Excuse me for attempting to correct your incorrect timecard

There is a single in the country music orbit right now that has a lyric I really like: “Lately it’s been crazy living up here in my head…”

It resonates with me, you know? I feel like that most days!

My personal outlet for all the crazy is this blog, as it turns out. I write it all down in a cathartic purge, which leaves space for more crazy to backfill inside my head. If I didn’t get it out, I’d probably be infected by the crazy and go a bit nuts myself.

Maybe I am nuts already, I don’t know.

What I DO know, though, is that communication with my fellow crazies is a foundational underpinning of the human condition. We gripe, whine, commiserate, and complain to each other to make us all feel better about our particular corners of the world.

What is it like for people who can’t communicate with their fellow man? If attempts to explain the events of the day are met with blank stares and confusion? Do they go crazy? Are they filled with an uncontrollable rage?

I suspect the answer is “YES” based on recent events. Admittedly, my sympathies lie more with the person who had to decipher the incomprehensible nonsense (me), but I did come away with an appreciation that unsuccessful communication is one possible cause of uncontrollable rage…. kind of like a pressure cooker that builds until it explodes.

Let me explain:

We'll start by identifying this person as ITC (Incorrect Timecard). She started her new job on Tuesday, though her normal schedule was Monday through Friday, 3pm to 1130pm with a 30 minute lunch. We received a text from her on the Saturday after she started her new position informing us that she left early on Friday around 530pm because of a panic attack.

This was duly noted and documented in her file.

I sent her a text reminder to make sure she submitted her timecard before payroll closed so the supervisor could approve it and we could pay her on time. She texted back a few minutes later that she submitted the timecard. I pulled up her timecard to take a quick peek and wasted a minute scratching my head.

This was the subsequent text thread:

Me: Just to confirm, your timecard indicates you left at 645pm and 6pm on Wed and Thurs and had no hours on Fri. Let us know if that's correct or if we need to fix it.

ITC: no i worked a full shift then a barly half shift

Me: Was it just Friday that you left early?

ITC: counted my dizzyness hour as my lunch is that possible??? sorry i kknda think i aint sure. so either way thats it

Me: We'll fix the hours and get it resubmitted. Thanks.

ITC: i actually am not on thursday or friday at alll so it was wednesday at like six thirty i cant recal panic attack hardcore i could not see i was dizzy. Anyways sorry about all the nonsense

Me: Ok, just Tues, Wed, and Thurs. Tues/Wed full shift. Thurs is when you left early? Or Monday-Wed, and Wed was when you left early?

ITC: wednesday i went home dizzy and i for got to enter this except i did

Me: Got it. We'll get it entered for you. Thanks!

ITC: aso why are you cmnfused i cant undrestand i already gave it to you nad said i would so why the confusion confusion

Me: You had entered that you left early both Wednesday and Thursday, so we wanted to ensure that was correct.

ITC: no i did not

At that point, I gave up on texting as a clearly ineffective communication method and called her. The second I said who I was, she started screaming at me.

Straight. Up. Screeching.

"I don't know why you're confused. I told you what you need to know. I submitted my timecard 3, 4, 5 times already, so why are you confused?" [Yours truly attempts to interject but is cut off] "Do you even know who you're talking to? Huh? Do you? I mean, why are you so confused? It's not hard!" [Yours Truly tries again to no avail] "I told you a hundred times what I worked. I submitted my timecard!"

I listened to the screeching for about two minutes before I told her (and I doubt she heard me over the yelling) that her timecard would be submitted with the information she put on it and hung up on her. Then I stuck a comment in her file that she can speak to HR if she calls in regarding her timecard next week when it is inevitably wrong. Because it will inevitably be wrong.

I took an unrelated call later from a contractor who happens to work at the same location as ITC. During the course of normal chitchat, he mentioned that he “heard about the situation with that lady last week. Crazy, huh?”

Eh? What situation?

Apparently 'some lady' was getting all up in the supervisor's face and yelling.

Interesting.

I sent a follow up email to check with the supervisor, letting him know I heard about a 'situation' at the site and wanted to see if it was in any way related to our contractors. If not, great. If so, I'll need the details so our HR can follow up.

The supervisor reached out later to let me know ITC did get in his face about something and kept wanting to argue despite his attempts to deescalate the situation. The situation was resolved on his side when ITC was fired.

HR later told me she kept arguing regarding a medical document they needed from her regarding the panic attack.

I think again back to my attempts to clarify what I thought was a trivial detail and the complete incomprehensible nonsense that entailed and have a spark of sympathy. No doubt it must be frustrating on the other side to be so utterly confident you are being crystal clear and to have every. single. person. stare at you with confusion. I expect it must get on the nerves after a while.

That bit of sympathy was just a spark, though. It was incomprehensible nonsense, after all, and I don't have time to deal with it.