Bizarre HR: Man saves children from shark attack, loses job

A man who gained international recognition for wrestling a shark away from children has been sacked from his job because he was on sick leave at the time.

Paul Marshallsea, from Wales, was on holiday at Bullcock Beach in Queensland when a 1.8m shark was spotted swimming into shallow water near a group of children.

Instead of simply raising the alarm, Marshallsea waded into the water to grab the shark by its tail and dragged it into deeper water.

A local TV crew filming nearby captured the incident on camera, and the footage has since gone viral and made headlines all around the world.

Unfortunately, the footage also made its way to Marshallsea’s boss in the UK – who was under the impression he and his wife, who worked with him at a charity trust, were on extended sick leave from their job in Merthr Tydfil, Wales, The Guardian reported.

When the couple returned home the discovered they had been dismissed, after receiving a letter from their employers, which read:

“Whilst unfit to work you were well enough to travel to Australia 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; the photographs and footage appearing in newspapers and television broadcasts.”

A follow-up to the letter said: “The breakdown of the trustees’ confidence and trust in you and your ability to perform the role is so great that we find that dismissal is the only course of action we can recommend.”

Marshallsea said he had taken a holiday at the advice of his doctor, after being diagnosed with stress.

“What am I going to do now? There's not much call for shark-wrestlers in Merthyr Tydfil,” he said.

“You'd think they would have patted me on the back and congratulated me. I never thought for one minute that wrestling with a shark would cost me my job.”

A spokeswoman for the club said lawyers had advised them not to comment but she confirmed Marshallsea had left.