'Nobody knew who I was': New employee gets ghosted on their first day at work, then receives passive-aggressive message from management

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Oct 29, 2024 2:00 PM EDT

It's always unfortunate when red flags start to pop up after you've taken the job. Here, we have a brand new hire who showed up to his first day at work only to have absolutely nobody there to supervise him. In fact, no one even knew who he was. Eventually, he simply shadowed someone else for the duration of his first shift and went home completely confused as to what to do next. 

Then, a passive-aggressive email from management appeared in his inbox. In the email, management pressured him and other new employees to find time in their own schedules to do their training, completely unpaid, before their next shift. The best part was that this so-called supervisor had the audacity to make it seem like the disorganization and total mismanagement were the fault of the new employees.

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions from folks in the comments section, some of whom suggested that the original poster (OP) may have more power here than he currently realizes. For more stories like this, take a look at this one about an employee who had enough of driving around their coworkers for free.

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10421395712
    via Ahmet Kurt (Unsplash+)

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    Showed up for my first day and nobody knew who I was or why I was there :/
    via sillysully931
  • 03
    Was told in my job offer letter that I'd be given details for my first day/on-boarding process, which I never received. I
    via sillysully931
  • 04
    showed up a bit early to my new manager's office and waited around, nothing. Then a supervisor from another department does a double take: "can I help you?". I explain why I'm here and she looks
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  • 05
    dumbfounded and is desperately working with another person to figure out who I am or why I'm here. She says "yeah, [manager] and [scheduling manager] aren't here today, so...". I
    via sillysully931
  • 06
    explain I'm on the schedule and today is my first day, which she then confirms.
    via sillysully931
  • 07
    By this point I'm already extremely annoyed but being professional and polite, talking humor of the situation. She ends
    via sillysully931
  • 08
    up giving me a uniform and throwing me on somebody in my department to shadow.
    via sillysully931
  • 09
    There's no training, no introductions, I'm just waiting for instructions from people who don't know who I am or really know what tasks to give
    via sillysully931
  • 10
    me. I also found out that there's no end time for our shifts, only start times. "Sometimes you can be here until 3am" | was told later by a supervisor. I do my time that day and go home.
    via sillysully931
  • 11
    Fast forward and there's a message in our department communication platform from the manager with a big list of people,
    via sillysully931
  • 12
    including me, which says "I want all of you on this list to have all of your overdue training completed by your next shift and you'll stop by my office to show it to me. Disappointing list...".
    via sillysully931
  • 13
    Reading that honestly set me off. I'm ped. First off, you give me no instructions and ghost me on my FIRST DAY and I'm
    via sillysully931
  • 14
    thrown to the wolves with no onboarding process whatsoever? Then you expect me and others to do that work training on my own time, unpaid, with a passive aggressive attitude to boot? Not happening.
    via sillysully931
  • 15
    I'm only getting a shift or two a week here anyway (I have another job), but I'm wondering if it's worth bringing up to HR? Idk,
    via sillysully931
  • 16
    that first day was a total red flag for me, totally unacceptable coming from a huge company. I'm
    via sillysully931
  • 17
    just so tired of being taken advantage of for minimum wage pay. I might just hand in my notice -- effective immediately -- and be done with it. Life's too short.
    via sillysully931
  • 18
    TheB... . 20h ago • Take notes regarding any supervisors you spoke with, so that when HR says no one put you in the payroll system you
    via sillysully931
  • 19
    can say "I was there {first day}; I spoke with {supervisor 1} who told me to shadow someone, which I did. Later in the day {supervisor 2} told me to {blank},
    via sillysully931
  • 20
    which I did. I showed up at the time employer designated, and I performed all the tasks supervisors assigned me, so pay me."
    via sillysully931
  • 21
    Adven... 16h ago • Perfect. Show up, clock in, stay out of everyone's way, collect paycheck indefinitely.
    via sillysully931
  • 22
    . Depart... 19h ago • Why resign? This sounds like the kind of place you can get away with doing about anything at.
    via sillysully931
  • 23
    : I once walked into a large national retail chain at 2 AM where a big plume of pot smoke rose above the aisles from an employee! Sounds like the same sort of place.
    via sillysully931
  • 24
    LadyH... . 15h ago. Yeah, I got that at the last hospital I worked in. No one told the unit secretary that they would be training a new hire that day,
    via sillysully931
  • 25
    and when I walked up to the desk to meet her, I was greeted with "Who the are you?" I told her who I was and why I was there,
    via sillysully931
  • 26
    and she said, "Sit down and I'll get to you in a minute."
    via sillysully931
  • 27
    Thankfully I wasn't staying on that floor, but where I moved wasn't any better.
    via sillysully931
  • 28
    The best nights I had were during C D when they shut my unit down and I got to pick where I wanted to work.
    via sillysully931

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