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Tom Ronca - 2006-01-06 11:16:17
I once walked out of an edit session because the two producers I was working with couldn't stop telling off-color jokes -- which normally I would probably enjoy, but not when the show's supposed to go to online in another 45 minutes or so. My boss had to call me on my cel to get me to come back to the edit bay; at least the two jokers 'focused' after that. It didn't end up having any consequence (that I know of), but I don't think my boss has ever quite regarded me as reliable since.
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Paula - 2006-01-06 11:19:04
It sounds like you were being effective, though, not unreliable.
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Tom Ronca - 2006-01-06 11:24:25
Uhh, well I have to admit that 'being effective' was not my goal here, as I was actually driving back home when I got the call to come back to the office. While my actions may have had the desired result, I don't think anyone perceived it that way; least of all me.
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iwombat - 2006-01-06 11:33:01
On the first day of daylight savings time I showed up for a Sunday afternoon gig (I had gotten home from the saturday night gig at 2AM), thinking I was 45 minutes early (like usual), I said "why are you guys playing, it's only 1:15 ?"
the repercussions: they laughed at me.
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Paula - 2006-01-06 12:05:11
Historically, "fall back" is the one that fools me, and I end up getting somewhere early.
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Baby Party - 2006-01-06 13:07:44
Man, these stories are not very confessional. I'm waiting for someone to post something truly embarrassing before I share my worst professional shame. However, I will share a story from my first job ever: movie theater concessionist. I left a pack of hot dogs on top of the fridge overnight, so they went bad. It seems like no big deal now, but the boss lady was mad and scary as hell, and I still remember that sick feeling when she confronted me the next day.
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Paula - 2006-01-06 13:25:23
Man, these stories are not very confessional.
Well, I for one have not really had many jobs where my mistakes had any real impact. I've made mistakes that were a little embarrassing at the time, but wouldn't read well.
Um, one time when I was working at a public library, a patron returned a video from another library, and I checked it in without informing her that the video was supposed to be returned at her home branch. I then covered up my mistake when someone asked "Who checked in this video?"
Later, I was revealed as the culprit and felt such biting, hot remorse for having covered up my mistake that it was indeed an object lesson. I never lied on the job again--seriously!--and a wise teacher of mine said, "And now you will have compassion for people who are caught in lies." And that was true, too.
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Editrix - 2006-01-06 13:27:44
Sadly, my worst professional mistakes are all of the "manger" for "manager" and "pubic" for "public" variety. Unless keeping my nose ring has diminished my professional advancement in ways I'm not aware of.
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Baby Party - 2006-01-06 13:35:49
I have a tendency to get behind on routine paperwork. Expense reports (even where I'm the one getting reimbursed). Weekly or daily reports of any kind. Invoices to be approved and paid. These have a tendency to pile up on my desk til someone says, "Uh, hey, Baby Party, what's up?" Occasionally they might express slightly more frustration than that: "Bad Baby Party!" I've never been in charge of a FEMA relief effort or anything like that, so I guess I can't say that my procrastination has had any real impact on the state of the world, but it might throw someone into a homicidal rage, I guess. I definitely would call security if that happened, though.
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Baby Party - 2006-01-06 13:38:51
When I was a waitress, I spilled a little salad dressing on a guy's suit pants. He was on his way to the opera. He was annoyed, but refused my offer to pay for drycleaning, and I don't remember getting a bad tip either.
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Michael - 2006-01-06 14:37:22
I once spent an entire day researching a project and putting it on an Excel sheet, and at the end of the day, dropped the whole day's work when I switched to another Excel sheet without saving it. The person I was assisting with the project, a noted yoga instructress, was very understanding, however.
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Paula - 2006-01-06 14:44:11
The person I was assisting with the project, a noted yoga instructress, was very understanding, however.
Thank you, Mr. Monkey Pants.
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Janet - 2006-01-06 16:10:14
Now why couldn't the patron just legitimately return the video to your library, if you were able to check it in anyway? Why inconvenience the patron? Sheesh. I think you did right and your library did wrong by not allowing videos to be returned just anywhere systemwide.
Now, what was the question?
