11.13.2008

Budding Sociopath?

(Why doesn't anyone update this damn blog for me? God, do I have to do everything around here?)

I fired someone today. For the first time, ever. I figured it would happen eventually, and that I would feel badly about it. But I didn't feel badly about it. Not at all. It was oddly... satisfying. I was so tired of her continued incompetence and her refusal to rise to the standards that have been set by people way smarter and more important than me. She beat me down. I had no less than 4 formal "your performance sucks, here's the data that tells me that, so go fucking FIX IT!" conferences with this chick, and each time she cried, and told my boss that it was all my fault (boss lady didn't buy it either) and blamed the fact that her husband is in jail (um... which he was when they met... through one of those creepy websites...), and her kid is 15 and having sex (um... surprise? She was conceived during a conjugal visit, her mother is a 400 pound whacko and her father is a... person who has to spend the rest of his life in prison), and her mother is demented, and "oh, boo hoo, life is so stressful", for the fact that she takes 90 minute lunches and comes in late and leaves early and does shitty work and screws up the same things over and over and over again and it's just... intolerable to me. I warned her. Repeatedly. She didn't listen. And today I finally amassed the missing nail to seal her coffin when I caught her in an outright lie. So, I walked down to Boss Lady's office, where I announced that it was time to say goodbye to the slacker. And then we dropped the hammer. There was crying, and pleas for us to reconsider. Then there was the packing of the belongings and the walk of shame. And when it was all done, I was nothing but relieved. Boss lady kids me that she's turning me into a sociopath just like her.

Honestly people, believe me when I tell you that insurance case management is not rocket science. Is the old person old and/or impaired enough that they would be harmed if the care they are receiving were not available to them? Check this box: Yes or No. Document your findings. Substantiate your decision. The End.

So. Not to change the subject, but this is my blog and if nobody else is going to update it for me, I can write whatever I damn well want.

I'm about to finish up the first class toward my MBA. What am I? Insane!? A glutton for punishment!? I dunno. It just seems like the thing to do. Considering the person I just fired is a Ph.D. candidate (Yes! Seriously!), I know that education has very little to do with skill, but if I'm going to be managing people, I think I should maybe know something about management and business and... stuff, so... It's costing me an arm and a leg, but I'm doing it online, and it will take about a year and a half, so why the heck not? I don't NEED to see my family, or SPEND TIME with them... LT and I communiate mostly via text messages these days anyway, and family dinners are a thing of the past, so what the heck? As long as I'm home early enough for my nightly Yoga with kidlet (she's so cute! "I'm bein' a tree, Mama!"), it's all O.K.

Also, LT has a cool new job that she's been working toward for the last few years. She's giving up her per diem job in the gero-psych unit at the hospital to become the Director of Nursing at a little Alzheimer's center located not quite 2 miles from our house. Plus, they're going to pay her MORE than the per diem job, and she won't have to work weekends or wear ugly shoes, and she'll even have some vacation time. Won't that be nice? Just in time for us to not to be able to take a vacation this year because of this crazy school thing.

Whatever, I'm making her buy me a BMW when I graduate.