Feeling Sorry For Barney

Barney has been out of control. Almost every night he opens his mouth to say completely random stupid shit and TC shreds him to pieces instantly. Sometimes the rest of us join in like a group of sharks smelling blood. TC is so hilariously vicious at beating down Barney that I'm nearly in tears from laughing so hard. Barney has nearly been in tears too, but it hasn't been due to having a good time with us or from lighthearted amusement. He's slow on the uptake to realize he's being made fun of. Barney is generally confused and when it eventually dawns on him that he is being mocked he gets angry. Once or twice I've tried to tell him on the sly to stop making retarded comments out loud to the rest of Area 51's test group and just lay low. "Stay down" I told him, like I was a referee in a boxing match and Barney was the chump contender struggling to get up on his feet from the mat. He didn't listen and TC continued to go toe to toe with him for the knockout. Barney didn't get my drift.

It's really obvious to everyone that Barney has some personality problems. It's also plain as day that he has no skill or ability as a technician. Thinking about that one night I pondered how in the hell Barney got himself hired in here, in the first place. We have a fairly robust screening process for entry level electronic technicians here at Bill and Dave's. So how in the hell did that guy slip through the cracks? Curious. The way it works here is after a potential candidate has sent in a resume, the more promising people get a phone interview. During the phone interview veteran technicians will give the individual a test. Some of the questions are pretty tough from what I've heard. If the phone interview is a success then the next step is to come in for a real job interview and a written technical test that can take a couple of hours to complete. Could Barney be intelligent enough to run that kind of gauntlet and survive? I doubted it.

Late at night after Barney had gone home Wah, TC, and myself were sitting between the Adjust One station and their tech benches. We were shootin' the shit about Barney's antics and I mentioned to them that I couldn't understand why he had a job here. TC didn't get it either. Then Wah dropped a bombshell on us. Wah used to be on the interview team. When Barney came in to take the written test, Wah was the tech that sat him down and asked him a barrage of questions. She told us Barney scored an "F" on the written test. No surprise there. What she told us next was a shock though.

Wah said, "I got a phone call from a hiring manager asking me what I thought of Barney and he asked me if we should give him a job. I knew he failed the written exam but I felt sorry for him. I wanted to give him a chance. I told that manager to hire him."
My jaw dropped.
TC smiled.
Wah had an embarrassed look in her eyes. She knew better yet she broke the rules. Now we're all paying for it. So is the company, through all the scrapped PC boards and late instruments Barney now works on. There was no way I was going to let Wah forget that she held the door wide open for that screwball to waltz in here. TC was probably thinking the same thing, he wasn't going to let Wah forget it either and that's why he had an evil grin plastered across his face.