Hey, all; Happy and Healthy Friday –
Soooooooooooooooooo, I got written up, today. No! I hear you cry; not you, Big Wheel! Not the guy who writes a weekly column of how angry and annoyed his job makes him! Or who will often edit said column during the workday while simultaneously jumping around the rest of the site! Surely not, of all people, YOU.
I know, I know; it sounds so far-fetched, that I can scarcely believe it, myself. I suppose that I should at least find some solace in the fact that, in my decade or so of doing this kind of work, it was the first time such a thing had happened. I should, but I can’t.
First, and for is the obvious reason: One doesn’t like to be written-up at work as a matter-of-course. Especially if it’s a job you’ve been at for a while, and especially especially if it’s not something that happened to you, before. Secondly, I suppose that, as someone approaching his fourth decade on this planet, there’s that part of me that dared think that I was mature enough to not find myself in such a position. After all, I’m not a kid, anymore; I know what’s expected of me as an employee and a (reasonably) functional adult. One just doesn’t think about getting red marks like some naughty kid; not at my age and station. Finally, there is, of course, the reason it happened; and the part I’m sure you’re all chomping at the bit to hear about: Was it because I’ve been doing sloppy work? Been chronically late? Lost a client? Ran over the boss’ foot? Nope, nope, nope, and, he knows better by now than to stand too close to my chair.
I nodded off during a Zoom meeting.
Pause for laughter….
How are we feeling, good? Get all of that out of your system? Great; let’s continue.
Yeah, I did that. Even seeing it written down in text format makes me feel like a complete putz. I’ve no excuse for it, and am not going to try and give one. True, I could being up the small caveat that, due to circumstances with my position, I wasn’t able to get coffee at all that day; but, like…c’mon. That’s a tenuous link at best, and just whining, at worst.
Thinking on it, now, the real hell of it for me is. out of all the ways I could get in trouble at my job: Out of all, the serious, important, potentially destructive ways that I could really screw up at my job were it to happen, my first reprimand is for…That. I mean, how does one even respond to that?! You can’t, can you? In other circumstances, one might be able to find a good reason to defend themselves; maybe even throw a little righteous indignation in there, if you have some. or, Even if you don’t or can’t, you can still really internalize it and be like, “yeah, that was on me, I get it. Do what you have to.” But this? What else is there to to say but: “Yawn, sorry! My bad! Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk!”
I know that, in the grand scheme of things, this is hardly the end of the world; and that this post will probably come across to many of you as overly-sensitive whinging. “You fell asleep, big deal. It’s kind of funny when you think about it.” And, again, in the wider scope of things, you’d be right. With something like this, you don’t look incompetent, apathetic, or ineffective, but you do look unprofessional, and also rather like an idiot. Between the five, I’m not sure which is worse. But, for someone like myself, who’s had to work to counter a lot of assumptions about his situation, they’re all bad enough; and I guess that’s why I’m ranting this week.
As ever, have a safe and productive rest of the day, safe trip home, if out, and great weekend. And remember: If you’re a coffee drinker, always, always have a back-up plan, in case you can’t get to a cup; particularly if you know you have a late meeting.