Office anecdote

In my 15 years at my job, I've had to supervise a variety of people with personalities that ranged from the mellow and Zen-like to the all-knowing dictator and psycho. I've gotten people angry at me, I've had them throw things at me, storm out of the room, curse me out, sit in stunned silence for 15 to 20 minutes, laugh and cry. But here's a first, and something I really had nothing to do with:

An employee came out of her annual review with her supervisor (not me!) in tears. I've seen this before. But she walked through the office, sobbing the entire way, came over to my cubicle and promptly crawled under my desk to continue weeping.

What a male supervisor does not want is a female employee under his desk while he sits at his computer. The chance for misunderstanding and rumor are all over this.

I pushed my chair back, stood up and handed this person a box of tissues. I spoke to her a bit (I knew that the review would upset her -- no special information here) then told her I had to go to a meeting.

She evenutally extricated herself from my desk to continue her day.

This incident is really sad. I felt ashamed, but not for the employee who felt the need to hide. I was ashamed that I work with other people who can't seem to handle a subordinate who has obvious emotional issues. She is intelligent and can be worked with, but not like other members of the staff. She requires lots of attention to get work done, I know that, and it has to be done in a different manner -- dictating edicts won't work here.

For me, the question is: If a supervisor is not going to put the time into helping a staff member grow and better herself, then why keep her on staff? All the supervisor is doing is hurting that person and embarassing the people in the office and diminishing the quality of the product.

And I'm running out of tissues.

Thought: Another entry in the file cabinet of things I don't understand.