When they Throw the Party
Note, this was written last week, but I haven't had a chance to post it until now.
On my kitchen counter is a tray of cookies from the grocery store.
I got them from work, the leftovers from an "End of employment party."
For the last year or two, a woman named Melissa has been working in the Insurance department. The only time I can remember seeing her smile was in sarcasm and cruelty. She was a person adept at cruelty and biting words, always ready with a scowl and a digging remark.
On Monday, she began her last round of attacks.
It began with some catty remarks. Joann is one of the cornerstones of the company. A universally liked woman of infinite patience, Melissa seems to be the only person in the company she didn't get along with. While Joann was out of the room, and the rest of the Insurance department was in the open floor office, she announced, "Joann must be blowing Dennis, and with those teeth I bet she does a great job. I want a private meeting with Pat Miller." Pat Miller is something of a second in command in the firm.
This comment was made even more biting by the fact that Joann has severe buck teeth. Not large enough to cause a discernible speech impediment, but they are visible except when she takes extreme measures to conceal them. I have no doubt that she was subjected to great deal of anguish in her youth because of them.
To make a catty remark of my own, even with Melissa's 15 year youth advantage, Joann is by and far the more attractive of the two.
Next, she accessed Tracy's e-mail account without her knowledge. Tracy is the head of the Insurance department, was responsible for hiring Melissa and was her boss. No one knows how Melissa gained access to the e-mail account. Perhaps she was one of the delegates who could load it as a shared folder, perhaps she simply knew Tracy's password.
Regardless of how she gained access to the account, she read a confidential chain of correspondence between Tracy and Dennis, the owner of the company. She then proceeded to forward the salary information to her sister, using her work e-mail account. In the e-mail she declared, "It's not who you know, it's who you blow."
There was a second recipient of the message. Reports differ on why she did it. Error? Deliberate self sabotage? An effort to cost the company one if it's clients?
On the CC line of the e-mail, she included a contact at one of our larger clients. It would not be until Tuesday that this would be discovered.
Monday was an exceptional day for other reasons as well. The Internet connection was saturated, and traffic was at a standstill. No one could get any work done. Since there was no real monitoring system in place, we had no way of knowing who was responsible for the bandwidth crunch. Chaos ensued in IT, and it was universally accepted that the members of the Insurance department were to blame. Melissa was a prime suspect, due in part to her extensive MP3 collection, and her expressed attitude regarding Instant Messaging clients. One day, the Network Admin had blocked AOL Instant Messenger. Melissa had responded by sending him an e-mail saying he had taken away her one and only reason for coming to work.
Aaron decided to test the theory that Melissa was to blame. He locked the download directory on her preferred File Sharing program so she could no longer write files to it.
In short order she sent him an e-mail stating that it was no longer working, demanding he rectify the problem.
It turns out she had been printing a number of job listing while trying to download MP3s, something that did not sit well with her boss.
The Network Admin went on a tear, locking down systems and uninstalling illicit software. Everything he did was well within the rights of the company, and everything he did that was not ordered by management were actions for which he first gained permission.
The day progressed, and Melissa vented against a new victim.
There are a number of overweight women in the office, one of whom, Val. She's close to 290 pounds and precious little of it is muscle. She rose to go to the bathroom, and as soon as she was around the corner. Melissa announced to her coworkers that "Val better wash between her flaps."
I'd like to go on record and state that there is NO excuse for that kind of a remark. I don't care if the woman is one of the five meanest people on the planet, with the single worst hygiene problem. There are entire categories of things you don't say in an office.
The day progressed, and Tracy was pulled into a meeting to discuss the extensive number of complaints that were being lodged against Melissa. It seems Melissa's comments had gotten back to Joann and Val, and they were understandably upset. She was offered an ultimatum. If she couldn't resolve the matter she would either have to get rid of Melissa or the three people with whom she had the most conflicts.
After this meeting Tracy received a call from one of our larger clients, demanding to know why they had been sent an e-mail which detailed salary data, and accused an ETS staff member of using sexual favors to gain a raise.
That's when it really hit the fan. Melissa was fired by the end of the day.
On Wednesday, Tracy called the Network Administrator. Before she was fired, Melissa had deleted every file and e-mail message she'd had access to. The Network Admin spent the next few hours recovering deleted files.
While he was going this, Melissa called, claiming that the Network Admin was the one who had put the e-mail messages into her account, and that she hadn't read them without authorization, after all, they were in HER in box, weren't they?
I don't know of anyone who believes the accusation. Besides not having anything that even resembles a motive for doing such a thing, I know for a fact that he doesn't know how to copy e-mail from one account to another in MS Exchange.
During all of this, I found out that one of my friends at work was also leaving. She'd wanted to find a new job for a while, and had decided to leave the company in order to engage in a full time job hunt.
She had selected Thursday as her last day, and on Thursday a number of coworkers took her out to lunch for a farewell meal. It was an amiable parting, and she made sure to clean her desk and make sure everyone had access to the files and passwords they would need once she left.
Megan's party was on the day she left.
On Thursday, the Insurance and Customer service departments were still eating the leftovers from the party they'd thrown to celebrate Melissa's departure.
There was a key difference between the parties. The party for Melissa had been thrown after she was gone and she didn't get the opportunity to enjoy it.
I was one of the last people to leave Friday. I spoke to Tracy, which is when she filled me in on the details that I hadn't already heard. Just before she left, she wondered what she should do with the last of the cookies, including some peanut butter cookies one woman had baked Tuesday night in anticipation of the Wednesday celebration.
I offered to take them, knowing I would have some company over the weekend.
