Some time yesterday morning, the group general counsel, who is my manager, came up to me and asked for a confidential chat. We went into a small meeting room and he said to me he was going to let someone go later that day. He explained why he was doing that and he asked if I could be with him at the meeting.
A part of me wanted to pull away but it is work that needs to be done. A meeting to terminate employment is always best convened with more than just one on one. Having a third party present is always prudent. I’ve known this since striking a close working relationship with the group human resource head of Phileo Group in KL back in the day. Phillip K became a good friend and I’ve had the misfortune to have lost contact with him since we moved to Melbourne. As someone who is here to do work, I agreed to my manager’s not unreasonable request.
It happened just after lunch – my manager got riled up just before the meeting and so he was very short with the employee during that meeting. He did it quickly and left the room, leaving the CFO (who had been pulled in by the employee) and I to smoothen the exit. After finally seeing the person out some half an hour later, I debriefed my manager and then felt crappy for the rest of the day.
As I was getting dressed this morning, I wondered what that person’s day was going to turn out. I said a little prayer for her. I couldn’t help but thought there but for the grace of God go I…
Ante 