Speaking of disbelief…

I should probably mask this entry somehow, but right now I’m just pissed off and I need to vent a bit. If anyone wants to give me legal advice on whether writing the truth still constitutes libel, feel free.

I don’t even have the words for this co-worker, or rather former co-worker, situation. I feel weird because it was my decision to hire her, all those months ago. For the most part she’s been a great team member, consistent developer, team player, hard-worker. All those great qualities, when she’s in the office.

Since she started, she’s been out for various reasons, medical, distance/commute-related, family related. She hadn’t earned enough leave for all of these things and eventually had to use leave without pay. In my opinion, if you can keep using leave without pay, you don’t need a job! Not to be too hateful, she has had some messed up situations; her father had taken ill and a lot of that leave was dealing with family business. But there’s still a point at which one has to decide whether a job should be kept or left behind.

She had been consistently late, some days it got to the point where if I didn’t see her by 11 or so, I’d assume she just wasn’t coming in. Other days she’d have a scheduled late morning due to an appointment and then not show up for the afternoon. But due to the state of the team and the fact that we weren’t hiring on anyone new, we needed every warm body we could get.

So yesterday morning… she’d already been out of the office since last Weds, one schedule leave day, one not. I get an e-mail from her saying that today would be her last day with us due to family matters. I remember reading it again, in case I’d completely misinterpreted it. Nope, she was giving us one day’s notice. Considering the recent exodus of team members, I can’t say I was completely shocked, but one day!? So, I’m thinking, ok, no problem, I reply “we’ll see you when you get in” as usual and get on with my day. I informed the team lead and former team lead and after a round of “wtf?!” we got back to work.

She didn’t come into the office yesterday.

A no-show on the day she tenders her resignation by e-mail. No call and no appearance. After another round of “wtf?!” at 2pm, I assured myself that she’d be in today. I mean it’s your last day, you’ve got things to wrap up, right?

She didn’t come into the office today.

She called at 6:40am (like anyone would be here?) and left me a message saying that she was getting her stuff together and packed and that she’d try to come in this afternoon. But if she couldn’t make it, she’d definitely come in tomorrow morning as she knows she’s got things to wrap up before she leaves — she’s actually moving away. She didn’t call the rest of the day and all phone calls to her go unreturned.

I’m still a combination of angry, shocked, flabbergasted… I don’t think I’ve experienced such unprofessional behavior since I was in my early 20s working a McJob. But venting somewhat and sharing the madness with others makes me feel just a little bit better.