Wednesday, April 17, 2013

the mean girl

yesterday i had to deal with a woman who was the mean girl that never grew up from high school and i just have a feeling i am not done with her yet

she is the president of a volunteer adoption group that i established relationship with when i first took over my store.  The founder is probably one of the nicest ladies i have had the pleasure of knowing.  The mean girl was in two weeks ago on a Saturday doing adoptions, i stopped by the area and played with the dogs, talked with one of the volunteers, and went on with my day.  My department manager called me later that night and said the mean girl called her and complaining about adoption prices being changed, then insinuated that another department manager and an ex volunteer had changed the prices.  Bobbi finally had enough and hung up on the mean girl.  Bobbi immediately called me and told me the story.  I took my week off, when i came back i asked the department manager if he had said anything to the mean girl and he did introduce himself to her, but did not address the insinuations.  Unfortunately, this isn't the first issue that i have had with the mean girl talking down to my staff.  I spent some time thinking about her demeanor and it didn't sit well with me.  I had called the founder and she had no issue with me asking the mean girl to not come in my building anymore.  She had bullied everyone in that organization and ran off most of the good help.  As luck would have it, she called me yesterday morning to tell me that she was sending me a certified letter.  I did not have the time to discuss this issue with her, but asked for her phone number so that i could call her back.  I called her back and told her that i had an issue with the phone call that she had made on that Saturday night and i would like to hear her side of the story.  She never did tell me her side of the story, insisting that she must send it to me in this certified letter.  She did tell me that she had a problem with my staff.  I politely told her that i didn't think that she realized how she came across to people and that my staff viewed her approach as talking down to them.  Since she did not seem interested in discussing the issues at hand, i told her that i did not think that it was a good idea that she came into building as a representative of her organization any more. 

Thankfully, she resigned as president last night.  The founder was so excited this morning and told me that she thought mean girl had come across her match, when she crossed me.  I thought, i have spent my whole life letting people like that make me feel less than them.  I was nervous speaking with her, but i did not lose my cool and i acted professional. 

When i told my management staff that mean girl wasn't allowed in the building, they all asked me what she did now.  I told them that i would not tolerate her talking down to people and calling one of my employees integrity into question.  I think that made my other department manager feel good.  I wouldn't allow one of my employees to cause that kind of drama, i wont allow someone who i have invited into my building to act like that.  If she had an issue, why did she not address it, in person with me, earlier that day?  Why, because she had already tried to stir the pot with me and i wouldn't participate. 

Since the mean girl doesn't work, she spends her time on the Internet digging up all the dirt she can on people that have crossed her.  She actually was involved with getting one of the volunteers dismissed from her workplace.  I am sure that i am in her cross hairs and that my name has been googled on more than one occasion in the last 24 hours.  I googled it once, seems that i share my name with a popular DJ in Chicago, go me.

No comments:

Post a Comment