gee… not “a fun person”? i wonder why that would be. maybe because, oh i don’t know, everyone bullied them constantly for the exact things you mentioned just now?! that kind of treatment makes small talk pretty difficult. as for the reason they couldn’t do their job, they didn’t have the resources for it! all they had on their desk was a pencil sharpener that no one would ever give them pencils for!!! as for think-outside-the-box. . . i want you to think long and hard about wow creativity and innovative solutions is a bad thing for you. but then again, thinking long and hard probably wasn’t allowed back then either. not to mention, you haven’t met the guy??? as someone who has, i can tell you they’re hardworking, funny, and suffering the mental/emotional effects of how horribly they were treated in the office. yay!
You care a lot about them, don't you?
Let me tell you something. You've met them in an informal setting. I'm not saying I dislike them as a person, but as employees go, they weren't the best.
Even if I haven't met them, to grow to that amount of infamy some of the rumors have to be true, right? If they were getting bullied as severely as you say, why didn't they file any complaints? Why didn't they quit?