I’ve been working as an administrative assistant in this job for five years. My boss has been here for two years along with his employee who I will call Karen. My boss is the VP and manages 3 different groups, which I approve their timesheets and run errands for them at times. I DO NOT work with them. My boss and I are in a separate building from his teams that he manages.
During Karen’s two years, two people have left, which one quitted on the spot. I don’t know the reason. This employee, John, has been with us for a year and put in his two weeks notice. Many months ago, John has requested one specific day for his minor surgery, which happened to fall within his 2 weeks notice. Right after he put in his notice, John removed some of his stuff from his desk, I believe.
I do not manage John, so I don’t know about his PTO. Anyway, Karen called my boss that John packed all his stuff and left (when he was in PTO getting surgery) before his 2 weeks ended. My boss asked me to call HR to call John, which I did.
HR called John when he was going under anesthesia. It was Friday. Anyway, John came back on Monday storming in my office. He took pictures of his desk and asked if the desk was truly empty for me to call HR. My boss has been out of country and won’t be back until April. He’s in a remote area with no service. The desk was half empty. He asked if I was blind because I seemed to want to cause anxiety for him during anesthesia.
I feel so bad and don’t know what to do. I called the HR lady and she basically said it was my fault for calling her to call John. The HR lady said she also got yelled by John and he complained about how everyone’s toxicity caused people to constantly leave.
What should I do? Do I just say it’s my boss who told me to call and he will deal with it? It’s Karen’a fault for starting it.