Almost everyone does things that they regret as a child, including things like bullying other kids.

What would you do if you bullied a kid badly while you were young, but now that you are an adult, that person interviewed for a job on your team at work?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, and while he was planning on offering him the job, he actually did extremely poorly in the interview, so he couldn’t subject the rest of his team to working with someone like that.

Personally, I think he did the right thing. He can reach out to him on his own outside of work to apologize (and he should), but hiring someone who is underqualified just because you were mean to them as a kid is the wrong move. Read through the story below and see what you think.

AITA for not hiring the kid I bullied in middle school?

Okay so, I’ll be the first to say, I was an awful kid in middle school. I was mean, cruel, and angry at everyone.

At least he grew up and acknowledged it.

It resulted in me bullying a kid really, really bad. I’d call him names, pull “pranks”, and even embarrassed him in front of the girl he likes.

His mom was on the school board, so it led to a general assembly in which we had a long talk. I can’t say how his mom found out, all I can say is he had written a letter and I think you guess what he planned to do to the school and himself.

A tragedy was narrowly avoided.

After, I felt really sick. I had driven a person to that because of my own stupid problems. I immediately turned myself in, took my suspension, and then laid low for the rest of the year.

We ended up going to separate schools and universities, but ended up working in the same industry, in the same town.

It sounds like he made a great life for himself.

I’ve done well for myself. I have a really good job, and I’ve basically been moved up into a managerial position. Recently, we have a new open position. I found out that the kid I bullied applied to the position.

I’ll admit I was a bit nervous because of our history, but I pushed it aside and knew I needed to make the apology, or move to another department if he was qualified, but unwilling to work with me.

Nobody would hire someone like this.

However, he bombed the interview. He interviewed with a woman on our team I highly respect, and he treated her like garbage.

Then, through some digging (yes, this is code for gossip, the whole industry is filled with it), it became clear that he was just like that. He treated his former coworkers very poorly as well. So, we couldn’t have him here.

You can’t blame a childhood experience for problems for the rest of your life.

We denied going forward with his application. However, I guess he knew it was my team because he reached out over LinkedIn.

I didn’t think it was appropriate, so I ignored his message. This led to him making a tweet on Twitter (we have shared mutuals so I saw the retweets) about how bullies never change.

He can apologize to him on his own time; he should not subject his team to this type of coworker.

It made me feel really bad because I do want to make things right with him, and I’m sure that being bullied really bad didn’t help with his emotional adjustment.

I just don’t want to put my team in a hostile work environment.

AITA?

You should never hire someone whom you know won’t do a good job in their position, and especially not someone who is actively mean to others. He did the right thing by not continuing the interview.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who just let clients complain after her boss refused to approve overtime.

Read on to see what the people in the comments thought of this situation.

It wasn’t even this guy who did the interview.

These are two separate things that need to be handled separately.

Yup, him not getting the job has nothing to do with his past.

It shouldn’t be this guy who tells him, though.

He needs to earn a job.

Hiring someone out of guilt is never a good move for you or the company you work for. This guy definitely owes his childhood victim an apology, but that does not mean that he owes him a job.

Contacting him offline, or even sending him a personal letter, may be the best way to move forward. Giving him a job is not a good idea, and it would not help anyone.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who is told to work a holiday without overtime pay, and how they ended up getting their money.