This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Continued from Denise Looks Around
Once Denise returned to her job that Friday, she had a hard time keeping her mind on what she was doing. Her prospective employer had indicated that he needed to get someone into that position as soon as possible. He had asked her twice when she would be available. Denise told him she felt like she would need to give a two week notice to her current employer. Before she left the interview to return to work, he asked her again, just to verify, “So you’ll be able to start March 10th?”
The owner of the recruiting firm had asked her to call him when the interview was done. Denise told him that everything went well and she like the job and thought that the employer liked her as well. When Denise returned to work, she checked her email and had the official offer of employment, pending the background check. She received another email later in the day and was told that her references were outstanding. She was instructed not to give notice until the initial background check was finished.
Around 4:30 PM, she received an email welcoming her to her new place of employment. Denise simply printed the resignation letter she had written at the start of her employment search. She practically skipped up to the front of the Watchamadoodle to give her boss her letter. She felt as if she had written a very professional resignation. There was no need for nastiness. In her letter she simply wrote:
Please accept this as my formal letter of resignation. Although my time with Watchamadoodle has been, on the whole, satisfying and productive, for quite a while now I have become less and less satisfied with my work environment. Therefore, it is with some regret that I ask you to accept this as my resignation from Watchamadoodle. This letter serves as my two week formal notice. According to the guidelines laid out in the employee handbook, I will be entitled to the two week vacation I have accumulated. My last day will be March 7, 2014. I will do all that I can in the next two weeks to leave some sort of written guideline for the individual that replaces me.
Denise’s boss read this letter. He made no comments. He did not make eye contact. He simply repeated over and over, “ok, ok, ok, ok.” and then with a final “ok” he walked away. That weekend she received a letter from her boss, filled with a bunch of hooey.
Denise spent most of the last two weeks writing a manual for her desk. She knew that there was no way that she would be able to include everything. So she decided to just cover the basics and what she felt was the most important day to day instructions. Denise felt like anyone with a bookkeeping background should have no problems stepping into her shoes.
On Denise’s next to last day, her boss found a replacement through a temp service. He hopes to eventually make this person a part of his team. Denise began to aggressively train the new hire. But there was only a couple of days left.
While in the midst of training the new hire, another mistake is found in the paperwork. Denise isn’t going to say anything, but the new hire sees the error and asks about it. So Denise tells her that normally she should bring this to her boss’s attention and find out what happened. BUT she doesn’t want to bring it to her boss’s attention because Denise will feel like her boss thinks she is just trying to start trouble with the new girl. So the two of them “fix” the mistake, with Denise stressing to the new hire that in the future she should take it up with the Watchamadoodle captain.
Now Denise is the type of person that can not keep her mouth shut. So the next morning, Denise’s final day, she goes to the captain and let’s him know about the error. She tells him that the reason she didn’t bring it to his attention the day before is because of the reactions she has received in the past. She knows that she will be made out to be the bad guy.
A short time later the captain comes into the bookkeeping office. Denise has her back to the door, so she can not see his face. But she can see the new hire’s face. Her eyes are wide and she is making a conscience effort to look at the captain and not at Denise. The captain informs the new hire that he is aware of the mistake that they did not bring to his attention. That she should have brought it to his attention. That he is not the type of person that tries to hide anything from the government. That he is not a cheat. Blah, Blah, Blah……
When the captain leaves, the new girl looks at Denise and says “What was that?” Denise tell her that she brought the mistake to his attention that morning. Denise also tells her, “That was the real captain. The captain that has been joking around with you the last couple of days is a fake. But that’s just my opinion.”
Denise finished her day with very little interaction with the rest of her long time coworkers. She was visited by a very good friend who had retired several years before. This made Denise laugh to herself, because she could just imagine the look on the captain’s face when this person showed up to wish Denise well.
The captain’s little speech that morning was just the final proof that Denise had done the appropriate thing by leaving the Watchamadoodle company. The captain proved himself time and time again to be an immature, childish, and unprofessional. He has no grasp on how to handle employee morale and problems.
When Denise returns from lunch, she leaves her purse in the car. She puts her car keys in her pocket. She has already cleared it with the captain in regards to the time she will be leaving. So when the time came, Denise simply walked out the back door and drove off into the sunset.