<co-worker>" part. Many years ago at the bindery, I briefly worked with a guy named Larry. As the assistant supervisor of my area, I was technically his boss, though I had no power to fire him or even reprimand him beyond gently correcting any mistakes he made. Fortunately he didn't make many...fortunate because he had a temper. I always suspected he had some untreated mental health issue(s), perhaps bi-polar tendencies because he would blow up at someone in the morning and then literally cry and beg for forgiveness in the afternoon. And then do it all over again the next day. And the next. And the next. One day I was having a brief conversation with another co-worker on the magazine line. We had long conveyer belts and would stack groups of magazines 10 high atop boards and then roll them down the line. "Scary Larry" (as he was nicknamed) was taking the magazines out of the box and putting them on boards to send down the line. Chatty co-worker and I were at the other end of the line doing our jobs...anyways, we were discussing a small local circus that had struck a tent at the nearby high school. Larry got it in his head we were talking about him so he came barreling down to our section of the line, slammed one of the boards HARD between us and told us that if we were going to talk about him, have the decency to do so to his face. He wouldn't believe we weren't talking about him. That day, he didn't get to cry and apologize in the afternoon...six different people went into the office and said they were afraid of Larry. I was one of them. He was gone right after lunch.
Sometimes employers are in a tricky situation. People with mental health issues obviously can't be fired solely for having mental health issues but it can be hard to "prove" the person was NOT fired for their issues (I don't believe this is the case with Bunky's co-worker; you CAN fire someone for not doing their job, and Lazy Girl certainly isn't doing hers). Also, sometimes there's simply nobody applying for the job. In that case, employers might figure having a warm body that does maybe 10% of the work they should is better than having nobody else to do the job, especially if there's legal requirements as to how many employees need to be present for a shift.
Whatever the case, I'm sorry, Bunky. I wish I lived near you so I could take Lazy Girl's place...and then not do the job. I kid, I kid! I would feel far too guilty shirking my responsibilities like that. I hope things improve for you Bunky!
