I’ll preface with a little about my field of work. Without getting specific for personal security, my job is one that requires serious mental fortitude, a very specific personality I’ll break down more momentarily, and a particular attitude about work. The hours are long, never consistent, in mixed environments, and with many different people, and the stakes are often life and death. It’s a small community of a few hundred or less people, and there’s a culture. The culture is that of a work hard-play hard mentality. We go out, get the shit done, come back, and party hard. There’s alcohol, swearing, and shit talk. But it’s all friendly. We all take care of each other, if we go too hard then there’s someone who didn’t ready to pick up the pieces. When we’re at work? We’re locked. In work mode. Get the job done and done well, and we hold each other accountable. All that said, your personality has to align with that to be successful in this career field. On top of that culture is a lot of history and symbolism associated with the job, to include a pair of gold wings you have to earn.
Alright, with that laid out: to job specifics. When you land the job and arrive, you’re designated unqualified, or what we call a "nugget“. As a nugget you’re assigned to a qualified person, who will teach you some things, make you learn the rest through the numerous publications available at most times, and see you through your qualification until you’re ready to take their spot. Per the job, you have 18 months to finish that set of requirements, preferably done in 12 months.
Now on to my nugget, the one I hate. He arrived, 16 months ago, with a bad attitude. He didn’t get anything done for two months, and blamed everyone else. Nothing is ever his fault. He also refused to show up to any work functions (keep in mind, this is not a regular job where home is an easy option). He doesn’t play what you’d call "the game“ at all (sorry I lost too.) in regard to history and how we treat the wings and titles (I.e. touching wings before you’ve earned them = bad luck). He doesn’t follow the script in the least, which is fine to an extent, but only for so long. He’s continued to be behind, by a lot, and ALWAYS finds an excuse. He is incapable of taking accountability. Just recently, we’ve been messing with him a bit, as you do in the culture, and the course of action he thought appropriate was to cry about it to people more senior than I. If it’s actual hazing and I’m in the wrong? Got it, thanks for the accountability. If it’s a few light pranks and shit talk? Speak to me like a man, throw it back at me, or quit being easy ammo. For those of you sensitive to what may seem like bullying, I apologize, and truly wish I could implant the idea of the culture in your mind. On the surface it seems worse than it is. Anyway, another example: we were hosting a function to blow off some steam from a busy move and heavy couple of work weeks. I told him he has to show face, get outside, see people, he arrives, immediately complains about their being alcohol, says "it made him light headed“ (he didn’t even touch a drink btw) and within a minute of arriving he turned around and walked home angrily. He does all of this on top of being a shitty person in general, not helping out the team, not respecting positional authority (mine especially) and constantly complaining and grumbling. All of this, all of it, on top of him refusing to try anything. And by that I mean trying to think. I’ll be trying to help him move forward with qualifying, ask a question, and it’s an immediate "I don’t know“ with a bad attitude. When, in fact, he either knows the answer, or how to get. He‘ll just refuse to critically think, when I know he knows how. He‘ll refuse to get the tools he needs to find an answer unless he’s told to. He also has a weird diet and probably hates your favorite food. All this except the food thing makes my life WAY harder, as I’m responsible for him. And I think that’s probably the crux of the issue.
Anyway, thank you for reading, those of you that are here. I apologize as this may be full of typos and disjointed beyond belief. But alas, I had to tell someone, and by golly Reddit it was you. Thanks again!