Jon is not actually as much of an ignorant skeptic as the fandom likes to paint him. He is not completely clueless either.
He has knowledge of Leitner books and paranormal happenings, he’s simply not gulible the way I see it. He is just (coldly) considering all of the possibilities, and people are quick to write him off as an ignorant fool because of the mean tone of his voice. Putting that aside, I would say that he behaves quite logically, considering his situation.
The only time he’s pushing it is with the first spider oriented statement - it’s too personal, and so he wants to distance himself from it, because writing it off as normal would also mean his own experience was perfectly logical and nothing to be worried about.
People say he’s a stupid skeptic because they already know all those things to be real. Jon doesn’t. He is simply being reasonable. Even some of the statement givers admit that after their first encounter they tried to find a logical explanation for it, because you aren’t used to supernatural phenomena in your everyday life! By considering the most likely causes first Jon is doing the correct thing! He’s just mean about it!
People were so quick to say “oooh Jon hated Martin sooo much in s1! Haha what a stupid man, that’s your boyfriend! He has a crush on you!” But Jon was justified in his dislike.
He just got promoted to a job he frankly had no idea how to do. His predecessor left the place in a state worthy of despair, and he was trying hard to make sense of it. On top of that, he was unpleasantly reminded of his own paranormal encounter, from which he desperately wished to distance himself.
If I were trying so hard to do my job correctly, and i had a coworker who would straight up refuse to do his job sometimes because “it spooks him”, it would irritate me too. Jon was uncomfortable with the statements as well. He just didn’t show it.
He was incompetent, yeah, but it’s not like anyone was there to train him, plus him being unprepared benefitted Elias. He did his best. Martin just sat on his ass all day and made them tea sometimes
I am doing a TMA relisten to refresh my memory of the podcast. So far I’ve gone through season 1, and I’ve come to a realization of sorts. At the very beginning at least, Martin was kind. Annoying at times, of course, but kind; in that plain, simple, sweet way. He didn’t start off bad.