Karen co-worker tries to abuse days off, so I get her to retire. My friend, who I'll call Sandy,

worked at a travel agency in British Columbia, Canada. It was a small, owner-operated business with

the owner and three employees, including my friend. Everyone worked Monday to Friday from 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m. One of my friend's co-workers, I'll call her Jane, an older woman in her early

to mid-60s, was a long-time nuisance employee. Among her other sketchy behavior, Jane was always

scamming ways to take time off and on top of her officially paid vacation time. In order to make

up for lost hours, she would claim overtime hours, slash paid, by supposedly going into the office

in her off hours to finish up work without being requested by the owner to do so. Despite being

caught in her own lies on a number of occasions and being warned about trying to claim for unsanctioned

overtime, the owner of the travel agency was reluctant to officially reprimand Jane or get rid of her.

The reason being is the owner discovered after she had hired Jane that Jane had actually been

fired from her previous job at another local travel agency for pulling the same stunts. However,

Jane had sued her former employee for unfairly dismissal and she won the settlement. After a few

years of my friend Sandy working at the travel agency, the owner was ready to retire and offer

to sell the business to my friend. Sandy took her up on the deal and took over the business while

keeping Jane on and the other employee. Once again, just as the previous owner was afraid to get

rid of Jane, so was Sandy for the fear of being sued. When Sandy took over the business,

she instituted guidelines regarding taking time off and she established an official no overtime

policy. Jane would still try with her shenanigans but was far less successful in getting what she wanted

with my friend in charge. However, Jane still had one trick up her sleeve when she wanted to take

time off on a whim. Sandy was a divorced single mom of two boys who was heavily involved in youth

hockey. She would sometimes leave the office an hour or two before closing to get her boys to

...