That is how I came to leave work Friday with the remains of the company's sentiments regarding a former coworker.
On my kitchen counter is a tray of cookies from the grocery store.
I got them from work, the leftovers from an "End of employment party."
For the last year or two, a woman named Melissa has been working in the Insurance department. The only time I can remember seeing her smile was in sarcasm and cruelty. She was a person adept at cruelty and biting words, always ready with a scowl and a digging remark.
On Monday, she began her last round of attacks.
It began with some catty remarks. Joann is one of the cornerstones of the company. A universally liked woman of infinite patience, Melissa seems to be the only person in the company she didn't get along with. While Joann was out of the room, and the rest of the Insurance department was in the open floor office, she announced, "Joann must be blowing Dennis, and with those teeth I bet she does a great job. I want a private meeting with Pat Miller." Pat Miller is something of a second in command in the firm.
This comment was made even more biting by the fact that Joann has severe buck teeth. Not large enough to cause a discernible speech impediment, but they are visible except when she takes extreme measures to conceal them. I have no doubt that she was subjected to great deal of anguish in her youth because of them.
To make a catty remark of my own, even with Melissa's 15 year youth advantage, Joann is by and far the more attractive of the two.
Next, she accessed Tracy's e-mail account without her knowledge. Tracy is the head of the Insurance department, was responsible for hiring Melissa and was her boss. No one knows how Melissa gained access to the e-mail account. Perhaps she was one of the delegates who could load it as a shared folder, perhaps she simply knew Tracy's password.
Regardless of how she gained access to the account, she read a confidential chain of correspondence between Tracy and Dennis, the owner of the company. She then proceeded to forward the salary information to her sister, using her work e-mail account. In the e-mail she declared, "It's not who you know, it's who you blow."
There was a second recipient of the message. Reports differ on why she did it. Error? Deliberate self sabotage? An effort to cost the company one if it's clients?
On the CC line of the e-mail, she included a contact at one of our larger clients. It would not be until Tuesday that this would be discovered.
Monday was an exceptional day for other reasons as well. The Internet connection was saturated, and traffic was at a standstill. No one could get any work done. Since there was no real monitoring system in place, we had no way of knowing who was responsible for the bandwidth crunch. Chaos ensued in IT, and it was universally accepted that the members of the Insurance department were to blame. Melissa was a prime suspect, due in part to her extensive MP3 collection, and her expressed attitude regarding Instant Messaging clients. One day, the Network Admin had blocked AOL Instant Messenger. Melissa had responded by sending him an e-mail saying he had taken away her one and only reason for coming to work.
Aaron decided to test the theory that Melissa was to blame. He locked the download directory on her preferred File Sharing program so she could no longer write files to it.
In short order she sent him an e-mail stating that it was no longer working, demanding he rectify the problem.
It turns out she had been printing a number of job listing while trying to download MP3s, something that did not sit well with her boss.
The Network Admin went on a tear, locking down systems and uninstalling illicit software. Everything he did was well within the rights of the company, and everything he did that was not ordered by management were actions for which he first gained permission.
The day progressed, and Melissa vented against a new victim.
There are a number of overweight women in the office, one of whom, Val. She's close to 290 pounds and precious little of it is muscle. She rose to go to the bathroom, and as soon as she was around the corner. Melissa announced to her coworkers that "Val better wash between her flaps."
I'd like to go on record and state that there is NO excuse for that kind of a remark. I don't care if the woman is one of the five meanest people on the planet, with the single worst hygiene problem. There are entire categories of things you don't say in an office.
The day progressed, and Tracy was pulled into a meeting to discuss the extensive number of complaints that were being lodged against Melissa. It seems Melissa's comments had gotten back to Joann and Val, and they were understandably upset. She was offered an ultimatum. If she couldn't resolve the matter she would either have to get rid of Melissa or the three people with whom she had the most conflicts.
After this meeting Tracy received a call from one of our larger clients, demanding to know why they had been sent an e-mail which detailed salary data, and accused an ETS staff member of using sexual favors to gain a raise.
That's when it really hit the fan. Melissa was fired by the end of the day.
On Wednesday, Tracy called the Network Administrator. Before she was fired, Melissa had deleted every file and e-mail message she'd had access to. The Network Admin spent the next few hours recovering deleted files.
While he was going this, Melissa called, claiming that the Network Admin was the one who had put the e-mail messages into her account, and that she hadn't read them without authorization, after all, they were in HER in box, weren't they?
I don't know of anyone who believes the accusation. Besides not having anything that even resembles a motive for doing such a thing, I know for a fact that he doesn't know how to copy e-mail from one account to another in MS Exchange.
During all of this, I found out that one of my friends at work was also leaving. She'd wanted to find a new job for a while, and had decided to leave the company in order to engage in a full time job hunt.
She had selected Thursday as her last day, and on Thursday a number of coworkers took her out to lunch for a farewell meal. It was an amiable parting, and she made sure to clean her desk and make sure everyone had access to the files and passwords they would need once she left.
Megan's party was on the day she left.
On Thursday, the Insurance and Customer service departments were still eating the leftovers from the party they'd thrown to celebrate Melissa's departure.
There was a key difference between the parties. The party for Melissa had been thrown after she was gone and she didn't get the opportunity to enjoy it.
I was one of the last people to leave Friday. I spoke to Tracy, which is when she filled me in on the details that I hadn't already heard. Just before she left, she wondered what she should do with the last of the cookies, including some peanut butter cookies one woman had baked Tuesday night in anticipation of the Wednesday celebration.
I offered to take them, knowing I would have some company over the weekend.
That is how I came to leave work Friday with the remains of the company's sentiments regarding a former coworker.