The 5 most awful employees of the week

Some days, you wish you would never have to interact with your employees ever again. Annoying habits make even conference calls seem unbearable, with late arrivals, and noisy or tech-ignorant participants.

But the next time you feel like firing that team member who joins the call late only to keep interrupting everyone, take a moment to consider that it could always be worse, and be grateful that none of your employees have ever done this:

1. Abused company policy to gain HK$450,000 in compensation

A customer service officer at Hongkong Post defrauded his employer of HK$450,000 by falsely claiming the company had lost over 3,000 pieces of valuable mail. Over the course of four years, the staff member worked together with two others to send out mail said to contain Parker pens valued at HK$460 each, the South China Morning Post reports.

Claiming that the mail never arrived, the three would ask for compensation from Hongkong Post, resulting in the company paying them a total of nearly half a million dollars. In fact, the mail pieces contained cheap ball point pens, and were sent with the sole purpose of defrauding the postal service.

The employee made the most of his position at the company, where he was responsible for processing inquiries for lost mail, by updating his fellow fraudsters on policy changes related to the compensation scheme to ensure they could continue their practices. The three are scheduled to be sentenced in court today.

2. Poisoned co-workers with cleaning products

A disgruntled employee at an international shipping company in the US has been charged with felony assault after poisoning her former co-workers, WTOP reports. She was arrested after co-workers filed a report with the police.

Allegedly, the 32-year-old poured cleaning products used for windows and bathrooms in the company coffee maker, resulting in employees falling ill over a period of several weeks.

3. Used SG$500,000 in company cash to pay off personal loans

A Singaporean airport manager in charge of managing the lost and found office has been jailed for 42 months after using SG$476,682 (HK$2,655,830) to gamble and repay his loans, the Straits Times reports.

The 61-year-old Asia-Pacific Star employee tricked multiple co-workers in order to get his hands on the money. During the span of several months, he took currency bags filled with cash from sales desk agents, telling them he would pass the money to the lost and found office. He then told the lost and found supervisors that the bags should be given directly to him, or be placed into a separate safe, and instructed them not to do the standard paperwork related to the bags of cash.

Feeling remorseful, the employee gave himself up, after having spent all but SG$12 of the stolen cash.

4. Accused of committing 48 offences resulting in 121 corruption charges

A former employee of Micro 2000 Technology is facing 121 corruption charges involving over SG$270,000. The ex-employee allegedly gave bribes to two former team leaders to reward them for keeping quiet about his non-compliance with the standard operating procedures regarding the exchange of customers' iPhones, the Straits Times reports.

Additionally, the staff member is suspected of bribing another four former employees of the company in exchange for their cooperation in disregarding the company's operating procedures, as well as withdrawing SG$126,990 from his bank account in an attempt to conceal it from law enforcement.

As if one awful employee won't do enough damage to the company's reputation, the two alleged bribe-taking team leaders also face charges, and six other former employees were fined for their offences.

5. Called a customer a wh*re

Although the debate is out on whether or not drivers for ride-sharing companies like GrabHitch are employees or not, this GrabHitch driver's actions definitely reflected badly on the company.

After cancelling a booking due to a last minute change of plans, GrabHitch user Jayne received some rather rude messages from the driver, Mothership reports. Clearly upset at having lost a customer, he told her "Don't be such a dumb b**ch, say confirmed but still go and cancel", and proceeded to call her a wh*re.

Not thrilled about her experience, Jayne posted screenshots of the conversation on Twitter, asking GrabHitch to evaluate their grab drivers.

FUCKING RUDE PLEASE REVALUATE YOUR GRAB DRIVERS @GrabSG pic.twitter.com/bJrAcfoZiu

— ✨ jayne ✨ (@Jarhayne) 22 October 2016