Evil Skippy At Work

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Must I Answer Every E-Mail Message?

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Here is an Evil Skippy Classic blast-from-the-past — first published on this day in 20111.

Dear Evil Skippy:

I supervise a busy department of 57 employees. When I gave one of my employees her performance evaluation last week, I told her that an area she needs to focus on is clarity of communications. She responded that she was surprised to hear that since I so often do not respond to her email. It turns out that she gets unsettled if I do not always answer all of her messages. Did I miss an important memo or something – am I supposed to respond to every single email message?

— Perplexed

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Fireworks on the 4th pale in comparison to fireworks over vacation requests. As ES continues to goof off, here is a blast from the summer of 2010:

Elvis-Presley-Wallpaper-1280-x-960Dear Evil Skippy –

I supervise a department with 15 employees reporting to me. Under our vacation policy, only one employee at a time can be scheduled for vacation from July 15th through September 1st each year. (This is because of the special demands of our business – we are extremely busy during the restricted period. The rest of the year, any number of employees can be on vacation at the same time.) Employees who want to take vacation during the restricted period are allowed to reserve vacation dates up to one year in advance. Whoever reserves a date first gets to have it. Seniority is not a factor unless two people submit a request at the same time – which has never happened.

The problem involves August 16th . One of my employees has always taken that day off because it is the anniversary of when Elvis Presley died. My employee basically goes into mourning each year. She says she is too sad to work and I do not think she is kidding. The highlight of her life – according to her – was the year when she was able to “mourn” on August 16th at Graceland. Her screensaver at work is a photo of herself at Elvis’s grave site – wearing black and setting a bouquet on the grave.

This year, another one of my employees wanted a vacation that included August 16th so she could attend her high school reunion out of state. She requested the days off several months ago, but by then my other employee had reserved the date. (The Elvis Mourner always submits her vacation request on August 17th for the following year). I asked the Elvis Mourner to release the date since this was an important event for my other employee, but she flatly refused. She seemed mad at me for even asking. I think she was being unreasonable. The other employee is no longer speaking to the Elvis Mourner. What can I do in the future if someone has a good reason for being away but the Elvis Mourner refuses to budge?

– Wants Fairness

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http://www.evilskippyatwork.com/?p=7766

Someone Spit On A Trump Supporter’s Car

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5-3-2011_IDG-Blog-1000x562Dear Evil Skippy:

We have a company parking lot where approximately fifty cars are parked each work day. Of these fifty, there are a handful of Hillary and Bernie bumper stickers and one for Trump. Most of the cars do not advertise their drivers’ political leanings.

The employee who drives the car with the Trump sticker told me (his supervisor) that someone spit on his windshield. He thinks it is because of his bumper sticker and he wants us to investigate this as a “political hate crime”. He said if we do not handle the problem that he will contact the police. He also said he is tired of “everyone coddling the liberals”. Other than what I’ve repeated here, he has no clue as to who might have done the spitting. How could we possibly investigate this one?

— Supervisor

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Imagine . . .

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Imagine all the people

Living life in peace…

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will be as one.

—  John Lennon

An Atheist Walked Into An Interview . . .

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movieposterDear Evil Skippy:

I interviewed for a new job today and all indications are pointing toward me getting an offer. If my hunch is correct, I am not sure if it is the right place for me because of a poster in the company’s lobby that depicts the Ten Commandments. I am an atheist. Would you work there if you were me?

— Feeling A Little Put Off

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Should I Correct My Supervisor’s Grammar?

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red-pen-editDear Evil Skippy:

I am one of those grammar police officers, but let’s just say I’m off-shift most of the time.

My new supervisor often sends me documents (e.g., word processing documents, spreadsheets) for me to read over before he sends out the documents. My job has absolutely nothing to do with writing and grammar. When he asks me to look over them, it’s regarding procedures and processes, as he’s new to the office and I’m more experienced.

Should I point out to him when an item is grammatically incorrect? For example, we use spreadsheets often, and one of the new column reads, “Services requested or participation of client’s child.” The correct format should be “Services requested for or participation of client’s child” – it’s missing “for.” Personally, I had to read that sentence twice before I understood the meaning. The spreadsheet will be used by a few dozen staff members on a continuous basis.

Any thoughts? Thank you.

— V.

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My Employee Stopped Talking To A Trump Supporter

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election 2016Dear Evil Skippy:

I am a supervisor and one of my employees just reported to me that a co-worker refuses to talk to him. The employee said this started with no warning and he has no idea why the co-worker is snubbing him. He said the co-worker leaves the break room when he walks in and no longer engages in small talk. He says he feels harassed by the snubbing.

I met with the co-worker and asked what was going on. The co-worker admitted to me that he wants nothing to do with the complainant. He said he speaks to him only when necessary to get work done and is civil, but he does not want to associate with him after learning that the complainant is a big supporter of Donald Trump. (The co-worker’s parents came to the U.S. from Mexico. He told me that he is personally offended by anyone supporting Trump because of Trump’s comments about Mexicans).

What would you do?

— Supervisor

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The Top Ten Reasons This Blog Hasn’t Been Blogging

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cropped-Blog-Photo5.jpgDearest Readers –

Several of you have written asking why there have been no new posts for a while.  The Witness Protection Program bars me from providing details.

OK, that was a fib. Here are the . . .

Top Ten Reasons For No New Posts

  1. ES was attempting a third party run for the presidency (but no one noticed).
  2. Sun spots.
  3. Fretting about Jon Snow.
  4. Went to harassment training, fell into a fog and then several months passed by.
  5. Tried the 100-monkeys-and-a-typewriter experiment. Didn’t work.
  6. Love of sleep.
  7. Lost the charger for my Mac.
  8. Was waiting for enough people to miss me. 
  9. The restraining order.
  10. Injured both arms by slapping with enthusiasm.

Regular posts should resume in early June. Until then, send me your questions/gripes/confessions/whatever. We will soon be slapping again!

Fondly,

Evil Skippy (and Jim)

Can I Discipline An Employee For Quoting Trump?

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Dear Evil Skippy:

I had to reprimand one of my employees for violating our harassment policy. He said several times in front of several different co-workers that “all Muslims should be deported unless they can prove that they are not terrorists.” He challenged the reprimand and said he should not be subject to any discipline because he is merely saying the same things that Donald Trump is saying. Can I discipline an employee for quoting a front-running presidential candidate?

— Supervisor

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