Thanks for the love, folks. And the good-natured burns!
Now, I'd like to do my part to clean up the party mess before the grown-ups get back, and get PencilThinStache's thread back on the rails. I should probably stop offending people for a moment and mention one more problem that's going to recur.
There are two plays Jack may try next. One is what I call "the Suck Play", and it's classic self-sabotage combined with a late stage plea for help that's designed to appeal to other people's altruistic instincts.
The other play is one I call "the Velociraptor". It relies on triangulation (playing one person off against another). There are three people involved: the manipulator (Jack), the target (PencilThinStache), and a third party. The play differs from the cat's paw because the third party doesn't take risks or come to harm; the only goals are to isolate the target from the community and to apply pressure on the target to act in the manipulator's interests.
In the Velociraptor play, the manipulator goes slithering around to people who know the target, and has a highly selective meltdown. An adept manipulator won't actually ask for help. The third party really, truly, honestly believes that the target is at fault (when in reality the problem is due to the manipulator's own behavior). But the third party, acting on what he or she truly believes is his or her own initiative, goes off and applies pressure or punishment to the target, in order to get the target to give the manipulator what he or she wants. As with the velociraptors in "Jurassic Park", the attack will come from the side.
The Velociraptor differs from the classic Cat's Paw play because the fuckup doesn't ask the third party to intervene.
So, PencilThinStache, when you get back from your vacation, you might get a question or comment about Jack's job search and finances from a source you wouldn't have otherwise expected.
Your defense is the truth: The two of you exchanged job leads, and the job you got came from a lead Jack found but chose to not follow up on. After he wouldn't call them back, you were hired. Since then, he's done nothing but sit on his ass and party. Now that it's too late to find work, instead of flipping burgers Jack is wasting time bitching to people and getting them to come to you and pretend you somehow caused the situation. You weren't the one who stapled a piano to Jack's ass. So although you're willing to pass his resume on a second time it's unlikely your boss will react well given that Jack ignored the first job offer. it's inappropriate for you to care more than Jack does about his job search. So you don't, except to the extent he's on your lease. But if they feel that badly about the situation, and they obviously do because they're sticking their noses into it, they're welcome to pay Jack's half of the rent for him for just as long as they like.