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glassy eyes The NR showed up really late to work yesterday. By 8:15am, the OA and I were becoming worried about her. I attempted to call her cell phone, but the number had been disconnected or was turned off (it was disconnected). Waited awhile. Tried to call again. And again. And again. Decided to call the answering service to see if she had called and left a message, as before I remembered to unforward the phones, the phone had rang once, letting me know someone was trying to call. I thought it might have been her. But no message. I text messaged my boss to see if he had heard from her--he hadn't. Decided that if she hadn't called or come in by 9am, that I would call her emergency contact--her mom in another state--to see when she'd last heard from her and if she had another way to get ahold of her. My boss called back and also suggested calling her friend--who was one of her references. At 8:55, she called, sounding awful, and thoroughly apologetic. She said that she wasn't feeling good last night and this morning, and she'd tried to call 3 times before 8am, and then fell back asleep. I told her that I was glad to hear from her--that she was okay--and to feel better soon. The OA decided that she was hung over when I told her this, and we went about our day. The phones were busy and I wasn't getting much done in the way of the billing, and at 11:30, the NR walks in. Again, she's very apologetic, and again explains that she was up most of the night, not feeling well. She looked like hell. Her eyes were red and glassy, and I wondered if she was really sick and not just coming down off of something. Amazingly enough, I've never been around someone who was high--but she didn't look like someone who was just hung over b/c of alcohol...or just sick. I told her that we were just very worried that something had happened to her, and that next time, she should leave a message with the answering service. She said she didn't know she could talk to them, and would do so next time. After a couple minutes, I went to her desk, and asked her if she was feeling well enough to work, and she said that all she would be doing is sitting there answering the phones, so it would be fine. The OA came in and asked what she was doing there, and then declared that she looked like she was having a hangover if she ever saw one. The NR said that wasn't it, and then the OA said she better not get her sick and that we were worried sick about her. I felt weird about it all afternoon. I've never had to manage people before, and I've never had a situation like that occur to me, so I wasn't sure how to best handle it. I'm not sure I believe that it wasn't something other than her being sick, but what if it was? I want to be able to take her at her word...so I decided that how I handled it was probably best until it happens again...if it happens again. And hopefully it won't. My boss called today and said that he'd received a msg from Dr Ass, saying he wanted to talk about the NR. He asked me if the OA had said anything to me, and I told him that she hadn't, but that it could be about what happened yesterday. And I explained about the glassy red eyes, and my suspicions. I told him that she didn't act any differently, it was just the eyes that I was wondering about. I explained what I'd said to her, and he just said, "Okay." I wanted to talk to him about it, but I wanted to do so in person, and he's not going to be back in the office until next week. I was going to drop him an email, and then also request that I go to some managerial training courses, because I honestly don't have a clue on what to do. I'm not a natural born leader, and I don't like conflict, although I'm getting better. And I don't know what is legal and what isn't. He didn't give any indication as to whether he thought I should have handled it differently, but it caused me to worry some more. *sigh* I talked about it with Artboy at lunch time, closing my door and discussing what happened and what I said to her. He thought it was fine--and that my plan to talk about my concerns if it happens again was good. But he thinks I should pull her aside today and tell her that I'm concerned about her lateness and her not leaving a message yesterday. I'm not sure about that. *sigh* Let's throw Jen into another situation without training, and see how she does. Sink or swim, I guess. Yesterday, I also received an email from our program manager, telling me that someone would be in to fill out paperwork "to get started with us." Which, to me, meant he had been hired. So when the guy came in, I gave him the application and the information that he would need, along with a list of things he needed to do, including a drug test, and any titers, etc he'd need. He was weird. Not outright rude...but very abrupt and unfriendly. He gave me a very bad vibe. First, he seemed irritated that one of our counselors was not in the office. I explained to him that they don't come into the office regularly, but that he should call her to set up an appointment. He told me, "Well, I TOLD M that I would be here today to fill out paperwork, so I don't understand why P isn't here." I again stated that she doesn't come into the office and that an appointment would have to be made. Then he informs me that the application only has two spaces for previous employment information, and I told him that was all we needed (we do, after all, have his resume on file), and he gave me such an attitude about it. Then he started going on and on about how other organizations that he worked for provided his liability insurance for him. He said this three times before I finally stated, "That's now how we do it here." While he was out in the lobby filling out the paperwork, I emailed our program manager and asked him where he'd found this guy, and after the guy left, the program manager called me to talk about it. I told him about our encounter and told him that I got a really bad vibe from this guy. I mean, seriously. How many people behave that way towards the office staff of a place you want to work for?? And then the program manager told me that he hadn't been hired yet--that P still had to interview him and check out his references. Would have been nice to know! The guy came back later, and wasn't as irritated. He gave me some paperwork that he was missing, and then told me that he'd already gone down and had the testing done--which is pretty expensive. I let everyone know that this had already occurred, and sent P an email on my reservations with the guy--explaining what had happened. She replied back this morning, also with reservations, saying he had given her an attitude yesterday when she had explained that she couldn't talk right then but would call him back. The program manager is like, well, I need to have someone to man the hotline, so we'll just try him out for now. But really, do we want someone like that representing our company??? We always put the cart before the horse and then get in trouble. i'm sorry that you really need an employee to fill a new open position, but stop saying we can do something before we have the personnel in place to do it! We get in over our head and then end up getting into trouble. I'm so frustrated with this place. My boss, at least, was happy that I had made my views known. I told him that on the few folks we'd ended up firing, that I'd gotten bad vibes about them when I met them, and wished I had said something each time. Didn't know if it was my place, but that I felt I needed to. He assured me that this is a team operation and that my views were welcome. So at least there's that. |