Something happened at work yesterday that hit home for me pretty hard. In fact, it hurt, although I kind-of sort-of knew it was coming in one form or the other. It was one of those things that was inevitable, but the way it happened really upset me a lot.
For the last three years, I have worked for a woman who was and is far beyond a supervisor. She’s a friend, who I just happened to work for. We had a relationship where she would and did bust me in my ass when I screwed up, and 30 minutes later we would be laughing about something. To say that I love her like a slightly older sister is a gross understatement. She is one of those rare people that I’ve come across in life who I would do anything for, no matter what it was. When my wife first arrived on island, the two of them met the first day that my wife was here. My friend didn’t say a word, but reached out and hugged my wife, letting her know in this simple gesture that she was happy to meet her and that she’s family.
Tuesday morning, my boss was summoned to Corporate HQ and fired. Well, not exactly fired. It seems that the people she met with didn’t actually have the guts to tell her to her face that she was fired. What they did was tell her that it would be best if she quit. When she refused, they told her that she was being let go. They handed her the paycheck they owed her, escorted her over to her office, watched her pack her stuff.
This is a woman who gave her heart and soul to the company, gave more of herself than any other person I have ever worked for, and they put her on the streets like yesterday’s garbage.
In the past 24 hours, I have heard the reason that she was fired, and still can’t wrap my head around it. It seems that she was in a meeting with two other people from my department and two from another department. During this meeting, she had a phone conversation with someone else in the company, a call that so enraged her that once it was over, she threw her phone down on the floor in disgust. She was let go because of “violence”; to wit, because she threw her phone down. Apparently one of the people in this meeting felt threatened by the “violence of the act” and complained to someone in senior management.
No, I am not joking. She was let go because of violence. This is so strange that I still can’t understand it.
The bottom line is this. The company that I work for has lost a manager who was great with people, a superb technician, a telecommunications professional who is simply one of the best. I have lost someone who I work with that I felt unafraid to bounce ideas off of, someone who I trust implicitly. We still are and I hope always will remain friends, but it sucks that she will no longer be there at work, to share laughs, talk trash, and sneak in some fun amidst the chaos that our company seems to relish.
Of all the bad days I have had at work, yesterday was easily the worst.
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