Saturday, September 03, 2005

A Humbling Experience

Yesterday turned out to be a doubleplusungood shitstorm of a day. On top of dragging my sorry ass into work still feeling sick, part way through the day my boss uncovered a mistake of monumental proportions. A mistake which I, though not having actually caused directly, was at least complicit in allowing to happen and should have picked up and prevented in time. It was fixed by day end, but it'll cost my company enough money that it'll wipe the profit from that particular client for the rest of the year. It was a new part of my job role that I hadn't really been shown how to do properly, just drip fed information, so all agreed that it really wasn't my fault per se, but the shine of Golden Haired Boy and Number One Favoured Son has been tarnished somewhat.

I spent much of the afternoon working to minimise the damage and ended up leaving work around 6.30pm, but on the up-side my boss finally sat down with me and stepped me through all the procedures I needed to do for the client. Stepped me through very carefully that is, like I was the slow reader in the class. Oh well. In fairness my employers were quite reasoned about it and chalked it up to experience, so things could have been a lot worse than they ended up. Birthday lunch got canned, in part because one of the other staff has taken a few days off as bereavement leave because her Grandfather passed away. So we rescheduled for next week.

Like my buddy Michael on the other side of the planet, today is Haircut Day. I heart Haircut Day! Then tonight I'm off to dinner at a favourite restaurant with a small group of friends to celebrate turning 41 on Sunday. Should be low key compared to Birthday Extravaganzas of the past, but that's just what I felt like this year.

5 comments:

Michael said...

Andrew, brotha, I feel for you, man. Like you said, it wasn't really your fault, but I can tell you took it to heart. Sucks, sucks, sucks. I've made mistakes where people's lives were endangered if that helps at all. A little? Well, have a drink tonight and maybe toast to your brother from the other side of the world. I'll return the favor, Homes. ::clink::

The Other Andrew said...

Cheers Mike. I felt foolish was one of the worst things; you know when you get that sinking feeling, your cheeks start burning and your guts turn to water?... that one. :-)

Hey, nobody died! The glass is half full! I'm getting my hair cut in an hour!

I'm over the suckage now, it was a good learning experience and from a Buddhist point of view it was a great ego lesson.

mesquirt said...

Now, let's see if Marty can make you feel a little better. Fortunately, in my work I come into no direct contact with money, or money stuff, so it would be very hard for me to cause, directly or indirectly, financial loss to the company. However, I am the king of fuck ups.
Within the last couple of months, many things have happened, but here are the two most memorable;
We had been working on a new piece with a guest choreographer for a month or so, and had some twenty minutes or so of choreography. As we would not be working with her for a while and the piece will not be danced until Christmas, we had to get it on camera. Also, we had a great deal to get ready in the following week, and, realistically, not enough time in which to do it. So anyway, we filmed the piece, which, I might add, is very demanding for the dancers. The Boss was behind the camera, and after filming got up and went to another rehearsal. The choreographer wanted to do a run of the piece with the second cast as well and so I, not being in the second cast, offered to help by filming. The one thing I didn't do, whilst trying to oblige, figure out how the camera worked and not hold everyone up too much, was check that the tape hadn't been rewound. As the Boss so kindly pointed out when he came back and saw me filming the second cast. Whilst standing right next to the camera. While it was filming, and needless to say, he did more than just"point it out". Hmmm.
Number two;
Before the studio shows we do at work, the whole company does barre as the guests are entering and taking their seats, so they can watch us warm up. Towards the end of barre, when the house was almost full and we were doing grands battements(I'm assuming you still remember your terminology!), the boss decided to walk into the studio with a glass of orange juice in hand. And the entrance that he used is right behind my spot at the barre. I flung my leg up, felt it connect with something solid, and turned to see the glass of orange juice flying through the air, and my Boss swearing at me. By some miracle the glass didn't break, but I think that the orange juice was spread as liberally across the studio as possible! (the Boss did have the decency to apologise afterwards, having realised that it was his fault). So there you go. Both were incidents that were, if not entirely, then almost entirely not my fault, but it still wasn't fun. I got that, "I felt foolish was one of the worst things; you know when you get that sinking feeling, your cheeks start burning and your guts turn to water?... that one. :-)". So yeah, I know that pretty well. Plus both events gave other people a good giggle, and when I think back to them now, although still a bit cringeworthy, they are beginning to make me chuckle! Hope they made you chuckle, have a really great birthday weekend, Marty

Michael said...

Hope you had a HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OA. What with all the happy you spread, you have it coming.

The Other Andrew said...

Oh, oh Marty! Like you hoped, those stories did make me chuckle but, man! How I would have died if either of those happened to me. I sure you handled them with good grace and winning charm.

Note to self: when you meet Marty keep one eye on the beverage at all times. :-)

Thanks for the birthday wishes Michael! Smooches.