I had to be part of someone else’s bad day, and it sucked.
Please keep confidential, unknown to <name> at this time. Meeting is scheduled for 9:00 tomorrow, in the conference room. Please have someone get his laptop shortly after 9:00 and disable him from the system. Please also have someone discreetly gather his personal items from his work area and bring them to the conference room as quickly as possible.
– excerpt of email I received as part of a termination
This morning I took part in a ninja-kill.
A Ninja-kill is a termination where the employee doesn’t know about it beforehand. The guys that usually handle this weren’t in yet, so I had to go and collect this guys personal items while he was in the “meeting”.
Luckily, on my way over to the building, one of the guys who normally do this was arriving to work. So I snagged him and made him go with me. Good thing, too. He grabbed an extra box and a cart (which I hadn’t thought of). He also knows who the guy is, so we could make sure to avoid running into him. (How embarrassing right? “Um, yeah… I’m here to box up your personal shit while you’re in your ‘meeting’”)
I teased my boss that they’re gonna need way more than one box to pack up my shit if they ever decide to do this to me.
He laughed and suggested that he’s gonna bring in a box of lead weights just to make it extra tough if it ever happens to him.
I can’t help putting myself in this guy’s shoes though. I mean, I put his iced coffee and his cell phone in a box. (Well, not the same box). I mean – he really did not see this coming and was planning on coming back to his desk.
Damn.
Today I found a little humility in having to take part in someone else’s bad day.