Miss Thang and her 'tude

Miss Thang, as I've mentioned previously, was one of my employees with a particularly nasty disposition. She embodies perfectly what I consider an urban attitude gone awry -- someone who really cannot function in society.

This type of individual will freely disrespect leaders directly to their face, act completely unprofessionally, and then complain that their supervisor is "all up in their face all the time".

They will freely make up horrible lies about supervisors or peers, accusing them of racism, sexual harassment, stealing, or unprofessional behavior -- yet reels back in shock and righteous anger when confronted with their own real misdeeds.

They behave in a childish, confrontational manner at all times, yet seem to sincerely wonder why they keep getting disciplined at work or fired.

I tend to believe that this kind of problem with authority and personal egotism comes from upbringing. I have no problem with any particular culture, but if you have kids, I'd advise not transferring the chip on your shoulder to them. It cripples them in corporate society. I believe in diversity; however, diversity does not mean that you are above the rules (in so long as the rules are reasonable and contribute to company success in a manner fair to all reasonable individuals).

Sadly, these individuals are usually hopeless. Because I am an authority figure -- even though I worked my way up -- I am labeled an enemy, an evil proponent of the policies of Whitey, or The Man, or whatever, out to repress and conquer. If I try to let someone know in a friendly manner that they are cruising themselves straight toward destruction, I am attacked in return. Masochist that I am, I still try, but I am no longer surprised when my gentle suggestion to start paying attention to scores or future employment with my company might be at risk causes the individual to start a full-fledged campaign intended to get me fired or, at least, cause all of my employees to hate me. Fortunately, my management and most of my employees are too smart for that.

Miss Thang was, for quite a few months, the thorn in my side. Because of her performance, I was trying to coach her regularly, hoping that she would get the hint and stop acting up. Every time she was at my desk, she would sigh loudly, shift in her chair, roll her eyes, and generally act in a completely infantile manner. At first -- being a new supervisor -- I hoped to win her over and help her realize that I wanted to help her keep her job.

After a while, my personal mission just became to get rid of her.

Firing someone at my company isn't easy. She had basically been never disciplined for her behavior, and had worked at my company for years. HR told me that, essentially, her poor work performance couldn't get her fired because it was so consistently bad for so long that we had, in a legal sense, had determined it acceptable. Fortunately or unfortunately, as with most individuals like her, Miss Thang also had ... other problems.

I hate to go after someone like that, but it's how it works -- I have to build a case for getting some to leave, and she was an embarassment to the company and to my department. I was wasting my time with her, I finally realized, and it's disheartening. I had failed. I don't know if there was much I could have done differently -- it was probably always a lost cause, but still.

When I finally had enough attendance issues, official warnings, and documentation, I did the deed. Surprisingly enough, she didn't get up and start swearing. When I told her we had decided to end her employment with my company, she just said "Thank you" and got up to leave.

That's how it ends -- not with a bang, but a whimper.