Picture me sitting here calmly and sympathetically listening to one of my managers who is normally a solid rock of a woman, start to flip out and burst into tears at the possiblity of being deployed to Iraq. She's a Reserve in the ANG and she's been notified to report for 3 weeks of training in Jan to be a truck driver (she's normally in a broadcast unit) and that she should be prepared for possible deployment to Iraq in 2006 (to drive trucks or whatever). She is scared to death! On top of that, her husband is scheduled for deployment at the end of 06 and conceivably they may not see each other for several years if she's shipped out too.
So, on the one hand I say to her, "Uhm, when you VOLUNTEERED, didn't you think this was a possibility?" My mistake. She came back to me with, "When you first VOLUNTEERED to launch this business, did you expect alot of this bullsh*t we have to deal with?" O-kay. Good point.
My very personal perspective is as a business owner and my initial reaction was purely selfish, "Not again!" I just got her back from Hurricane Katrina! Now she'll be gone for most of Jan and possibly most of 06? Crap, crap, crap!
It's not that we're not supportive of our troops and whatever has to be done, but on the short-term, I've got payroll to meet and an organization to run and it's kinda hard without a body here to do it, and one of my best people to boot. Alright, now I'm just whining.
She's asked me to write a letter of protest claiming "hardship effect on the company", which I'll do, but is there anything else?
Now, she's off to the doctor's to see if the eye disease she was diagnosed with in LA during Hurricane Katrina is something legit.
In the end, she'll live her commitment at 150% because that's the kind of wonderful person she is, but for now... she's freaked.
Any suggestions are helpful.
Thanks! :)