Responsibility in the Workplace
November 6, 2018 Uncategorized 3 comments tlafata19
Having the shift leader title as a closer at my part time restaurant job, I have to assume the responsibiility of not only my actions, but the actions of closing co-workers, along with ensuring the nightly closing list is done to completion and proficiently. That being said, any of my crew’s shortcomings that are noticed the following day, is mine to answer for.
Typically, my nights at work go without any issues or adversity, but the nights that go any differently stick out the most in my memory. One night in particlar stands out because even though things appeared to go well on the night in question when we locked the doors, I found out my next shift via my manager that we had in fact made some mistakes while closing the night before. It was a monday night, and part of what is unique about monday night closing is that we have to make sure we pull frozen break out of the freezer and into the cooler, so they will be thawed out for tuesday when we make out hamburg topping and meatballs, which is the tuesday routine. This small task, being unique to this day and not being on the daily closing list made it easier to sweep under the rug and forget about.
That is exactly what happened. When the doors were locked that night we had forgotten to not only pull the bread but we missed a few other minor tasks on the list as well.
Following that night I worked the dinner shift the next night and before closing time, my manager on duty pulled me aside and reminded me of the previous nights’ mistakes and just wanted to make sure I was aware, and in response, knowing it was my mistake and the mistake of my crew, I took the responsibility and assured it would be better the next time.
Although a minor issue and one that might not have even been my direct fault, I took the hit because it was my responsibility to do so. As a result, I learned multiple lessons, one having to do with pride in the workplace and to double check that tasks are completed. The second lesson learned had to do with a more broad picture about responsibility and what it takes to be in a shift leader position and responsibility for my co-workers, and even though it is just a minimum wage job, the values will reflect on my resume and ultimately my professional life as a whole.
3 Comments
I enjoyed the story very much! You put in a great amount of detail which really helped keep me interested. It also reminds me of some of the experiences that I have had at my job when I have gotten blamed for other peoples mistakes. When this happens to you it makes you realize that these issues help make you a better worker and person.
Ive had some similar experiences to this from when I was working my summer job at bates. On one of the weeks we were working in a building with multiple floors and we somehow managed to skip a floor. We only found out when the buildings janitor mentioned to my boss that we had missed a floor. There were no repercussions and we just laughed about it in the end.
While also working in a job with customer service I know how little things add up if you forget about them. Once while counting down registers at the end of the night, we realized we were $10 off. After multiple recounts, we kept coming to the same conclusion. My boss would take me out back to talk to me about the scenario next time we saw her. She made sure to tell me that we weren’t short $10 and just needed to be more cautious about that kind of stuff. It was definitely quite nerve-racking.