There are usually 2 or more sides to every story so it is impossible for anyone to know what is really going on. However, you appear to be asking if you should turn in a really bad employee because she is violating a patient’s rights. Add to that the patient is aware of the violation.
You can start by asking a company lawyer a couple of hypothetical questions regarding the family connection.
As far as confidentiality and privacy go, you probably shouldn’t be discussing your co-worker with the other employees, either. You should go to your supervisor or hospital privacy officer, and get some advice from them. I would say it just like that, too; not that she did something wrong or you want her fired, just that you need some guidance on this grey area. That way you will have covered your ass, covered the hospital’s ass, got the information to people who need to know it, and you don’t look like a tattletale.
Think of it this way. If Satanette is blabbing about her sister-in-law to you, imagine what she could be blabbing about you.
Robin
Okay, so I had a talk with my boss last week about privacy in general terms, and she will arrange for a discussion at our next staff meeting.
And I did talked about the specific breach that I witnessed, but in view of the wider issues there is no way that Satanette can be singled out and punished without pointing fingers at a lot of other people, whuch neither of us is willing to do.
But in terms of getting rid of this idiot – we need to. She sent me an email, after I left for the day on Friday, that said she would be late Monday morning. She also told me she was so busy at the end of the day Friday that she didn’t do one of he seven things she’s supposed to do to prepare for the weekend. In fact, she ONLY did one of the seven things, leaving 6 things undone, which I heard about from someone else who worked over the weekend.
I have to go back to work tonite, because Satanette is filling in for another staff person and can’t be trusted to handle the technical details of a public lecture. I have tried repeatedly to teach her, but she gets flustered easily and is unwilling to try on her own. “I’ve forgotten how to do that.” is a pretty common refrain. And she doesn’t have time to watch you go through the process again, or if she does she simply forgets before the next time. She has actually transferred phone calls to me because she’s “forgotten” how to give people coherent driving imstructions how to find our office.
We also have to close our office early tonight, at 7 PM rather than 8 PM. She “has to” catch a 7:15 bus. Why? Because she’s not comfortable on buses after 8 PM, and doesn’t want to take the 8:15 bus. She could also drive and park in the ramp, but she’s “not comfortable” driving at night.
Most of these things are not my responsibility to resolve, I know. But Satanette has become like nails on a blackboard to me. I feel the rest of us adhere of our own volition to much higher standards than we are required to, and she doesn’t even come close to bare minimum.
I really had a fair to middlin freakout at work and after today, and over what as L I look back are a series of very small things thet just added up to Satanette (hereafter referred to as SHE or HER) . It was my first in nearly 3 years on the job. It started with another email, sent to me after I left work, that SHE would be leaving at 1 PM for a medical procedure, as an unexpected appointment had opened. SHE did not say if or when SHE would return, whether SHE had permission from her supervisor, or what if anything needed to be done in HER absence. We would be the only two people staffing a library and conference center in a hospital that is supposed to remain open until 430PM. I normally leave at 3PM, and unless other arrangements were made I’d be locking the doors when I left during our public business hours.
Then the time SHE come in: 8:15. We had asked HER to work starting at 800AM daily, but but we had recently changed the time to 930, because SHE claimed that child care issues and bus schedules made it impossible for HER to get to work earlier. Still, SHE shows up unpredictably each day from 8:10 to 1030. These days if SHE is going to be late I get an email shortly before SHE is due explaining that SHE missed a bus. In any case, I should have known that if I were annoyed with HER for being early, we were not going to have a cheery day today.
It turned out that yes, SHE would be leaving for the day at 1, and SHE shrugged to my question of what to do at 3 PM. My boss came in around then, and volunteered herself to keep the place open to 430.
Just a little more background info, my boss has been working 12-14 hour days for about two months developing plans and strategies for our Education Center and the various outreach projects she manages. I work at least one 12 hour day every week, and six day weeks about 1 in 3. I had worked the Saturday before and a 13 hour day Thursday. SHE has used up every micrsecond of leave time SHE’s accrued and then some.
SHE took 4 or 5 smoke breaks in the morining while SHE was there, and left 20 minutes early even though HER appointment was a 3 minute walk away. In the process we had a few exchanges in which I later recognized my own behavior as enabling hers. Later, not then.
