You're Fired!

*Sigh* Today is killing me, I'm so tired and got a long way to go, just taking a break. Tempted to eat a biscuit.... hhhmmm will consider shortly.

The only light relief was an insane call from Mr J and CatMachine around mid afternoon. I thought CatMachine had gone back home, but she is still here, with an unbooked return ticket. I'm really happy about that, I really like spending time with CM, she's very easy to get along with and so that makes my weekend all the more looked forward to.

Still weekend is another 2 days away... in the meantime I have tomorrow to face....

I have to fire a member of my team :( Which, to be quite frank I don't want to do.

Last month the end of her probation came up and I advised her I was going to extend it by a month simply because she had not been doing a good job. She is only an admin assistant, but basic calls are dealt with badly, she can't take messages (I think she is dyslexic, having listened to call recordings - she repeats back the spelling of a name or a number and although she says it right, its is written down the wrong way) and generally, she's not the sharpest tool in the box.

I practically had to beg my boss to keep her on as he was ready to let her go, but I always like to give people just "one more chance" to prove themselves or give it a last shot at proving me wrong. Unfortunately she did not, even though we spent time listening to her calls and me giving her "constructive criticism" trying to spur her on and improve her customer service quality. The week before I went away she advised a client that they were on cover, when they had never been Insured by us. Subsequently the client went ahead with his hospitalisation and we had no choice but to cover his bill due to our gross misconduct. This has never happened in the 18 years our company have been open. I got a royal bollocking when I visited my MD in the UK. Well, not so much me directly, but the situation as a whole.

Needless to say, my MD wanted to fire her immediately, but given the laws and all I pushed to keep her until the end of probation and took her off the phones immediately. Anyway, tomorrow she returns from her Deepavali holiday and well, I have to tell her that her probation has been terminated and that this doesn't seem to be the right job for her - a nice way of saying - you're fired.

Ergh, I really feel terrible. It's her first job out of Uni and all. The thing is, I've done what I can, haven't I? I mean, I gave her a month of "extra time" to redeem herself, then, a written warning after the phone incident where she could have again, redeemed herself in other areas and well, I kinda wish she'd just handed in her notice.

I have already decided that I'm going to get it out of the way first thing tomorrow - no good delaying the inevitable. And I am going to give her the option of resigning - this way when she is employed by her next company it won't look as bad and I can give her a straight reference - saying that she chose to leave. At least that's something. I just feel bad for her. If we were a company of 100+ people then sure, maybe I'd move her to an area of something she might be better at, but we're not, we're an office of 11. And I simply can't afford to keep her on, she has made so many fuck ups. Sigh....

I'm going to pray tonight and ask for that someone helps her out of this muddle - obviously, she will be fired but perhaps something good can come of it - she can find a better job, argh, I hope so. Hopefully the experience she has had in this company has enriched her... somehow (I really struggled to write that line as I don't believe it has done).

I think I might just say the tiniest prayer for me... that helps me deliver the bad news, in the nicest way possible... if that is, possible.... at the end of the day, this is my job, I'm not here to be liked or popular I'm here to run the business and both my MD and CEO want her gone. I do too but if I had my way I'd move her elsewhere or do something, but, I have to keep reminding myself that we are not a charity, we are a business.

Wish me luck.