Hired my first employee, we’re in the automotive space.

Our work isn’t overly complicated, mostly maintenance stuff.

His roles casual, but with full time hours.

A month in and he’s already called sick 3 times. Smashed the side of our van and taken out a side mirror.

The first time, he said a truck sideswiped the van. Ok.

The second time, he said that he was stuck in a really tight spot in a carpark and he had to choose between scraping the front of taking out the back. This seemed like bullshit cause i’ve been in every carpark you could think of and never faced this predicament.

He’s also fucked up two jobs before.

First one, he made the customer walk into an auto parts store and purchase the part which was wild, said he tried to contact me multiple times but i never got any missed calls.

Second one, goes to a clients car, yanked off a wire and said it was already like this.

I suspect he was lying both times as it seems odd i never got the calls and that the part was already damaged even tho he had been working in that area.

I even tried to reassure him, i told him mistakes happen, it’s fine, just let me know so I can better prepare in front of our customers.

Today, i get a call from our biggest client and this was after hours. They tell me that he had finished a job and that the customers car isn’t working like it was.

I rang him and asked, did anything happen? Just let me know so i can better prepare.

He told me that he did the job as he normally would and that nothing happened that was unexpected.

I believed him.

I got there and the lady who had her car serviced claimed he had dropped his phone and tools in the engine bay, and that he had used her children, because of there small hands, to try and reach inside and get his phone.

I was shocked, she even showed me a photo to prove it.

He made no mention of this.

Because of this he has yanked a cable which has disabled the power steering rendering the car undrivable.

Now i need to sort out an auto electrician which will cost a lot as they have to go to the location.

I don’t know what to do as I need him and I don’t have anyone else who can come in and replace him.

Aside from that he’s pretty productive, am I overreacting? Should I give him another chance?

I’ve never had concrete evidence to try and catch him out but today was just weird.

Any advice would be appreciate.