I am submitting this as a warning to anyone who is thinking of hiring Steve Sybesma. Please read this through as the things I list on here, no background check will supply, but are pertinent in respect to maintaining a decent workplace.
I am a former coworker of his and he made the work environment at my company a living hell for many people the entire time he was here. Amongst the things Mr. Sybesma has done is verbally abuse and threaten people over the phone (including his ex-wife and a tenant of his), be argumentative and belligerent with coworkers and managers, disrupt other people's work, and harass colleagues when they didn't want anything to do with them or refused to be his "friend." He was extremely arrogant and would always throw around how long he'd been in the department or how much experience he had while arguing with people.
He once had to be escorted out of an eatery by security guards nearby for making a public scene when they caught him trying to use his badge to illegitimately get a discount, and proceeded to make threats in front of coworkers over the incident about how "nobody treats me that way" and "they won't get away with this, I'll show them." Another time a vendor of ours had to call and tell him to stop hassling their customer service reps because he was so aggressive. These are just a couple of many examples that if I kept going would take up way too much space.
He was repeatedly disciplined and eventually demoted, and each time he threw fits and said he didn't understand why management was "doing this to me." He did the same thing when he was passed over for promotions or new positions that opened up.
On top of this he was very incompetent with his work in general. Everyone felt he created a hostile work environment and wondered why he was still around. It was well-known that his HR file was inches thick full of printed complaints.
After attempting to work with him numerous times, including making him get help for his anger problems and suspending him at one point, the company finally terminated his employment. He subsequently remained in the parking lot for six hours, at one point blocking an entrance to an adjacent building, before the police were notified and he was escorted off the property.
As with previous times he pretended to not understand why they "did this to him" and sent emails to former colleagues going on about it. A few days later he called someone in the company bragging he found a new job.
I certainly hope that he doesn't cause problems for his new work as he did with me and my colleagues. It would be nice to know that what I say can sit on a shelf and collect dust because it's no longer relevant. But in the event he continues to be a troublemaker for other employers I thought it best to get this out there so it's known that he has a history of behaving this way.
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