End of my RopeFollow

So. We have this Polish Interpreter, and she's been around forever. She brings snacks, organizes all the parties, and she's like having an in-house grandma. Thing is she is also dead set in her ways, almost totally deaf, and falls asleep at random intervals. I adore her, and she is the bane of my professional existance because people either love or hate her, and half of the doctors refuse to work with her for fear they'll get sued. Recently I got the order that she has to go, and my boss and I interviewed replacements.

We had one accept: young, clean-cut, professional and certified, which my older interpreter is not. Since she has been around so long, she was grandfathered into the program, and she doesn't always adhere to procedure.

So my boss and I both wrestled with how to handle it and it comes down to this: neither of us can stand the thought of firing her, because we feel like ageists, but we also don't think she's capable of performing up to snuff. The new guy is coming in as a backup, and once he is in place, we expect nature to take its course and for her to eventually phase out. In anticipation of her demotion (in status if not in pay), I've asked her to stop occupying the desk she has had for years and store her things in the locked cabinet all other part-time Interpreters use. She won't. She stays at the desk all day, napping when she thinks I'm not looking. I've also asked her to enter her data into the computer instead of giving it to other folks to do for her. We're on the thrid day of her stalling me. She just left and promised she would try Monday, because she needs the extra time to concentrate.

On the one hand, I am aware she is giving me documentable reasons to fire her, and I'm almost grateful to have proof of her inability to complete her basic job functions. On the other, I know we are all headed down this road eventually, and I hate diminishing her sense of worth. Sooner rather than later I'm going to have to face the music, but I can't help feeling like an *** for it.

I suppose this is what management is about.

Got it in one. It is what management is all about.
Any chance you can find another position for her? Such as official party organizer?

Your duty is to the shareholders of the company you work for. There is no compassion in that sort of thing. However, if she was eager to make changes and really showed that she wanted to be a part of the team, being a sensible human being, you could find another role for her. However, based on the description you have given she is an incompetant person all around and therefore needs to be given the boot ASAP.

That's my opinion from an ethical managment perspective.

Flea,

I feel your pain. I am going through the same experience with one of my reports. She has been in the department for three years and is elderly. But she has got to go. The first mistake was the previous supervisor who hired her in the first place. Her current job description is a contracts coordinator, for which she cannot perform any of the functions in her current description. She was delegated to doing basic clerical work. The previous supervisor left, because she burned herself out trying to do her job and the job of this other employee.

When I came on board, I requested another person, best they would give me was a contract employee with the option of hiring them permanent. In the interim we got a new CEO who put a kabash on new positions.

My boss wouldn't let me hire the contract employee and keep my permanent employee. It came down to her or my contract employee. She has been difficult to work with, argumentative and constantly questioning my authority. It's not a part of the job I relish to say the least, but I know it has to be done because I need someone who can perform ALL of the job functions.

Don't worry we won't smoke a **** in hell. It's just a sucky part of the job.

Only poor managers fire people at church. Good managers usually do it on a Friday at the end of the day.

I don't doubt you have a healthy respect for long experience in a workplace, and are understanding of the limitations that age imposes.

I've worked myself with many retired persons on a volunteer basis and have learned tricks of trades, work methods and ethics, and many other seriously beneficial things from them. As a coordinator I often prefered the slow and steady over industrious youth.

But when any person ceases to be capable of performing the job that is required of them (or just refuses), then it's time for them to do something different.

Age is not the issue, competence is. A workplace is a workplace.

Refusing to do my job or to accept the fact that I'm not capable of completing the tasks that my position requires is arrogance.

You should have said "Ok!" then clocked her in the mouth.

"Wanna fight for it now?? Do ya??"

You Polish are the bane of my existance!!!

Kool-aid!

I think I was being too nice. I should have fired him when he was taking all that time off when his wife was dying.

/nod