lonecity.com

As the economy continues to grind further and futher into recession and despirate measures from the government to boost spending and credit abound my current place of business also draws nearer to closing.  This isn’t the first time I’ve been tasked with shutting down a retail store, though it is the first time doing one this large.  As I had expected the number of people in our employ who “stick it out” has dwindled. I expected we would shed most of our management team.  Normally I wouldn’t care who stays or goes, and really I don’t.  But I lost one last week that I’m not sure I can let go without caring.  Its not that she chose to leave that bothers me.  (it wasn’t really a choice)  What bothers me is that I didn’t see it coming.  There were maybe two people whom I expected to be there until the end and she was one of them. 

As I left one evening she was there and we were discussing what we would be doing tomorrow.  The next day she was gone.  As is the case with corporate firings there was no official discussion about what had happened.  Its all under wraps and for a few days I was left to wonder why.  Finally I got a little piece of mind as someone not held by the stigma of a corporate veil knew what had happened and let it slip.  Apparently our corporate loss prevention has accused her of embezzlement and they attempted to have her arrested that night after I left.  When stopped by LP she handed over her keys and left before the police arrived.  They say they have proof that she got into the computer and adjusted pay rates using someone else’s password (including her own).

I sincerely hope that she didn’t get arrested and booked.  I can vouch for her  character and I am positive that this is not something she did as an attempted crime.  But then again you never really can know a person.  Still I know the way the management world works.  Its not my job to ship pallets of fixturing between stores but when it needs to be done I know how to do it.  Since I’m familiar with the process and my boss doesn’t have time to do it, the task somehow magically gets done.  You can read that as “I take care of it.”  Since she used to be a Human Resources Manager prior to her most recent position it doesn’t seem unreasonable to me that this was one of those tasks that just magically gets done.   One day the evaluations and pay adjustments need to be entered in, and someone has to take care of it before the deadline.  She has the experience and knowhow and the person who “should” be doing it doesn’t have the time.  Of course there might have been a “slip” in judgement and perhaps her evaluation was a little better than it should have been.  I really don’t know.

The facts that I do know are that her character seemed to me to be strong.  She easily made enough money that taking from the coffer wouldn’t have been needed.  Coupled with the fact that her husband has a masters degree and a very good engineering job that supports both of them even without her income I don’t see why this could have happened.  We had a discussion at one point where I told her I had cashed out my entire retirement fund and payed the full sum down when I bought my home.  BTW, thats a good move in my oppinion despite all the financial planners negative remarks, I’m a lot better off than folks who are freaking out about the economy right now.  I have a nice low house payment that I can make even working a part time job and only minimal fear of forclosure.  As we were discussing retirement she showed me a statement of her retirement investments and boasted about how she was on target to retire a millionare before she’s turns 40.  (again thats without her husbands income)  Knowing that I really don’t see how a few thousand dollars netted by fudging the numbers would have been enough to tempt her.  She’s also been very adamant about immediate firing of associates for time theft.  She’s probably let go of a dozen people in the last year for clocking in and then doing something other than work for a few hours.

Its too bad that I’ll never know.  I’ll probably never see her again regardless of whether she is prosecuted and whether or not she’s found guilty.  Even if I did happen across her once I wouldn’t ask her what happened.  I wouldn’t feel right pushing up bad memories to someone who I concider a friend.  I’ll miss her and belive it or not I’m kind of sad she’s married.  I would never concider dating or even approaching a married woman but had she not been married when I met her she’s exactly the type of gal I’d be chasing after.  Intelligent, well shaped, strong personality, willful and definately high maintenance.  I give off an air of hating the whole high maintenance idea, but secretly thats exactly the kind of girl I see myself ending up with.  I really did like her and regardless this doesn’t change my oppinion of her.  If she were my wife I’d have forgiven her for something like this in a heartbeat and done everything in my power to make it go away.  Fancy Lawyers couldn’t cost enough.  I wonder if the guy she’s married to feels that way too.  Probably he does.  I’d hate to think that they’re having a rocky time now because he’s making her feel worse about what proably amounts to two seconds worth of bad judgement.

Anyhow I guess I just needed to get some of these strange feelings off my chest.  Thats what a blogs for right?  For me to spew random prattle about whatever is bugging me…