Today, the venom has begun.
Elders are all rethinking their positions.
One of them, in my presence and as L accused me of gunning for her, apologized to L for the whole decision and said we were wrong. It was their decision. Their call.
The elder who just threw me under the bus? He is the one who, at the meeting, giggled and said they had talked about it two years ago and knew she wasn’t cutting it. They didn’t do anything about it.
Chips are going fast.
I wonder if backbones are available online?
Why didn’t the head elder tell her since it was their call? Seems they used you so you’d be set up to get the blame. You get to be the bad guy and they get to skate. ugh.
They offered to be present to talk with her. I should have taken them up on it. I am her boss and she knows I care about her, I just figured it might be better coming from one person rather than a gang of them.
The aggravating part is them not standing afterwards. That is tagging me for the fall.
I don’t even know what to say. I would apologize for their continued behavior but I don’t think I can. They are in need of a good kick in the pants, I sure wish SOMETHING WOULD GET THEIR ATTENTION!!!
Couple of thoughts: 1) Incompetent people usually know they are not cutting it even if they are in denial; 2) If #1 is true then such folk are likely to react negatively if the “reason” given for their termination, such as job elimination, does not address the true circumstance which led up to the action (i.e. incompetence). Why? Because the stated reason is likely to be interpreted as disingenuous, whether it is or not. The temptation to cop a major resentment at this point is pretty compelling. ( In Okiespeak we would say something like, “don’t dribble on my pants leg and tell me it’s raining”)
The main problem though, is that ducking the main issues doesn’t give the ex-employee any guidance on what went wrong or how to fix the problems in the future. In attempting to be merciful we wind up making the situation worse by cutting the former employee loose with not only hurt feelings but with some major resentments and no guidance on how to do things better on the next job. Course Mr Elder raises the whole matter to new heights by encouraging your “ex” to believe that she has been treated unjustly. More baggage to take away.
I’m not sure this is “postable” but it might be something to think about. BTW: I have committed all of these termination faux pas that I mentioned – some more than once.
it seems like the challenge resides with why L was released — based on your prior post, it sounds like it was a lack of competence. yet, the “spin” is that there is no money in the budget. the disconnect for the elders, since the situation predates you, is that they are using one circumstance (finances) to cover another (incompetence).
this issue falls back on your poker chip analogy.
the chips of influence are based on the currency of trust. the problem you’ve run into is that the chips you came in with met up with a poor exchange rate (or in light of Greece’s economic woes, covered by currency that is based on a deficit). in other words, the leadership has been deficient in the currency of trust — little exists at your church so decisions such as the layoff are met with suspicion.
the bummer is that some view you with as much trust as they have in the elders. and, it sounds like the elders trust one another with as much trust as the congregation.