A real estate agent has revealed why he fired a former employee after she gave him a wild excuse about why she was late from her lunch break.
Troy Holmes, who is the principal of Holmes Real Estate in Macarthur Square in Sydney’s south-west, took to Tiktok to share his ‘worst employee story’ last Wednesday.
Sir. Holmes said he hired the female employee in 2014 as a personal assistant while he was working as a realtor at another real estate firm.
Troy Holmes (pictured) revealed how he fired a former employee when she claimed her heart stopped while returning to work from her lunch break
Sir. Holmes, a decade-long veteran of the industry, told Daily Mail Australia he was impressed with the woman during her interview and decided to take her on as his employee.
“She had good energy during the interview, she listened really well and her answers were specific to the questions that were asked,” he said.
The personal assistant’s job involved door-to-door knocking to help generate business for the company, dropping letters in mailboxes and telemarketing.
Things started to change after the woman started the job, Mr Holmes said, when he noticed she would disappear for a few hours at a time and fail to give any explanation as to why.
“Her behavior started to become erratic,” he said.
The situation took a turn for the worse during a busy afternoon when several meetings were scheduled.
Sir. Holmes said he wanted the employee to attend the meetings with the agency’s stakeholders to gain more experience so she could learn more about the job.
The employee was given a one-hour lunch break at noon and told to return in time to attend the meetings.
“I told her, just make sure you’re back on time… it was 10 past one and she wasn’t back,” he said.
Sir. Holmes said he became concerned when she hadn’t returned and decided to call her to find out what happened.
‘I called her and she said ‘I’ve fallen over and I can’t get up’.’
Sir. Holmes drove to the scene about a mile from the office and found her lying on the ground with her hands over her forehead.
When she sat down in Mr. Holmes’ car, the agent was shocked by her bizarre explanation.
She told Mr Holmes: ‘I knew I was going to be late and I tried to run and my heart just stopped and I fell over.’
The young personal assistant had impressed Mr Holmes while interviewing for the job (stock image)
Sir. Holmes (pictured) said he found the former employee lying on the ground a mile away from the office, where she claimed she fell while trying to run back to the office
When Mr Holmes and the employee returned to the office, he asked her if she needed medical attention and offered to take her to hospital or see a doctor.
“That’s when her whole demeanor changed and she actually became energized and it was almost like she played it off (like) it never happened,” he said.
Sir. Holmes said that moment was the ‘last straw’ before he decided to fire the young employee.
Dozens of users commented on Mr Holmes’ Tiktok video, agreeing with his decision, while sharing their own experiences with former staff.
“I will support you in your decision to let her go, I would have too,” said one social media user.
“I let a guy go after he needed another day off after his fourth grandma died,” said another.
But some commentators criticized the move, saying staff may have experienced a medical episode.
“See sudden cardiac arrest, it happened to me,” said one user.
“You don’t come off very well here in your video,” wrote another user.
Sir. Holmes hit back at the criticism, saying he always looked after his staff.
He said he has since changed the way he hires staff, using independent interviewers to assess whether a candidate is the right fit for the role.
He described his new hiring process as ‘hire slow, fire fast’.
Sir. Holmes said he has overhauled his hiring process, using independent interviewers to assess whether a candidate is the right fit for the role (stock image)