I was always justified in my decisions, of course. But unfortunately for a friend of mine who recently had to fire one of his underperformers, the satisfaction of purging his team of such a scourge was rather short lived.
The young woman, an office administrator, was the worst type of employee. She constantly arrived late, took long lunches and left the office early. Had her work been superior to her colleagues', perhaps her supervisors would have been gentler in their rebuke. But “subpar” would have been a generous description of her work, so my friend was more than happy to send her packing one Friday afternoon.
But his relief at getting rid of her didn’t last long.
Just two weeks later, the chap walked into his favourite coffee shop next door to the office to find the woman working behind the counter. However, rather than feel awkward, my friend confidently locked eyes with her and placed his order.
His confidence soon wavered though, as his coffee and sandwich took a suspiciously longer time than usual to arrive, and were only handed to him after a great deal of whispering by the formerly friendly baristas.
Of course, I assured my friend later that his breakfast would have been untouched, but deep down we both suspected he consumed a bit more than bacon, eggs and cheese that morning.
Alas, losing your favourite shop is just part of the perils of being a tough boss. Why do you think I can’t eat in most of the restaurants in Central anymore?