Here are three updates from past letter-writers.
1. My problem employee complained to the EEOC
Thank you all for your comments; they helped me feel less like I totally bungled my first attempt at management. I didn’t get to read them yesterday because I was working a double shift … because Jennifer just got let go.
After I sent in my letter, Carol told me to go ahead and draw up the paperwork for a PIP, providing documentation for every single time Jennifer’s performance issues had been documented in supervisions. The resulting PIP document was, no joke, three inches thick. Jennifer must have felt awful when she was handed a book of all the ways she was not doing her job, and called out sick for the next week of her 30-day PIP.
While she did try to meet the requirements of the PIP, that’s all she did. She didn’t do any of her regular work that was not part of the performance metrics outlined in her PIP. Ultimately she was still unable to meet the requirements of the PIP and she was let go.
As I was going through her files and other things to try to figure out which clients of hers still needed services and assign them out, the depth of her negligence became clear. We are in a niche, social work-aligned field that assists people with literal safety issues, and she would just ghost clients in the middle of their situations. I don’t know if it was because she was unable to keep track of the many moving parts of each client’s situation or something else. (As part of her regular supervisions I did offer organization strategies, but she bristled at the implication that she needed help in that area.)
Emma was well liked, we had some staff turnover in the wake of her departure, and the Jennifer situation brought a lot of scrutiny on our program, so team morale is in the toilet. Those who worked more closely with Jennifer understood exactly why she was let go, but others were shocked. I’m running my part of the program all by myself now, but it’s still less work than doing my own duties plus cleaning up Jennifer’s messes.
Cross your fingers and toes that Jennifer takes the L and moves on without suing, and that we can hire a good person ASAP!
2. Do I have to give four weeks notice when I quit?
I’m the person who wrote in about my company’s request for a four-week notice period despite not offering severance in lieu of notice. I’m very excited to share that I was offered and accepted a new role elsewhere and put in my notice. I had originally written to you when I first interviewed with this company as I couldn’t get a read on if my four-week notice request was going to work on their end. Turns out, they actually have a similar policy and were fine with an extended notice period. I don’t think the expectation for a longer notice is quite an industry “standard,” as I’ve seen other companies operate differently. But it is something I’m mindful of moving forward.
At the time of my letter publishing, I had already negotiated the start date with my new job and was waiting for some final details to be confirmed and for my background check to be completed. Then, I gave three weeks notice to my current job. I chose this timeframe because I had already told the new job that I’d need more time and, to be frank, I was still working through some guilt over leaving. My last day is just before I was planning to take a long weekend with my partner and, knowing my company does not pay out PTO, I was tempted to extend my notice out to at least get paid for the PTO I had planned. Ultimately, I decided that it wouldn’t be worth it to me to stay longer and I’m excited to embrace the vacation with this job fully behind me. When I return from the trip, I’ll have some more time to myself to decompress, relax, and reset before I start the new job.
My boss was shocked but professional about my resignation. If she was annoyed about me giving “only” three weeks, I assume that annoyance was mitigated by the fact that she knew she’d already approved PTO for me. But while no one has been outright rude during my notice period, it has been just an ugly process. My boss oversees our department but has never performed our work. When the RIF hit, she terminated team members with the most institutional knowledge but who were seemingly the hardest for her to manage. I don’t think she knew just how bad the impact would be once we hit triage mode, and she’s been helping me apply bandaids ever since. When I resigned, she said she needed a full download of everything I do because she didn’t know it and I had no backup. But I don’t actually think she is going to “own” anything I’m documenting. To be clear, I know I am replaceable and I’m leaving behind a fantastic team who deserves the growth opportunity. But I’m not convinced they’ll get the kind of support they need.
Thank you again for your advice and to the community for their guidance in the comments. This has been a really hard change for me but this blog has empowered me to take the steps I need to move forward. I’m so grateful.
3. My coworker and I are applying for the same job, and she’s really bad at part of it
Well, the restructure happened. I didn’t get the job. Thank you for your advice! Unfortunately the restructure meant my boss was taking early retirement and was approximately zero percent interested in anything around the new roles. And while other coworkers mentioned to me they hoped I got the role, I have no way of knowing if that input affected the decisions made.
My feedback for the interview was positive, so I don’t know what tipped the scale, but it’s immaterial now. I have moved into another team in the company and have been here for a few months. It’s not what I’m as passionate about but it’s a job I don’t hate, and my team are pretty sharp and good at getting things done. I’m disabled and my new manager has been really great at accommodating me in a way my previous team wasn’t. (Ironic, given I worked with DEI in my last team.)
A few commenters pulled me up for saying Billie was good at sucking up to our male bosses, thinking I was implying she had slept her way to the top. It’s more that she treated them with a degree of deference and flattery that she didn’t give female senior staff, and I wonder if performing gender roles played into the interview process, a thing I’ve never been very good at.
Back to the update. Billie is … floundering. A few days before I was going to the new team, she called me and presented me with the exciting opportunity to still be in charge of one of our legal requirements in a voluntary capacity. She framed it as a way for me to still be involved in the work I’m passionate about. So it’s part of her role that I would be doing but she’d be getting credit for.
I said no, obviously, and she hasn’t spoken to me since.
Colleagues who weren’t aware of the team change have been contacting me asking why certain obligations haven’t been fulfilled or who dropped the ball with a project. I’ve not given her name, but have just said I’m unaware because that isn’t my role anymore. More recently, my new manager mentioned my old team were really struggling with their workload, and it’s difficult not to feel a sense of schadenfreude.
In exciting news, I’ve picked up some freelance work in the field I’m passionate about in another company. I’m really happy with how it’s going and am hoping it will lead to something more.
