This week's most terrible employees

Some days, instead of supporting you, your team is dragging you down. You struggle to remember why you hired any of them in the first place, and wonder whether you should have asked them tougher interview questions to uncover their real personalities.

But the next time you feel like firing that team member who won't stop talking about her 17 cats, take a moment to consider that it could always be worse, and be grateful that none of your employees have ever done this:

1. Stole and rated private photos from customers' phones

Turns out not all Apple staff are geniuses. Four male staff members at an Apple store in Carindale, Australia, have been fired due to their involvement with a photo scandal.

According to a report by The Courier Mail, the employees allegedly took photographs of women, and shared them in a “photo-sharing ring” which ranked the women on a scale of 1-10.

Although Apple has mentioned to CNET that there is "no evidence" of customers being photographed, an earlier report by The Courier Mail stated that "more than 100 close-up and explicit photo of female staff and customers had been taken without their knowledge". Some of these photographs were "lifted from some Apple customers’ phones".

This issue was first brought to light when an employee of the store noticed a technician looking through a customer’s phone in the repair room, who then filed a report with the managers.

According to the staff, "one person would take a photo and add it to the chat and others would give the person or their butt or their boobs a rating out of 10 and they would add their own side commentary".

Apple has issued a statement concerning the situation, explaining that it is investigating a "violation of Apple’s business conduct policy", while reinforcing its belief that everyone should be treated equally and with respect.

2. Used kissing as a team building exercise

In one of the strangest attempts to up team morale yet, a boss at a company in Beijing, China, has all his female team members give him a kiss every morning. Between 9:00 and 9:30, the employees are required to line up and kiss their boss on the lips, OddityCentral reports.

Apparently, the boss in question feels it helps foster good relationships among colleagues and helps him get along with the female staff. When the news broke on social media, plenty of people disagreed, calling the policy sleazy and wondering why the employees put up with it.

Reportedly, two staff members found his actions equally unacceptable and chose to resign rather than kiss their boss every morning.

He might be in charge, but even a boss ultimately works for their company. If anything, his senior position means  bad behaviour reflects even worse on the business, earning him a mention as one of this week's worst employees.

3. Fired staff members based on gender

Another highly ranked employee on this week's list is Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who supposedly discriminated based on gender when deciding which employees to let go. A former media executive at Yahoo has filed a lawsuit against her, claiming he was fired as part of Mayer's attempt to rid the company of male employees, Mercury News reports.

Apart from his allegations that Mayer discriminated based on gender, the former employee further claims that she illegally fired a large number of workers based on a performance-rating system she came up with.

Together with Mayer, two other Yahoo top managers are named in the lawsuit. One of them is Kathy Savitt, former chief marketing officer, who allegedly "intentionally hired and promoted women because of their gender, while terminating, demoting or laying off male employees because of their gender", Mercury News quotes the suit.

4. Embezzled over US$29,000

An employee at a Las Cruces, New Mexico, realty office has been accused of embezzling more than US$29,000 (HK$224,964). The employee is suspected of using 33 company checks worth US$29,587.64 (HK$229,523) for her own personal use.

According to reports by Las Cruces Sun-News, the employee had only been employed at Mathers Realty for six months, where she was hired as an accounts payable coordinator.

If convicted, she faces up to nine years in prison for the embezzlement charge.

5. Stole over US$7,000 worth of mobile phones

A T-Mobile employee in Spring, Texas, was arrested for stealing multiple mobile phones from her employer while working in a T-Mobile store, Click2Houston reports. The employee had been stealing phones since 2014, but was finally caught when a routine audit showed some phones were missing.

The company launched an investigation, which led to the staff member being arrested and charged with theft. She admitted to stealing 15 phones during a two year period, with an estimated value of more than US$7,000 (HK$54,300).

Additional reporting by Wani Azahar.

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