This past week has not been that great for me but something did happen that is amazing and that is that I actually got two apologies from two separate people and that in itself makes me feel better.
First my boss, who is quite the dedicated company person, apologized to me, in person no less. I've dreaded telling her for quite some time that I was going to have to be out of work due to surgery. Timing is never right. And now that I've waited until it just can't wait any longer, I have really got to do this. And so this week I broke the news to her that I would be out for probably two months. She pointed out to me that I would be out during the contact lens event that we have twice a year and is really a big big thing for us. And that is just not a good time for a store manager to be out.
That hurt me for a lot of different levels. First of all, I can't help this. It has to be done. Second, it means she doesn't have enough faith in me that I've hired a great team of people who can do it without me. (isn't that what a good manager does??). And I've known her for 14 years and she knows my work history, she knows I wouldn't be doing this if I could help it, or at least I thought she knew it. She made me feel like crap!
But on Thursday she showed up at our store at the end of the day. She was traveling through so it wasn't an official store visit or anything. After chatting a bit she finally apologized for putting pressure on me about not being off during that time. "Of course your health is what is important." Although it would have comforted me so much to hear those words to start with, it was nice to get them at that point and I was relieved. I realize more than anyone that managing people is hard, but you can't lose sight that you are managing people and although you want what is best for the business, you can't forget the human factor.
The second apology came yesterday. Its a full moon and we've had our share of people affected by that this week. One of my first customers was very ugly to me yesterday, no matter what I tried to do to help him. He actually came back yesterday afternoon and asked for me and apologized. He told me he just wasn't himself that morning and it had bothered him all day about how badly he had acted. I graciously accepted and all was well.
None of us are perfect, we all have bad days and we all say things sometimes that we don't really mean. We are human. But an apology goes a long way.
1 comment:
Sincere apologies do mean so much. unfortunately, they don't happen near as often as they need to.
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