My first firing.

Well this week Ii have done the hardest job for me yet.  I fired one of my girls!

What a difficult thing to do!  

It has been an issue for a while and in the past she has had a few altercations with Sinta, and recently accused Sinta (unjustly) of stealing.  All of the others have also been finding it very difficult to work with her, and I decided that the business would flow better if she left.  Aggh!  What a decision!. 

So on Tuesday we closed up and in the afternoon I visited Novi and explained my reasoning and my decision.  She was quite accepting and unsurprised which implied to me that she understood why it had to happen.  I explained to her that some of her behaviours made it very difficult for her to work with others and I encouraged her (again) to try and improve these qualities so that in the future if she found work again she could work with others more smoothly, and also perhaps improve some of her damaged family relationships.

On Monday the “situation” developed to an actual physical altercation, although it didn't quite get violent (our landlord Anen apparently jumped through the opening in the wall to break them up.)  Therefore it wasn't suitable for her to return again as the others were quite unsettled and afraid,  so I didn't give her much warning I’m afraid.  To make up for that I gave her a small redundancy package.  I hope that sounds fair!  I suppose in Australia she could have been charged for false accusations and assault.  I dunno.   It just feels bad ending someone's employment.

Anyway she took it pretty well.

On a positive note, I think the vibe of the room will significantly improve, and the others will be more content…..

In my conversation with her, I let her know that I was not closing my door to her, and that if in the future she had a request she was welcome to come and ask me.  I encouraged her to consider working from home and offered her the option to purchase one of the electric machines sent over from Australia.

She was very interested in that possibility and yesterday she arrived to seal the deal.  She was just leaving the front yard with her chosen machine when I remembered to get a photo, so she graciously paused and posed for me.