My sleep was sparse if any. I rolled out of the tent around 8:00 a.m. and I arrived at work around 8:45 a.m.
I didn’t know if I was going to be confronted with the CEO and a firing. My manager was supposed to be on vacation.
Luckily around 9:30 a.m. my manager arrived. I was so anxious to speak with her. I waited in the front office till she walked by and then I asked her if I could speak with her. She came in and shut the door. I asked her what happened, who made these accusations. She told me that my partner Ezekiel had been the one who made the accusations to the shelter boss, and I’m also guessing he made accusations about me to the CEO. What he had said was taken from our conversations and spun in a way to make me look like a villain and get me fired. Why it was absurd was because the accusations he made were provably false and I will outline that.
He said: I was feeding the police social security numbers; What really happened was I sent a social security number so another mental health worker could coordinate care for a schizophrenic client. Ezekiel’s accusation was provably false because all the information is in my work phone which I sent to my manager. And if push came to shove we could always talk to the homeless officer to verify that I had never done that.
I was helping the police locate people with warrants; this is provably false because if I had done that it would be in the work phone which no evidence exists of that, and my manager could also verify with the homeless police officer. Ezekiel had concocted this lie off of a conversation that we had where I said that sometimes when homeless addicts get arrested on warrants that it could be a good thing because it keeps them from using in the streets, and serves as an intervention for their destructive behavior. I am dating girls at other agencies; this was provably false because I wasn’t dating anybody at any agency. Ezekiel must have gleaned this from the fact that I am friendly with some of the female workers at other agencies, and concocted this lie to make me look unprofessional as if I’m creating conflicts of interest.
I was able to dispel these lies with my manager. And through conversation and text throughout the day I let my manager know that I would never work with Ezekiel another day in my life. My manager asked me to smooth things over with the CEO. She let me know how valuable I was and that she didn’t want to see me go. I was so angry I wanted to go Planet of the Apes on Ezekiel. The next obstacle would have been speaking with the CEO to see what damaging accusations had made it up to her.
I was too angry and nervous to work. I drove around in my truck for a while. And then I parked at a park near the river. I ended up calling my ex-girlfriend, she and I were able to reconcile once again and I realized how much I missed her. I called other friends to talk about the situation and prepare myself to go in front of the CEO.
At 11:30 I drove to the CEO’s office. I sat with her and her HR person. The first accusation that was leveled at me was that I complained about the Outreach truck which is a $60,000 2023 Toyota tundra bought with grant money. The management team at the shelter had wanted a bigger work van so that we could have cover from the elements and walk in and out of the van to provide people with supplies. I had spoken to Ezekiel about this since it was such a point of contention, and he spun my words to make it look like I was directly attacking the CEO, her ethics, and her integrity. The CEO took this very personally and was very upset with me. Instead of arguing, I just asked for forgiveness.
The next accusation that was leveled against me, was that I had said the CEO did not know what she was doing. I denied this and said that I had never said it. This was true, because what I did say to Ezekiel was that the CEO didn’t understand what I did. I had said she doesn’t understand healthcare, and that she doesn’t understand the job of Outreach. The CEO admitted that she did not understand a lot of the different moving parts of her organization and that’s why she hires people like me to do the job. I was given the back pay for the money that I did not receive when I had been bumped up to $25 an hour, and the rate of $25 an hour was implemented going forward. The CEO told me that she has ears and eyes everywhere. I promised that I would never say a negative word about the CEO again. Although I made this promise, I cannot stop other people from talking bad about the CEO, which seems to be commonplace amongst the different health providers and social service providers in my area of operation.
After I survived my reprimanding, I left my CEO’s office and I texted my manager to let her know that I smoothed things over. My manager was happy about this, and I reiterated the fact that I would never work with Ezekiel another day in my life. I stand by my principles. My manager agreed. I told my manager that I needed to take the rest of the day off. I drove to my girlfriend’s apartment and spent the rest of the evening with her and her son. This was very therapeutic for me. I still wasn’t sure what the next week would bring.