A Rose is a Rose

LFernandes · November 2003

Here a good one for you.

Yesterday two supervisors came to me with the following issue:

Employee #1 - I'll call her Mary received a dozen roses from her boyfriend at the office.

Employee #2 - I'll call her Lisa was "kidding around" with Mary pretending to bite the buds off her roses. Laugh, Laugh, ha, ha. Lisa went away.

The next day, Mary comes into the office and notices that instead of 12 roses, there were only 11 in the vase but doesn't think anything of it. Sitting on top of her desk is a single rose petal. During the course of the day EE#2 Lisa asks Mary if she received her "calling card". Mary has no clue. Lisa goes on to tell her that she bite the head off of one of Mary's roses, ate it and left a calling card - the rose petal - with her teeth marks in it on Mary's desk. xflash Mary is upset and goes to her supervisor. The Supervisors come to me.

In an effort to nip this in the bud (sorry), I talk to the both the employees and tell Lisa that her behavior is unacceptable and should not be repeated.

Have anyone ever come across any bizzare behavior like this and what did you do. I have a hunch that there is more going on here than mets the eye....:-S so I have both supervisor's watching for any further bizzare behavior very closely. I've also had Mary temporarily removed from working with Lisa for a week or so.

Your thoughts and opinions - please!!

LFernandes

MrCreosote · November 2003

Did Lisa say what the purpose of the "calling card" was? Was it a death threat, a romantic advance, a joke, or what? Without that I wouldn't know what to do.

LFernandes · November 2003

Lisa would't explain the "calling card" but just kept saying that she did it as a joke. I explained to her that while she may have thought it was funny, her co-worker didn't.

The fact that she used the words "calling card" set the bells and red flags off in my head. No matter what I asked her, she said it was a joke.

rad · November 2003

Lets hope Lisa does not get sick from eating the roae and apply for FMLA...

LFernandes · November 2003

When I first heard it - I asked if she was vitamin deficient!

sohappytobe · November 2003

where did you get your animated smiley face?

LFernandes · November 2003

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-07-03 AT 10:08AM (CST)[/font][p]When you post a message, there is an Emotion Icons link right above the box you type in. x:D

L

bamahr · November 2003

Why do they do things like this? Makes our job - shall I say interesting - annoying. I would like for employees to come to work and act like adults. If they did, we might not be needed.

LisaMN · November 2003

Sounds like the 1st scene out of a stalker story. I can hear the scary music in the background.

Maybe it was just a momentary lapse of judgement. Having the supervisors be on the look out for more weird behavior is about all you could/should do at this point.

Rockie · November 2003

I've learned there is nothing you can put past an employee to do. Just when you think you have heard if all, something else comes up.

Last week was a doozy for me. We were paying an employee to attend a class twice a week,plus mileage. We found out that she simply quit coming to the class and then, guess what? She still put in for the time and mileage for attending the class she dropped out of. She will be terminated today..a large price to pay for losing a $30/hour job.

We then had a nurse who called in a prescription under a doctors name, which the doctor did not authorize. The managing physician of that office threw a fit and did not want her terminated. We were bound by law to report it to the Board of Nursing and the pharmacist who discovered this also reported it to the proper authorities. This physician has a Napolean complex and thinks he is all powerful and is above the law. I am sending our employment attorney over today to ready him the riot act. I am sure this lady will be terminated today if not arrested.

Whew! I hope this week goes better....but as I was driving to work today, I noticed a full moon. YIKES!

System · November 2003

Mary and Lisa have a personal problem to handle. The roses were the personal property of Mary. Don't get too involved. If you want, give them about 10 minutes together to solve the problem - and tell them that should be the end of it. If Lisa wants to appologize and if Mary wants to accept, it's up to them; but not another word about it in the workplace.

HGHAHR · November 2003

I guess I'd have to disagree with you on this one. Even though it is personal, this type of behavior could create a hostile work environment. So I'd advise against dismissing it as a personal issue between the two and leaving it at that. Once made aware of a situation, management become liable.

LFernandes · November 2003

Update: Lisa has apologized to Mary and is still claiming it was "only a joke". I'm going to continue to keep an eye on the situation but hopefully we don't have any more issues with her eating someone else's flowers.

L

System · November 2003

HGHAHR, I'm not clear as to where else you would want to go with this. Give the employees time to resolve the issue and lay it to rest. HR couldn't possibly intervene with every personal issue among employees. Employees hog the top shelf in the refrigerator, take the chocolate from the candy dish first, don't park straight in the lines, walk off with someone else's pen, and leave their newspapers all over someone else's table. Anything can cause people to become hostile but it doesn't necessarily have to create a "hostile work environment" where no descrimination occurs.

Hope I cleared up my original post. (I don't know how to post the yellow faces.)

LFernandes · November 2003

I don't THINK this will turn into a hostile work environment. But I was thinking it was more along the lines of jealousy..... you fill in the blanks.

Funny over the weekend I noticed it was a full moon (along with the lumar eclipse) and figured that was why everyone was acting so weird last week. Chaulk this one up for the full-moon record books!

L

mwild31 · November 2003

I agree with s moll & LFernandes - I think you handled it very professionally. So far the only strange, even bizarre, issues I've had to work with involve employees getting new cars/homes & then demanding a higher wage to pay for the new cars/homes. I did have a guy that broke up with his girlfriend & couldn't understand why, 3 months later, we were getting frustrated with him because he wasn't doing his work...

mbeam · November 2003

May be that she has a unique sense of humor and somehow didn't realize that it would be interpreted as anything but a joke. Now that it has been addressed would keep an eye out for any future behaviors along these lines since the ground rules have been laid out.

Would also take a look at past behavior and whether the two of them are friends with one overstepping the bounds.

Since it happened in the workplace the expectation is that steps will be put in place to prevent it from happening again (typically what happens here is that our managers want us to put a policy in place specifically addressing this particular problem - one that 99% of the people won't run into) so they have something they can point to in the handbook.

If we did that, our handbook would be 400+ pages=P~

Don D · November 2003

Maybe she has a goat back somewhere in her blood line. Who knows? S Moll is right in that it's taken way too much of your valuable time. We are not principals or hall monitors.

LFernandes · November 2003

Update: So far so good. No more reported random attacks on flowers. Maybe it was the full moon after all.

Thank God it's Friday!

LFernandes

A Rose is a Rose

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