Chief Quit Today
He came in and turned his stuff in. Short version, last week his friends wife was killed in an accident around noon. He was contracting to another company for us, so he packed up and came in to be with his friend around 2:30. No problem there at all. Then he called in the next day around 3 a.m. and left a voice mail. Still no problem. He had spoken with the other surveyor in the office about the accident indicating that it was a dear friend. Still no problem. However, he didn’t say whether he needed the next day off, so I had the schedule ready for him to go back to the field. Problem 1. He called in at 7 a.m. saying he needed the time to be with his friend and take him to view the body. Okay, but now I’m in a bit of a bind, and it was early so my tone was probably less than understanding. Anyway, he didn’t come in that day and I said that I would see him after the holiday (the crews don’t work on Fridays).
So the holiday weekend rocked right along and he showed up at 7 a.m. this morning. I was going to ask how his friend was and see what we could do. Well, didn’t get the chance and he quit. He said, among other things, and he was very professional about it, that it was a family company, but not his family and felt like we weren’t understanding.
Okay, I get that. However, being on the business side, if he had asked for last week off, I would have given it to him and adjusted the schedule accordingly as I revamped the business model for him, after an accident on his own time, where he couldn’t be in the field for 8 weeks or so. He was right, it’s a small family company, and we TRY to take care of our own.
Probably could have all been avoided had I been a little more understanding or even used a better tone, this is my fault. However, everyone who schedules crews knows what it’s like in the morning figuring out if everyone is there and lining them out to do the job, so it’s a little hairy in the morning.
It’s a shame really, he’s a great chief/SIT who has awesome potential to be a GREAT surveyor. Hopefully, he will land somewhere that will mentor and guide him to chip the diamond out of the rough.
Good luck to him and my prayers are with his friends family.
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