Have any of y'all ever been the forgotten employee?

No. But for 9 years I was the "baby" in the office since our agency was under a hiring freeze. I was at the bottom of totem pole in choices about assignments, desk locations, etc. It suuuuuuuuuuuuucked.

Has anyone ever not been?

Maybe I worded this wrong, but the forgotten employee is someone who nobody keeps track. Has the freedom, because nobody is aware of them, to do whatever they want

No, but I have a friend that is/was. He thought he was going to be laid off too, so moved to another state. Didn't get laid off, didn't move back, nobody ever questioned where he was, etc. I think he's still working for that company and it's been almost 8yrs since he moved. They still haven't learned this.

jetch17 said:

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We "fixed the glitch."

chiken said:

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No. But for 9 years I was the "baby" in the office since our agency was under a hiring freeze. I was at the bottom of totem pole in choices about assignments, desk locations, etc. It suuuuuuuuuuuuucked.

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after 2-3 years, it would more likely be performance based...but sure, it was because you were last one hired.

Nope. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about as it pertains to my job.

QBCade said:

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No, but I have a friend that is/was. He thought he was going to be laid off too, so moved to another state. Didn't get laid off, didn't move back, nobody ever questioned where he was, etc. I think he's still working for that company and it's been almost 8yrs since he moved. They still haven't learned this.

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Not all heroes wear capes.

Reminds me of that engineer in the news a few years back. He worked at two engineering firms. Farmed all his work out to engineers in India or South Korea or somewhere for maybe 1/5 of the cost. Pocketed salaries from two companies for awhile until he somehow got busted.

91_Aggie said:

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chiken said:

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No. But for 9 years I was the "baby" in the office since our agency was under a hiring freeze. I was at the bottom of totem pole in choices about assignments, desk locations, etc. It suuuuuuuuuuuuucked.

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after 2-3 years, it would more likely be performance based...but sure, it was because you were last one hired.

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There are a lot of places in government where seniority counts way more than productivity.

BBRex said:

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91_Aggie said:

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chiken said:

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No. But for 9 years I was the "baby" in the office since our agency was under a hiring freeze. I was at the bottom of totem pole in choices about assignments, desk locations, etc. It suuuuuuuuuuuuucked.

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after 2-3 years, it would more likely be performance based...but sure, it was because you were last one hired.

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There are a lot of places in government where seniority counts way more than productivity.

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That's how Biden got the nomination.

maroon barchetta said:

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Reminds me of that engineer in the news a few years back. He worked at two engineering firms. Farmed all his work out to engineers in India or South Korea or somewhere for maybe 1/5 of the cost. Pocketed salaries from two companies for awhile until he somehow got busted.

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Had a thread on B&I board on it. If memory is correct the actual number was 5-7 full time engineering gigs that were farmed to low cost labor.

No idea if he and or how he got busted.

I had a family member who once worked at the HQs of an unnamed federal agency in DC. One of the coworkers was a man who suffered a mental breakdown in the field so they gave him a cubicle and desk. Most days he would come in and stare at the cubicle wall. Some days he would make animal sounds like a dog or cat while staring. I guess keeping him on was cheaper than committing him to a mental institution.
Edit to say that he appeared to have zero job responsibilities other than just showing up.

maroon barchetta said:

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Reminds me of that engineer in the news a few years back. He worked at two engineering firms. Farmed all his work out to engineers in India or South Korea or somewhere for maybe 1/5 of the cost. Pocketed salaries from two companies for awhile until he somehow got busted.

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Had a guy at my workplace who did that. Design engineer sending CATIA models over to India and paying guys to finish them. Never figured out until some of the machine shops were having problems and they started looking closely at the models.

hedge said:

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Have any of y'all ever been the forgotten employee?

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Hi, I'm Bob. I'm guessing you're new here since I don't remember seeing you around.

In oil and gas and during the 2016 downturn, we shut down my product line. Big bosses contact me and say they were letting everyone go but me and to just hang tight and they would tell me my new position etc.. Went about 9 months with no true title and no day to day responsibilities. Every once in awhile I would get a call and do a special project but for the better part of those 9 months I just literally hung out.

One day they called and sent me a new offer letter with new position etc.. Had to get back to normal hours

maroon barchetta said:

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Reminds me of that engineer in the news a few years back. He worked at two engineering firms. Farmed all his work out to engineers in India or South Korea or somewhere for maybe 1/5 of the cost. Pocketed salaries from two companies for awhile until he somehow got busted.

