Yesterday, I arrived in the office early. I turned on my PC, check my todo list, had to follow up some paper works from a colleague, made a couple of calls, and viola, im done. I checked my mails, updated my todo list, checked a couple of schedules, and open my mobile phone to transfer some old message on my PC. My inbox is getting clogged up with messages from a person I don't really know of personally, and keeps on sending me defamatory and unkind words. Pretty ironic, because I know for a fact this person is a devout in thier chosen relegion.
Anyways, after transferring a few messages, I noticed that students are arriving in to their respective rooms, and inquiring here and there about thier classes. I went out of my office, and began my rounds to check every classes if it's intact and going without any delays. After my round, I went back to my office, checked my email again, and continued to transfer messages from my phone. After a while I saw one of my faculty who just arrived, I checked the time, it's around 10:15am-10:30am.
I just went on with my transferring of messages. After a while a knock came on my door, one of the faculty came storming to my office with looks of frustration and/or anger(?). The frist words that I heard was an apology for not report for work a day before, and then the word I dreaded the most "RESIGNATION". I ask to talk about it, I asked why, the answer came to me just as I suspected. It was about the conflict that has been brewing for some time now, between a superior and another employee. She said that she feels pressured whenever the other person is around, and she doesn't like the way the Superior is treating the employee. In as much that I wan't to disclose the details between the argument between the superior and the employee, I rather not, it's getting personal already and I can sense that the superior is getting very very personal.
My poor colleague is so pressured that she wants to resign within 15 days. She doesnt want to be in a hostile working environment. After the details of our personal talk(which I will not disclose here), I adviced her that it would take around 30 days for the effectivity of the resignation, that is the mandate of the HR manual and we are bound to follow it. I advised her just to hang on a little bit, for the reason that if she would resign, she has no company to transfer to, second, most of the companies during the last quarter of the year stops hiring additional personnel, and alots funds for the upcoming Christmas Party and employee bonuses. I told her just to stay put for a while, just hang on a little longer, and just don't think about the pressure coz it's not her thats at fault.
We also talked about how the company is turning around from the previous manager's mess, I also emphasized that as of now, the company is gaining revenue and the company is getting positive revenues every month. I don't know if I am wrong or right in my advices, all I know is that when we talked, I didn't have to think of what words to say regarding the company, and her performance, and brewing conflict....it was spontaneous....it came from my heart.
Deep inside me I was saddened and troubled. I was saddened because my team was getting agitated as the result of the conflict and they are now expressing thier intention to resign, albiet in a form of a joke or in a serious talk like we had with my colleague. I came to realize that all their troubles roots to the conflict between the superior and the employee, and it is affecting their performance in the office, and it is affecting them as a person. What can I do? We can't tell our superior to be professional or to stop doing what they might be doing wrong. They are our boss, we don't have the right to tell them that they are wrong nor we can't order them to stop pressuring other employees, and we don't have the courage to go against them.
The same day also, I received the letter of explanation from the two of my team members from the NTE(notice to explain) letter I gave them last saturday regarding their violation. After reading their response, I gave the letter to my immediate supervisor and reviewed them, he advised me to schedule their respective suspension without affecting their classes. I went back to my room and checked the calendar, and decided that it would be best to serve their suspension next week, during midterm exams. They would just leave the questionaires to other faculty.
This is the first time I have to give a faculty member a suspension, not just one, but two. The fact that I'm their immediate head, and issuing them suspension coming from the orders of a another superior, makes me question myself. Why would I issue suspension to my faculty, they have not directly violated any rules of the company. I don't wan't to talk about it. Maybe, there will come a time that I will understand why I did what I did. I felt guilt deep inside when I issued the suspension.
*Sigh* Just another day in the office.
