Yeah, I've seen bad karma at work too, J.. One gal was such a difficult employee of mine. She would go home at lunch to her mom's and when she got back, she was always in a terrible mood. My boss is the one who kind of figured it out and surmised that she went home and told her mom the play-by-play every day, and she would give her daughter advice as how to get back at everyone who pissed her off. Thing is, if she would have done her job better, people wouldn't have pissed her off!
Her husband wanted to get into architect school and my husband and I both helped him with his essay. He went down there, but she had a hard time living with her mom without him, and during my vacation, she gave her notice. I was so relieved, because I didn't want to fire her (he had school tuition to pay) and my boss didn't want to either. The last week, we had a terrible day, with a financial error she made in a customer account, having to open hours worth of accounts, the receptionist out sick, and this woman running around barking at people. We all were stressed to the max because she was making every one stressed with her lack of calm, to say the least. I tried to kindly talk her down, as her manager, but she blew up in my face and said all kinds of ugly things. I had tears in my eyes at that point, had to take a call from a difficult client, and thought that if my boss were there, she would have been thrown out on the street - this was her last day. As soon as I was done with that phone call, she was all of a sudden in a good mood, and told me how glad she was to have had that talk. I thought that gal had lost her freakin' mind, acting like what she had done was an okay thing to do.
I learned a lot as a new manager with this. She was my very first hire. She went down to the college her husband went to and got a job, and in the next month, I got a call from the woman who she worked with. She was so upset because this gal had come in one morning screaming at her "Who moved my computer?!" The big boss was there and came out in the hallway to tell her that it was HIS computer, and to pack her things and leave. The woman was humiliated that she had hired someone who would act like that, and knew that it reflected badly on her. She asked me if this gal had done this before, and I told her that sadly, she had, on her last day. I told her that if I hadn't been short-handed and dealing with some crises, I would have asked her to just leave that morning. I know I couldn't have told her as a reference - that gets companies sued - but I told this poor lady that I understood how upset she was, and at least she didn't lose money for her company like this gal had for mine.
So yes, there is karma that comes back around for some people. Unfortunately, not for all. I got so much better at taking the bull by the horns after that with other hires. I learned how to give performance appraisal reviews. That made a big difference with all but one - a lady I didn't hire who came while I was out on maternity leave. But that's a different story.
Since you can't write your work story, I decided to write mine for you. The end of the story, J.? After her husband finished at the college, they came back and she called me asking for another job. Of course, I didn't offer her an interview, even. I was told she was working in the mall selling women's clothing. I thought that was a good thing, because she didn't have to concentrate on anything other than selling clothes to people who come and go quickly. I still to this day can't believe she would ask me for a job...
Dawn
