Changing of the Guard

This week at work should be a drama-filled disaster. One of our staff was given the "shit or get off the pot" lecture last month, and being unable to take said shit, will be cleaning out her desk this Friday...or rather she's supposed to be. She has been looking for other work, obviously, but her experience is so scattered that it would be hard for her to get an immediate offer for any of the positions we know she's interviewed for.

Anyhow. She said something to B.H. about staying past her expiration date (for lack of a better phrase) and taking a demotion. B.H. is livid about this because they were both working on the same account. She's so far behind in repaying her draw that even if she made the sales she'd never see any of the money. B.H., on the other hand, stands to actually see some money out of this and is sick of crossing paths with her.

I, for one, am finding this situation extremely awkward. She's normally the first person (after me) in the door in the morning and is probably the worst conversationalist ever. She's bad at reading moods, so she'll sit there asking question after question while you look like you want to swing a bat at her head. As mean as it sounds, I'll be breathing a sigh of relief on Friday come 4:30 when I walk out there.

To make matters worse, we have a new hire (not her replacement) starting on Thursday. There is currently no space for this person to work in. We didn't order any new equipment because we have one person exiting (see above) and a second leaving some time in August to go to school full time. That means there will be an exceptionally awkward two-day period in the works. I can have the intern give up his seat for other tasks, but I hate to make him do grunt work.

We've also been interviewing people to replace Leaving Chick, which has intensified the tension in the office.

*sigh*

Is there a graceful way to go about this and we've just missed it?

Posted by Tiffany at July 24, 2005 12:44 PM | TrackBack