"‘I have no interest"’: Manager's new elderly employee refuses to complete his job duties simply because he doesn't want to do them, upper management fails to re-train or fire him

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Aug 17, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

Managers, believe it or not, are sometimes in the right in certain situations. The manager in this next story, who is trying to train their slacker elderly employee, just needs an employee who will show up and complete their tasks. If they're hired, shouldn't they be getting the job done?

The first question you might be asking is, "Why is an elderly man working?" Well, I can't answer that. All we do know is that the man stopped showing up on the schedule at his last place of employment, which should have been red flag number one according to the manager. The manager who posted the story has no issue with the new employee, named Joe, and simply wants him to listen to the tasks he's given and actually complete them. I think that's a fair want, don't you think?

Even after a month of training, Joe refuses to work the register, stock the shelves, and repeatedly uses his phone during working hours. Now, everyone is left to pick up his slack, and upper management won't step in and help. What would you do if you were the man ager in this situation? Scroll below to read the full story, including Joe's million-dollar reason for not stepping up and being a part of the team.

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  • Cheezburger Image 10541776128
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "‘I have no interest’ - The words of my new co-worker."

    This is written part out of frustration and partly of just being plain annoyed about the situation as a whole.
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  • Within the last month my boss decided to open up hiring for warehouse work and cashiering. There are four positions available and, in short, the interviewing process hasn't gone well.
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  • We require a background check since handling cash is part of the job and most of the applicants have come back with some kind of theft on their record.
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  • The second set of applicants are older men who are either stating outright that they don't want to do cashiering or want to be paid off the books due to collecting dis lity.
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  • In no way do I want that to come off as ageist, although my boss is growing frustrated that this is the level of interest for this job. One applicant, though, was hired. That brings us to our story.
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  • Joe is in his mid-seventies and was hired one month ago. Ironically he used to be a teacher in the high school that I used to go to. I never had him, so it's possible he retired before I graduated.
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  • Before he took this job, he was working in a pet store (Job #1) with his wife where he was stocking shelves and she (still) cashiers. I asked him about his work schedule with Job #1 and he told me that they stopped scheduling him. That struck me as...odd.
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  • In any case, Joe refuses to learn the cash register. As his supervisor, I was tasked to train him, but he refuses. My boss told me that she can't force him, but she doesn't want to make him sour about the job overall. Otherwise, Joe
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  • has been trained with taking inventory, how to stock items, stickering items like bags of potato chips, and the like. It seems like he should know what to do after a month, right? Nope. Instead,
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  • Joe is on his phone with the volume ramped up, taking personal phone calls, and not getting anything done whatsoever. Case in point: I had a customer bring up the most expensive
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  • bottle of soda I had ever seen for $88.99 when it should be $1.99! Then I found the whole case of these sodas on the shelf for $88.99, pulled each one, and fixed the prices.
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  • I have been bringing these things to Joe's attention and saying, "I see that you did it this way, but it's easy to misread something and sticker it for another price." I keep my tone
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  • lighthearted and encourage him to ask me any questions if he is unsure of anything, but the same mistakes keep on happening. I am frustrated, but I am not showing Joe that these avoidable mistakes are really getting on my nerves. It can't be that hard to take instruction, can it?
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  • Last week one of my co-workers complained to me that nothing was stocked in the soda and water aisles. He also told me that he couldn't find Joe when we had a shipment come in, but he did find him parked on top of
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  • some boxes and watching what sounded like a video on his phone. My co-worker said Joe asked what was wrong when the tractor trailer driver told him that the call button was pressed multiple times and he wasn't anywhere to be found.
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  • empty store shelves
    via Wesley Tingey For Unsplash+
  • My boss is aware of all of these instances, even the ones I haven't typed out here, although she is trying to really give Joe the benefit of the doubt. That was, until, the other night during closing. Joe parked himself at a
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  • closed register and started watching videos on his phone. I was double checking a drawer while another co- worker was in the bathroom and I ask Joe if the lights were off in the soda and water aisles. He snapped at me that he was "done everything", but that didn't answer my question.
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  • I checked the cameras in that area and saw that no, the lights in the soda aisle weren't turned off. I mentioned this and say that we could go back together and do a once over. That's when he responded how the title states: "I have no interest."
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  • I felt this blank look settle on my face. and responded that we needed those lights off, but Joe cut me off and repeated the above. He also decided to lay into me and inform me that he "receives a good pension, his wife is a nice lady, and a hard worker." ????
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  • So with that being said, I made a judgment call and dismissed him for the night. Did it go against company policy stating that everyone leaves together? Yes. Was I prepared to deal with any and all fallout? Yes.
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  • I really had to prepare what I was going. to tell my boss the next day. When I called her, at first she was very defensive and asked me "what [I] did to upset Joe", and I just poured it all out. He is NOT doing his job. Period.
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  • He d Is around on his phone and he nearly cost us a canceled order of thousands of dollars of product that we were expecting. That last part seemed to make her pause. My shift
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  • started at 2:00 and she was going in at noon, so she could see for herself what not only myself, but other employees are complaining about. I get a call from her telling me that she was appalled at what she was seeing and now the complaints made sense. My boss did not write me up for dismissing Joe, which I was worried about.
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  • As it stands, Joe is still here. My boss hasn't mentioned what, if any, disciplinary action she took. Joe does. not, however, want to take any instruction from me when it comes to
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  • helping customers or going over shipment arrivals. Myself and my co- workers are resigned to picking up after him, especially since he thinks that if another co-worker shows up for their shift means that he can go home early.
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  • I'm at a loss because I don't want it to come off to my boss like I have it out. for Joe. I already made enough grievances known, but I don't know where to go from here.
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