Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End

It's over!!! He's GONE!!! The past couple months have been sheer HELL, but it's over, and I can FINALLY move on with my life!!!

Here's how David's review day (a.k.a. D-Day) went down...

David arrived at approximately 9:20 AM. He was wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and sneakers (how professional). I immediately told him it was time for his annual review, and he followed me into the office, where the other employee appraisals had already been conducted. Dan, my operations manager, was also in attendance. I handed David his appraisal and told him to look it over, and that we could then address any questions he might have. He responded, “No, you are going to walk me through this item-by-item and explain my scores.” I simply replied with, “Go ahead and look through everything, and then we can discuss it.” David would read a single phrase or sentence, take it out of context and ask things like, “How am I getting a ‘0’ because of this?” When he said things like that, I just urged him to read the whole section for elaboration. David kept asking why these things had never been brought to his attention before, but many of these issues were first introduced on his performance summary (i.e. “taking more initiative,” “circulating more” and “appropriateness of information discussed when interacting with students”), then elaborated upon during a one-on-one staff meeting in the winter, followed by his write-up in March. Ultimately, I explained that certain patterns of conduct/performance/behavior had been identified, and that a decision had to be made in the best interest of the center. Dan then clarified that these patterns made it obvious that David is simply not a good fit for the company. At that point, David asked, “So I’m not coming back—in any way, shape, or form—to Ombudsman?” Dan confirmed this. Then David said, “If I had known that, I would have signed the damn thing fifteen minutes ago.” David flipped to the back page, and said, “Where do I sign?” I said, “Where it says ‘employee.’” Then he said, “I can’t believe this…you’re not even going to show me where to sign.” That’s when he shoved his appraisal away, got up from the table and started to walk out. Before he left, he said, “On second thought, I’m taking this with me.” He grabbed his appraisal and stormed out of the center. It was approximately 9:50 AM when he left.


My review was stellar. He isn't coming back. All is right with the world. I resolve to never initiate conversation about this again. Time to turn the page.....