I took over a group that had numerous issues. Within a week I find out two guys (one of them told me) were written up for putting bugs in a ladies coffee and tacks on her chair. They thought she was transgender, so the guy telling me actually thought he was just bringing me up to speed and was laughing about it. I told him and his coworker that if the have any other issues with her I will fire them on the spot.
So the other guy turned out to be the main problem. He was an ex Desert Storm 1 Marine, I could manage him, he had an issue with almost everyone else though. I was in Europe and his direct boss called me and said he called her a fucking bitch. So I tell her to go home and work from home until I get back. Contact HR and tell them to set up a meeting for the next Monday morning at 9:00AM and to let the offender know that a written and verbal apology would be a part of his continued employment. (I actually wanted to fire him but HR refused said we didn't have enough written warnings on him, at this point I just knew of one)
So I get into the office early on Monday, one of the coworkers of the offender immediately comes to my office. Good guy, hard worker, ambitious, striving to improve himself. So he comes in and lets me know that he and the other coworker got into a fight shortly before I started. The good guy stepped in when the offending employee had pinned another employees head against the copier. Good guy tackles the Marine, pins him down and tells him he will kick his ass if he ever assaults a coworker again. Poor guy knew about my comment that I would fire the guys for messing with a lady and figures I was going to fire him for the fight. I explained to him that it was almost a year ago, he wasn't getting fired, but did HR know. He told me yup, they interviewed everyone!
So 9:00 AM comes along, I am sitting in a conference room with his direct boss, no HR!, they refuse to show up. Anyway see the guy walking in with a duffle bag. Luckily the room is tiny and he puts the bag on the floor so I have one option, flip the table onto him if he reaches down. Immediately I tell his direct boss to leave, and ask him what is in the bag. Within seconds his wife is running in and grabs him and physically pulls him out. When I quit the company he tells me he did have guns in the bag, but he wasn't going to shoot me.
Anyway, point being HR wasn't going to do jack shit, they ducked the meeting because they were afraid of him. So, get Security before going into your meeting.
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