Around 2PM my boss came out looking beat up and frazzled, said she was too tired and going home, and I could just lock up and go at 3. So I volunteered to stay and keep the place open.
Around 4PM, who cruises in buy HER. “I expected to be out of here much earlier but we decided to run another test”, she said. Then SHE sat at HER deak and made a couple of personal phone calls, and web browsed for something, I don’t know what. SHE certainly didn’t ay anything about being back on the clock and on duty. But when a woman spoke to HER, SHE led her over to the library which had closed at it’s normal time of 3PM. SHE asks me for the key. I say to the visitor, “Maam, the library closes at 3PM.” She answers, “SHE said it was okay to browse but I can’t check anything out.” Not wanting to vontradict a coworker, and after all we all have a measure a flexibility about bening the rules to accommodate our customers, I agree and let her in. I thought SHE must have put herself back on the clock snd would keep an eye on the customer. Another of HER charms is that on the relatively rare times when she schedules leave well in advance, she has a tendancy to either call in or show up on those days and suggest that her replacement can simply go home. Two minutes later SHE says “Have a good weekend” and is out the door. A few minutes leter I had to ask the visitor to leave, when I was closing at 430, and she got upset that she hadn’t been allowed to browse as promised.
Oh yes, and somewhere along the way SHE asked me how to calculate 5% of a number, SHE had forgotten how. This from a woman who just completed a Master’s degree in Library Science a couple years back. Another of HER charms is that on the relatively rare times when SHE schedules leave well in advance, SHE has a tendancy to either come in or offer tocome in on those days and suggest that HER replacement can simply go home. I Remember in her job interview, she spoke of her love of statistics. Pity I didn’t think to ask her what 5% of a hundred is.
I was so angry I was shaking.
Reading this thread shocks me. I can’t even get a WHIFF of a goddamn job, and she can routinely get away with this SHIT?
You’re caught in a mess, Boyo, but you didn’t cause it and don’t have the means, or responsiblity, to solve it. No matter this woman’s personal issues, she’s a problem on many fronts. She’s unreliable and causes more work for an already stressed, understaffed unit. That’s unacceptable, and it’s management’s job to address it. Not yours. Theirs. Responsiblity goes along with the job title and paycheck.
Group “reminders” in response to individual failings are worse than useless. They’re actively damaging. They’re gutless evasions that frustrate and blame the innocent, most of whom are fully aware where the real problem lives. The actual target won’t be fazed at all. It’s using a shotgun when a fine incision is needed. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Document everything you’re written out here. (Make a copy for your own records.) Then turn it in to your supervisor. Your concerns are not minor, picky or personal. The problems are severe, and prolonged. Frankly, your supervisor shouldn’t be suprised. She might be badly overworked but it’s still a cancerous problem she should have handled before it got this bad. Shit happens in the crush to get things done, but all you’re doing is handing her documention. It’s a tool, nothing more more. What’s done with it truly isn’t your responsiblity. But speaking out honestly is.
She may or may not be fired. She might be referred to an EAP, or placed on probation or whatever. At the very least there should be an investigation, a genuine hard look at what’s been going on for way too long. Enough denial already. It sounds like you’re caught in a sick workplace, held hostage to enabling this woman.
Time for Emperor’s New Clothes.
And good luck to you, Boyo Jim. Life’s too short to waste worthwhile work.
All the best,
Veb
Excellent post, Veb. Previous managers have been known to do the same thing - sit us all down for a talk about “issues we’re having with people showing up late” or some such, when we know it’s about one guy. It still hard to believe that you’re not somehow being blamed. What’s wrong with management talking to somebody directly? Too hard? Please.
And Boyo, I agree. Get all this in writing and submit it to your boss. If nothing happens and life still sucks, you are completely in your right to escalate it to the next level of management. That’s what management is supposed to be there for.
TVeblen, thanks for your kind words. IIRC, we met at at a Springfield Dopeffest a year or so back when I was Yojimboguy.
I can’t ever recall being so enraged over such small things before. I was so wired I didn’t try to sleep till about 3 AM, and that was not even in a bed, but an easy chair.
