Shark-Wrestler Saves Kids, Gets Fired

In desperation, Zelda cried out for her love, "LINK!"

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A 62-year-old man who bravely dragged a shark away from children at an Australian beach has been fired from his job at a British charity because he had claimed to be on sick leave.

Bolding to emphasize the ludicrous level of awesome this man has.

Then, unfortunately...

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Paul Marshallsea and his 56-year-old wife, Wendy, were on leave from the Pant & Dowlais Boys & Girls Club in Wales for "work-related stress" in January,

Using sick days to go on vacation? OK, not the brightest idea, guy, but I know the feels.

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But Marshallsea and his wife returned from Australia to find a letter from the charity's board of trustees informing the pair they had been fired.

"Whilst unfit to work you were well enough to travel to Australia," the letter read in part.

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"And, according to recent news footage of yourself in Queensland, you allegedly grabbed a shark by the tail and narrowly missed being bitten by quickly jumping out of the way.”

Again, fucking awesome.

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"You think being in charge and running a children's charity, they would have patted me on the back and congratulated me," Marshallsea told the paper. "But to sack us both without any sort of discussion first is just disgusting."

I agree on that last part. No such formality, nothing, just a letter that says, "Hey! We just watched you wrestle a shark! But you were so not sick like you claimed you were, so we're gonna fire your ass!"

I kind of want to know who the bigger douchebag is in this. The guy who falsely claimed to be sick to go to Australia and ultimately wrestled a shark to save kids' lives? Or his bosses for not recognizing his triumphant moment and instead fire him without any formality or discussion about it?

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Uh, if the reason he seriously gave was "TOO MUCH STRESS," why would he not go to the beach? Seems relaxing. Mostly because nobody plans to be wrestling sharks at the fucking beach.

Also, goddamnit you fucking clod, I frantically clicked on this link because I thought it had something to do with Shark Boy.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Uh, if the reason he seriously gave was "TOO MUCH STRESS," why would he not go to the beach? Seems relaxing. Mostly because nobody plans to be wrestling sharks at the fucking beach.

Also, goddamnit you fucking clod, I frantically clicked on this link because I thought it had something to do with Shark Boy.

Oddly enough, I agree with Mikey. The beach is a great place to destress.

I might have given him a warning about misuse of sick time (after discussing it with him to see if it really was misuse), then let it go. After all, he saved some kids from becoming shark food.

What did they expect him to be doing to get rid of stress? Stay at home eating chicken soup?

bleachedblackcat wrote:

What did they expect him to be doing to get rid of stress? Stay at home eating chicken soup?

I think they expected to be notified that he was going to friggin' Australia. Look, we don't know the details in this case: how long had these two been on leave? What kind of plan had their doctors given them? Did they have any similar priors?

Way I see it, it's a mass communication fail on both sides.

Jay/Cris wrote:

I think they expected to be notified that he was going to friggin' Australia. Look, we don't know the details in this case: how long had these two been on leave? What kind of plan had their doctors given them? Did they have any similar priors?

Way I see it, it's a mass communication fail on both sides.

Yeeeeah, this, pretty much. The fact that he saved two kids doesn't have any sort of reflection on how well he performed at his job, which, that week, was not at all. For all we know he had two strikes already.

Lady Anne wrote:

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Uh, if the reason he seriously gave was "TOO MUCH STRESS," why would he not go to the beach? Seems relaxing. Mostly because nobody plans to be wrestling sharks at the fucking beach.

Also, goddamnit you fucking clod, I frantically clicked on this link because I thought it had something to do with Shark Boy.

Oddly enough, I agree with Mikey. The beach is a great place to destress.

Yah I am p sure there are beaches in Wales OH BUT THEY AREN'T ALL WARM AND SUNNY AT THIS TIME OF YEAR WHERE SHALL WE GO oh australia

bleachedblackcat wrote:

What did they expect him to be doing to get rid of stress? Stay at home eating chicken soup?

yes you're right

clearly the answer was to subject themselves to a twelve hour flight with the risk of deep vein thrombosis and a possible stop in the malarial zone to a continent filled with venomous everything

that will get rid of stress

Have the three of you ever actually held a job?

