Australian real estate boss fires assistant for ‘extreme’ lunch break act: ‘My heart stopped’

An Australian real estate boss who fired one of his employees for committing an “extreme” lunch break act has split opinion after defending his actions online.

A real estate boss who sacked his assistant after her “heart stopped” during a lunch break has defended his actions after the story sparked backlash.

Troy Holmes, principal of Holmes Real Estate in Sydney’s west, caused a stir last week by sharing his “worst employee story” online.

The agent took to TikTok to reveal he had sacked a newly-hired assistant in 2014 over an “extreme” incident.

According to Mr Holmes, who wanted to provide an alternative to online “boss bashing,” things started well when he hired a personal assistant while working for a large realty firm.

The 22-year-old assistant “interviewed really well” and said “all the right things”, impressing him and others in the company.

She was emphatically hired, but according to Mr Holmes, after a couple of weeks, she seemed to “disappear for a few hours at a time” and things “were a little bit off”.

“I wasn’t getting any real reasons on what she was doing,” he told followers.

“I was struggling to hold her accountable because she wasn’t clear as to what she was delivering as far as her KPIs go.”

The assistant’s job involved letterbox dropping, and doorknocking aimed at getting more business for Mr Holmes and the firm.

The final straw came on one “hectic afternoon” when the assistant failed to return from an hour-long lunch break.

Mr Holmes called inquiring where she was.

Western Sydney realtor Troy Holmes took to social media to reveal why he fired a worker after her heart stopped.

Her response was that she had fallen over on a footpath after her “heart stopped”.

Mr Holmes rushed to where she was, where, according to him, he was told: “I tried to get back to work, and I started to run, and my heart stopped, and then I fell over.”

Mr Holmes later clarified “her entire demeanour changed to perfectly fine” after he offered her medical assistance.

“So yeah, apparently your heart can stop, and then you’ll be perfectly fine in a couple of minutes,” he said.

“That was the end of that employee’s tenure at my business.”

While a few followers shared similar stories and empathised, many were not too happy about the worker’s treatment, with the top comment: “You seem delightful.”

Others pointed out that sudden heart failure, as described, is an actual possibility.

Another added: “How about worst employer experience? Also, just my opinion, you are not coming off very good here in your video”.

Mr Holmes told news.com.au he was confident in his scepticism, citing the assistant’s unwillingness to seek medical treatment and the loss of a close friend due to heart failure around the same time.

Be wary of the perfect interviewee

Mr Holmes told news.com.au the major takeaway from the ordeal was to find a way to refine the interviewing process in the future.

“This is an experience that kind of helped me – I think the interview process is good, but you can have people that just are really good at interviewing. And that can be a skill”,” he said.

“Some people are much better at job interviewers than others, whereas some of the others I’ve hired have been better workers but haven’t been as good in the interview process.”

Mr Holmes suspects it’s common for people to interview well but perform poorly once hired.

The assistant was actually one of Mr Holme’s first hires as an employer, and he swiftly adopted a formula for subsequent hires in which he partially removed himself, allowing one or two other independent parties to interview the prospective staffer separately.

“I actually introduced an independent person to help interview them,” he explained.

“As the person interviewing them, you’ve got a little bit of bias because you want the person to like you because they’re going to work for you.

“They just see different things, interpret things differently, ask different questions, and have different perspectives.”

He suspects people who interview well but do not work to the expected standard may be commonplace in the jobs market.

As for the online crisis, Mr Holmes considered himself a good boss who is supportive of progressive work arrangements, such as not contacting staff after hours.

“I literally never wanted them to be reading emails after work, I want them to be going off and having a life and having a hobby,” he said.

“They make much better employees when they’ve actually got a life and something to look forward to.”

Originally published as Australian real estate boss fires assistant for ‘extreme’ lunch break act: ‘My heart stopped’