Saying goodbye to beloved employees
Renee Diaz
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With COVID-19 came change. Some changes were sudden, while some happened over time and eventually made us face reality. Recently, I have had quite a few people I know decide they were going to move from Massachusetts to Florida. Close friends have moved and sold their homes, changed jobs, and essentially started a new life. Change is inevitable in life. Sometimes we can prepare for it, and sometimes we cannot.
As an employer, it is hard to prepare when you lose an employee who you value and care for. When I was younger, I took everything very personally. If someone was leaving, the world was ending for me. As time has progressed, and my friends outside of work have reminded me it is normal for people to change jobs and further their careers, I have gotten better; but it does always tug at your heart strings. I have had people leave on bad terms, and I have had personal strained relationships with people after working together. There were a couple years of heartache, with many lessons to learn.
Over the winter, The Queen’s Cups had shut down due to an employee having COVID-19. When we returned, one of my best employees gave her notice. When she came to me and told me, I was completely shocked. I honestly did not know what to say. I was happy for her, but selfishly, I was crushed inside. I was overwhelmed like most small business owners, and I couldn’t fathom losing this employee. I know myself and I know I am a person who needs time to process things. So, when I say I was speechless, I really was. I told her I was happy for her; but I ended up leaving work because I had to digest the news. It had been a long time since I had lost a core employee, and I was not proud with how I treated her when she gave her notice. We ended up talking, and I apologized. We are still very close to this day, and I am thankful for her time here and all that she has taught me.
Since then, I have come to terms with the fact I have five girls who are seniors in high school who will leave toward the end of the summer and two college students who are taking internships this summer with no promise of coming back in the fall. My assistant, Alicia Liden, also gave me her notice. I promised myself if this were to happen again, I would treat the person better. And even though I have had sleepless nights knowing Alicia will be moving on after three years, I realized this decision was not about me, but about the growth of her own personal life. Alicia does so much for me. She started at a point of major growing pains here. She has gotten me organized. She has made tough phone calls. She has sat in on letting employees go. She has told me the truth, and I have always admired her honesty. I remember my father had an employee named Lisa while I was growing up who was his right-hand woman. That was Alicia to me. I am going to miss her dearly, but I truly believe her new job is going to showcase her talents and make another company better, just like she did for me.
In nine years, I have always resisted change. I wanted all of my employees to work for me forever. I was difficult to talk to and thought about myself a lot. But I have grown, and I have realized people move on with their lives. I have had the same core group for years now, and it is inevitable there will be a change again. I do not know when the change will come, but I am going to prepare myself for the day it does. In a perfect world, we would keep our best employees for the remainder of our business life. But the world is far from perfect, which has been pretty evident over the past year. What the last year has shown, though, is life is not what happens to us, but how we choose to deal with it. I am grateful for the opportunity to have employed people who have made saying goodbye so difficult.
Renee Diaz is the owner of The Queen's Cups bakery in Worcester.
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