Work Related Stress... ?!!!
 

So I had to fire one of my employees yesterday at work.

Not the first time I had to fire someone, but the worst time fuh shizzle.

I had to fire him for a bunch of stuff, really. He flipped off a customer, showed up late a lot, called out for funerals and what not, but I really liked him.

He was down on his luck, and one of the goals of the organization I work for is to help people who are struggling to get by. He did a good job despite his foibles, and the job I gave him was the only thing keeping him from reverting back to a life of crime.

Anyway, there is a lot of hugging going on at my work, it is a part of the culture, and this guy hugged the wrong girl, cause she reported that it made her uncomfortable, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Anyways, he went off. He claimed racism... hugged me three times durring the exit interview as a demonstration of the hug in question, told some horrible stories about the girl who reported him, and even talked about comming back and shooting up the place.

It caused me a bunch of stress, but I took it like the 100% real man's man that I am. After feverishly belting out an insane series of squat thrusts and 20 minutes on the heavy bag I felt much better.

Feel free to comment on what you've read, or just tell a work related story of stress of your own.

Peace, and may the force be with you... always.

(SIGH)...man, I wouldnt know where to start.

Yea Class...that is terrible. The fact he said he was going to come back and shoot up the place is scary. I hope you told the police or some one along those lines to watch him or something. Get extra security around, ect.

I beat yas all, I work at a call centre for eastlink, taking calls about people's cable internet and phones not working aka bitchy ppl majority of the day, on top of having to put up with dumb,ignorarant, rude and prejustice customers on a day in and out basis, I have to put up with the companies bs of changing polices and procedures and changing channels, changing packaging, pricing on a daily/weekly basis, getting considered late for 1 minute logging in, for start,lunch,breaks anything 1 minute late and you get latebook entries. and then on top of all that add in work politics and ahole/lazy staff and high turn over rates, shit pay, the fact christmas is coming and having to do xrays and blood work for a blood condition I may have, I'm stressed all the time fml.

I work for a non profit, so money's tight. No money for extra security.

They fired him in such a way that he would be able to collect so as not to flame him... I hope! The person from Human Resources said that there were 2 ways we could do it, 1 that he'd be able to collect, and 1 where he wouldn't. Unfortuneately, I wasn't in on the discussion where they decided which way to go.

They did seem only concerned that he might retaliate against his accuser though.

As a side note... this isn't the first person she has accused of making her feel uncomfortable. And no, the first person wasn't me.

Classified, YOU did not fire him- he fired himself.
Look, I have been where you are many times- I really truly think some peole act in a self-destructive way to get fired: flipping off customers, coming in late, etc.
Just present the person with the facts and tell them they screwed up and now it's come to this.
Mention that it's not your call, just your responsibility and that they made it possible for them to still collect unemployment. Push the positive and mention that he was obviously unhappy working there anyway.

Then let it go- a lot of people talk trash when they get fired, but it's usually a defensive thing- a way to cope with the embarassment of it.
If the guy should really come back and make trouble, then he's much more self destructive and unhappy than a free man gets to me without help.

Meanwhile, do some smart things- change all the passwords and combonations on everything and maybe adjust the schedule slightly.
I say this because we have been robbed by former employees that broke in, knowing where everyting of value was and even useing existing door combonations (duh!).

Whatever else, dont feel guilty! This was nothing you could have prevented and you're not responsible for the consequences of his bad actions.

can you explain the whole hugging thing? do you work for a bunch of hippies? also, calling out for a funeral? thats considered wrong now?

I work in the ghetto. People that live in the ghetto hug each other all the time. I'm not generalising; just observing and reporting.

Calling out for a funeral isn't considered wrong, but calling out for one a week might be considered excessive.

I should clarrify that to a certain extent I just report what is going on and someone above me makes the decisions and that part of what I do is get people that wouldn't be able to make it in a regular work enviroment ready for one.

I've got new work related stress now though, in the form of my assistant being grossly inept and annoying. I'm trying not to talk too much about it though because it only infuriates me.

i get it now that you put down some context. But, you have to remember that every job kinda has a certain degree of suck attached to it. lets just hope that fella doesnt come back with a gun.

I can't get over how popular Classifieds' threads have been. Awesome dude!:)

Yeah, I know.

I kinda just wanted to vent a little.

I'm a little surprised more Arkers haven't posted their own stories of work related stress.

Oh I have plenty of work related stress stories, though most are my own doing! ^^; And I can imagine pale in comparrison to most others.

But I feel for ya dude, I can understand the situation you were in was hard to deal with.

Stories of stress at work that are of your own doing are acceptable as well.