Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Meeting: Still Swirling In My Brain

Tonight Rick and I headed to church to meet with the Elder Board to share his side of the story with the ex-boss.

Oh, let me back up to my last post. The next morning I went to work still pretty stressed out after writing that post and guess what? My “friend” showed up. Yah, like 10 days early! Man, that explains why I was so stressed and emotional!

Back to the story…

When I got there I had to drop off something at the office and the Elders were in the room with the ex-boss. The meeting hadn’t started yet. It was supposed to go for 20 minutes and then we were going to go for 20 minutes. Well, about 50 minutes later it was our turn.

Rick presented his side of the story. I jumped in at the one point where I had the one thing that related to me, when Rick got his check. For some reason, the ex-boss maintains that he handed Rick his check on time. I’m just shaking my head. My guess is he said that to preserve his “reputation” amongst these men, who are his contemporaries.

He doesn’t want to look like a boss who doesn’t have his company under control. What man would want to seem like he doesn’t pay his employees on time or has a volatile workplace? And at church nevertheless? He just became a member of our church for goodness sakes. The last thing he wants is to have a tarnished reputation with these men.

The hard part for me during the meeting was when Rick was trying to explain himself to these men who are very articulate. Rick isn’t. He’s the kind of guy who has to take the time to think about his responses so that they come out the way he means them. He’s not a debater or able to shoot back a response the moment a question is asked.

Trust me, I won the lion’s share of our verbal arguments!

The Elders asked Rick questions and some of them I wanted to jump in because my mind is keeping up with them, but held back and let Rick answer. It’s hard because even now I think, “Wait, I want a redo. I have an answer to this question or that question.”

In the end, the Elders really tried to advise Rick to try to end this all on as decent a note as possible. That this ex-boss could say things about him and that Rick should turn the other cheek, let God deal with him. They didn’t say the guy would be saying nasty stuff, but who knows. They encouraged him to seek a settlement outside of court because of how draining it would be emotionally when he really needs to be looking ahead and moving on with life.

Overall, it was a good meeting. I think the advice they gave Rick was solid and Biblical. I think a couple of the men were skeptical of Rick’s story, and even though I understand where they’re coming from, I have heard so much the past 3 yrs about this job and how emotionally unstable the guy and his son are it makes me annoyed they don’t believe Rick. It’s something I have to deal with and not want to explain more. That’s one of my issues. I want to explain things to death to make sure I’ve explained what I’m trying to say well enough and with as much detail that people understand and believe what I’m saying. Have I explained myself enough just now so you get the gist? LOL

These Elders are very important in my life, as the head of my church and personal friends of mine. They’re more like older brothers who want to take care of their little sister. I know their jobs (which are completely voluntary) are not easy. If all had gone as planned, that meeting would’ve been over for both sides just after 9pm. As it was, we didn’t leave until 10:50pm and the Elders still had their own agenda to get through!

We’ll see where it goes from here. Rick has to collect himself and make some very important decisions. He truly wants to do what’s right before the Lord because in the end, He’s the only one he’ll be accountable to. We both have to come to a place of forgiveness for the lies the ex-boss has told and the way Rick was treated during his time with the company. At some point it’ll be finished, but until then, we’ll continue walking down the road that’s before us!

4 comments:

Ashley N said...

Now at least Ricks side was heard by an unbiased party! God will make his decisions, and we shall make ours. The ex-boss is gonna have a lot to make up for if this is how he treats his employees! Makes me wonder how he treats the rest of the people in his life. If there is nothing left to be done (Rick was paid all that he was owed, he officially is no longer an employee there, and there isnt any legal matters to attend to) then everyone can move on with their lives. Hopefully this will be a lesson to the ex-boss so that he doesnt pull this with someone else later on, and hopefully Ricks new employer will treat him much better when he gets there.

Its good that you went, you pointed out a rather important part of this whole mess, and that was that the ex-boss was out right lying, in the lords house and in the faces of those who serve him, about something to make himself look better. It stinks that Rick doesnt have the reaction time that would be ideal for a situation like this, but it sounds like the fact were still put out for them to see, and thats what matters.

We always look back and think that we could of done better, and I know exactly what you mean about explaining something as much as possible because I do it too lol But it sounds like it still went well, so no need to worry!

Is there any kind of follow up meeting or anything? Or is this the end of it all?

Liz Mays said...

So basically the meeting was just for some council and guidance?

Liz Mays said...

I meant counsel.

Stephanie in Suburbia said...

Court could be costly, so I hope an out of court settlement can be reached that is still fair to your ex.

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