A new kind of fear...

So...today was my first official firing of an employee since starting work at Platinum. I've fired people before in my jobs as a real estate office manager, but nobody like the man who was fired today...whom I'll call "Joe." Let me give you some background...

When Joe first came to work here, he struck me as a harmless, middle-aged guy who smoked too much, was a little too obsessed with online gaming and really needed to move out of his mom's basement. He kept to himself and quietly did his job...until he got his friend "Kristy" (yes yes, another fake name...) a job here. Kristy is a 17-year old high school drop out with one baby at home and another on the way, and from the moment I met her it was obvious to me that she thought very little of herself and would be a perfect target for someone who wanted to take full advantage of her. And upon her employment, I started to see that is exactly what Joe wanted to do.

Now, it did seem pretty odd that a 17-year old would be hanging out with a 35+ year old man (even if he did provide her with transportation to work and cigarettes), but at first I didn't think much of it other than, "Ew, gross." However, as the days and weeks progressed I really noticed how Joe treated Kristy...the demeaning comments, the bossiness, the inquiries as to everything she was doing and why...and then he began to isolate her. He picked where they sat here in the call center...he started to take her to the furthest corner far away from everyone. At this point, the concern my co-workers and I felt intensified, and we started devising ways to get her away from him.

And then, the opportunity came...one late night, Joe was teasing/bugging Kristy as she was trying to take a call...this irritated the technician (I work for a security systems company dealing w/sales reps and technicians), who in turn complained to the owner of the company about the lack of professionalism...who then instructed us in no uncertain terms to take care of the problem. Kristy's supervisor and I jumped at the chance to separate them and issued the rule that for the next 30 days, they were not to sit in the same row and were not to converse at any point during their shift except while on break. Joe reacted quite angrily...he argued and argued and ARGUED w/me until my co-worker (who is a guy...) stepped in and basically told him to shut up or get out.

Every day after that Joe whined to me, saying he was sick of being picked on, sick of being treated like a small child...blah blah blah blah blah. Refusing to accept responsibility for himself, he constantly told me about how cruel the world had been to him and how nothing...and I do mean NOTHING...was ever his fault. Having already been written up at least once for violating basically every single policy we have here (you have to get written up 3 times for the same policy before technically you're fired), I disgustedly told myself if he did one more thing I was going to fire him. Then I checked his phone logs...the guy was missing several calls every shift...and I decided that honestly, if we were paying him to answer the phone and he wasn't answering, then we shouldn't be paying him. So the decision was made.

I e-mailed my boss letting him know of my plan...Joe had his day off, then I had mine...so today was the designated day. I wrote up all the paperwork and managed to forget all about it...until 30 minutes before my shift began. And then my stomach knotted up, my heart pounded and I literally felt like I was going to vomit. Did I mention we'd looked Joe up on the Utah website and discovered he's been arrested 5 times for various charges including assault? Yeah, that was no comfort to me as I imagined what would happen. I pictured myself telling him and how he'd react...first he'd yell, then he'd lunge across the desk...arms outstretched for my throat. Or maybe he'd take a swing at my face. And then he'd storm out of the office, grab a crowbar from the back of his white trash car and start swinging at my car and after he was done with that he'd grab a shotgun from the trunk and come marching back in the call center...and so on. Totally unrealistic, I know...but even still, I was SO TERRIFIED.

I got to work and I was shaking...hyperventillating...the works. Never in my almost 5 years of management have I felt like I was ever in danger (well, there was the one guy who stalked me, but even that wasn't as scary...) until today. I met with my boss to go over the paperwork I'd compiled, and then I stood up to go get Joe so I could deliver the news. My boss then told me he didn't want me to do it...he was going to tell Joe that he's fired.

I felt some relief, but I was still horrified out of my mind...Joe followed me into my boss' office, where I sat next to him while he received his termination notice. At first he reacted exactly like I had thought...he was angry, he was defensive, he said, "Everyone picks on me (honestly, he really said that)," he was extremely rude. But my boss threw it right back in his face and was every bit as rude as Joe was being. I mean, he basically let Joe have it.

And then to my complete and utter astonishment, Joe backed down, handed over his employee badge and swipe card to get into the building, said "thank you it's been fun" and it was over. ALL that fear and dread...and all someone had to do was treat Joe the way he treated others.

I honestly am still baffled and totally amazed by it.

But at least I'm not scared.