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Paula - 2006-01-06 16:20:03
I think you did right and your library did wrong by not allowing videos to be returned just anywhere systemwide
Aw, thanks, Janet. But I think the problem is that VHS tapes (this was before DVD--before rock-n-roll, even!) are more brittle/fragile than books, and shuttling them around from place to place in the liberry van is not good for them.
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Janet - 2006-01-06 16:32:14
Heck, we still shuttle VHS tapes around in the library van. Doesn't hurt 'em any more than being checked out 100 times/year anyway does, especially if you pack them nicely in those sturdy plastic tubs for the ride back home!
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Flasshe - 2006-01-06 16:42:16
The IHoP Tribunal has spoken. Paula, you are innocent.
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Paula - 2006-01-06 16:50:37
What about Baby Party's salad dressing fiasco? And all the rest?
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Flasshe - 2006-01-06 17:56:52
Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!
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2fs - 2006-01-07 01:46:30
Probably when I was a callow youth and got fired from my pizza-restaurant job for creatively reacquisitioning pizzas... We'd do things like have my friend call in a carryout order at a strategic time under a fake name... "Mr. Pants" would not show up to pick up his pizza, it just so happened that I was leaving my shift shortly after the pizza was destined to be tossed...and so I volunteered to trash it on my way out. Did that a couple times before I got caught - but I was so ashamed to have to admit I'd done it that it taught me a lesson it right did.
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Sharps - 2006-01-07 03:06:46
OK, how's this for "consequences"? I'm a prosecutor, you know: there's a law in NY State (CPL 180.80) that if the D.A. doesn't indict a felony within six days of arrest, bail is expunged: a defendant who is in jail because he can't make bail is released (you can see where this is going). So I had a defendant in jail, a real nasty bully who twice robbed and beat up this nerdy kid. On the sixth day the defendant was scheduled to testify in the grand jury, so I had to wait till after that to have the jury vote on his indictment. Well, the defendant got sick and went to the Rikers Island clinic, so his "180.80" date got pushed until he was well enough to come to court. Of course, he then fell off our radar, and when he got better, nobody told me, and he got released for lack of an indictment. Luckily he hasn't tracked down and killed his victim, at least not yet. Although I wasn't notified, I should have been checking on him daily. My boss didn't really get upset with me (tho he occasionally teases me about it "Try to keep this one in jail this time, OK?"), because we have hundreds of cases a day to contend with, and it was a classic case of "falling through the cracks", a glitch in the system. Also, bail was low, and his defense attorney told me he was about to make bail anyway. Frankly, we blow 180.80 all the time, for all kinds of reasons. Still, I was sick about it for days.
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Paula - 2006-01-07 12:01:17
Sharps wins.
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Flasshe - 2006-01-07 13:13:39
I sympathize with Sharps. Assuming I were to actually make a mistake in my current job, I would read about it in the paper in the morning. So I won't be sayin' nothin'.
However, I will mention that I'm occasionally putting in a "=" when I mean to do "==". Man, those are hard to track down, since the compiler doesn't catch them.
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Bad Meow - 2006-01-08 20:06:38
You have a compiler? I don't even know what that is.
I screw up on the job routinely. This week we realized the printer in China was printing the book not as a paperback, as we requested on the purchase order, but as a hardback. Going through the correspondance, I see I completely missed the relevant question that would have prevented this debacle; it was nestled in with other, more urgent questions (that I responded to, thank you) and was phrased in very broken English. But still: why did they do it when the PO said paperback? Why? Why?
Then I openly made a fool of myself a few times. I tried to look up sales figures on a Spring 05 book while the accountant was standing over me. I keep all my reports in a giant stack and haven't had time to organize them in ages. Somehow the book wasn't showing up in the report. The account noted that was a report from December 04, not 05.
Then I had to present the case of the author who never got his advance. I argue that people need to request their advance. You no ask, me no pay. The accountant looked at me grimly.
The accountant used to be friendly to me and now thinks I'm an idiot. But what can I say, I'm doing four jobs at once.
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W. - 2006-01-08 23:16:57
One time, when some friends made me President, I totally ignored all kinds of evidence about terrorists, then after they attacked I invaded the wrong country!
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Baby Party - 2006-01-09 12:18:09
W totally wins.
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