Manager/counselor

I have talked about in my previous posts about how I have to deal with employee problems, patient problems, computer rollouts, difficult physicians and everything else, but today, I had to put on my counselor hat to help out one of my employees.  I had to take a step back from being the boss and just be someone there to help.  Something I am not good at.
I have an employee that has had a very difficult year.  It started with the death of her partner.  Then I was forced to re-assign some of her work because the manager before me never wanted to deal with the situation, so she felt that she was demoted in a way.  Along with financial difficulties, she was just overwhelmed.

For some reason today, all this was just too much for her and she lost it.  She was in the hall yelling at staff, yelling at patients and was generally out of control.  She yelled at me that she was quitting.  I finally was able to direct her to the staff lounge to work on calming her down.  She then proceeded to empty her locker and throw about half of the contents at me.

Now, the old me would have lost it, told her to get the heck out and call security to escort her out after she threw everything at me.  But, the new, refined me, just talked to her.  I finally got her to calm down enough to tell me what was going on in her head and get to the reason for this outburst.

She went home somewhat calm and composed.  Unfortunately, I think her decision to leave is probably best for both of us, she is unhappy, and a little embarrassed about her behavior.

But, in the day of a manager not only do we have to be the one to make staff, patients and visitors happy, but we have to be there to comfort our staff when times are tough.