Personal Prompt: Describe a time when someone treated you poorly. Looking back at the situation, is there a way you would have liked to respond to express how you were feeling?
I was treated very poorly in my last job. Not all the time – just at the very end. In fact the one time I was treated very poorly, I resigned immediately after. And have been unemployed ever since. Until today 😀 Just got a new job. Anyway – I digress…
At the time, I was highly emotional. I felt like I was in shock. That my supervisor would sit on (incorrect) information about me for a month, and say nothing to me, and to talk about me behind my back to other staff members, just appalled me. That someone I have known for 15 years would consider that incorrect information to be true and to consider me unethical and irresponsible and unprofessional really shocked me. When we sat down to discuss, I just became so emotional so quickly I couldn’t respond appropriately. I burst into tears and was laughed at. It was awful. In hindsight how would I do it differently? I’m not sure… I did write an email the following day outlining exactly how I was feeling and why I thought his behaviours and responses were inappropriate and insulting. I would like to have been able to articulate all that at the time. Instead I ended up sitting on the floor in the staff toilet cutting myself. I would like to have stronger emotional fortitude to say that no, he was wrong, and to demand an apology or at least acknowledgment that I was right and he was wrong. To say to his face all the things I said in the email – I felt professionally maligned and personally insulted. His behaviour was unethical, immature and unprofessional. Not something one expects from the head of a department.
Creative Prompt: You receive a mysterious phone call. What does the caller on the other line say, and how do you react?
I received a mysterious phone call today! Well – at least it was a phone call I wasn’t expecting, from a phone number that wasn’t recognised in my phone.
The “mysterious” caller is my new boss. And instead of saying something like, “Hi! You got the job!” He said, “Sorry to ring on a public holiday, but I know you said you could start straight away, are you free tomorrow!” Which I interpret to mean I have the job!! So I reacted with a grin from ear to ear and texted all my friends and family immediately. So if I get there tomorrow and he meant something completely different I’ll be very embarrassed… However I’m confident he meant I got the job 🙂
He said we need to sit down and chat about how things run and what I’ll be doing etc. And hopefully we’ll chat about terms – like money and holidays etc. I also need to immediately negotiate time off – which I feel a bit bad about! However I have a trip booked to Melbourne at the start of April, and I was planning on going camping with a friend. And these things are very important to me! I’m sure he’ll be flexible – and so will I. I’m happy to work extra hours in other weeks or do weekends. And I can check emails and phone calls while I’m away etc. But of course if push came to shove, I’d prioritise the work over the trips away.
I’m just so excited to have a job!! This has been a big stumbling block in my recovery recently 🙂