Yet another one of THOSE weeks!
So this week has been super fun!! An emotional roller coaster of epic proportions.
On Monday we finalised the meeting with the educational psychologist at Nikas school were we had taken Gabriel for his full week of assessments and class time. So the day for Feedback was to be Thursday.
Monday was also the day my manager started once again to treat me like the lowest piece of dirt on the floor publicly berating me and generally saying things about me behind my back along the lines of how useless I am.
Tuesday oh Tuesday oh how I hate thee...
Tuesday morning meeting starts at 8 and needless to say was another start to how useless and inefficient I am and then graduated into how i can get a warning for being slow and incompetent and how I ignored certain stock (a giant sofa) and so was negligent AND performing an act of Fraud.
This graduated into several comments of how the person I work for basically does my job for me (he doesn't) and how he always goes the extra mile (he doesn't)
Later in the day there was an argument regarding petty cash and how it had been used and I had (once again) been inefficient in getting more (I was unaware we could do this more than 2 a month anyway) leading to me being so furious but still left 30 minutes after my shift was finished.
On Wednesday Nikas class Psychologist (different to the one we would see with Gabriel) emailed me to asked if we could come see her on Thursday as well as there were a few things she needed to discuss with us regarding Dominique. Warning Bells went ringing in my head!!!
Wednesday was also the day I discovered a severely large amount of cash missing from my till.
I doubled checked it with another staff member who does the same job as me - as is the way we are meant to. We doubled checked all the cash drops and all the receipted items on the bank statements and then we recounted it - I then once again left 30 minutes late and got hubby and went back to work - took an hour in the traffic so i could double check my self again - still missing the cash. Left work at almost 7.30 completely shaken and had a complete meltdown in the car on the way home - so glad i didn't have to drive.
Thursday... 7.30 AM meeting with the schools head of psychology and admissions - Fiiiinaly!! (no fault of the new school though)
She gave us the full report for Occupational and Speech Therapy as well as the class teachers assessment and the remedial teachers assessment - NOT GOOD. He is 3 years behind in several areas of speech and written language and has a severe reading problem - so is dyslexic as well as having the muscle eye issue that we picked up at the eye specialist (not the optometrist we have been taking him to for the past 3 years mind you) So now he will have an intense OT ans speech therapy as well as support from his teacher who is afraid he may have to repeat grade two due to the large delays in several areas - they are astounded that his other school did not pick this up (grade one reports gave him 7s for the subjects that he clearly is delayed beyond grade 1 level!!! And yes we will be taking this up with the department of Education once he is settled in the new school.
To be told that he could start today was simply a joy to our ears (and to his I think as he was a bit sad yesterday but generally very excited about the whole idea of going to a school were his only comment on the entire process was that his teacher didn't shout at him - not even once - the sweet sweet boy - my heart broke when he told me this last week) today will be fun day to start too as the fire and paramedic department are visiting the foundation phase kids (and the boy does want to be a fireman paramedic policeman so yay for him ) and they are wearing civvies for takkie tax day. His sister is super happy to have him in her school too!! The relieve is palpable in all of us regarding this are of our lives.
Nika's issue is a little too sensitive for the interwebs although she is fine and nothing has happened to her specifically we will have to start more of 'the talk' birds and bees type conversations ASAP which honestly I was naive in thinking wouldn't need to happen for another couple of years - she is only 6 after all! so off to the library I go!!
Ok so were was??? Ok so we are now on Saturday...mmmm ok so that was Thursday all good and dandy - spent the afternoon with the kids getting Gabriel ready for his new school and just chilling with them, talking to a friend who is studying HR law asking her advise about my work 'issue' and sorting that out in my head as to what the heck I was going to do, realised that I enjoy spending time with kids and wishing I was a more patient mother in the past (but realising that you cant just be negative like that anyway you just have to move forward...
Friday morning, After talking to the hubby we decided I would contact our HR department first thing (after figuring out if there is someone who can get into the till box or has another key)
Spoke to HR then spoke to my manageress and then the Head Sales manager from head office came out and so she told him right away as well. To say everything went pear shaped is an understatement...
We went from calm to degrading to calm to questioning to being told to leave the office until he could thing straight to then have all my cash ups looked at and questioned.
He left about an hour after this all began and my manageress took me and another girl I work with into her office to count all the money I had in my till (I could see the hand over process right in front of me but not being discussed) They tried to make me sign an acknowledgment of debt which I refused, requesting an investigation into who stole the money as I understood I was negligent but I did not steal it. She got extremely agitated and asked me what I expected her to do - I told her, all I thought she should do was investigate at the very least, I had admited to gross negligence but surely someone who could blatantly open a cash box and take such a HUGE amount of money from someones till was a major problem for the company - if they could do that what else could they be taking??
She decided we should 'search the till are' she got snarky and generally sarcastic while we 'searched' the drawers and my till.
