GINGER
(Guest post by Hoop)
Hey everyone! I know it has been a long time since I have made a guest post, but it is necessary. Help would be very much appreciated. If you have ever been on the receiving end of this situation and are offended, I'm sorry. We have a very annoying, helpless, temperamental hypochondriac plaguing our office. We will call her "Ginger." She causes everyone to do more work and she is stressing out the manager beyond belief. She has called in sick 16 days so far this year but always presents a doctor's note. She won't stop asking questions. She always F's up. She is incapable of learning. She always has an excuse. She tries to transfer blame. She gets jealous and on and on and on...
The worst part is the other 5 of us are getting bad. The behind the back jokes are getting out of control. If she heard the bombs being dropped, surely she would take the old double barrel wrapped up in the rebel flag behind the seat of her boyfriend's duelly to her head. Granted, like a bear, it would take a few shots to penetrate to the brain and someone would have time to get help. Also assuming she could figure out how the gun worked. And that someone would help her. It is getting very ugly and this woman will not quit. We are in the lending business and we have way too many obstacles to overcome right now as it is. Our customers don't like her either. All she talks to them about is how our economy sucks. How can I get her to quit? I've assigned a heavy workload, but I find myself helping her do it.
Any other ideas?
Hoop
Labels: Daily Hoop Conversations, Gripes, Guest Post
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32 comments
32 Comments:
I wish I had ideas for you, but I don't. I'm sorry. I did learn about this briefly when I read and then watched the "Celestine Prophecies." People give and taken energy from theit environments. It is very true. Sometimes tough love is the only way to go. Be honest with her; how else will she ever know?
I suggest you go watch the movie "9 to 5".
Or, maybe you could not so much give her a heavy workload but tasks that are way beyond her ability - doesn't sound like it would be too hard to do. Then again, she'd probably offload that too. I'm back to the movie. Or, here's an idea, the guys in the office should draw straws, whoever gets the short straw dates her and treats her like shit and then breaks up with her and makes her life hell at work till she quits? Without of course crossing the harrassment line. Could that work?
encapsulate everything on her desk in jello, like on the office?
Offer one of your customers a 1% reduction on their loan if they'll "take her out."
I think I saw that on Law & Order once.
Are there ever any performance evaluations there? Cause if there aren't can I have an application. LOL .. Kidding.
If you guys worked in the same cubicle I would tell you to just stop showering everyday.
Uhh .... Yeah, I got nothing.
Tell her. And, if you're not the office manager, then they should tell her.
P.S. Is she dating a Dr.? How does she get a sick note every time? Is it the same doc? Most doc's won't continue to do something like that unless she really is illin'.
If you don't tell her, she'll never know and continue to do what she's doing and drive all ya'll bat-shite crazy.
Does she report to you? If she does, then give her some bench marks. Metrics she has to meet, tasks she has to accomplish. When she doesn't meet them, put her on a performance plan (more of the same but with the stipulation that this is now an official warning), and when she doesn't meet THOSE, then you can fire her.
If she doesn't report you - you're screwed. :)
Isn't there a Ginger in every office? People are just so freaking weird.
GOOD LUCK!
If she always messes up, write her up for it--document well--and make sure that after a couple of clear warnings the next action is termination. That way you'll help protect your company from any claim to unemployment she might make. (oh, and have her sign the warnings)
same situation, but place it in a small italian restaurant!! I just wrote about it today in my blog!
I couldn't be any more rude to her if I went up and bitch slapped her in the face.
Good luck...let me know if you get any good ideas!
She needs to be fired. People like that totally drain the rest of the team and are nothing but bad. Tell your boss to grow a pair, start documenting her inability to do work, excess sick days and s/he needs to fire her. ASAP.
Stop helping her.
Ooooh, tell her how to do things only tell her the wrong way -- that's mean, but hey.
Ignore her questions (always knowing she's coming and happen to turn one side of your head away from her).
Then, when she questions you? Tell her you can't hear out of that ear due to water "in the ear." Tell her it's become infected and has given you virtigo.
Your doctor is working on it, blah, blah. That way you can ignore her all the time and she'll be forced to suck and she'll (finally) be seen for her incapacity.
[She's not sleeping with your boss, is she? hmmm] LOL!
Funny, I was just thinking about you guest posting yesterday! Well I guess it's officially Friday so I mean Wednesday.
Anyhoop, it would be funny if she tried to go the double barrel route and F'd it up and shot her self in the foot or something.
I'm going to hell.
Make her cry alot. She'll quit eventually. BUT there is that economy.
Reduce her hours and look for someone else. When you find someone let her go.
~Jef
Farmer's wife is right. By helping her, you're only extending the pain and making the situation worse. Give her her work and make sure nobody helps her. Let her fail. Oh, and document, document, document.
Pay her?
I have vertigo. You don't want it. Besides, it's not scary or tough to anyone else. Nothing cool about sitting at your desk one minute and lying flat on the floor the next trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
She'd never get that.
I'm not getting it. Why doesn't the manager just fire her? If it were just the rampant absenteeism, you might be on shaky legal ground; but it sounds like she's providing more than enough proof of her incompetence in other areas to justify it.
