Remote work can sometimes lead to unexpected situations.

In this story, a man worked in an IT team where a new hire was completely forgotten by the company.

The employee showed up at an empty office. He tried to reach out to his boss, but no one contacted him back

Months later, they discovered something that shocked them all.

Read the full story below to find out more.

Boss forgot the new hire

Once upon a time, I was working in IT corporate.

The team was fully remote, but not officially.

The boss just moved three hours away during the COVID times.

He never came back. We were supposed to be hybrid.

But somehow it shrank to one on-site meeting every three to four months.

Meet the new hire…

We got a new hire. Usually, that meant a day or two in advance, the boss would call me or another coworker living nearby.

We would come to the office and greet them. Then, there would be a three-month period.

Somebody needed to be in the office on a daily basis to train them.

But somehow the boss totally forgot about this person.

He attended the new hires meeting, but after that, nobody else met with him.

The guy came on his first day.

He attended the whole company new hires meeting.

They pumped him up about how awesome and groundbreaking we are.

The next day, he came to our office. It was empty. So was the day after.

After a week or so, he just gave up. He stopped coming back.

Nobody knew. Nobody noticed.

There was an automated Excel file that assigned employees’ shifts.

We had rotating night shifts. Once per month or so, you would have to take phone calls.

You also had to solve issues on the application.

There was some automated Excel file. It would assign coworkers for these shifts.

Each newbie had a half-year grace period.

They needed to learn the ropes without these night shifts.

An employee didn’t recognize the name of the new hire.

So on one random meeting, the guy currently on them was asking a question.

He asked who he should switch with. He said he had never seen this name before.

It turned out that the newbie tried to call the boss a couple of times.

The calls went directly to the spam call folder.

He was never contacted back.

Apparently, the new hire had been receiving a salary for months without really doing anything.

He had been collecting wages for seven months.

He was already working for half a year in a different company.

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He had no regrets from his side.

He is still my hero to this day.

So, this is what happens when communication breaks down completely in a company.

People assume someone else is handling things, so no one actually checks if anything is working.

In the end, he just slipped through the cracks without anyone noticing.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a person who abandoned their own D&D campaign when their friends stopped paying attention.

Let’s read the responses of other people to this story.

This one didn’t get any free money.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

Here’s a personal experience from this one.

That’s wild, says this person.

Finally, short and simple.

Sometimes, you don’t have to quit because you’ve already become invisible at work.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a Glassdoor review that had an unexpected impact on hiring.