An Interesting Week

This has been a very interesting week.  It is hot.  Alexa says that today’s temperature is 99 – and, it’s only June.  Only mid-June, and it’s 99!

You know how it is when a friend calls and tells you something you really don’t want to hear?  Sometimes, this premonition washes over you, and you know the friend is going to say something sad.  I remember talking with a neighbor while having coffee, and “that” feeling washed over me.  She told me that her husband, a prominent pediatric physician, was an alcoholic.  She went on to describe situations she encountered as a result of his drunkenness.  I didn’t want to sit there and listen – but I did.  Clearly, she needed to talk.  It helped me, in future situations with other people, to just be quiet and listen.  And, if you knew me, just being quiet and listening is not, generally, my strong suit.

When the telephone call came from a good friend who had just left her current work position, gave up her apartment, spent time and money packing and sending her belongings to her new living situation for a new job in another state, and the first words of that telephone call were, “I’ve been fired,” I knew that this would be an emergency listening activity.  After one-and-a-half days of work at the new job, she was fired!  We are very good friends so that, in addition to listening, I felt comfortable helping with problem solving to figure out what she could do to regain her confidence that, at that moment, seemed non-existent..  And, making sure that the decisions she made were hers – not mine.

First and foremost, she is an excellent employee.  As a former school superintendent, as well as the education discipline chief at one of my state’s hospitals for the most seriously affected mental health patients, I do have experience in evaluating employees and with helping employees grow positively in their jobs.  Probably, my most important responsibility in those positions was to evaluate the performance of the employees working in the programs I supervised.  I know when an employee is an excellent worker; my friend is an excellent worker.

My friend is a spiritually based person; it is easy to discuss the thought that “when God closes a door, He opens a window.”  A similar thing had happened about six years ago, and at the same location; and, at that time, she decided to leave her employment after successfully being the coordinator and supervisor of other people for several years, the then current HR representative cooked up some scheme to put my friend on “probation.”  No reason was given.  No evidence that the people under her supervision were not happy with my friend’s supervision.  No due process procedures were followed.  When my friend told the administrator of the work place that she had decided to leave her position, explaining the reason and giving her the customary two-week notice, the director begged her not to leave.

During one of our many, many telephone conversations about her situation at that time, she shared that she was going to leave her position, but was nervous because she knew she would be needing employment and had no job to go to.  About thirty minutes after the close of that concerning conversation, I received another call from her.  She said that after she hung up the phone from our call, someone called from the job she had left years ago to become the coordinator, begging her to please, please come back to work at her old job.  Less than ten minutes turn-around.  That’s a fast opening of a window.

This past week has been difficult for her.  Once again, no due process was part of this action.  No evidence was provided to show that she had done anything wrong in the one day that she was allowed to work at the front desk.  The current HR representative (who, by the way, has no experience being an HR rep) would give her no explanation for the dismissal – except to say that she did not bring up any issues that had arisen in her past work.  It is clear that this HR rep had not reviewed her personnel file from her last work for this organization, before hiring her and telling her that her experience was exactly what they were looking for in a person to work the front desk.  She knows about the organization.  She is personable and gregarious.  She IS exactly the right person to meet and greet people who decide to come to participate in the activities.

This HR person would not discuss the situation with her, taking less than ten minutes to activate the dismissal.  My friend was told that this person “had spent a great deal of time on the situation and didn’t have the time to talk more.”  She was escorted off of the property – like a criminal!  She decided to take the issues to the organization’s new director.  However, when she attempted to make an appointment with him, “his schedule was full that day,” but, perhaps, next week he would have time.

In the week that has just passed after our conversation about the firing, she called several times to provide an update of her situation.  She had contacted persons at the job she left five days ago to move to the new job.  She was told to please come back to them and resume her valued work.  She contacted the manager of the apartment building where she had given up her apartment five days earlier.  “Of course, she could have her old apartment back – just get here,” he said.  Now, she just had to figure out where the movers had stored her furniture.  Or, was it even stored somewhere or still on a truck?  And, what is it going to cost to get it trucked back to her apartment?

I can say that she is back in her old home, ready to start work at her old job on Wednesday, eating frozen dinners until her possessions arrive on the truck, and happily awaiting her furniture’s return.  The door that was closed allowed for the window to be opened.

I can also report that she has contacted a lawyer.

And, now, for some Larry garden news.

Be Safe and Be Well

The Cranky Crone

Thoughtful comments are appreciated.