Is she someone's niece? Is she extremely hot and sleeping with the CEO?
If she always thinks she is sick make her think the office is doing it. You could casually mention you wonder if the walls have asbestos... is that lead paint? Then sneeze on her. The lot the office is on used to be a land fill right? That can't be healthy. I'm going to start saying that stuff at my office just for the hell of it.
Hi Hoop! I'm with Fiwa...you want to do it right & clean so there aren't any ugly disputes--hyprochondriacs have all this obsessive energy to give to their problem of the moment, so if she gets the impression she was treated unfairly, she could become a real pain in the ass claiming discrimination on the basis of her health issues or retardation.
I was an office mgr for a big crew, we'd get the usual slackers, whiners, blamers, etc. I'd set them down with very clear benchmarks/quotas, let them know what's expected of them; in addition to documenting their progress, it was important to have a conversation with them at certain junctures--like after she takes unexpected sick days (Jane, I understand you were ill, but you'll need to make up this work by Friday), after a missed deadline, etc. That sets up an unequivocal paper trail...leads to escalation--a warning, a probationary period, then the okay to fire. If you have an HR dept or person, they should start getting involved when the first official warning is issued.
To just fire her b/c she's disruptive, annoying, sick all the time, is too vague & opens you up to a lawsuit/grievance complaints...you have to prove that bottom-line, she couldn't perform her job at the required level.
So annoying! Good luck :)
Hoop man, i totally understand ive worked with one or two people like that myself, though i dont think it was as severe. In any case especially when the economy is bad as she so often states, it sounds like she is dead weight. And anyone with a heart hates to do it but this solution will only get solved if you let her go. I'm not entirely sure how i would break it to her myself but if you get complaints from customers (not sure if you do) or you can show that she is not productive and cant get her work done than maybe this field is not for her and she might find it easier to thrive in a different environment, perhaps even a hospital haha. In any case, good luck. If you dont think that firing her is a good option, you could always load her with work you know she can do, i.e. busy work. but that just emphasises the point of dead weight, dont make the entire company suffer because of one individual.
Chris
Oh, yuck, one of those. I have no clue what to do, other than offer you my sympathy.
sounds like some sabotage might be in order... perhaps dousing her work area in booze, and planting empty little airplane bottles of vodka... it's a lot easier to fire a drunk than a fuck up!
You need to CYA, which means document and do the performance evaluations and tell her that she needs to clean up her act. Then when she doesn't, you can fire her ass with no feelings of guilt. Tell her about the customer complaints about her as well, point out that it is not professional of her to be complaining to the customer about the economy.
It is pointless to try to force someone into quitting, that might just make her dig her heels in and stay to spite you.
My two cents: stop doing her work for her. Give her the work, clearly outline the consequences of not getting it done in time, and then let her take the consequences. It might cause more problems in the short run, but in the long run it should force her to shape up or ship out. And then at least you'll have some serious missed deadlines to document for her employee file.
Leave a great, big, fresh, stinkie dookie on her desk, and on her seat.
Repeat if necessary.
Howdy Hoop,
I could go for the funny, but I see you have plenty of that.
First, it is necessary to talk with the rest of the staff and remember that if she hears she could make life even worse, with a harassment case or something ridiculous like that.
Is there an attendence policy in place? If not consider one, and even with doctor's excuses most places still access points for too many absences. Definitely stop helping her complete her workload, and when she complains state it is her job and if she can't do it, than you will have to find someone who will.
Someone does need to talk to her about the customer service though, as part of her job she can;t be saying those things and some places would reprimand for that.
Good luck!!!
Well, at my former job, a dr's excuse only meant that you had proof that you'd been to the dr. but did not mean it was not an "occurance" and after 3 documented occurances in a year, no matter what, you will be terminated. Unless you have FMLA papers on file to cover you for the time missed. this is acceptable in my state because this is a "right to hire, right to fire" state, one of only 3 i think, in the usa, but if you happen to be one of them, you can still consider her frequent absences as detrimental to her work performance and terminate her employment based upon that. Otherwise, you will have to start doing things like writing her up for not completing her workload, get that documentation on file, then terminate for that. you must always CYA...hope that helped :)
When you figure out what to do with her let me know. I got one too.
You could CALL her on this stuff. Stop being a wimp about things and say some of this stuff to her face. You're not her boss, so she won't sue you for anything. Life is too freakin' short Hoop!
You could start by sending her an anonymous link to this post...
I am trying to think outside the box but what if you all acted like you couldn't see her or hear her?? Get everyone to do it and drive her crazy!
What is this crazy ass dr.'s note excuse? Are you in high school? If she has too many absences and is not doing her job then the manager needs to speak to her. Obviously, she has a doctor "friend". Obviously, he or she is an idiot to be friends with this person.
that's kinda weird--my friend is in the lending business (though in Canada) and having similar problems w/ someone there. But then again, perhaps her bigger problem is last week some guy came in and pooped in their hallway. So hmmm...I guess the good news is so far you don't have strange customers doing THAT ;-). Good luck w/ her!
Tough Love Babeh Tough Love...
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