When I opened my inbox after arriving at work last Thursday, the message was already there. The subject line: “Notice of Resignation.” Very blunt and straight to the point. There was no feeling in it.

“Good day,” the email began. “Please see attached my resignation letter.”

I opened the attachment and read through the student employee’s letter. It said the standard things – that she’s learned a lot in her role but it’s time to move on and focus on things that are better for her mental well-being and future goals.

The email was sent to everyone on the regular professional staff side. Later on, I learned that this student, whom I’ll call Abby, had bcc’d another student employee. Who knows how many more of her coworkers she might have bcc’d?

About thirty minutes later, my boss came into my office and asked, “Did you know it was going to happen? Did she give you any clues at all?”

“No,” I replied. “I had no clue. But then again, the timing was very convenient.”

Just two days earlier, I had spoken to this same student about her tardiness issue. I’d noticed the issue prior to becoming her official supervisor. Abby was known to be tardy. She always told me or my boss if she was going to be late via our Teams chat, so I dug through my messages and found at least five instances when she was late during the past three months. I didn’t say anything partly because I knew my boss had talked to her about it, and partly because it felt kind of awkward.

However, I’d read on an Askamanager.org forum that it’s not good management practice to sweep the issue under the rug. It needs to be addressed head on, the earlier the better; that it’s better to be firm but gentle so the employee is aware of the issue. So I spent a day thinking about how I would have that conversation with her. And then I had the conversation with her on Tuesday.

Needless to say, it was awkward but here’s how I did it.

I called her into my office on the notion that I wanted to chat. I began by asking her about her preferred schedule for the summer term, which is coming up in a few weeks. After that, I relayed the importance of timeliness, especially in our department. I said, “Even though you don’t have to work specific hours like the the rest of your teammates do, you still have deadlines, right?”

She nodded.

I asked her for her thoughts on why she has been late so often. She had no thoughts. Then I offered to change her schedule to reflect the time that she can actually be physically present and ready to work in the office. And then I ended the conversation by stating that going forward, this cannot continue. She appeared to understand but I could tell she looked a little offended.

So when she sent in her resignation two days later, I couldn’t help but immediately think that I was too hard on her. I mean, seriously, being late five times isn’t a big deal right? No, it was. Could I have done it differently?

Turns out, I didn’t need to, because Abby is considered a “problem child” in our department. “She’s always been difficult to work with,” my boss told me. And when I talked to a colleague of mine, she relayed several interactions in which Abby straight up refused to do the work that was asked of her, and other instances where she challenged my colleague, who was a level above her and therefore, whose opinions she should have respected.

Aside from challenging authority, Abby is known to have personal issues on a regular basis and she lets those issues trickle into her work at the office. Not saying that she should’ve been a robot and keep her work and professional life separate, but when it becomes clear that it’s affecting her work quality then it’s a problem.

Honestly, I’m a bit relieved. At first, I felt that I had done something so wrong due to it being my very first accountability conversation with an employee, but after having talked with several people who has more experience working with Abby, I know there was nothing different I should’ve done.

The only downer is that now I have to hire her replacement. The pressure is real. I’ve just finished hiring someone (more on that later), and now currently in the process of hiring 2-3 more student employees for a different role in my office. Now, I have to hire for Abby’s position concurrently, thereby making the other parts of my job a side project. Literally, my job – at least for the next 3-5 weeks – is to be a hiring manager. Wish me luck.