“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
Abraham Lincoln

This quote speaks volumes to me today. There is an incident that occurred recently that makes me realize how true this is.

I work in the Human Resources department of a small college. While I’m the technical person in this department, there is still a bit of protocol that I must follow as an HR employee. Privacy and discretion are a must. People will come to us and share very personal things that can’t go any further. Even with me, they will share things because they need to talk to someone and I’m in HR.

One of my co-workers has long been someone that I’ve realized didn’t know how to be discrete. She would learn something and she would run to her closest friend and share that information. What was even worse is that she was the benefits coordinator so she knew if someone was sick, was seeking counseling, or any numerous personal issues. It was apparent to a few people that she would spread gossip around about fellow employees but you could never quite prove it. She always said it wasn’t her and our past supervisor believed her each time (and there were numerous accusations).

About 6 months ago, we got a new supervisor. The new director of HR is tough. She is good at what she does but she doesn’t put up with a lot of crap. She is fair and just but will not allow her employees to stand around gossiping or talking when it’s not appropriate.

What happened subsequently was a huge fall out. The aforementioned employee claimed that our new boss was cruel, abusive, and aggressive. She brought her up on charges. She demanded a formal investigation. All of us (well, there are only 4 of us in this department) were called in to make statements. When her complaints didn’t go anywhere and even the college attorneys determined that this situation was a personal vendetta and not a real complaint, things were dropped. This employee, however, would not drop it. She had convinced herself that she was right. She went into the president of the school and said that the current director should be removed from her position…or she would quit. It’s silly in retrospect but I wish she could have heard herself. Our boss had been aquitted of all charges and the employee had then been labeled as a trouble-maker. Her pursuing of this to the president didn’t help.

She ended up giving two days notice and left last Friday. She had a party to celebrate her leaving and I guess she really slammed all of us at that party.

I feel badly for her. She just didn’t get it. She didn’t understand that she was the one making the waves, causing trouble. It was almost as if a weight was lifted off of us and yesterday was a really good day. We all breathed a bit more easily.

Her reputation was a good one. People trusted her. Her character, however, didn’t support her reputation and that came out in the end.