It’s hard to believe that some people in positions of power somehow lack common decency.
Searching for a job can be an exercise extremely detrimental to your confidence.
Whether you’re pounding the pavement with your CV that you’ve sweated and laboured for hours on, looking to change profession or even match yourself up with a possible future career, jobs these days are seriously scarce on the ground… (or so we’re being told).
via Giphy
It’s another problem however when you do have a job and you don’t get on with the boss or they mistreat you.
One boss has been unveiled on AskAManager.org, a website designated for bosses to ask for advice on how to deal with employee relations, and I can’t make up my mind if he’s stupid or just lacking in common sense.
The boss writes to the site for advice, asking how to deal with an employee after denying her the chance to go to her college graduation.
The letter in full reads:
“I manage a team, and part of their jobs is to provide customer support over the phone. Due to a new product launch, we are expected to provide service outside of our normal hours for a time. This includes some of my team coming in on a day our office is normally closed (based on lowest seniority because no one volunteered).
One employee asked to come in two hours after the start time due to her college graduation ceremony being that same day (she was taking night classes part-time in order to earn her degree). I was unable to grant her request because she was the employee with the lowest seniority and we need coverage for that day. I said that if she could find someone to replace her for those two hours, she could start later. She asked her coworkers, but no one was willing to come in on their day off. After she asked around, some people who were not scheduled for the overtime did switch shifts with other people (but not her) and volunteered to take on overtime from others who were scheduled, but these people are friends outside of work, and as long as there is coverage I don’t interfere if people want to give or take overtime of their own accord. (Caveat: I did intervene and switch one person’s end time because they had concert tickets that they had already paid for, but this was a special circumstance because there was cost involved.)
I told this team member that she could not start two hours late and that she would have to skip the ceremony. An hour later, she handed me her work ID and a list of all the times she had worked late/come in early/worked overtime for each and every one of her coworkers. Then she quit on the spot.
I’m a bit upset because she was my best employee by far. Her work was excellent, she never missed a day of work in the six years she worked here, and she was my go-to person for weekends and holidays.
Even though she doesn’t work here any longer, I want to reach out and tell her that quitting without notice because she didn’t get her way isn’t exactly professional. I only want to do this because she was an otherwise great employee, and I don’t want her to derail her career by doing this again and thinking it is okay. She was raised in a few dozen different foster homes and has no living family. She was homeless for a bit after she turned 18 and besides us she doesn’t have anyone in her life that has ever had professional employment. This is the only job she has had. Since she’s never had anyone to teach her professional norms, I want to help her so she doesn’t make the same mistake again. What do you think is the best way for me to do this?”
Despite the employee working for the company for six years, the boss refused her simple request to go to her graduation, yet still seems to be confused by her decision to quit. Am I missing something here?
The owner of the site responds to the idiot of a boss, advising them to “consider reaching out to her, apologising for how you handled the situation, and offering her the job back if she wants it.”
Moral of the story here? Treat your workers with respect!