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if its the one im thinking of, he was a computer engineer doing software and he got busted because one of the companies did a security audit due to some suspicious network activity that looked to come from china. the audit found an open vpn connection from china to his workstation that had been going for months and so they dug into his computer and found invoices from the Chinese company for the work.

Sort of, at a previous job. I found a niche that made me look super productive, even though I really didn't do much. No one ever questioned it, because they didn't know any better. I still kick myself for leaving.

My brother's co-worker.

Office with blinds always closed. In at 8. Lunch at 12. Back in at 1. Out at 5.

Every. Day.

His only responsibility was an internal survey he would report on once a year. 3 months of work stretched out to 12 months each year.

No friends at work. Kept to himself. No one ever went in his office but him.

Organizational changes so they said just start looking for a job internally and we'll keep you on.

So basically fooled around for 6 months, my boss would call about once a month just making sure I didn't need any more recommendations / leads.

Got a new internal gig and basically saw no one the entire time I worked there because of COVID. Didn't really care for the job so after about a year I started looking, was awkward turning in resignation letter to someone I had never actually met in person.

For the situations where someone is subbing out their work, with the exception of security issues as mentioned, it's hard to find a REASON it's wrong other than it FEELS wrong.

I mean... that's what the company you work for does, right? They take the fee, slice off profit, then pay you to crunch out assignments on their behalf.

Not exactly, but I was told more than once that even though I out performed everyone else in my position, I couldn't get an award because I'd gotten one in the last two years, and awards had to be "equitable across employee lines".

BlackGoldAg2011 said:

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maroon barchetta said:

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Reminds me of that engineer in the news a few years back. He worked at two engineering firms. Farmed all his work out to engineers in India or South Korea or somewhere for maybe 1/5 of the cost. Pocketed salaries from two companies for awhile until he somehow got busted.

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if its the one im thinking of, he was a computer engineer doing software and he got busted because one of the companies did a security audit due to some suspicious network activity that looked to come from china. the audit found an open vpn connection from china to his workstation that had been going for months and so they dug into his computer and found invoices from the Chinese company for the work.

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Yup.

They were worried about corporate security because China.

Personally, he sounds like a straightshooter with upper.management written all over him.

Someone who knows how to delegate work that well, they should keep him on to make their processes more efficient.

I think they were just upset he spent his days watching cat videos on the internet instead of pr0n.

Congrats on misunderstanding the OP

Exactly. This guy knows how to get work done. As long as he is checking everything and approving it, if he's a PE, it's his stamp on the line. Give him double the projects. He will just farm it out and get more done.

Is there anything in the employee handbook where he worked that said "oh, and you can only work at our company and you cant have any side gigs".

My last job was like that. They treated everyone like garbage. Underemployed with a crappy paycheck for almost 3 years. Currently doing okay, nothing special, but it's not a terrible situation.

UTExan said:

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he appeared to have zero job responsibilities other than just showing up.

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Thats my dream job.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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UTExan said:

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he appeared to have zero job responsibilities other than just showing up.

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Thats my dream job.

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Like Wally from "Dilbert"?

BlackGoldAg2011 said:

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maroon barchetta said:

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Reminds me of that engineer in the news a few years back. He worked at two engineering firms. Farmed all his work out to engineers in India or South Korea or somewhere for maybe 1/5 of the cost. Pocketed salaries from two companies for awhile until he somehow got busted.

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if its the one im thinking of, he was a computer engineer doing software and he got busted because one of the companies did a security audit due to some suspicious network activity that looked to come from china. the audit found an open vpn connection from china to his workstation that had been going for months and so they dug into his computer and found invoices from the Chinese company for the work.

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Know of someone who was really big on outsourcing and thought rules were just things that got in the way. He gave out his login credentials to one of his outsourcing guys to do some work for him because it was easier than just getting them vetted and a restricted vendor account. IT picked up on a bunch of successful logins from India real fast.

Humorous Username said:

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My brother's co-worker.

Office with blinds always closed. In at 8. Lunch at 12. Back in at 1. Out at 5.

Every. Day.

His only responsibility was an internal survey he would report on once a year. 3 months of work stretched out to 12 months each year.

No friends at work. Kept to himself. No one ever went in his office but him.

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Are they hiring?

hedgeposting

Yep. I got Milton-ed at my last job. I helped facilitate the move for our entire team to a different facility that didn't include me. My boss had someone else lay me off. Wouldn't even do it himself.

UTExan said:

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he appeared to have zero job responsibilities other than just showing up.

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Not sure why we had to drag Vince Young into this.