I called my best friend at work. I called my boss (615 at home on a Friday evening, another thing I’ve never done before), and said I’m sorry but I’ve hit a wall here. I can’t take this shit anymore. My boss was very reassuring, and said that SHE will start facing serious consequences for any more fuckups. The boss and I will talk again Monday morning before SHE gets in, and then the two of them will sit down for some kind of Riot Act declaration. The first thing is that SHE will only get half the time off SHE requested (actually it was more demand than request) for moving into her new home.
The other thing is to remove me as much as possible from interaction with HER. My role is more or less that of a lead worker, I coordinate activities but I don’t make decisions to resolve conflicts or slect priorities. SHE doesn’t seem to be able to distinguish that from me being HER supervisor. I’ve told HER many times that I’m not in a position to direct how SHE spends time, but SHE persists, and we have daily exchanges along these lines:
HER: Boyo Jim, do you mind if I take 5 (or a smoke break, or a run down to the caf for a quick breakfast, or some other break)?
Me: No, I can cover the phones and the counter.
HER: See ya.
What I was saying in my mind was: I can cover for you whenever you decide to take your breaks. What SHE is choosing to hear, I think, is that Boyo Jim is giving HER permission to take every break SHE asks for. In HER early monmths SHE asked me which things to do next or if SHE can do one thing instead of another. I would refer those type questions to our mutual boss, but SHE has learned to rephrase her questions to get a vaguer, more satisfactory answer. My new answer is going to be, “If the boss says you can take 5, I can cover the phones while you take it. Ask her.” And a reply like this will be broadly applicable across a whole range of my exchanges with HER.
So this morning I’m feeling much better, and in a much better position to cope on the job.
I have some hopes of pushing the Evil One over the edge tomorrow, as I have a day off and SHE seemingly cannot leave people alone on their day off. I also had today off, and she left me a voice message today with some question about statistics that can in no way be considered urgent or an emergency. I have told her before that I do not want calls at home unless there is an emergency.
A few months ago she called me at home about some bullshit, and I was pretty short with her, and said I didn’t want to be bothered. Then she got actually kind of insane. I refused to give her my personal email address so she could reach me when my home phone was busy, and then she asked for my home phone number. I said, “You just called me at home. I am at home, we are talking, and you called me. You have my home phone number.” She insisted she didn’t and I hung up on her. When I get in the next day, I found a nearly incoherent email from her, but coherent enough to use a couple of obscenities in reference to me. I forwarded it to my boss, but AFAIK she did nothing.
I’m hoping to replicate that experience tomorrow. I will be reasonable but short, tell her it’s inappropriate to call me for this kind of thing, tell her we’ll talk more on Monday, and hang up. I will also record the call in case she goes off right on the phone, though frankly I don’t intend to give her the chance.
I’ve gotten on pretty good terms with a senior HR manager, and if I can document a really unprofessional outburst, I will go straight to HR with a complaint against her, and my own boss if necessary for not taking action sooner. I still have a copy of the earlier email, and my peers have told me (AND our boss) that they are also at the end of their string. We are all extremely tired of ths, and of the boss’s inaction.
I have started to job hunt, which I’m very upset about, as this has been by far the best job I’ve ever had – until the EVIL ONE showed up and began to poison the environment for all of us.
It sounds like this creature is really getting to you, and I hope there will be a permanent resolution soon. In the meantime, I suggest that you stop being so nice and so reasonable to her and start amusing yourself by fucking with her head.
If she calls you at home on your day off, as soon as you realize it’s her, laugh maniacally and hang up. Or scream, “Oh my god!” and then walk away for a few minutes before hanging up.
Pick a weird catch phrase (like “What’s the frequency Kenneth?”) and use it whenever she asks you something stupid or unreasonable. Start calling her by a bizarre nickname. Always speak to her in a funny voice.
I promise you that this can be a whole lot of fun.
Just be careful and watch your back. The Evil Ones always find a way to win. I swear that at my last job they sent the Evil One in just to get me out…she quit two months after firing me.
I can’t believe that she would send you such an incriminating email. Has she no clue that people are unhappy with her? Did you ever ask your boss about her reaction to the email you forwarded her? Maybe she has quietly put something in motion and just hasn’t told you yet.
