Listen all y'all, it's a SABOTAGE!
I don't have the energy to write this, but when has art ever been easy?
I had a meeting with my executive board today and two of them told me that they heard from two different people that my secretary told those people that I was trying to force her out so I can take her job and the money that goes with it.
It was a genuine "WHAAAAA???!!!!!" moment.
She has been the secretary for 25 years. She told me late last year that she was going to retire sometime this year. Then she got cancer. Terminal cancer. A couple of months ago she told me that she wanted to work until after this big festival we have in June. Given the statistics, she doesn't have a lot of time left on this earth. She has a tight family and things she wants to do. If it was me, I'd be outta there (after some cleaning up, of course).
But this is the only job outside the home she's ever had. She's been the only consistent thing in the chamber for that amount of time--the Queen to many flighty prime ministers. Her system is antiquated in most ways and dysfunctionally antiquated in some key ways. Over the past year she has spoken of the need to attain membership software and plan for the future and I have been doing just that. And, when it comes down to it, I've had to put up with a lot of her eye rolling to do it.
I'm anxious for her to leave because I need to do much of what she is currently doing and I'm itching to get started. If you've stuck with me, you know that I am anxious for some of the things in my life to resolve. The status of my jobs is one of those things. I also want to clean up our messy office/visitor center and get rid of years of accumulated crap that we don't need that is displayed in the most unattractive way possible. (People have opened the door--clearly marked as a chamber of commerce--and walked back out because they thought they were trespassing in someone's messy office).
But she's not ready to leave. After 25 years you get pretty attached to a place. She has a host of friends who visit her there. She likes helping the tourists that come in daily. Her stuff is there! She knows the drill inside and out. I get that. It would be hard enough to retire normally. Now that she's facing the end of her life...well, I get it. I really do. It's straight out of Psych 101.
How does it affect me? Thanks for asking! It's not a big deal, really, and I've resigned myself to waiting until she leaves to rearrange the office. I've resigned myself to the fact that she cannot delegate tasks even though, during this treatment period, she can't get them all done. Even when well, she cannot delegate. I understand that when someone holds a job for this long and is lauded for being the glue that holds everything together...that it's not a shock when they don't want to see some whippersnapper come in and be able to pick it up after just a year. No one is irreplaceable and that can be tough for some people to swallow. But it is affecting the work. I'm having to ask her multiple times for a document, or where things are, or whatever until it might be done. Things are slipping. Announcements aren't getting into the newsletter on time, ticking off members. People want to know how many booths are available, I don't know because I don't know where the applications are. I can't do my job because I can't find it/she's working on it but not done/she'll 'get it to me when I get it done'.
I have been nothing but respectful of her for the past year. Her biggest problem with past execs has been that they don't listen to her--they don't heed the chamber's history. So I listened. I took notes! I didn't always agree, but I did heed. I've thanked her and lauded her at every opportunity--even when she wasn't around. I've told her kids that she has free reign to leave her job when she wants to--that she's not going to get fired for being sick, that no one is going to check just how many sick days she has coming. She has put in her time. If I can do something to help, just say the word.
We've also discussed the whole job combining thing and the possibility that, when she retires (that part is important) that the board has discussed making my job full-time. By doubling my salary, that would leave just $6,000 for a secretary. Obviously, not enough. But we'll work up to a part-time secretary and go from there. She didn't seem to have a problem with that. After all, it would not affect her at all.
So after all of this, what does she do? She goes around telling people--at least two--that I'm trying to force her out of her job and 'take her money'. As an argument, it's a sieve and people know it. But do all people know it? Is she sitting out there in our shared office telling people that I'm beating up on dying people?
She's not the most beloved person in town. I've always stuck up for her. She's dealing with a hideous disease and a severe change in her plans for a long, carefree retirement. I know why this kind of thing happens, but to have the guns turned on me is still befuddling. And what can you do? Five intelligent board members came to the conclusion that anything they do to address this situation is going to be wrong. If she really is saying this shit, then she is perhaps the most two-faced person I have ever met. Or is it just the trauma she is facing from both her illness and the full-on chemo treatments, and resulting chemo brain, that she is forced to endure?
If she was a normal, healthy employee, and this 'sabotage' is substantial, this would be grounds for firing someone or at least a mediation with HR, if we had such a lofty department. I want to confront her about it, but under current circumstances....plus she's going in for her 4th chemo tomorrow and will probably be out of work for the next 8 business days. I'm thinking that if our past-president--one of the people who told me she heard this thing and a person the secretary really respects--gently confronts her about it, that might work. As for the work that is slipping through the cracks...she is intentionally not letting me in on what needs done. But if a board member asked her about, say, the membership drive report, she'd have to either get it done or delegate.
Why is it that this kind of crap keeps happening to me? I am the common thread here--is it me? If it is, dear reader and true friends, I want to know! (It could be that a lot of people face this crap and that I'm just better at writing it down.)
I'll keep you informed on how it all turns out. After a year-and-a-half in the public eye, my skin is thicker. I'm not taking this personally. But one person--one very sick, sympathetic person--can do a lot damage in a town this small and this bent on intrigue. My gosh, people, why? Why can't you just get along?
