Question Author
Thank you for your messages, I am very grateful. Wednesday was a disaster from beginning to end and I really want to forget about it as quickly as possible. I panic very easily and was glad on your ideas to avoid getting fired and being taken off the agency’s books.
Just to clear up a few unanswered points to those of you who thought I should get sacked:
1. Dry Cleaners do not lose clothes they just hand them to the wrong person. Therefore when an item is discovered as missing they require the customer to wait 3 weeks in the hope that it will be returned by whoever had been given the items by mistake. Therefore, there was no chance of getting cash from the dry cleaner on the first day of the problem to enable me to purchase more clothes.
2. I did not spend all my time on AB during working hours. I spent about 10mins in all. While some of you still type with one finger, as an experience secretary I can type at almost 100 words per minute and therefore 300 words takes me just over 3 minutes to type.
3. I do not have a cushy job. This week I have typed up many sets of accounts, reports, letters, opened files, made coffee for my boss and clients, and answered the phone –you name it.
4. OK is mixed up two sets of accounts, gave them the wrong file name and sent them on their merry way to the wrong people. A mistake: it happens.
5. I did not lie to my boss about why I was wearing jeans. During my telling-off on Wednesday she did not even ask or want to hear my explanation. She made up her own mind that I wore jeans because of my lack of commitment to her business and because she was away. She did not give me the chance of lying! In the end she was so nasty about the whole thing (and I was so upset at being spoken to like that) that I agreed with her assessment of the situation. It was because of that that I wore jeans the next day out of spite.
6. I was late by 20 minutes on Wednesday because I was arguing with the Dry Cleaners, so not really my fault.
As previously mentioned, if I was employed (instead of temping) I would get no more than a verbal warning – not fired as some you suggest. Agreed?
I am worried about Monday morning when my boss returns - any suggestions on how to handle the situation would be welcome.