Except, it didn't go on exactly as usual, because my neice, we'll call her Amie, was absolutely horrible at the job. It wasn't a tough job, mind you. It's answering the phones and helping out all the departments with different projects - things like fedexing, mass photocopying, filing, spreadsheeting results, ordering supplies. Alot of different people bring her different things.
And she couldn't do it. Not because they were difficult, it just seemed like she didn't want to do things correctly. People would take her things to do and have to return the thing to her and re-instruct her again and again. Finally, people stopped bringing her things altogether. No matter how they told her, she was not able to complete the simplest things.
Why? Not laziness. She just does not care. She spends her whole day texting, facebooking, and such, completely focused on her family and circle of friends. Obsessively. If her husband does not contact her every half an hour, she is worried about him, saying, "Something's happened oh where is he? I haven't heard from him in 30 mins..." If you are giving her instructions on something, "Amie can you order some paper, you know the blue kind, but lighter blue than last time, maybe the kind with....", she will interrupt you to tell you something about her family. "Guess what, Rach got second in her cheer competition and we are going away for Easter..." When she first did this I thought she was doing it because we are family, but then I realized she does it to EVERYONE in the office.
And her rate of absenteeism is through the roof. Okay, she has an autistic 6 year old, and she works reduced hours around her daughter's school schedule. My boss has been more than accommodating, reducing her hours worked, believing her when she tells him she is sick or the kids are sick, even though I know she is taking the day off because her husband is home. Finally I told him she doesn't want to be here, but won't quit because then she'll have no excuse to tell her husband. My boss, ever the nice-guy optimist, comes up with a plan. He reduces her hours further - now she only works Mon-Wed-Fri - and tells her if she is sick on a work day, she has to make it up the next day. So if she is sick on Monday, she has to work the following Tuesday to make up for it. Then he says to me, 'Now we'll see if she wants to be here or not. If she doesn't, she'll still miss, if she does and is really sick, she'll make up the time."
Surprise surprise, things are no better. She was sick yesterday so she should have been here today, but she left the boss a message saying, "See you Friday!" And he is finally fed up, admits defeat, and is going to fire her. He even came to me and asked if I would be okay with that. I said, "Hey, I would have fired her after six months!"
I am relieved that it is finally over, because it has been frustrating and stressful, but I am also sad that it didn't work out. More than that, I am surprised, shocked even, at her performance. The way she acted just isn't normal. I had a good idea about some of her personality, but wow, it's been a real eye-opener. This blog could be 10,000 words long and I wouldn't even dent the subject.
To keep it short though, I will repeat what I told my boss: She is exactly like my mother, her grandmother. Exactly. Just does not have the ability to control obsessive behaviour, does not understand how people communicate in a group environment, does not know how to...be normal. And that's amazing to me. Because as much as I have seen similiar physical traits in fathers and sons, or mothers and daughters, I have never seen such clear mental traits between two related individuals. It's kind of hard to explain, really, but I will be revisiting this. Alot.
And when my boss asks me if I know anyone who is looking for a job this time, I'll know how to reply.
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