I had good things happen and bad things happen. Unfortunately, (sorry) I'm going to start with the bad because I just have to get it off my chest.
There is this girl that works for me. Let's call her Red. She is 23 years old, has a four year old daughter (who is adorable!) and lives about an hour away from the store with her parents. She drives so far to work because she wants to work at my store. Awwww!! Well... she walked out on me today. Literally, walked out and said, "I'm done." No explanation. Nothing.
This girl is the type that has tons of problems and does not leave it at the door. We all have problems, it's a fact. But, it does not belong in the workplace. I had a little soft spot for her and wanted to help her out, so I let a lot of things slide and was very understanding. She called in all the time and was very picky about her schedule. I really wanted to help her out and make something in her life work out. So, I let her know it was little out of the ordinary to be like this, but I wanted to see her succeed. I really should have known better...
The last straw was Saturday morning. I usually open Saturday mornings and she comes in at 10, an hour after me. It's usually just us two for an hour, then around lunchtime is when things start to really pick up. Well, the night before was the Miley Cyrus concert and I knew that many moms drove in to town for it, stayed the night and would probably be on their way home in the morning but many would make a quick stop at the mall. Plus, it snowed that morning (yes, snowed) and I know how mom's think... "Oh crap! I bet my daughter's clothes from last year don't fit! Let's go shopping for new winter clothes!" So I decided the night before to add one more person to open with us just in case we were swamped. Thank the Lord, I did because it was the busiest DAY WE HAVE EVER HAD! No joke! Up 100% and #2 in the company out of 900 stores. YOWZA!!!
Red called at 9:50am and asked if she could have the day off. I was a little speechless, so I didn't answer her right away. Then she said, "Do you have any other openers?" I go, "Yes.... XXXX is here...."
Red goes, "I just need the day. Can I have the day? Please?"
No explanation why. No nothing.
I. was. pissed. It's a SATURDAY and you're calling in 10 minutes before you're supposed to be here?! Hell NO!
I was so angry, I didn't even care what was wrong. I said fine, because, honestly? Her mind was probably made up and I didn't have time to argue with her and slammed down the phone. Yes, I slammed the phone down. It felt good.
So today was the first day I saw her since then. I had spoke with her Sunday to make sure she would be at work the following week, which was conveniently her last week. She said yes, that she would be there.
I am on vacation this week, but had to go in today and am going in tomorrow to finish up our first round of holiday floor sets (yes, I am a control freak. I will not be able to relax if I don't know MYSELF that it's done to my standards). Everything was fine yesterday (supposedly) and today things seemed fine. I didn't have a conversation with her like I normally did and pretty much just kept my distance because I was still angry. Honestly, I was expecting an apology from her that I wasn't going to get. We were slammed Saturday and she basically screwed me. Luckily, I was thinking ahead and was anticipating the worst so I was somewhat prepared but still. I'm upset. Can you tell I have been doing this a long time? I almost always expect the worst.
Today me and another girl were there in our scrubby clothes just doing the floorset, which is hard work. You're moving stuff around and up and down ladders so it's physically pretty demanding. I wasn't in charge of the floor, one of my assistants was and I noticed that Red wasn't talking to any customers. Not even acknowledging them. After about a half hour I was getting pissed (again, lol) so I went up to my assistant and let her know that she might want to say something to Red. My assistant asked Red to make sure she greeted people and Red flipped out. She stomped back to the registers, clocked out and announced she was "done!"
I cornered her in the bathroom (where we keep our personal things) and told her she owed it to me to talk about this. She said no, she didn't and that she was done. I told her that fine, and thank you for reminding me why it's pointless to bend over backwards for people. I walked her to the door and said good luck with things. She gave me one last nasty look and left. Maybe I was immature with my comment, but she needed to know that I regularly went out of my way for her.
Seriously? Seriously?? I was never unreasonable with this girl. If anything I was too nice. Which... leads me to this other story I just have to tell you guys. Now, I have to code her as job abandonment which, will most likely prevent her from ever getting re-hired with my company. Well, over 10 years ago when I was 16 years old I worked for this same company as a seasonal employee over Christmas. When I got this job back in February (so thankful...) and my new boss was entering me into the system, I was considered a rehire! Over 10 years later and what I did when I was a teenager could have affected my career! Yes, this is my career. I love my job and will probably do this forever. If I had quit unprofessionally, the way Red had I probably would not be sitting where I am right now. I thought this was an interesting story and I tell just about every new girl I hire. I'm sure it's hard for them to comprehend, but for me it was a great lesson that I luckily did not have to learn the hard way.
Okaaaaaay, so now you're probably wondering where the heck the good news is!! ;)
That guy I went out with Saturday night? Things are going great, we have been emailing and texting almost non-stop since Sunday and he just asked me out again today!!! :) I really hope things work out! I'm enjoying getting to know him.
That was all I had for the good news. Sorry it was so short... hopefully I will have more to report later!! :)
Have you ever had to quit a job the wrong way? Sometimes it's necessary, but if so, why? What happened?
14 comments:
sheesh!! I can't believe the girl did that! Hope she does not put you down as a reference! haha
YAY for the next date! Can't wait to hear about it! Hope your having a great vacation! = )
I totally quit my retail job at the Gap when I was 16 inappropriately.
The only reason I'd got the job was to save up money to go on a trip across the country that summer. When it came time to book holidays they wouldn't give me the time requested off. So I handed in my two week notice, worked that shift, and never went back. Ever.
Yeah it was probably a bit stuipd, but at 16 I wasn't about to let a job get in the way of something I'd booked for MONTHS in advance. And no I have no aspirations to ever again work at the Gap so I guess I'll survive.
