THERE IS A HELL! - - - IT IS CALLED RETAIL SUPERVISORS | Page 18

Jokes. Oh my gosh did I make a bad mistake trying to make jokes

We hired a new employee, who lasted about four days, who I made a casual joke to. I was
introducing her to someone else, and we were talking about our staffing issues. I said
something along the lines of, "At this point we were taking anyone we could get, so we got
you." It was a joke, just to meant to imply we were taking anyone who wanted the job
since the spots were hard to fill. Well, the employee who I introduced the new employee to
complained on me. She said the new employee could have taken offense to it, etc. Funny
thing was is that she didn't. But my boss still had to talk to me about it. A few times my
jokes were taken out of context. So I cut them off. In time people were complaining I
wasn't talkative and casual enough, and just talking about work. I couldn't win. In time
though I found a balance between it all.

Another problem that was entirely my fault is that I failed to
communicate to my staff

My boss authorized everyone to work overtime again. I didn't mention it to some of my
employees. In fact, I totally forgot. But some knew about it and were working overtime.
Another employee found out about it and became upset because she thought the
employees working overtime were receiving preferential treatment. That made me realize
that I needed to communicate as soon as possible if I receive new information relevant to
my entire staff.

Failure to understand when staff need to take time off work

During one of my recent evaluations, my boss stated that I wasn't as understanding as I
should be when staff need to take time off work, especially when sick. This has always
been something that is difficult for me. In one case, a staff member was taking a lot of time
off for a relative that was sick. Unfortunately, the relative passed away. I went out of my
way and off