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I’m from the Midwest, so my general rule of thumb is not to go around insulting anyone if I don’t have to, but certainly to be as polite as possible to people I don’t know from Adam.
Other people don’t put much stock in kindness and patience, I guess, which is how we end up with stories like these.
The setup is that OP runs a business with two college friends, one of whom is also the father of her 4yo daughter (though they were never in a relationship). OP doesn’t spend much time in the office since her part of the business is largely behind the scenes.
I’m the 1/3 owner of a company with 2 friends from college. Mike and Eric.
I run the Technology side of things, so I’m not the “face” of the company, so I rarely go into the office.
I have a 4-year-old daughter whose father is Mike. (We have never been in a relationship and chose to co-parent our daughter)
When her daughter’s father was injured in an accident while the third partner was out of town, OP had to step up and take over some projects that were not normally her domain.
Mike got into a car wreck and required surgery. Eric was out of town.
My nanny is on holiday break, so it’s me taking care of my daughter and trying to run a company.There’s a project that Mike’s working on In the office, and I have to grab it and a portable server.
She had to take her daughter with her to go and pick up the materials because she had no one to watch her at home, and from the start, they were having a rough go.
The daughter was upset about her father’s injury and was being a typically stubborn preschooler about clothes and the like, but it wasn’t until she realized she’d left her dinosaur in the car that she began to meltdown.
My daughter is already upset because she knows her dad is hurt. Getting her loaded into the car to go into the office was messy. She refused to wear matching boots and is in an elf outfit.
At this point, I’m like, whatever, let’s go. The whole time in the car, she’s crying and upset. I get her to calm down because I told her we would grab some things from work.
I meet our VP of operations, Adam, and everything is fine. Until my daughter realizes she left her dinosaur in the car.
While OP and one of her managers tried to gather everything she needed to take home to work on the project there, her daughter’s fit continued. OP was getting frazzled and just wanted to get packed up and get home.
She will not be appeased. We are in Adam’s office trying to get everything together to take to my home office.
My kiddo will not stop crying because Sara (the dinosaur) is in the car alone, and Sara might not be able to breathe. Adam and I are like, “it’s ok, Sara, it is fine.”
I’m mortified and want to get my kid back in the car and home.
When her manager ran down the hall to get some more materials, another employee stuck his head in the office and told her to shut up her kid because people were trying to work.
She told him to shut up or find a new job,
Adam has to run to the IT department to grab a few more things for me.
My daughter is in total toddler meltdown over Sara the Dinosaur. A man walks by and tells me to “shut my kid up. This is an office, not a daycare.”
I’m had it. I told him this wouldn’t be his job if it weren’t for this child’s father or me, and he could be the one to shut up or find a new job.
He didn’t listen, and continued ranting to the manager when he returned. The manager backed up OP, saying she owned the business and could do what she wanted.
They left soon afterward (I can only imagine the relief).
Adam comes back, and the man starts yelling at Adam about how he’s trying to work, and my kid and I won’t shut up.
He told Adam he needed to get me out of the office. I’m like this is my office, and if you don’t like it, you can leave.
Adam agrees and says I’m the owner, and there’s nothing he can do. The man walks back to his desk.
Adam tells me he will handle it. Wishes me good luck with the project and sends my daughter out.
OP later learned that the man had been fired because even after she had left he’d continued to make completely inappropriate statements.
She’s feeling a bit bad because clearly the day was stressful, but was she wrong to pull rank?
Adam fired the man for insubordination because the situation did not get better after I left and made some sexist remarks about women in business.
I get it wasn’t one of my best days, but I’m trying to run a company and take care of my daughter in a stressful time for her.
The man was rude, and to be honest, no matter who I was shouldn’t be telling a child to shut up.
Let’s see what Reddit has to say below!
The top comment points out that OP did not get this man fired – his inability to act professional (or even human) is what caused him to lose his job.
Image Credit: Reddit
I mean, this guy just tap-danced right over the line and kept going.
Image Credit: Reddit
With social skills like that, the guy is going to have trouble keeping a job no matter where he goes.
Image Credit: Reddit
In this day and age of flexible workplaces, we all have to learn to roll with the punches.
Image Credit: Reddit
The fact that she was a woman and mother meant she couldn’t possibly have also been in charge.
Image Credit: Reddit
This guy is one of those dudes you just can’t help. He was out of line with the first comment but she wouldn’t have even fired him if he hadn’t kept it up.
Have you worked with someone like this? Let us know in the comments how that turned out, too!