That's the point of my story though! Did my 16 year old self think that I would EVER be in my position now? No, of course not. The point is some things DO come back to bite ya! You just never know.... ;)
I can't say I've ever actually quite a job. Mainly because the job I'm working now if the first one I had after grad school. And before that I mainly worked summer camps where there was a definite end to when you would be working.
I attended the University of Kentucky for one of my many college semesters and was working in a cafe in the univ. library. I quit without notice because of this great nanny job that I was offered -- great pay, totally worked around my class hours, etc.
Well, the nanny job didn't pan out with their "old" gal changed her mind and wanted the job back, and I was told that I am not rehirabled at the university.
Let's say I wanted to go for some great teaching position someday (this would be contingent on a bunch of degrees higher than my current BA) and an opportunity arose there. I wouldn't be hirable. Let the record state: I'd never want to work in Lexington because I am that much anti-Wildcat, sports wise, but still... sometimes I wonder if that decision will ever come back to haunt me... and I sure hope it doesn't.
First, I just have to say that I LOVE how passionate you are about your job. It totally shines through in your writing and I think that's AWESOME! Too many people hate their jobs, which is stupid since we spend SO much time at them!
Secondly, isn't working with all women ANNOYING sometimes? I've had that problem at restaurants I've worked at.
I've done a lot of serving/hostessing jobs and those are the only ones I quit inappropriately. I had a hostess job at East Side Mario's when I was 16 and I just quit showing up for work one day. Another job I had waitressing I quit with no notice but they still hired me back four months later to help them out through the busy Christmas season.
I think it kind of depends on the company, though. With serving/restaurant work there is SO MUCH turnover (at least where I lived) that they can't afford to not hire people, especially people with waitressing experience!
Anyways, I think what that girl did to you is TOTALLY unfair. One of my friends is like that with jobs, she will just drop them without giving notice or anything - she's ran up quite a record of jobs with NO good references over the last few years!
i quit my job at old navy over the phone. once the Christmas buzz faded I was getting no hours. Like seriously 4 hours a week. So when I got my schedule and it had NO hours on it, I called and quit. I said there is no point of me being on the payroll if I'm not going to be working to get paid. They knew I was leaving in a month and a half to study abroad, so maybe that was why they did it. Who knows. I was their "top ONC associate" (Old Navy Card) and got prizes every month for how many cards I'd get people to open, so I was really surprised. They strive on those ONCs!!
I don't really care that I quit over the phone. I did at the time though. I actually wanted to go in and talk to them, but my parents told me they didn't deserve it.
It would hard for me to be so calm in that situation. What a brat!
But I guess I was too at one point...In high school I worked at a grocery store for a few weeks and I sucked at it. This was before they had the little spinning things to look up produce and you had this binder you had to pull out or just memorize the stuff. Well I was ringing up apples as cherries and avacados as pears and even the things with bar codes I could barely get to scan correctly.
So one day I wanted to go to the lake with my friends instead of work, so I had my friend call in and tell them I wouldn't be coming in that day or ever again.
Yeah, I was young and dumb, but I just wasn't cut out for the grocery store business anyway!
I've quit 2 jobs with no notice, BUT I at least was honest that I wasn't giving notice and about why I was quitting...does that count? :) I think honesty always trumps a lot of things, it just seems better to have the true reason out on the table. I do feel bad though! And the other 4 times I quit I gave a 2 week notice! And worked really hard until the end! :)
I don't even want to go into one job I quit "the wrong way." But lets just say I had worked for them multiple tiems and I was pretty much doing them a favor after I graduated by being an onsite supervisor two days a week. It was not my main job nor was it paying well and I wanted to use my degree. I quit 3 weeks before the school year ended because I had plane tickets to visit a friend and they were not going to give me the time off because they basically sucked and everyone quit working. And I had a full-time job lined up for a week afrer I returned from my trip, so I was going to quit anyway. I knew I was going to quit a full month before I did. But I put my two weeks in to the day. They basically promised me a lot of stuff when I came back to work for them and did not follow through. I did not feel bad about it. But you can imagine my boss made me feel like shit. It was quite unprofessional. It did not help that someone had told her I was thinking about quitting. So when she made her bitchy remark to her I made sure to tell her how unprofesional it was to talk about people behind their back. Oh well...
Wow, that girl sucks. I would hate dealing with stuff like that. Reminds me of my days when I managed a team at my old job! Yuck!
I have only really quick a job not so appropriately once. At my first job after college, I gave notice and quit immediately. BUT I was hired as their finance manager and could see they barely had enough money to make payroll. And people came to work in their pajamas. It was BAD.
You are very patient and kind. Even if she didn't deserve your generous nature as a boss, I am firm believer in karma and that what goes around comes around. That actually happened for me last week with a horrible boss being let go, so things really do end up working out. It's nice to see other people (such as yourself) who has the strong work ethic I also pride myself on!
I hope the date works out as well!
I'm so glad it's going well with the guy!
And, I'm sorry about the girl at work... sometimes you can't make people happy. Hopefully for her sake one day she will understand what was wrong about what she did.
That is so annoying! Its hard to be the boss especially when are on the younger side. I always find it hard to strike a balance between being a good boss but not becoming an untouchable. At my job I only have one direct report but I also oversee an entire volunteer program. I once had a volunteer from a school program who was getting class credit to volunteer with us 30 hrs a week. So I made her my right hand man under my assistant. She started to become kind of like a little sister to me until.. long story short- when she turned 18 and could get the "real job" that she wanted she came in- told me she wasn't volunteering anymore. When I reminded her that she was getting school credit for it and she would fail- she proceeded to have her mommy call my boss and bad mouth me to get her out of her obligation- all lies!
And that's just a volunteer so I feel ya lady! Let us know if you find out what her problem was!
Post a Comment