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ready for tommorow Many times I've said that I wanted change to happen at work, well I got my wish Friday night at work and should have know better. I mean there is that cliche about watching what you wish for because you may not like the results. Things didn't seem quite right when I walked through the door. Something was wrong, but I couldn't tell what at first so I took a look around for any clues. What I saw was that there were boxes everywhere and one of them was filled with office supplies. The others had lids on them so I couldn't tell what was in them. Ann must have been doing something with them, but before I could ask she asked me a question. Ann asked me if our boss had called me at work. I said no. Then she proceeded to tell me that this was her last night at work. She had quit. I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing. She then went on to tell me more of the story. It seems that she had received a court summons from the father of her third child. He wanted custody of her and Ann went insane with rage. It was probably one of the last things in the world that she wanted to hear. I hadn't heard her mention him in a while so I imagined that the two of them must have come to some kind of understanding. Well, he must have been busy planning this for some time and did his best to remain secretive about it. She seemed to be completely surprised by what he had done to her. It had been mentioned once before but she partly doubted that he would try and if he would she would fight him to the proverbial end. Maybe she should have known better since she relied on him to watch their daughter while she was at work. He was bound to get tired of that arrangement at some time in the future. I guess that the future finally arrived for him. Obviously he was attached to his daughter and despite some of her stories he must have cared more than she told me he did. Of course I'll never know the full story. What I do know is that she promptly called his lawyers and screamed at them and then called him and did the same thing. Neither call got her much in the way of satisfaction. All that it did was give her a pounding headache. Then I believe that the next call that she made was to work. She wanted and or needed the night off to sort through this mess. Now here is where the story gets muddled. I have no idea what might boss said to her, but it must not have agreed with her and the conversation probably went downhill from there. He apparently told her no since it was too short of notice, but how that led to her quitting is still murky to me. According to her she felt as though she had run out of options. The father said that he wouldn't watch the baby Saturday when she had to work and she didn't know anyone else she could ask. Then when our boss refused to give her time off for what in her mind was a family crisis, she freaked. I can just see the look on her face as she felt that all hope was lost. She was going to lose her last child and no one was helping her. The conversation between our boss and her must have been memorable, but I'll never know the whole story. Maybe he asked her when she would be back to work and she said that she didn't know. Maybe that wasn't the answer that he wanted to hear. Then there was her poor track record working against her. For example there was the time when she didn't come to work for three days and he sent the police to her house. I doubt that he ever forgave her for that incident. Somehow I doubt that he was completely objective when it came to dealing with Ann. I am sure that he felt that he had given her every chance, but I have my doubts. More than likely she just said fine, if I can't have the night off or part of the weekend off to solve this problem then I quit. Now due to his brilliant decision and poor people skills, the rest of get to pick up the pieces from this bomb that management let go off. Instead of aggravating just one person, my boss is going to share the responsibility amongst the rest of us. All of it strikes me as poor planning on his part and in some ways something that the military would do. I walked her out to her car for the last time. She said that she was going to move back to where her former husband lived which is out of state. There she'll have someone to help watch her baby and maybe have a better chance at getting a new job. Even though we argued at times, I can honestly say that I am going to miss Ann. I also wished that she were leaving under better circumstances. What she needs is to be able to just put her life on hold for about a month and try to sort out what she wants to do next. I have a feeling that she might not get that chance. ... After work I stopped by to visit with my grandma and she did not look well. I found out afterwards that she never looks good in the morning, but to me she looked the worst that I had ever seen her. It did not make my day any better.
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