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I'm out of practice...
Jan. 3rd, 2017 08:59 pmI used to be able to find stuff to talk about on LiveJournal at a moment's notice. Now that I've sworn to myself I would update once a day, I'm finding that I'm woefully out of practice when it comes to that particular habit. Truth be told, the idea of updating is kind of exhausting these days. Still, I made a commitment, and I'm going to give it the good old college try, at the very least.
Work is slowly getting back into the swing of things after an exceptionally quiet holiday season. I was a little bored by the end, and while busy days can be their own kind of stress, I'd rather be steadily busy than twiddling my thumbs at work.
There's been both tragedy and drama at work, too.( Trigger: death of a child )
As for the drama, well. Dramatic drama is dramatic. We have an employee who's been having... let's say he's been having personal and professional difficulties. He's been disgruntled at work for the better part of a year, if not longer, and is already the kind of person who entertains paranoid fantasies about how everyone in the office is secretly against him, and that the organisation is horrible and corrupt, etc., etc. That compounded with problems with his home life (both objectively and subjectively) has led to him missing a lot of work in the past few months. Like, calling in sick roughly half of his working shifts. Right now in our office you don't need a doctor's note unless you miss more than four days of work in a row, so he's been able to "get away" with doing it.
As a result of this, however, his direct supervisor (not me) decided to call him to the mat for it. Now, while I agree that his absenteeism was beginning to be a problem, I disagree with her approach, which was to tell him how "disappointed" she was. Not surprisingly, he took it poorly, and left the office, never to return for the rest of his shift. He came in the next day instead, tossed his security pass at another employee without a word, then emptied his locker into a trash can before storming out again. He's a very large man, and is the kind of person who, wittingly or unwittingly, tends to use his size and his temper to intimidate others when he doesn't get his way. I myself am not particularly ruffled by temper tantrums thrown by adult men, but the two female employees who *were* at the office not only felt intimidated, but worried for their safety. They flagged it to our boss' boss, who has suspended the employee until further notice, and until we can work out if and when he can come back to the office.
So right now the office is a-flutter with rumours and gossip, which I have been doing my best to quash, with little success. There's a supervisor's meeting on Friday, so hopefully we'll be able to figure something out at that point. Part of me is glad it's not my employee, but part of me (and I flatter myself) thinks that if it *had* been my employee, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. You don't take an emotionally volatile person who's in the midst of a personal crisis and tell them you're disappointed in their absenteeism. There are better, more constructive, and more compassionate ways of going about it, even if you think he's being a giant man baby holding everyone hostage with his tantrums.
Argh.
Anyway, it's all academic for now. I hope he'll get counselling, figure himself out, and come back in a few months with a better perspective on things. I'm not holding my breath, but you never know.
I will attempt a more upbeat entry tomorrow, I promise. Maybe I'll update about my new Fitbit, or the nifty bracelet I got myself as an early/late Christmas present. :)
Work is slowly getting back into the swing of things after an exceptionally quiet holiday season. I was a little bored by the end, and while busy days can be their own kind of stress, I'd rather be steadily busy than twiddling my thumbs at work.
There's been both tragedy and drama at work, too.( Trigger: death of a child )
As for the drama, well. Dramatic drama is dramatic. We have an employee who's been having... let's say he's been having personal and professional difficulties. He's been disgruntled at work for the better part of a year, if not longer, and is already the kind of person who entertains paranoid fantasies about how everyone in the office is secretly against him, and that the organisation is horrible and corrupt, etc., etc. That compounded with problems with his home life (both objectively and subjectively) has led to him missing a lot of work in the past few months. Like, calling in sick roughly half of his working shifts. Right now in our office you don't need a doctor's note unless you miss more than four days of work in a row, so he's been able to "get away" with doing it.
As a result of this, however, his direct supervisor (not me) decided to call him to the mat for it. Now, while I agree that his absenteeism was beginning to be a problem, I disagree with her approach, which was to tell him how "disappointed" she was. Not surprisingly, he took it poorly, and left the office, never to return for the rest of his shift. He came in the next day instead, tossed his security pass at another employee without a word, then emptied his locker into a trash can before storming out again. He's a very large man, and is the kind of person who, wittingly or unwittingly, tends to use his size and his temper to intimidate others when he doesn't get his way. I myself am not particularly ruffled by temper tantrums thrown by adult men, but the two female employees who *were* at the office not only felt intimidated, but worried for their safety. They flagged it to our boss' boss, who has suspended the employee until further notice, and until we can work out if and when he can come back to the office.
So right now the office is a-flutter with rumours and gossip, which I have been doing my best to quash, with little success. There's a supervisor's meeting on Friday, so hopefully we'll be able to figure something out at that point. Part of me is glad it's not my employee, but part of me (and I flatter myself) thinks that if it *had* been my employee, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. You don't take an emotionally volatile person who's in the midst of a personal crisis and tell them you're disappointed in their absenteeism. There are better, more constructive, and more compassionate ways of going about it, even if you think he's being a giant man baby holding everyone hostage with his tantrums.
Argh.
Anyway, it's all academic for now. I hope he'll get counselling, figure himself out, and come back in a few months with a better perspective on things. I'm not holding my breath, but you never know.
I will attempt a more upbeat entry tomorrow, I promise. Maybe I'll update about my new Fitbit, or the nifty bracelet I got myself as an early/late Christmas present. :)
