Today is the kind of day every employer hopes will never happen. I was at home when I got
a call from my book keeper telling me my one and only sales woman was being harassed by
her ex who works in my warehouse.
They had been broken up about 6 months now, and I had thought they had
worked it out, since they have a 12 year old son.
It turns out he had been harassing her the whole time. And things heated up, when he
found out she was dating someone.
So I asked her to tell me what was going on, according to my book keeper she was
crying and extremely upset.
Turns out he had been texting her threatening messages. Going as far as saying he would
kill her, if he caught her with this guy. Those threats were sent at her home the evening
before.
I wanted to know was he texting these messages at work, and it turns out he was,
and had just sent her several scary type messages. She was smart enough to
save all the messages.
I said, I need to fire him right now, do you think you will need a sheriff there.
And she thought she did, so we called the County Sheriff's office. In the meantime I am
10 minutes from my business, so I got down there, and asked to see the
phone and all the messages.
They weren't the worst a person could say, but were enough to sastify what
the officer told me were "threats through an electronic device.". And that she
could have a warrant issued on these, and that it was considered an assault
charge, even though he actually hadn't hit or touched her. Alabama does
have some pretty good laws to protect women (and others) from abusive
partners.
So the Sheriff called for another Sheriff, he was kind of old. And the hapless
ex was still in the warehouse, but soon I would have to call him up to the
front and fire him, and then have him escorted out by the Police.
So I called him to the front and put it like this:
"Look, you made threats against another employee, regardless of your relationship
with that other employee, this behavior is not only unacceptable, but
rises to the level of criminal, and I have to fire you. You need to get
your things, and leave the building. (At this point he noticed
the 2 police officers, and a look of alarm crossed his face).These
Officers are here to escort you off the property, and once you leave
you are not to come back on company property for any reason."
So they escorted him off the property, the sales girl broke down and
cryed. Then I gave her the rest of the day off with pay. What a day.
I have fired people before but I never had to have the Law there.
But you never know, he really is not a bad guy. Break-ups
are always messy. Why do things have to be so complicated
sometimes.
I really don't have a catchy ending for this diary,
It was just a surreal experience, having the police at your
business because your not sure how an employee will act
when you have to fire them
Mostly, I was worried about what he would have done to his
ex-girlfriend. That's my weird story for today, hope
yours was better than mine.
UPDATE: I just wanted to assure you that we will be watching out for our#1 only one sales woman
, and the other employee's are up to speed and pretty protective. And this guy is not
a crazy, he is actually quite mild mannered, but you never know, so we are all
going to stay on our toes. Thanks for all your concern and comments.
UPDATE: 2 Just to clarify one point. The police didn't just escort him out, they also
filled out a police report, which will start the ball rolling for my sales woman to
turn it in at the courthouse. At that point they will file a warrant on him, he
will be served, and then it will move on to court. I probably should of
included this in the original diary, but there seemed to be much concern. So
that is where we are at present. Thank you again for all the comments and concern,
and tips and recs of course.