TheHedonist wrote:

Jay/Cris wrote:

I think they expected to be notified that he was going to friggin' Australia. Look, we don't know the details in this case: how long had these two been on leave? What kind of plan had their doctors given them? Did they have any similar priors?

Way I see it, it's a mass communication fail on both sides.

Yeeeeah, this, pretty much. The fact that he saved two kids doesn't have any sort of reflection on how well he performed at his job, which, that week, was not at all. For all we know he had two strikes already.

Not to mention "work-related stress" is a really nebulous term. It could mean anything, from being subjected to bullying by a superior/colleagues, PTSD following an attack, unreasonable demands from the boss, or it could mean that OH FUCKING JESUS I CAN'T GO IN THERE ONE MORE DAY I SWEAR I WILL SHOOT EVERYONE feeling that we all get from time to time (also known as "time to use up my holidays" or "get another job"). In any case it's a really fucking bad idea to go swanning off to Australia while you're on medical leave, absent a note from one's doctor/therapist stating "my patient needs to eat barbecue on the beach near a colony of poisonous octopi for the sake of his health". I'm astounded that this couple, at their age, did not realise that going that far abroad while supposedly unfit to work (even with a condition that isn't physical) looks like fucking cheek to an employer. In fact, that to me hints that they've engaged in this kind of fuckery before and got away with it.

If this guy hadn't saved some kids from a shark, would this even be news? Or would he just be another chancer who got caught?

Yeah, the "work related stress" reason to take sick days is kind of bullshit, but it sounds like that is the exact reason he gave his employers. His employers heard that bullshit and said "fine, take sick days for stress."

As far as anyone here is aware, his employers never gave any guidelines for how to deal with work related stress. The employers are clearly incompetent idiots with very poor communication skills.

Furthermore, I can pick out a WHOLE BUNCH of shit that has a chance of happening but will almost certainly NOT happen to make anything seem like a bad idea. Sitting at home to relieve stress? What about kitchen fires, chimney fires, home invasions, sink holes, kids on your lawn, the fact that you're in England, most depression country in the western hemisphere? Why, if they wanted to relieve stress, they'd be stupid NOT to travel abroad.

Though why they couldn't have saved themselves the 20 hour plane flight and just went to Spain or Italy or even Miami, I will never know.

Cyberwulf wrote:

I'm astounded that this couple, at their age, did not realise that going that far abroad while supposedly unfit to work (even with a condition that isn't physical) looks like fucking cheek to an employer. In fact, that to me hints that they've engaged in this kind of fuckery before and got away with it.

Kind of what I was thinking. I mean, it is not totaly unreasonable for someone on medical leave for work stress to travel, but they have to know how bad that looks. I would never do anything like that w/o a doctor's note at least.

Cyberwulf wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Uh, if the reason he seriously gave was "TOO MUCH STRESS," why would he not go to the beach? Seems relaxing. Mostly because nobody plans to be wrestling sharks at the fucking beach.

Also, goddamnit you fucking clod, I frantically clicked on this link because I thought it had something to do with Shark Boy.

Oddly enough, I agree with Mikey. The beach is a great place to destress.

Yah I am p sure there are beaches in Wales OH BUT THEY AREN'T ALL WARM AND SUNNY AT THIS TIME OF YEAR WHERE SHALL WE GO oh australia

Now, to be fair, our beaches are pretty good and they aren't all infested with nasty critters all the time. It's mostly the discarded needles from druggies you have to watch out for. I did a little digging and it turns out this happened on Queensland's Sunshine Coast; Queensland beaches are notorious for things that bite and sting and eat humans. Personally, I would have recommended somewhere safer like Main Beach on the Gold Coast. New South Wales has much better beaches than old South Wales, especially Coogee Beach in Sydney.