in her shoes

At work, I have thirteen people reporting to me. each individual staff has a different personality. it sometimes amazes me how such a diverse group of people can work well together without any major mishaps. it also amazes me how we manage to stay sane and happy working together despite our differences. when dealing with each one, i "put on their shoes" for us to be in the same perspective.

among the group, there's one staff who seem not to fit in. she was new. she's the quiet type, if you profile the team i work with, you'd probably have a hard time putting her into a category. it's not that she's totally different, but there's something about her that alienates her from the team. That was something i wanted to change. Change, being the operative word here is a two-way street. we cannot just always push for things to happen, sometimes the other person has to act as catalyst for things to start.

We had until the 15th of May to work wonders and she had to do a complete make-over of her work. bottomline, i seriously doubt she'd be given permanent position. but, i had never been good at delivering THE BAD news. probably because she was not easy to read. i don't know what's going on in her mind. the last time i talked to her, she told me she wanted to fit in, she wanted things to work. I guess I secretly wanted her to fit in too, just so I won't have to do the "deed" (telling her she's not good enough).

Having the future of the team in mind, sadly, i already knew what i had to do, even before the 15th of May. but how to tell her as gently as I could. that I had to work and pray for. i told myself, i'll just put myself in her shoes when the time comes.

this morning, she asked me if we could talk. she had a piece of bond paper in her hand. she sounded serious and I said to myself as I was walking towards the place where we could talk privately, 'Lord, could you be answering my prayer already?'.

And the Lord said, 'my dear child, I am.' We sat down and talked and she actually tendered her resignation. She was offered her job back at her old company. she knew she was not doing such a good job, she said.

The Lord has spared her and me of that ugly confrontation. I know someday it will still happen, me giving a not-so-good news, but now I know that I only have to lift it up to Him and He will do the rest.