Becky Says...

June 2003

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June 10

You will recall that I have ranted several times in the past few months about stress. Stress in this case was a female nicknamed TC. When she came to work for the law firm last August there were high hopes that she could reduce the amount of stress in the office, in taking over some of the parts of the work that were time-consuming. She seemed to be bright, hard-working, and eager to learn the job.

It was, at the time, a joke that she got nicknamed TC because someone asked her if a particular bookkeeping chore was too complicated. Sadly, the person asking the question was right. The nickname became the reality.

And the stress increased. Many times over. The kindest thing I can say is that she was not used to the sort of bookkeeping required in law firms and was unable to adapt to it. Which meant that serious mistakes were being made. The same ones were being made over and over. It became one of my primary jobs to keep her mistakes from going out the door. I don't think she liked it that I was the proofreader, but she didn't have much choice in the matter.

Early this year it started becoming obvious to us that she was having troubles outside the office. Her troubles soon took over her life both in and out of the office. The mistakes increased, and her desire or willingness to improve seemed to go completely away.

She finally made so many mistakes and errors in judgment that she was put on work probation a few weeks back. The reason for the probation? To give her one last chance to show that she could do the work and act professionally. And some days, she did beautifully. Other days, not so. It was utterly unpredictable which day would be which. It was very much like a death watch for me. The last time I remember being this constantly stressed was in 1996 when my mother was dying.

As Wendy told you, the decision was made on Friday. It came after a last straw of which the details aren't important; just understand it was a very large straw. The firing was done Monday morning; she was gone before I got to the office.

And now the healing begins.

Text � copyright 2000-2003 Becky