Hurricane Shelly

One of the biggest mysteries in the world is why people apply for and work in customer service related jobs when they clearly hate working with the public. There are so many jobs that pay the same (or even better) that don't involve interacting with people, however, these candidates always show a “passion for helping people,” and love “solving problems, de-escalating situations, “being patient, empathetic, adaptable,” and using their, “effective listening skills,” etc. When they get hired, they fake it for a bit, but soon their true colors show through, and they “switch to bitch.” This story is no different, except our this story’s subject, “Shelly,” added a hint of violence to the equation.

Working side by side with Roy and Shannon (see Blowin’ Money Fast), who handled the monies of clients who were vulnerable, and sometimes homeless, Shelley was hired to assist those individuals with budgeting and also assisted them with paying their bills.

The candidate we sought for this role needed to have a unique skillset. We needed someone who had a financial background, had strong customer service skills, and preferable had a background working with our population. Therefore, we often used the assistance of a staffing agency to help recruit for these roles, and Shelly was no different. As the pattern I stated above goes, Shelly started off her assignment through the staffing agency strong. She seemed to be dedicated to our clients and really wanted to see them thrive. Therefore, it was no surprise that we hired her as an employee once her hours with the staffing agency were completed. But a few months into her tenure is when her six month reign of terror began.

On one occasion, Jennifer, Shelly’s manager, sat in on a meeting with Shelly and a nun, who represented a religious organization who was offering the client housing, to negotiate rental fees. Jennifer was shocked and appalled by Shelly’s behavior during the meeting, which she described as aggressive and adversarial. With a nun. Jennifer needed to intervene to ensure a compromise that was mutually advantageous for the client and the religious organization who was offering the housing. When the meeting finally adjourned, Jennifer counseled Shelly by explaining how to collaboratively negotiate with external agencies without appearing “hostile and unbending.”

This was the first of numerous issues and complaints from clients who described Shelly as “rude,” “belligerent,” “aggressive,” “disrespectful,” etc.

The beginning of the end was when, Jennifer assigned Shelly a new client. Shelly complained that she was being unfairly “picked on” for getting new participants, even though new clients were assigned in a rotation. At this time, Shelly’s compliance paperwork was also out of date for 59/75 clients on her caseload. Jennifer had begun to document Shelly’s poor behavior and performance, but of course didn't discuss it with HR, and remained as just documentation without any formal disciplinary action occurring. (SHOCKER!!)

Shelly’s behavior continued to take a turn for the worst. One day, Shelly barged into Jennifer’s office to accuse her of printing a check incorrectly, and causing it to be printed for the wrong vendor. Jennifer explained that it was Shelly who actually selected the vendor in the system. When she tried to instruct Shelly, she refused redirection and left Jennifer’s office while she was talking, and yelled, “Nope! That’s your fault.”

A few days later, a similar issue occurred, when Shelly again entered Jennifer’s office while she was in a meeting to tell her that she printed a check wrong again. Jennifer then explained again that she selected the vendor, not Jennifer. Shelly then threw a stack of checks at Jennifer and refused to listen to how to correctly select a vendor. Because of how loud Shelly was yelling, the rest of the staff overheard the interaction. Roy ran in to try to mediate and assist in explaining things for Shelly.

During the same conversation, Jennifer asked Shelly to follow up with a client who reported she was pregnant, to find out how to further be able to assist her. In front of the other two staff, she yelled that she was not going to call her because she didn’t care that the client was pregnant. Jennifer had to insist that Shelly called the client because the pregnancy would obviously affect the client’s finances. Shelly stormed off.

For the remainder of Shelly’s employment (only a few more days), she refused to speak with Jennifer, and often had Roy request things on her behalf. When Jennifer attempted to talk to Shelly directly, Shelly looked back at Jennifer, rolled her eyes and ignored her.

The following day she received a complaint from the receptionist, where the receptionist explained that Shelly was mean to clients and often made sarcastic comments about the clients in front of them, frequently refused to come to the front desk to speak with clients directly and instead asked the receptionist to go back and forth between the client and her (obviously causing confusion). Furthermore, there were at least two occasions where Shelly hung up on the receptionist altogether, violated HIPAA on a few occasions by discussing clients personal business (including social security funding, their address, etc.) in common areas with others walking by.

Based on the fact that by the point it got to HR, Shelly’s behavior was so insubordinate, she was refusing to perform her essential job duties, and was so disrespectful to our clients, we decided to terminate her.

But when Jennifer and the CFO sat down with Shelly to explain that due to several recent complaints received both internally and externally she was being terminated, before being able to say “terminated,” Shelly interrupted Jennifer to demand she specify the exact complaints received. When Jennifer began to answer, Shelly interrupted her again to ask who the people who had complained about her were. At this point, the CFO interrupted to ask Shelly to let Jennifer finish. Shelly responded by asking if she could go to the ladies room.

Upon her return, the CFO took over and stated that she was being terminated, and the reasons were outlined in the termination letter. He handed her the letter and told her that the role was simply was not the best fit for her.

Shelly left the room and slammed the door. Jennifer and the CFO quickly followed her out. By that point, Shelly had already made a beeline for Jennifer’s office and began to throw all of the stuff on Jennifer’s desk off of it. She then went to her cubicle to pack her belongings, cursing and yelling about Jennifer the whole time. Her co-workers, who were in a team meeting (to provide privacy for the situation), overheard the kerfuffle and began to leave the meeting to see what was happening. Jennifer then approached Shelly to collect her key card and other company property. Shelly began to yell at the CFO, and threaten to “punch him in his fucking face.” Suddenly, she ran to attack him physically. Luckily, numerous staff members were between them and restrained her to prevent her from hitting him. She continued to curse and threaten Jennifer and the CFO and called Jennifer a “bald headed bitch.” Shelly tried to lunge at Jennifer and the CFO another 3-4 times.

Of course, at that time, they called me to assist. I talked with her for what seemed like forever. She was extremely receptive to me, and explained why she thought she was inappropriately terminated, which was because she was never warned. (SHOCKER!!) I explained that the issue was that all of the complaints we received came in all at once, and that her behavior caused too much risk to our reputation. I further explained that we did not have a progressive disciplinary policy, and we were within our rights to terminate her due to her attitude. I also explained that I was disappointed because I really saw something special in her. Shockingly, something I said to her resonated and she admitted to feeling burnt out and left without further incident.

A week later, Jennifer received a call from an external party who worked with Shelly. She thanked Jennifer profusely for dismissing Shelly and explained that she was “rude, angry, disrespectful and belligerent” in every interaction she had ever had with her. When she requested to speak with Shelly’s manager, Shelly refused to provide her with Jennifer’s last name or phone number. Finally, the partner equated the departure of Shelly to the demise of the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz and that her whole team “rejoiced” when they heard that Shelly was gone.

What can I say, some people just shouldn't work in customer service!

Until next time…