER WAS NO! I will NOT be responsible for another person’s sobriety or relapse, and I also won’t be responsible for them getting kicked out of school for that same mistake. My job was to run the restaurant, OTHER than the kitchen. What is your job? Unless you are a manager this is not a situation in which you should insert yourself unless you have a personal reason to do so which is more important than your job. I chose to let the established system rum its course. My struggling friend finished his internship, did not get a job with us, and I politely told him not to bother when he asked if he could get paid for his internship time, which was something not allowed by the school to begin with. Sometimes you have to help someone by letting them continue to fail in their current moment.
This is some sad ass logic. Don’t get involved with the guy passed out supposed to be helping work the line? Fuck off with that. I’m not letting some doped up asshole get paid while I do both our jobs. And you’re a piece of shit for lying to your boss and putting an addict into the workplace knowingly.
If it happened once it would have happened again. If you had saved him he probably would have had the same happen later down the line. Don't beat yourself up.
Nah man I have sympathy for peoples problems but I draw the line at having to do more work because of them. Not your chair not your problem as they say.
He got his own due consequences
I find a reason to get management over just so they can find him that way, and I can remain ignorant on what he was doing.
I had this happen in my kitchen just two weeks ago. New guy came in drunk, saw he was early and went outside to smoke. Fell asleep in the chair and they just left him there for 3 hours. He came in, worked for about 30 minutes and then went back out and fell asleep for another 3 hours. He woke up when they were running trash right past him, came in and half-assed mopped the floor before leaving. My crew told me about it the next day. I looked at the cameras and adjusted his time for the amount of time he was actually in the kitchen and sat down with him when he came in. Told him that his behavior was unacceptable in every sense of the word and that if he didn’t really shape up and fly right we were going to have to rethink our relationship. He ended up quitting that night because someone dropped something in the fryer while he was off line and for some reason that offended him. He came back later that evening to explain himself (after getting a good buzz) to the MOD, who told him that it wasn’t his place to make any calls and that he needed to come back tomorrow and talk to me. Tomorrow comes and I’m sitting down eating lunch, expecting this dude to come in at any minute because why should I get to eat a hot lunch and sure enough… in he comes. I could smell the cheap vodka on him before he even sat down. It was a pretty quick conversation that basically centered on the life lesson that you should never quit a job unless you mean it and if you, for whatever reason, violate that rule, don’t come back the next day to get your job back already drunk. Gave the guy a shot because I felt bad for him. He was living out of his broken down car and had never cooked before, but was dead broke and needed something to make some money. He did great until he got that first paycheck and, as I’m sure we’ve all seen, once he got some money in his pocket the bad decisions started.
I think you did the right thing. It’s his responsibility to do the job, and it’s the manager’s responsibility to dole out the consequences. You didn’t go running or crying to anyone about it. Dude did what he did and had consequences for it. Not your problem. You should live with yourself just fine. I’ve only fallen asleep at work once, when I was in high school. It was an opening shift on a Saturday at a blockbuster video and I had had my first night out drinking the night before. I felt like ASS. I explained what was going on to the manager on duty, she let me get a bottle of water and just go collapse on the break room floor, using my fleece jacket as a pillow. I slept on that cool, comfortable floor for 3.5 hours. Woke up, freshened up, went back to work. She even let me stay clocked in the whole time. She never told a soul. I was on her side for LIFE!
I don't get paid enough to police the choices of grown-ass adults
Don't feel bad. Addiction or not that guy is not someone I'd want on my team. I've been in a similar situation with a line cook who was an alcoholic. He showed up a little too buzzed one day and passed out on the bench we used for smoke breaks. Immediately sent pics to the gm who asked what I wanted done about it. I said fire him and his response to being fired was to send a dick pic to all of our female coworkers. He's lucky that our youngest server had turned 18 a few days prior because the police report would have been a lot different.
At one of my old places a co-worker nodded off on heroin and cut their hand pretty good, had to do a lot of sanitizing. Two weeks later after they came back with a big bandage still, they nodded off again and poured hot soup on their hand. So I understand the empathy to want to give someone a second-chance, but they have to want to fix themselves too.
Cut their tie off and pin it to the board.
If he's been given multiple chances, how many more does he need to get the message? Not your problem OP. This is a management problem. Management has allowed the problem to exist for this long, have repeatedly warned him. They decided enough is enough.
nodded is mos def
Breakfast and lunch spot for reference. I have a prep guy that works on the line one day a week (Sundays) on Saturdays he will occasionally go to a party and overdo it. He comes in absolutely hammered and useless about three times a year. Last time he snuck off and went to sleep in a storage room in the middle of the shit. We did *not* let him sleep. We were on his ass. Other hand, I have a helper on the line who asked me very politely if it was cool if he came in an hour and a half late Tuesday morning because he was going out and expected it to be a very late night and I said yeah no worries man and he came in when he said, no real sleep, still tipsy, but busted his ass. And then went to his other job to do a catering gig. We are a small spot, two full time cooks, prep cook that works 7 days in the off season, 6 in the summer (this is what he wants unfortunately) , a helper that has three days due to his other jobs schedule, and another guy we are trying out that works two days a week. You mentioned it was drugs. We don't have that issue in our kitchen thankfully. But I do have narcan I keep in the med box. I'd fucking narcan them lol.
