Worthless Worker
A character hires a new employee who is totally inept, but the hirer is reluctant to fire them, usually because they feel badly about it.
Seinfeld
Appearances
- The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Season 2, episode 16, "F**b" (1972). Mary feels bad when her complaints at a restaurant get a waitress named Randy fired, so she hires Randy as a secretary in the newsroom. Randy is so incompetent that Mary has to do all the work for her, but Mary doesn't want to fire her.
- The Bob Newhart Show: Season 3, episode 7, "Dr. Ryan's Express" (1974). While Carol's out of town, Jerry hires a temp named Debbie who's so absentminded she can't even complete the simplest of tasks, but Jerry refuses to fire her and insists Bob do it. Bob is fed up with people always expecting him to deliver bad news, so he too avoids firing Debbie.
- Newhart: Season 3, episode 7, "Poor Reception" (1984). Michael hires Stephanie as a receptionist at the TV station, and she proves to be totally wrong for the job. When she unknowingly antagonizes the station manager and tears her $200 dress, the station manager orders Michael to fire her, but Michael is of course reluctant to do it, so he "promotes" her to Dick's secretary so Dick will have to do it.
- Herman's Head: Season 2, episode 4, "Intern-al Affairs" (1992). Mr. Bracken gives Herman the job of hiring an intern, and Louise guilts him into hiring a friend of hers, who turns out to be so incompetent that she destroys the office and sets Mr. Bracken's chair on fire, so Herman has to fire her.
- Seinfeld: Season 8, episode 6, "The Fatigues" (1996). Elaine is fed up with the shoddy work by Eddie Sherman, the guy who runs the mailroom at J. Peterman, so she calls him up to her office to fire him, but he's such an intimidating figure that she's afraid to do it, so she promotes him instead.