It’s never a good sign when red flags start popping up on your first day of work.

So, what would you do if a former employer rehired you, but forgot to send your contract or even acknowledge that it was your first day back? Would you keep trying to get them on track? Or would you give up and just go home for the day?

In the following story, one man finds himself in his situation and decides to go home. Here’s how it all went down.

First day of work and crickets

I recently went back to work for a company that I had been laid off from due to several budgetary reasons. I was still unemployed when they approached me, and the role would be different and slightly better for my career trajectory, so I accepted.

For the same budgetary reasons, they also let the Head of HR go, so that role was absorbed by another exec known to be an incredibly unlikable human being who is not trained in HR at all.

After accepting the role two weeks before the holidays (with an agreed January start date), I was told by the hiring manager (HM) that this exec would be sending me the contract to sign and that HM was going on vacation from Christmas through the New Year. (Btw, I do not live in the US)

He finally received the paperwork to sign.

I waited and waited, but nothing came. I felt bad bothering the HM, but it was 5 days before my agreed-upon start date, and I still hadn’t received a contract, so I messaged her.

She was surprised and said she’d speak with the exec. It took until the day before my start date to finalize the contract. I told them I was ready to sign, and then there was radio silence.

I figured since I know the company, I’ll go in on my first day and tell them I was still waiting, but that I was starting “working” as agreed. It took until mid-morning before I got an email from the exec with a signable document. No apologies, no acknowledgment of her lateness, nothing.

Bored, he left and went home.

I signed quickly and sat there waiting for someone to help me get situated, logged in, and have my email activated. No one knew I was even coming in that day, let alone that it was my first day.

When I asked about activating my email, I was told the person in charge of that was busy. I said, “Cool, I’m going home,” and left.

I felt incredibly disrespected throughout this whole process, but because it was a company I’ve worked for, I somehow excused the behavior.

For now, I’m going to sit at home and wait for them to take care of things properly, the way they would with a brand-new recruit they hope to make a good first impression on. And I’ll probably keep applying to other jobs.

Yikes! No wonder they were forced to lay people off.

Let’s see what the people voer at Reddit have to say about companies like this.

Excellent advice.

If he can stand it.

Here’s more advice for him.

This may work.

That place sounds like a mess, but hopefully, it gets better for him.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.