After that the rest of the afternoon was pretty standard - except that my petty cash had been taken away - all the paper work as well. Then at about 3.30 she kept asking me if I had cashed up and went on and on about it, being so sweet about needing to get me home on time... this NEVER happens anyway...
i also got an 'URGENT' call from hubby saying the kids were missing - as in he could not find them...ANYWHERE!!!
I still had to take care of the cash up so once that was done I had to take it to her and she called the other girl in again and handed me paperwork to sign saying due to the fact that I'm never going to sign the acknowledgment of debt she has paperwork from HR to suspend me and have a hearing on Wednesday. At this point I just wanted to get home and figure out what the hell happened to my kids!!
My manager walked me to my desk and told me to pack up all my personal belongings and she had me escorted - from the shopping centre - with Mall security herself and one of the store room staff - to my car and out the centre itself 'so the could get the key card back' in plain language - the hearing on Wednesday is just for show really....
While they were adamant they did not think it was me who stole the money they made virtually no attempt to figure out who did or how...I asked them to poly graph me and she refused.
My children on the other hand walked almost 5 kilometres home past a location that is notorious for people and children going missing... they were approached by two women who wanted to 'take them to their home and take care of them' two women who even got out there car to try make the kids get into the car - two women who were not scared away by another man who was walking asking them to please leave my kids alone. Only detered by another women stopping her car and chasing them away! this other women tried to phone me but eventually got hold of Liam who had rushed to the school to see if they had stayed on the bus for some reason ... she dropped them of at our house which was locked.
i am grateful to God and all his angels for protecting my kids yesterday afternoon when I couldn't... I am grateful for him sending someone they felt they could trust - that was truly trustworthy to take them home and get hold of us to tell us they were safe and I am grateful for their father not killing them when he got home!!
This week has been the worst week in all my life - I nearly lost both my kids!! and I have pretty much lost my job in what is the worst set of circumstances in the history of my career - a career that doesn't have so much as a written warning in it...
All I can do is pray that this has all been for a reason that is beyond my understanding but truly worth the heartache and anxiety. And hope and pray I have strength to get through the next week and come out on the other side wiser and happier and hopefully by a miracle - employed at a new company!!
For anyone still following this - Gabriel really enjoyed his first day at his new school, when I asked him how the day was he gave the thumbs up signal so we are all very relieved about that!!
Sorry for the manicness of this post. Its been the worst kind of 'one of thoose weeks'!!
On Monday we finalised the meeting with the educational psychologist at Nikas school were we had taken Gabriel for his full week of assessments and class time. So the day for Feedback was to be Thursday.
Monday was also the day my manager started once again to treat me like the lowest piece of dirt on the floor publicly berating me and generally saying things about me behind my back along the lines of how useless I am.
Tuesday oh Tuesday oh how I hate thee...
Tuesday morning meeting starts at 8 and needless to say was another start to how useless and inefficient I am and then graduated into how i can get a warning for being slow and incompetent and how I ignored certain stock (a giant sofa) and so was negligent AND performing an act of Fraud.
This graduated into several comments of how the person I work for basically does my job for me (he doesn't) and how he always goes the extra mile (he doesn't)
Later in the day there was an argument regarding petty cash and how it had been used and I had (once again) been inefficient in getting more (I was unaware we could do this more than 2 a month anyway) leading to me being so furious but still left 30 minutes after my shift was finished.
On Wednesday Nikas class Psychologist (different to the one we would see with Gabriel) emailed me to asked if we could come see her on Thursday as well as there were a few things she needed to discuss with us regarding Dominique. Warning Bells went ringing in my head!!!
Wednesday was also the day I discovered a severely large amount of cash missing from my till.
I doubled checked it with another staff member who does the same job as me - as is the way we are meant to. We doubled checked all the cash drops and all the receipted items on the bank statements and then we recounted it - I then once again left 30 minutes late and got hubby and went back to work - took an hour in the traffic so i could double check my self again - still missing the cash. Left work at almost 7.30 completely shaken and had a complete meltdown in the car on the way home - so glad i didn't have to drive.
Thursday... 7.30 AM meeting with the schools head of psychology and admissions - Fiiiinaly!! (no fault of the new school though)
She gave us the full report for Occupational and Speech Therapy as well as the class teachers assessment and the remedial teachers assessment - NOT GOOD. He is 3 years behind in several areas of speech and written language and has a severe reading problem - so is dyslexic as well as having the muscle eye issue that we picked up at the eye specialist (not the optometrist we have been taking him to for the past 3 years mind you) So now he will have an intense OT ans speech therapy as well as support from his teacher who is afraid he may have to repeat grade two due to the large delays in several areas - they are astounded that his other school did not pick this up (grade one reports gave him 7s for the subjects that he clearly is delayed beyond grade 1 level!!! And yes we will be taking this up with the department of Education once he is settled in the new school.
