Have you ever had one of those days when it seemed like you just couldn’t get anything right?
Yesterday, was one of those days for me.
My boss went to her parents home in Florida for a week because her sister came down from Japan where she lives with her husband. Because of this, we had a floater whom I had never met, but when I strolled in at 8:02, I was happy to see him. He seemed nice and knowledgeable so even though one of my other supervisors was really nervous about that shift, I felt confident that we would get it done. I may have never worked with my boss for the day, but I knew my coworker was really good so if all else fails, she’d know what to do.
What I didn’t count for was that I would be the one dropping the ball all day. I mean, silly and stupid stuff. Stuff that I would have known any other day, I just couldn’t get it right. I just know he thought I was a complete idiot. I felt like an idiot and a new associate. It was bad. Really bad.
It started as soon as I walked in and he asked me to count the register. No biggie. All I had to do was count how many bills and coins was there not give him an amount, the register did that. And I couldn’t even do that. I had to keep counting until I got it right and it just went downhill from there. I’d answer the phone like I did on oh so many occasions trying to assist the customers and be like “okay, we will get that ready for you.” A couple minutes later, it was like “wait, how do you do this again?” Mind you, whatever somebody is calling is the same thing everybody calls about all day.
He was polite and would help me whenever I needed it, and maybe this is in my head, he seemed a bit annoyed and I get it. I mean here he is filling in for someone hoping their staff is capable of doing the basic tasks. After all, we were there to help him and when somebody (me) just can’t get it right, you question their ability to do anything. I saw it in his eyes when I was preparing one of the purchases. That may or may not be all in my head, but shoot, I would be thinking the same thing.
The whole day, all I kept doing is pleading my case in my head. “I don’t know what’s going on with me, I know this stuff,” and “Ask anybody, I’ve been doing a good job here,” and my favorite, “I’m usually not this incompetent.”
After days like yesterday, I am so happy to be off today. I just hope me and the floater’s paths cross again so that I can really show him what I am made of.
