Hello siblings, I feel like I need to talk about this. Almost 3 weeks ago, I got a call from a client. He said I am a client of yours, but I did not remember him. When he said a client, I assumed the agency in general. He had urgent needs and wanted an in-person appointment. It was 4 pm on a Friday and next week, I was going to be working from home. I emailed a colleague who was scheduled to work in the office and asked her if she could see him. She agreed. A week later, I got a call from my manager, she said my colleague helped the client I referred to her and then he gave her number to someone else. The other person called her. she could not do anything for him cause he is in the country illegally. He started threatening her. She did not say what the threats were but they were serious enough to get the police involved. My manager told me that I should have helped that guy instead of referring him to my colleague. I told her he asked for in-person. She said I should have checked whether he can be helped over the phone. My manager made me feel a bit responsible for what happened. She didn't mean it, but I felt uncomfortable. In the team meeting, she shared what happened. The colleague who is involved looked a bit tearful at one or two times. I still haven't told her that I am sorry or anything. Need to think about it a bit. My manager told me to help that guy from now on (the one who called me & was referred) So Heidi, three weeks is a long time. Do you have a question that you would like an answer to? No one could have known what would transpire, but is there a reason you've not shown compassion to your co-worker who was threatened, or sorrow for what she experienced? That the threats were of such a nature as to involve the police, is something I found out about only yesterday. I will be talking to her soon. If the police had to be involved because of threats, maybe the manager should help this person in the future. It does not sound like you did anything wrong. You accommodated the person by getting an appt and your coworker agreed to handle. It doesn’t sound like anyone did anything wrong except the client. It does sound like your manager was trying to place some blame on the situation to you for some reason, and I can see why that would bother you. heidi- to me, it doesn't sound like you did anything wrong...the client may've even been just so appreciative of y'alls help that he wanted the other person to be helped, too...clearly the one making threats is wrong and that is a very frightening (and angering to me) situation and i feel bad for your co-worker...i don't think you owe her an apology, but yes, it seems very appropriate to show Godly empathy- sorrow that it happened- without taking responsibility for it happening, since it sounds to me you did nothing wrong and in no way knowingly put her in any danger...as far as your manager goes, maybe policy-wise they are right to tell you next time to do something differently- i have no clue...but it does seem slightly disturbing if they came across as wanting you to have been the one to have to deal with the man illegally here demanding things and threatening this lady- unless they just feel you would be better able to handle it and then i guess it'd kinda be a compliment??...i don't know...i would just pray first and then yes, show compassion to your fearful co-worker...maybe by calling to tell her you are so sorry that this happened to her and then listening to her feelings about the ordeal and letting her know you will pray for her safety and peace... Thank you Melissa and gratefulforgrace for saying I did nothing wrong. I needed to hear that. When we had a serious problem with C19, we would do our best to serve clients over the phone and discourage in-person but now they don't even screen clients as they walk into the office and clients don't even have to wear masks. Usually if someone asks for in-person, we respect that. some people need to see a person face to face and feel better with that. My manager should not have made me feel bad. I do feel bad for my colleague and have been wanting to reach out. I will reach out to her on Monday. I have to serve the guy who was referred to my colleague from now on. I did reach out to him and helped him with something. As to the guy who made the threats, I don't think anybody will serve him and his name got circulated so people watch out for him. Kolleen, I did not have any questions about this. I guess I wanted reassurance that I did nothing wrong and should not feel guilty because I do feel a bit guilty: maybe I should have tried to help this person over the phone and not refer him to anyone, then my colleague would be OK. I would be the one who probably got the call from the other person and then possibly the threats, but I don't think I would have cared that much. I just don't want anybody hurt or feeling scared because of me. I am in agreement that you did nothing wrong. For me it was that 3 weeks had gone by. You explained the details but left out that you didn't know of the police involvement. So it appeared you'd known for all that time that she'd been threatened and that you were aware she was upset and maybe fearful (her tears). This is why I asked about showing her compassion and sorrow for what she'd gone through. As far as your manager, if 4 o'clock was your leave time, she should not feel you should have served this client and it would be natural to pass an emergency appt. on to other co-workers who would be there. If you weren't scheduled to get off for another hour or two, possibly that's why she took that viewpoint that you should have stayed. If 4 was your leave time, I would remind her of that but no, I think your handing it off to another if it was your time to go, was what any employee would do. I did say that no one could have known what would transpire. I guess a question to your manager is, if it was time for you to get off, but this happens again, should you stay and do overtime to accommodate a client? Or should you arrange with someone else to take them? Surely she would not expect you to stay for another two hours without extra pay! I think the problem is with this manager and her perception. And it all centers around if it was your time to get off work or not. If it was, do they approve overtime! Do you have to get approval to work late with pay! Defining all that between you both, seems the best way to figure out where she was coming from. This manager should have expressed compassion for you too, because if it hadn't happened to your co-worker, it would have happened to you. One or the other of her employee's was going to be threatened - that needs to be her focus, that her people were in possible danger, and what is management going to do about it for all employee's sake's - not blame one employee against another! All your co-worker needs is your compassion for what happened, none of which was your fault. You are sorry for what she experienced, and you feel her pain, and you will pray with or for her - and those are the things that will minister to her. Prayers she will recover from it all soon, and that all of you are safe from what this illegal dished out. Heidi, Just by reading what has been posted here and not knowing all the rules at work, I think your manager seems to be unreasonable. Do you know this manager personally and does this manager have a vendetta against you or is this someone new since you returned back to work? So let me get this straight … your manager will hold a team meeting but doesn’t want anybody on the team to be a team player? :scratch: Aren’t you all trained in the same field? That client clearly wanted to talk to someone in person not via the phone or thru emails or some other type of Zoom call. And since your colleague willingly volunteered to help that client … I don’t see any need to apologize. Its not your fault that client then gave out your co-worker’s contact info to an illegal immigrant with a violent temper. From looking outside the circle and not knowing all the details/rules … I say it looks like your manager wishes you had to face that scary situation. And what I see is the Lord protected you from it! Thank you for your responses Kolleen and Geri, Geri, that was the same manager I had before I left. she has no reason to have anything against me. In fact, many times she has been helpful to me. That God protected me is a thought that occurred to me. However, another person got the threat and the fear.
