Making mistakes at work

Well, today I made some mistakes at work. One small, the other... not so small.

Strike One

I was speaking with my boss, whom also happens to be the head of the company (small company), and he was telling me to contact a product manufacturer and deal with an issue one of our customer was having.

At the end of the conversation, he pulled the file folder out of my hands, and said, "You don't really understand any of this, do you? I better make the call myself."

I couldn't help but stand there, staring at him in surprise - It's not that often that someone out and out tells me that I am particularly ignorant or stupid, but my boss does a pretty good job doing it.

Anyways, I said I would be fine, and held out my hand for the file; he reluctantly handed it to me.

Now, I understand if he was trying to manipulate me into performing the tast by saying I wasn't good enough to perform it, making the man inside me say 'Hey, of course I can do that! Let me show you!"

But I was going to perform the task anyways, and I never said that I didn't want to do it.

Him and I both knew I was going to perform the task.

So I was upset.


Strike Two

The second (and much larger) mistake I made today was shipping a control board to a customer that didn't have a certain piece of hardware on it, when our company always includes this piece of hardware for free.

And of course this customer was in dire need of this board, in fully working condition, with this hardware - and I was the one responsible for packing, testing and sending this board away.

I felt so utterly saturated in fail that I was confident I was going to get fired.

I went home for lunch, and packed up all my company branded clothes (because you know they like to have their shirts back).

Coming back to work, I was almost crying I was so sad.
If I lost this job, I would really have nothing. - No investing, No house, and No future.

So you can understand why I was so utterly devastated.

But I returned, and it was like it all blew over. I don't really know why. I spoke with my boss, twice, and he didn't seem mad at all. Which makes me feel much better.

Or, he has a much more sinister plan in store. Which seems alot more likely.

My job performance is pretty decent - I do a good job most of the time, so I guess this is why he wasn't very angry at me.


Strike Three, and I'm still in

When you believe you are going to get fired, weight the positives of your performance, as well as the negatives.

And if at all possible, don't quit.

Just like selling stock for less then you bought them for,
You are effectively locking in your losses by quitting your job.

And now a-days, it's better to work at a tough job that pays decent for a while then to bounce between lower paying jobs that you really can't get into.

Even though you would like nothing more then to walk out the door and never, ever come back.

:(.