"They're Useless" — Employee Quits Job After 3 Days With A Mandarin Pun
"No wonder kids born after the year 2000 get called out all the time."
By Wayne Garreth — 14 Sep 2022, 03:07 PM
A post on Facebook went viral after an employer lost her cool and vented her frustrations about an employee who quit on his third day of work
The employer, who simply goes by Victoria, posted her frustrations on a Malaysian-Chinese group called KL娱乐站. Cutting right to the chase, she explained what had been bothering her for awhile.
"This is the attitude of people nowadays. It is no wonder that those born after the year 2000 (though not all) are often called out because of people like this."
In the post, Victoria went on to detail how the worker asked for sick leave seven minutes before he was due to start his shift on the first day of work. Claiming he had a fever, Victoria approved it accordingly and carried on with her day.
On the second day, the employee didn't show up to work once again, and hadn't given Victoria any notice prior to his absence. Saying that he was still feeling unwell, Victoria only received this response from the worker after she sent him their work schedule with the details of his shift.
The text message exchange between Victoria and the undisclosed former worker (including timestamps).
Image via KL娱乐站 (Facebook)However, things soon got worse when on the third day, he sent Victoria a play on words to convey that he would be resigning from the job entirely
In his final message, the worker wrote to Victoria saying, in translation, "It is raining outside and the clothes on the balcony can't dry. The same goes for me, who does not want to work anymore."
When interpreting his sentence, the symbol of '干' in Mandarin, which is meant to communicate the word "dry", can also be used in reference to one working at their job, which were his exact words in quitting thereafter. Ultimately, he used a play on words when communicating his resignation to his boss.
Closing off her post, Victoria stated that she understood how someone can be sick on their first day of work, and despite informing her late, informed her nonetheless. However, if he remained sick on the second day of work, it was his duty to inform her of his absence, which he did not do.
Since being published, the post has sparked a wider conversation on the behaviour of Generation Z when conducting themselves in the workplace environment
Comments varied back and forth, with many siding Victoria, while others also criticised her.
One person opined, "Your working hours begin at 11.30am but you informed of your absence at 11.23am? Doesn't it usually take you one to two hours to get ready before leaving? The way certain people think really has me speechless."
Somewhat piggybacking off this response was another user who cheekily stated, "It turns out that a lot of people who need to be at work at 11.30am start getting ready at 11.23am."
An additional user stated that being sick was an excuse from the outset, to which Victoria stated how she is unsure about it really being an excuse or not.
However, Victoria also received a lot of push back from those who criticised her for not having compassion, that people will not know if they're sick in advance of catching an illness.
Rather brashly, one person commented, "You are hilarious. You wrote this post as a joke, but don't you feel like a fool? You'd prefer if your workers informed you beforehand of being sick? How can they be sure?" while another asked, "Will you know that you'll be sick tomorrow, today? Teach me how you came about this."
While many more similar comments came in relating to the same accusation, Victoria took matters into her own hands and edited her response into the bottom of the caption in her post.
"A lot of people in the comments are asking how one can know they're sick in advance. That's not the point. I didn't ask you to tell me in advance that you're sick. But if the store opens at 11.30am, and you tell me at 11.23am that you're sick and need to take leave, how am I supposed to find your replacement in seven minutes?"
