Wrong Way

Yesterday was going super well for me.

I was at work enjoying my time there. A little under the weather from the river tossing, but nothing like a few cold medicine pills and a Rockstar energy drink to keep me going. Nurses keep telling me its all bad for my heart but its good for the soul.

So the next thing that happens is I get a call from our dispatcher. I needed to go up and assist an employee who was having trouble with a situation that was starting to heat up. I was first on scene and asked the employee what was going on. She explained to me the whole situation and I stepped in to resolve the issue.

Now the employee was outside the room while I was talking to the trouble maker. My assisting officer on scene said she noticed the employee rolling her eyes every time she heard me talk. People say I have a “silver tongue” and can get anyone to like me, or at least get on good terms with, so I just did what I normally do. I talk. I treat people like people and get every professional title and whatnot out of the way. I don’t like people screaming their job titles like it actually means something to me. That just means they feel like they have something to prove and that can go somewhere else.

After I got the trouble maker to laugh with me a bit and got to an understanding, the employee pulled me aside. She told me that my judgment on certain situation clouds my actions and that I am unfit to do my job.

Now… I’m normally a cool and down to earth guy. Everyone says they hate law enforcement officers, I’ve gotten death threats before, and people just outright say that they hate me. Sometimes they tell me how to do my job. Yes, all are a bit irritating, but I never ever lose my cool. But one thing that I cannot stand is people telling me that I am “unfit for duty”. My partner up there saw the employee just tell me exactly how she felt about how I handle situations. She saw how red I was turning and I started to shake a bit.

Not going to lie, I almost lost it. I just felt like telling her exactly how I felt about how she is incompetent and all other not-so-nice-things to say to her. But instead I took the high road (like every time) and told her that I was sorry she felt that way about me and told her it wont happen again. She then repeated herself to me and kept pressing on that she doesn’t think I’m fit to do the job.

I can two hairs and a split second away from telling her how I felt about her. I’ve dealt with this employee before and her and I bump heads all the time. Why? Cause my personal, and almost everyone else’s, opinion about her is that she does not deserve the job she has. I told my partner what I was going to say, as to what I actually said, and she told me I could have either lost my job or got a medal for that.

I wanted to hand that employee a pen. I wanted to tell her that I am not her pawn to just toss around and that she is not high and mighty compared to me. I wanted to tell her to make friends with that pen because that is the only thing that she can actually control. I was going to tell her to write down whatever you wish to hear because that pen would probably care more than I did.

But again, I took the high road. Instead I told her that I separated myself from her because I don’t like working with her. I said, yes, maybe my judgment was off but only because she was throwing her negative opinions my way. I told her until she can realize how her attitude is she can walk away or I will and let the other officers handle her mess that she is trying to stir up. So she just stood there with a mean mugging look at me. I smiled at her and said “well you have a great day” and walked away. I feel like that boiled her blood a little. Made me actually smile.

Luckily for me my Lieutenant on the call noticed everything going on and was completely on my side about it. Every single one of us officers have dealt with this person before and nothing good ever comes out of it.

One thing that I never do to people. I never tell them they’re unfit to do their job. Biggest insult in the work place. I would much rather be told what I did wrong rather than being told that I am not qualified to do a job.

But yesterday was yesterday, today is today, and all we can do is look forward to tomorrow.