I kinda need advise for some situation I have at work. I have this guy, I’m his senior/manager for about a year and a half now. Basically from the first moment I got him in my group, I already received some warnings that he might be different than how he acts. But I don’t judge unless I see it with my own eyes.
But he did great, did some courses due to me, was able to pimp his CV, had a lot of freedom etc. Until about 1,5 months ago when I received some complaints about him, and I confronted him about it. It was just a 2 minutes talk, basically asked him please watch your behavior, I’m not choosing any sides, etc. It happens that we work in different places or shifts so I don’t see everyone everyday.
So about a week ago I heard that he started some ‘black list’ about all the seniors/managers, including me. Writing down if someone arrives a minute to late, maybe didn’t follow some protocol or whatever. And obviously I got angry. I asked him to act professional not start a rebellion.
Yesterday finally there was a moment to talk, I got pretty angry during that conversation. Usually I’m chill and easygoing (if I may believe the feedback that I’ve been receiving over the years), but I never got confronted with someone who showed that kind of behavior. And he’s 27 years old ffs.
At a certain moment, he started crying. I wasn’t expecting that. But he confessed that he wrote everything down, so he had something to complain about others if needed in the future. Kind of a toxic state of mind, didn’t show any self reflection. As if I blame my son, and he starts to blame his sister. Now I feel bad that it reached this point, he apologized at least 6 times.
But I got left with this strange feeling. Was I to hard (I didn’t yell or anything, but I got pretty strict and cold)? Or was it the victim role? And what shall I do, ignore it and continue working, or talk about it? Say that I didn’t mean to make him emotional? Or maybe reality slapped in for him.