To be told that he could start today was simply a joy to our ears (and to his I think as he was a bit sad yesterday but generally very excited about the whole idea of going to a school were his only comment on the entire process was that his teacher didn't shout at him - not even once - the sweet sweet boy - my heart broke when he told me this last week) today will be fun day to start too as the fire and paramedic department are visiting the foundation phase kids (and the boy does want to be a fireman paramedic policeman so yay for him ) and they are wearing civvies for takkie tax day. His sister is super happy to have him in her school too!! The relieve is palpable in all of us regarding this are of our lives.
Nika's issue is a little too sensitive for the interwebs although she is fine and nothing has happened to her specifically we will have to start more of 'the talk' birds and bees type conversations ASAP which honestly I was naive in thinking wouldn't need to happen for another couple of years - she is only 6 after all! so off to the library I go!!
Ok so were was??? Ok so we are now on Saturday...mmmm ok so that was Thursday all good and dandy - spent the afternoon with the kids getting Gabriel ready for his new school and just chilling with them, talking to a friend who is studying HR law asking her advise about my work 'issue' and sorting that out in my head as to what the heck I was going to do, realised that I enjoy spending time with kids and wishing I was a more patient mother in the past (but realising that you cant just be negative like that anyway you just have to move forward...
Friday morning, After talking to the hubby we decided I would contact our HR department first thing (after figuring out if there is someone who can get into the till box or has another key)
Spoke to HR then spoke to my manageress and then the Head Sales manager from head office came out and so she told him right away as well. To say everything went pear shaped is an understatement...
We went from calm to degrading to calm to questioning to being told to leave the office until he could thing straight to then have all my cash ups looked at and questioned.
He left about an hour after this all began and my manageress took me and another girl I work with into her office to count all the money I had in my till (I could see the hand over process right in front of me but not being discussed) They tried to make me sign an acknowledgment of debt which I refused, requesting an investigation into who stole the money as I understood I was negligent but I did not steal it. She got extremely agitated and asked me what I expected her to do - I told her, all I thought she should do was investigate at the very least, I had admited to gross negligence but surely someone who could blatantly open a cash box and take such a HUGE amount of money from someones till was a major problem for the company - if they could do that what else could they be taking??
She decided we should 'search the till are' she got snarky and generally sarcastic while we 'searched' the drawers and my till.
After that the rest of the afternoon was pretty standard - except that my petty cash had been taken away - all the paper work as well. Then at about 3.30 she kept asking me if I had cashed up and went on and on about it, being so sweet about needing to get me home on time... this NEVER happens anyway...
i also got an 'URGENT' call from hubby saying the kids were missing - as in he could not find them...ANYWHERE!!!
I still had to take care of the cash up so once that was done I had to take it to her and she called the other girl in again and handed me paperwork to sign saying due to the fact that I'm never going to sign the acknowledgment of debt she has paperwork from HR to suspend me and have a hearing on Wednesday. At this point I just wanted to get home and figure out what the hell happened to my kids!!
My manager walked me to my desk and told me to pack up all my personal belongings and she had me escorted - from the shopping centre - with Mall security herself and one of the store room staff - to my car and out the centre itself 'so the could get the key card back' in plain language - the hearing on Wednesday is just for show really....
While they were adamant they did not think it was me who stole the money they made virtually no attempt to figure out who did or how...I asked them to poly graph me and she refused.
My children on the other hand walked almost 5 kilometres home past a location that is notorious for people and children going missing... they were approached by two women who wanted to 'take them to their home and take care of them' two women who even got out there car to try make the kids get into the car - two women who were not scared away by another man who was walking asking them to please leave my kids alone. Only detered by another women stopping her car and chasing them away! this other women tried to phone me but eventually got hold of Liam who had rushed to the school to see if they had stayed on the bus for some reason ... she dropped them of at our house which was locked.
i am grateful to God and all his angels for protecting my kids yesterday afternoon when I couldn't... I am grateful for him sending someone they felt they could trust - that was truly trustworthy to take them home and get hold of us to tell us they were safe and I am grateful for their father not killing them when he got home!!
This week has been the worst week in all my life - I nearly lost both my kids!! and I have pretty much lost my job in what is the worst set of circumstances in the history of my career - a career that doesn't have so much as a written warning in it...
All I can do is pray that this has all been for a reason that is beyond my understanding but truly worth the heartache and anxiety. And hope and pray I have strength to get through the next week and come out on the other side wiser and happier and hopefully by a miracle - employed at a new company!!
For anyone still following this - Gabriel really enjoyed his first day at his new school, when I asked him how the day was he gave the thumbs up signal so we are all very relieved about that!!
Sorry for the manicness of this post. Its been the worst kind of 'one of thoose weeks'!!
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