So the employee who was fired a couple weeks ago refuses to accept reality. He was fired for performance reasons.

Since he has been fired, he applied for unemployment. Since he has another job, my understanding is that he isn’t unemployed. Is there some special rule I don’t know about? Maybe a part time job or less than a certain number of hours doesn’t count as employment?

He also left with his office keys. No one communicated on this one for who would collect his keys, I was in charge of passwords. He walked out with his keys to the front door and the office. Not great having a disgruntled employee with access to an office. Anyway, he was asked to return them and it’s been a running struggle. First he didn’t want to drop them off, then he didn’t want anyone to pick them up. Then he didn’t have postage then this then that. Too many excuses if you ask me. They’re supposedly in the mail now, we’ll see in a few days if they show up.

Finally, he had brought some art into the office to hang by his desk. He left this when he stormed out. We have been trying to return it, but he’s been just as difficult to coordinate with as it was to get the keys back. Today, he told a co-worker to throw it out because him having it would only remind him of the emotional abuse he went through every time he looks at it.
Here’s what I realized. He’s already been trash talking the company. Telling us to throw out his art helps with his narrative that we have mistreated him. He can tell people he didn’t get it because we threw it out before he came in. Not that we did, there was a long discussion as I was leaving about how we should store it somewhere in case in a few months he regrets his choice and comes looking for it (or, in my opinion, comes looking for it knowing it’s gone so he can start something new).

It’s all about the narrative you tell and whether or not people were there to witness your story.