Rough day....
19 Jul 2013, 12:53 pm
I'm doing this mostly to get it down.
Doing my daily work, the guy who does our cleaning and lawn care comes in and asks me to get something typed up for him on the side. Just taking written lists of amounts spent on a home remodel. He needed it "now" and didn't want to bother my boss with it. I didn't know what I needed to do and how long it would take, so I quoted him $100 and he agreed.
It turned out to not be that hard to do. Had it done in about a half hour. He came back with a loan he wanted added on. I put it in. I covered every page he gave me when he was standing next to me to ensure it was all there. The totals all added up to how much he said he was owed. I used a spreadsheet for this, so I know the math was right and not just a transcription of a pre-written total. He said he was short and gave me $80 and promised to give me the remaining $20 later. I said it was fine, and my gut told me I probably wouldn't see that $20.
The next day (today) he comes in and wants money back. He claims I left a sheet off (not possible since I covered every page with him when he was present). I pointed this out to him, and he said he noticed it after he went out the door. I asked him why he didn't come right back so I could add it in. No real answer to that. He claimed he had someone redo it and that I should give him $50 back (the $20 he owed and $30 more). At this point, I know he is lying to me about what's happened...he just wasn't happy to pay $80 (after agreeing to $100) for what ended up taking me only 30 minutes to do.
He tries to get confrontational...my flight or fight instinct is rearing up. So, I just get to the point...leave my office now or I go straight to my boss and tell him what's going on. He tells me to enjoy the $80 and leaves.
After he's gone from the office, I double-check to make sure he's gone and go into my boss' office, close the doors, and come clean about everything that's happened. Mostly as a CYA and FYI should anything happen down the road from this (even though the man asked for this to be kept between him and I). Turns out that if this guy needed a favor, he could easily have asked my boss, but as the subject matter of the spreadsheet deals with a matter in which my boss would have a conflict of interest if he worked on it, he would have said "no." Not knowing anything about the issue (before my time and I don't have awareness of every little thing that goes on), I thought nothing of it, I agreed to do the work and potentially created a conflict-of-interest liability (although I suppose we can claim this guy exploited my lack of awareness of the conflict and only asked for a simple typing job).
THE SECOND THIS MAN STARTED LYING TO ME, all my instincts of where this was going kicked in. I've been burned enough times to realize I had been had, and once a person lies to me, I know they cannot be trusted. Stuff has gone missing (minor stuff, but still....) from the office. This man is the only non-staff with a key. So, either he or someone with him is the most likely suspect.
Now I have to take all my personal stuff home (not fired...just not leaving anything of personal value where it might be tampered with in an act of revenge). Now I have to look over my shoulder with this guy.
I'm anxious, obsessing over this, unable to focus as I should, and paranoid.
LYING BASTARD.
On the bright side, I manged to get through the rest of the day. A couple came in and I had to go over some discovery responses for accuracy. The production of documents was chaotic. I felt several times like I wanted to scream at everyone to go away, but I kept it together and managed to get through it. We scheduled them for the last 2 hours of my day...should have made it at least 3. I got what needed to be done today and left the rest in piles on the floor with sticky notes for me to get to on Monday.
Not sure if I would have gotten meltdown or shutdown, but between the stress of what happened with the liar and then the discovery responses being chaotic, it took all I had to keep my focus so I could finish the job. I'm not prone to crying, but I wonder if that's what I would have done if I went a few steps closer to the edge.