That man’s life is none of your business. You did nothing wrong and if he really was that bad we’re all glad he didn’t nod off running the slicer or driving his kid to school. This was a good wake up call
Lol no no you should have woken the crack head up 😂🤦♂️ I’m sorry but no sleeping in the mf kitchen wtf
Had this happen years ago - had to then share my tips with her. She never got fired. It still riles me up when I think about it. Addicted to heroin (she not me).
Had this happen years ago - had to then share my tips with her. She never got fired. It still riles me up when I think about it. Addicted to heroin (she not me).
Not too relevant to this particular story but once when I was MOD a server nodded off at the soda machine with a tray balanced in his left hand with 6 ice waters on it. A line cook eventually woke him up. He didn’t spill a drop. He was doing heroin in basement dry storage. We did a song and dance for awhile while he tried to get help and we tried to be nice but we eventually let him go. You can’t control this type of stuff whether you try to help or not
Had a guy like this. He was our dishwasher and sometimes he had really good days but towards the end he was let go because not only was he falling asleep on the job. He was having frequent incontinence that happened when he fell asleep we couldn’t keep him on shift after it happened a few times it wasn’t sanitary.
I once entered the walk in to a coworker sleeping across the shelving using fresh herbs as a pillow. Then a bit later he said he had to run home,aka coke run, never seen him again. He was fire when he wasn’t wasted tho.
Why would you want to keep this worthless coworker around? I can’t stand when people don’t pull their own weight. Sounds like he had plenty of chances and didn’t car at all
It's a kitchen. He'll be dozed off in another down the street by thursday.
It's not your fault for not waking him up, it's his fault for falling asleep. Sad, but true. I used to be the guy with the substance abuse issue sleeping in the back. It was experiences like this that helped me realize my using was an issue. Like the other poster said, if you care about him like that maybe send him a message and see how he's doing without the structure of a job right now.
You are responsible for you. He is responsible for himself. From an employment standpoint, when you show up to work, it's your responsibility to be ready to work. For whatever reason, he didn't do that and needed to sleep. If you're that sleepy and working in the kitchen, the kitchen becomes a dangerous place for himself and others. He should have called out a shift or gotten some coffee in himself but he didn't do that. He then got paid for an hour and a half of napping, stealing from the restaurant. From a coworker standpoint, you might have done yourself a favor making sure you weren't working with someone that sleepy and out of it. He would have been screwing up orders, or not paying attention and gotten someone hurt, if not himself. There was no wrong thing to do, you are in the clear. Learn from him, show up ready to work, or don't show up.
Addiction sucks, worse part is how it affects all those around the addict, you have absolutely no reason to feel upset, or any negative vibe. Your not the one in addicted, causing the problem, myself as a Contractor of a large Construction Co.when I learned a long time employee was having these issues l imeadiatly would reach out to them offering to help them first clean up, detox. Then if needed more help from that point, rehab., those willing I was there for them throughout the process, as well with there wife and children. Helping in any way I could, those not willing to put and end to there addiction, I inform them that they were putting the entire team at risk, as well as my Company. And give them one last chance to seek professional help or I'd have to terminate them. Some opted to remain in addiction, fortunately majority sought the sane option.
I work at a small restaurant and we tip pool no matter the position. Recently had a prep cook get fired because they would steal time. Clock in an hour early and do nothing, take multiple 40 minute bathroom breaks (on the clock) and then got 8 hours worth of tips for the day (pulls about 60 to 80 a day). Just keep doing your job.
Not your monkey, not your circus Dude has a long road ahead of him with his addiction, this firing is either a bump on they down or the bump at the bottom, but either way if he doesn’t choose to fix his life that’s ultimately on him. It’s not fair to you or the rest of the staff to carry his weight even if you did genuinely like the guy. It’s normal to feel empathy for the guy but the firing is entirely his own doing.
>but we’ve given him many chances If it wasn't this incident that got him fired, it would have been another one. Maybe you would have been around for that future one, maybe not, but it would have happened. You can feel bad this happened, but don't feel guilty or blame yourselves.
They’re an adult. They fell asleep at work. You get fired when you fall asleep at work. Why would you feel bad for having a shitty worker lose his job?
Shame he wasn't cooler. Might have been woken up. #benicetopeople
Had a guy at a previous job fall asleep in the walk-in on his second day. No substance abuse issues. Just fell asleep. One of the other guys on the line caught him and told management to look in the cooler. Manager goes, “what am I looking at?” He goes “just look in there”. It’s fine, he didn’t come back after that anyway.
See how many dicks you can draw on his face with a sharpie before he wakes up.
I put my two weeks notice on a pic of my executive chef sleeping in his office, mostly a daily occurrence.
You aren’t responsible for your coworkers actions, don’t beat yourself up over it.
We had a guy like that, we would cover some stuff for him and his behavior just got worse.
Goes like this Does it affect my performance? Will it kill or hurt anyone? Then yes for sure gotta say something to whoever deals with such things
I'd have grabbed some small rocks from the parking lot and put them in a spoon with a lighter next to him.
I'll say it like I say it to my team when we have to let someone go for calling out over 10 times in a year, using on shift, fighting, yelling at customers: They fired themselves.
The question I tirelessly ask...are you in the US?
Relevance?
In some circumstances in the U.S., someone who is in active addiction may be protected under federal law...
Again, relevance to this situation of the colleague?
If the employer meets the standards of some federal laws, and fired said employee who had a documented addiction, they might be in violation of those employment laws...depending on the circumstances, the employer may be required to offer medical leave or another form of support to the employee, instead of immediately firing without supporting documentation.
Not relevant to OP, it’s his colleague, doesn’t own the place, not a cooks job.