Hope SHE falls into your cunning trap. Oh, and have you innocently asked the boss if you can use her for a reference in your job search? Maybe that will shock her into activity if she realizes she might lose productive workers.
I really have thought about this, and it’s just not in my nature. I already feel bad aboout what I’ve done so far, even though I have absolutely no reason to. I quietly take daily notes of her arrival time. I’ve told my boss flat out that we have to get rid of her. I tell my boss every loony thing she does, and I feel like a fuckin’ company spy.
I know that’s crazy, but I grew up in a union household, and it was all about workers vs bosses, and my family were workers. I’ve never before encountered such a shitty co-worker that I started campaigning to get rid of her, and asking everyinw else to join in. It’s a very unnatural situation, and I too am losing patience with my boss, because I’m doing her damn job too. She’s going through some level of burnout herself, and while she’s been there a lot longer than me, I’m basically running the place on a day to day basis.
I almost couln’t get tomorrow off. Someone has to be in at 7AM, though all that is really needed is to unlock a few doors for early meetings. The Evil One starts at 8, and told me she just wasn’t going to be able to come in any earlier. She suggested that any of the other 3 people who work the area (me included) could come in “just for an hour or so”, until she could make it in, and then she could handle the rest of the day. I finally arranged to have the morning Security guard to open up tomorrow morning, and I was just as mad at my boss for not laying down the law to the Evil One and ORDERING her to come in an hour early.
So I’m going to do something else that is not natural to me, and just stop worrying about who’s going to cover for me when I take time off. I have more than a month accumulated because there’s always some big thing going on that I’m needed for. And now I’ve found that my boss won’t face down the Evil One just enough to cover one lousy hour for me, when I (and my other co-workers) twist ourselves around like fuckin’ pretzels to deal with the Evil One’s erratic schedule.
I’ve learned my boss is a great boss when she has great people working for her. Well, duh, I hadn’t thought much before how really easy a job that is. And now that we have a major problem, she is not backing the rest of us.
And my mental chore for the weekend is how much and what kind of pressure I can put on the Evil One, even if she doesn’t snap according to plan. I’m going to tell her not to talk to me anymore about covering for her when she needs time off. I’m debating whether to simply tell her that she is the worst excuse for a worker I’ve ever seen, and that every other person in the department feels the same, and if she has any brains she’ll get out before she’s thrown out. Even though I’ve lost confidence that my boss is willing to the throwing, maybe the Evil One doesn’t get that.
And yes, I am considering telling my boss that I’m hunting for another job. She must understand, she’s too smart not to, that I’m many times more valuable to her and the department than the Evil One.
You mentioned taping a phone conversation. I believe that’s illegal, unless you have the other party’s consent (or a warrent or something). I wouldn’t recommend that.
Obviously your boss is under stress, and to top it off, she may well not have the training or skill to deal with employees like this. A lot of bosses don’t like firing people, and if they reach their position through skill at the job, they might only get nominal training in how to actually supervise their employees - in terms of making them do their damn jobs and such. And that can be fine, since most employees probably are low maintenence enough not to be a problem. The ones that aren’t suck.
Best thing to improve shift work for me: learning not to worry about that. It was pretty liberating, actually - the store management would call, and ask if I could just come in for a little while, and tell their tales of woe, and I’d be sympathetic but firm. Bottom line, it’s not your job, it’s your supervisor’s, and you shouldn’t be undertaking that responsibility too. Not without the pay increase, at least, because you’ll need the money for ulcer pills if Satanette stays around.
(Note: Use of artistic license. Ulcers are generally no longer thought to be caused by chronic stress.)
Firstly, the place will not fall to bits without you for a day or two. You sound like you’re an excellent employee, but worst comes to worst, the place is closed at that time, and you won’t take the rap for it. The boss is probably warm to you partially because you’ve taken on so much responsibility here, but she sounds reasonable enough not to get upset at you simply for setting boundaries.
The place isn’t your life, and you might care about it, and worry about how the other employees are managing without you, but you don’t have to. It’s your choice to worry, and your right to have peaceful time off. And if you’re driven away (from a job you used to like) by this drama, the place will have to make do without you permanently. So better to do what you can to protect your own sanity.
