The Smooth Project Manager

Here’s a touching little story that happened to me at work a while ago. There was this girl working for us, under me, very loyal, sometimes disobedient, and gifted. She always wanted to follow her dreams and work somewhere else, I wanted to stay with the company.

I was prepared to say anything to convince her to stay, even promise her things that are not within my authority, or I have to beg to get them (that’s how desperate I was to keep this girl on my team). I promised her 3 things, a raise, an office with an excellent view, and that the company pays for her tuition fees.

A short while later she asked for a meeting with me. She told me remember all those promises that you made me? Well I intend to stay, will I have them? I told her of course you can, and I’ll talk to the owners of the company right now. She told me “there’s something I have to tell you”, “what is it?”, I replied.

“I’m Pregnant”.

It was one of those moments where you feel that you’re in a movie and you hear that sound “TA DA DA DUM”. If a woman gets pregnant where I am, she’s entitled for a 1 year leave, paid by the government, and she’s guaranteed to have her place in the company where she was, and she’s guaranteed to be paid her last salary.

I couldn’t hide my disappointment, nevertheless, I told her that I’ll get her what she wants.

The same day I met with the owners of the company, and I told them that she wants these 3 things to stay. Of course they were furious, but I managed to calm them down. Eventually the main person behind the company said, “Look, I have no problem giving her what she wants, unless, of course, she gets pregnant”.

I have no idea why he said this, but at this moment I couldn’t keep pretending anymore, so I yelled, “But She’s Pregnant”. At this point I felt I should be either loyal to her or loyal to the company. I remember the look on their faces, it was a look of both respect and astonishment. I couldn’t take it on my conscience, these people are so good to me that I can’t disappoint them this way.

To make the long story short, she got nothing at all, she hated me for the wrong reasons and I lost her respect.

Have I learned something from all this? Yes, I learned to distance myself from employees, I learned to be cold with them, I learned to show them that if they need affection, then I’m the wrong person to come to. I’ve learned not to promise things I cannot deliver whatever the situation was, I learned to respect myself and to respect my authority. Most of all, I learned that there’s no limit to what employees want, if they can have everything, they’ll ask for everything…