Ughhh...you know, you give a guy a second chance to get his act together, you think he would take his career seriously this time around.  I recently placed a candidate who had taken advantage of his company's flex time  policy and made a habit of showing up at the office around 9 or 10 each morning.  It became a nuisance and he was canned.  Working with this candidate, we addressed the situation, we made our client aware of the situation, the candidate was remorseful and admitted to his poor judgment. He made a committment to me, to my client, and to himself that he was done messing around and it was time to take his career seriously...my client offered him a job with the understanding that no matter how talented he was, they were not going to tolerate any sort of tardiness.  First couple weeks went great; in the office early, staying late, bustin' hump.  And then he would miss a morning meeting, and then another one, and then another one.  If the company wasn't generous enough, they had a nice sit down with this character, but he blew it again...and he was canned again...UN-believable...I suspect he is looking for a job in another city.

My first thought was what Troy said.  The guy probably has a substance abuse issue. 

Josie

We had a guy who's symptoms were almost exactly the same as the person you described a few years ago.  We relo'd him from the midwest to the northeast, gave him a sweet salary, put him in a furnished hotel for 2 months while he slowly found an apt, etc.  On his second day here, I drove past him leaving his hotel which was 200 yards from the office.  No big deal except my day starts at 9:00 AM and his started at 8:30 AM.  Late on his second day?  I kept an eye on him for a while and it kept getting worse and worse but we really needed him so we dealt with it.

We ended up letting him go after 2 years of this.  A month after being dismissed, he confided in a coworker whom he had become friendly with.  Apparently he was going through depression and it would hit him hard for a couple weeks at a time and then be fine for a month or two and then it would hit him again.  Sad really.  Wish he would have said something and could have gotten some professional help.