It’s probably not quite as easy as it seems to you now, but yeah, the talent and training come in when you’re dealing with a problem employee. Still, a boss who motivates good employees and simply has the intelligence and foresight to lead you guys and make the place run ok is a cool person, and that is a skill in itself.
Setting limits is good. Blowing off steam can be good. But revenge works best in fantasy; for at least the time being you are her coworker and you’ll have to deal with her. Plus she has your phone number. I wouldn’t push her too far - it’ll just make her become ever so much more psychotic.
Not a bad idea. Or, the more passive aggressive way, just make an excuse every time she asks. Ain’t your responsibility to be her backup.
I doubt it’ll help. Again, revenge is a nice fantasy, and God knows I have those thoughts, but it probably wouldn’t make her stop. The woman’s screwy. She sounds like she might well have some sort of mental illness - a personality disorder or something. She’s probably well-schooled in the art of denial, if she’s done this shit all this time without already concluding she’s on the verge of firing. It’ll more likely just cause more drama, and make you look bad too. The teacher never cares who started it; both the kids get in trouble and you might end up with disciplinary action yourself if you do something like this.
Besides, the woman’s so egotistical that all it’ll do is piss her off. It’s very unlikely to make her realize the error of her ways, start crying, and turn into a good employee (or commit seppuku out of shame, as desirable as that may be.) It might be enough to make her keep her distance, but she might not have the capacity to even manage that.
Well, ultimatums can backfire. Rationally, the boss would rather have you than Satanette. Hell, I’m sure the boss likes you a whole lot better. But it’s still not a good idea to sound like you’re engaging in a power struggle with the boss, and this has that feel to it.
Your boss is basically doing the easiest thing here, remember. It’s not easy to make a consistently poor employee start working like a normal human being, and even if you dislike them, it’s not easy to fire 'em either. A lot of bosses keep totally incompetent employees around just because they don’t like firing people.
Not to sound too much like a therapist (or worse yet, a self-help book), you’re kinda enabling your boss here. You’re going out of your way, at the expense of your time and hearth health, to make sure the place doesn’t suffer because of Satanette’s complete worthlessness as a human being. Stepping in to pick up the pieces on occasion is great - it’ll get you noticed, it’ll get you more involved - and thus more integral - into the workplace, and so on.
But doing it constantly takes its toll on you. And furthermore, each time you drag yourself in because Satanette decides not to come in or stay late, the boss doesn’t really have to deal with it. Imagine: you’re terribly stressed out from other things, exhausted, and you have a freaking awful employee to deal with too. You’re kinda at a loss to deal with her, and you just don’t want to fire someone. Fortunately, your underling Boyo Jim is not just responsible and conscientious, he’s always willing to come in when the place needs him. So every time the situation could come to a head, it doesn’t, because you take the spotlight off of Satanette’s misdeeds by saving the day.
Makes you look great, endears you to the boss, and makes it very, very easy for her to put off dealing with a personnel crisis. The best course of action is simply to draw some lines in the sand, and you don’t have to make a fuss about it, either. Just say you can’t come in when Satanette or the boss asks you to. Your weekends are your own, after all, so if you say you have plans, the boss has to start looking for other solutions. Eventually, if you stop covering for Satanette (which you’re doing, even if you’re not hiding her shitty performance), it’ll be easier to deal with the problem than to just let it be. That’s the motivator for human action: eventually, the situation becomes so difficult or so uncomfortable that the discomfort of a change becomes the smaller issue. Then change happens.
Best of luck with all of this. Just don’t act rashly, and don’t let yourself get pushed into taking everyone else’s responsibilities for yourself.
Somewhere I git the impression that as long as at least one party to a conversation knows it is being recorded, there is no problem. I never see cops getting a warrant to wire a willing informant on Law & Order. 
There have aksi been several times I’ve picked up my phone while someone is leaving a message, and part of the conversation ends up being recorded. Was I committing a crime? And if she starts to leave a message, then I pick up and we talk, am I supposed to inform her that I’ve stopped recording?
Regarding an ultimatum, I don’t mean to make one. I have already started looking for another position, and if I find a really good one and get an offer I might take it regardless of the outcome of what happens to Satanette. I simply wonder if tellng the boss that I’m doing so will make any difference.