As part of my job, I have to review the work output of 5 people, 4 of whom are women. If their work product does not pass muster, I reject it until it does. They (and I) have to stay as late as it takes until everything is fixed and approved, and then they send their work on to our clients. Sometimes I have to reject output 6 or 7 times, and when they apologize or try to explain why there are errors in their work, I cut them off and just ask for an ETA for when they can resubmit. I tell my team of reviewers that it is important to not get sucked into their explanations, because doing so creates a risk that the reviewers will sympathize with their plight, and let them slide, and errors will arise in the final product.
Anyway, every single one of the women producers has come to me and cried, some multiple times. The first time, I felt compassion and helped her out by taking over a substantial portion of her work for a month, until she got her bearings. That got me nowhere, as she still had a substandard level of quality and showed no initiative to get better. After that, I got more cynical and unmoving. Today, someone can come up to me and cry their eyes out and I remain unmoved. I just think, "Why are you crying? I'm the one that has to suffer for your incompetence."
Last week one of these women cried bawling. I could hear her in her office on the other side of the workplace, as well as on the phone. I just listened to her sobs, and when they slackened, I asked her quietly when she can get her deliverables to me. I find that if I sympathize with the women, it just makes them cry harder, and attempt to hold a pity party right then and there when I need to get the job completed.
The man in the group is treated the same as the women, yet I've never seen him cry. So I wondered why women cry at work but men dont. My boss advised me that women cry in an attempt to manipulate others, and I'm starting to think that. I feel like a bitch because I can now look at someone unemotionally and not respond to their tears. I'm just calculating how long it will take for them to stop crying so we can all go home.
Does anyone work with a crier? How do you handle it? Please tell me I am not a cold hearted meanie.