It is not unusual, in my line of work, to have a bad shift.
Normally, it is all forgotten the minute that I sign off.
However yesterday there was an incident that really had me fuming.
I received an email from the manager of one of our departments ( the wimp couldn't even call me directly for an explanation ) about how I had handled a certain situation.
He was critical that I had authorised an external agency to cause approx. 4 thousand dollars worth of damage to one of our assets which was going to come out of his budget & while he did acknowledge that I had followed correct procedures, he offered some very lame alternatives that I could have considered & then had the temerity to end his email with a bloody smiley face.
I would love to go into more detail about the incident but as I have previously mentioned who my employer is & due to their very strict " commercial in confidence " regulations, I would find myself dismissed immediately if it ever got back to them.
Needless to say, I rang this clown straight away and gave him both barrels, specifically pointing out why his " lame options that I could have considered " would not have resolved the situation.
Of course in this day & age, you are just not supposed to do that sort of stuff & as all of our phone conversations are recorded & as I might have used an expletive or two in the conversation, I new what was coming this morning.
Sure enough, as soon as i login, I have an email from my supervisor, " Les, we have received a complaint from a senior manager about the way that you spoke to him yesterday, so you will be required to attend H.R. at 1100hrs this morning for a disciplinary interview.
As luck would have it, our G.M. was visiting our workplace this morning to show some international delegates around.
At the first opportunity, i took him to one side & began to tell him about the incident ( of course he had already received reports & new all about the incident that i was referring to ) i showed him a printout of the email that i had received & told him exactly how i had responded to it.
After arranging very quickly to listen to the voice tapes, his response was, Les, there is no way that you should have been derided for the manner in which you handled this situation & as he shook my hand, he actually thanked me for my professionalism & whispered, thank Christ you were on shift, had it been a less experienced officer this could have turned into a catastrophe.
Don't worry about the H.R. interview, i will speak to your supervisor, that will all be cancelled & your record will remain spotless & i can i assure you that i will be speaking to the manager involved, just one thing Les, in future please mind your language,