I had a meeting with my executive board today and two of them told me that they heard from two different people that my secretary told those people that I was trying to force her out so I can take her job and the money that goes with it.
It was a genuine "WHAAAAA???!!!!!" moment.
She has been the secretary for 25 years. She told me late last year that she was going to retire sometime this year. Then she got cancer. Terminal cancer. A couple of months ago she told me that she wanted to work until after this big festival we have in June. Given the statistics, she doesn't have a lot of time left on this earth. She has a tight family and things she wants to do. If it was me, I'd be outta there (after some cleaning up, of course).
But this is the only job outside the home she's ever had. She's been the only consistent thing in the chamber for that amount of time--the Queen to many flighty prime ministers. Her system is antiquated in most ways and dysfunctionally antiquated in some key ways. Over the past year she has spoken of the need to attain membership software and plan for the future and I have been doing just that. And, when it comes down to it, I've had to put up with a lot of her eye rolling to do it.
I'm anxious for her to leave because I need to do much of what she is currently doing and I'm itching to get started. If you've stuck with me, you know that I am anxious for some of the things in my life to resolve. The status of my jobs is one of those things. I also want to clean up our messy office/visitor center and get rid of years of accumulated crap that we don't need that is displayed in the most unattractive way possible. (People have opened the door--clearly marked as a chamber of commerce--and walked back out because they thought they were trespassing in someone's messy office).
But she's not ready to leave. After 25 years you get pretty attached to a place. She has a host of friends who visit her there. She likes helping the tourists that come in daily. Her stuff is there! She knows the drill inside and out. I get that. It would be hard enough to retire normally. Now that she's facing the end of her life...well, I get it. I really do. It's straight out of Psych 101.
How does it affect me? Thanks for asking! It's not a big deal, really, and I've resigned myself to waiting until she leaves to rearrange the office. I've resigned myself to the fact that she cannot delegate tasks even though, during this treatment period, she can't get them all done. Even when well, she cannot delegate. I understand that when someone holds a job for this long and is lauded for being the glue that holds everything together...that it's not a shock when they don't want to see some whippersnapper come in and be able to pick it up after just a year. No one is irreplaceable and that can be tough for some people to swallow. But it is affecting the work. I'm having to ask her multiple times for a document, or where things are, or whatever until it might be done. Things are slipping. Announcements aren't getting into the newsletter on time, ticking off members. People want to know how many booths are available, I don't know because I don't know where the applications are. I can't do my job because I can't find it/she's working on it but not done/she'll 'get it to me when I get it done'.
I have been nothing but respectful of her for the past year. Her biggest problem with past execs has been that they don't listen to her--they don't heed the chamber's history. So I listened. I took notes! I didn't always agree, but I did heed. I've thanked her and lauded her at every opportunity--even when she wasn't around. I've told her kids that she has free reign to leave her job when she wants to--that she's not going to get fired for being sick, that no one is going to check just how many sick days she has coming. She has put in her time. If I can do something to help, just say the word.
We've also discussed the whole job combining thing and the possibility that, when she retires (that part is important) that the board has discussed making my job full-time. By doubling my salary, that would leave just $6,000 for a secretary. Obviously, not enough. But we'll work up to a part-time secretary and go from there. She didn't seem to have a problem with that. After all, it would not affect her at all.
So after all of this, what does she do? She goes around telling people--at least two--that I'm trying to force her out of her job and 'take her money'. As an argument, it's a sieve and people know it. But do all people know it? Is she sitting out there in our shared office telling people that I'm beating up on dying people?
She's not the most beloved person in town. I've always stuck up for her. She's dealing with a hideous disease and a severe change in her plans for a long, carefree retirement. I know why this kind of thing happens, but to have the guns turned on me is still befuddling. And what can you do? Five intelligent board members came to the conclusion that anything they do to address this situation is going to be wrong. If she really is saying this shit, then she is perhaps the most two-faced person I have ever met. Or is it just the trauma she is facing from both her illness and the full-on chemo treatments, and resulting chemo brain, that she is forced to endure?
If she was a normal, healthy employee, and this 'sabotage' is substantial, this would be grounds for firing someone or at least a mediation with HR, if we had such a lofty department. I want to confront her about it, but under current circumstances....plus she's going in for her 4th chemo tomorrow and will probably be out of work for the next 8 business days. I'm thinking that if our past-president--one of the people who told me she heard this thing and a person the secretary really respects--gently confronts her about it, that might work. As for the work that is slipping through the cracks...she is intentionally not letting me in on what needs done. But if a board member asked her about, say, the membership drive report, she'd have to either get it done or delegate.
Why is it that this kind of crap keeps happening to me? I am the common thread here--is it me? If it is, dear reader and true friends, I want to know! (It could be that a lot of people face this crap and that I'm just better at writing it down.)
I'll keep you informed on how it all turns out. After a year-and-a-half in the public eye, my skin is thicker. I'm not taking this personally. But one person--one very sick, sympathetic person--can do a lot damage in a town this small and this bent on intrigue. My gosh, people, why? Why can't you just get along?
posted by lulu | 6:22 PM
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