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I was sixteen pushing grocery carts outside a grocery store. “Lot attendant” was my title, and my job was to make sure chaos didn’t break out in the parking lot. But I also had some other duties, like taking out trash, emptying ashtrays, and doing a few other little odd jobs around the store. One day a woman taps me on the shoulder in the store and says “I’m sorry, but my kid just threw up over that display.” She points at this display of Entenmann’s snack cake that was freestanding in between some aisles. And I can see that this toddler had clearly projectile vomited all over it. There was some on most of the boxes. And I think “I’ll handle this.”
So I scoop up all the boxes, take them out to the dumpster, and throw them all away. And as I’m dusting my hands off and congratulating myself on being so helpful, a manager was like “what did you just do?” And I said “I cleaned up a big mess, a kid threw up on everything.” And he said “yea but you can’t just throw a whole display away. There’s a process. Inventory. We have to report these losses.” I said “I push shopping carts man. I don’t know anything about any of that.” And he let out a long sigh and said, “this isn’t going to be fun for either of us.”
Then he lowered me by my ankles back into the dumpster and I had to fish out all the snack cake boxes covered in child vomit and then learn how to scan them through some kind of computer. And in case you’re wondering, I haven’t eaten an Entenmanns snack cake since.
In a recent interview with Bored Panda, ‘Midtown-Fur’—the user responsible for starting the thread—shared that they have previously delved into online content on a similar topic, which awoke their curiosity. “I wondered… does ‘Ask Reddit’ have any stories like that?” they said.
And clearly, it does. The redditor admitted being quite surprised by the netizens’ stories, which they found quite amusing, too; especially the one where a person hit a lamppost with a truck. Well… happens to the best of us, doesn’t it?
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“My personal work stories aren't anywhere near as funny,” ‘Midtown-Fur’ admitted. “But I once heard from someone in my family that someone they knew had something stolen from them at a restaurant or building and they walked in shouting ‘The colored girl stole it.’ They walked in, and everyone was a person of color. They said that they wanted to die upon walking in.”
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Thank God it was a small crack and my boss is the chillest person on the planet, I genuinely thought I was going to get fired but instead he just happily started using it again and said it was no big deal since it still worked.
Discussing the role mistakes play in our lives, the Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Dr. Lizabeth Roemer, pointed out that we often feel like we shouldn’t make them ever, but in reality, mistakes are a natural part of life and part of the learning process.
“We can put effort into our work and try to minimize mistakes, but we will still inevitably make some. By learning to respond to our mistakes as opportunities to learn, we can reduce the additional difficulties that can arise from avoidance and withdrawal and instead become a person who responds gracefully and effectively to our mistakes. In this way, mistakes can ultimately play a positive, rather than a negative role in our lives,” she explained.
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According to the expert, the emotions that typically accompany making a mistake are rather negative, so it’s no wonder that individuals feel like they shouldn’t be making them. “People often experience anxiety, stress, and shame when they make mistakes, often connected to experiences of being scolded or punished when making them in the past,” she noted.
“A natural reaction to these emotions is to avoid or withdraw from the situation, which can be particularly problematic in a work situation, and will likely worsen the impact of the mistake. It can also lead to self-criticism and self-consciousness, and reduced confidence at work.”
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Talking about the best ways to cope with the negative emotions that follow making a mistake, Dr. Roemer suggested practicing mindfulness. “Instead of withdrawing, a more effective response is to notice how you're feeling (in other words, be mindful), practice compassion for yourself, and actively respond to what happened. This might include acknowledging the error and also taking actions to address it.
“Recognizing that everyone makes mistakes for many different reasons is one way of creating a healthy workplace in which everyone's humanity is recognized, and everyone can learn and grow together. A simple and honest apology is sometimes useful, followed by efforts to address the error and move forward as a team.”
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We have a tradition now, if you drop a sensor, your name will be written on the floor where the hole left in the floor is (they make a nice mark in the flooring material).
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