I've worked long and hard to get to where I am on the proverbial corporate ladder. Years and years of taking shit, smiling when I want to cry, and general dogs-bodying-around. So when I say I have earned my position of Taking No Shit Boss Lady, you best believe me.
I know some people think management is all meetings, lunches and high salaries. (Yeah, poor me, right?!) Not that I ever take lunch, but moving swiftly on. It's hard work, this boss lady thing.
This weekend I was faced, for the second time in the last six months, with a hard decision. A moral dilemma if you will.
I have been working in my current company for four years, and was employed as a sales person, and quickly jumped up to buyer/management. When you work in a small company like mine (15 employees including the boss), and see the same people all day, every day, you quickly become close-knit. In my shop, we are a team, we are family. We have seen one of our colleagues loose his his four year old daughter to Malaria. We have seen the birth of three precious babies. We have had two engagements and one wedding.
So this weekend, when I was faced with this moral dilemma, I was feeling all kinds of emotions. I was angry, upset, disappointed and sad.
We had a huge film shoot booked at my shop. We often have huge shoots here, this one in particular was a BBC production. If you have ever been on a film set, you will know that it is INTENSE! BBC had booked my shop for almost 36 hours, and there were people crammed into ever corner.
They had been at the shop for about 12 hours, and it was just after the change of shifts of my team. I was on my way somewhere close, and I thought I would pop in to see how things were going.
I found the big shot producer from BBC,said hi, and asked how all was going. He was very happy with everything, but pulled me aside to say that one of my guys had been drinking. How fudging embarrassing.
I went to investigate and speak the accused, and sure enough, he was quite sozzled. I gave him a talking to, stormed out and jumped in my car. After some consideration, I went back in to send him home. When I went into his section to find him, he was not there, but guess what was. A big bottle of brandy.
This means that not only had he drank before work, which, in my opinion is not good, but is excusable to a certain point, but that he planned to drink through out his overnight shift.
I WAS LIVID.
BBC had paid us a fat fee to use our location, and besides this, I had out this guy in charge. I crapped him out some more, confiscated the brandy and left.
Over the weekend, my anger at him subsided, and my worry for him increased. You see, there is a strict company rule that any employee caught drinking or doing drugs is to be immediately dismissed on the spot. My guy knew that. SURELY he knew that.
Now the ball was in my court, and it was up to me to decide if I would tell the big boss, and take the risk of this guy loosing his job.
I was angry at him for putting me in this position. I would hate to have him fired, and also hate to be the one who caused his dismissal.
I couldn't stop thinking about it all weekend. My moral compass was spinning way off course, and I was feeling physically ill.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN MY POSITION? AND WHAT DO YOU THINK I DECIDED TO DO?
Let me know in the comments your thoughts, and what you think I did. I will be making another post tomorrow with the answer.
