Since staring my job, I haven't been writing nearly as much, so I've decided to start a mini-series of Lessons in the Work Place. Being an entry level employee is much different than my previous job experience, being a student, and being an intern, so as I discover some of 'life's lessons' I will share them with you. Hopefully it'll make you even more of a rock-star in your own work life.
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Thursday, Aug 26th, 2010
I felt embarrassed today.
Not because I said the wrong thing in a meeting, spilled lunch on my clothes or tripped in front of a crowd.
I sent an email out to my team.
Now obviously there's a bit more than that. I've been doing some research on fast food combos and came up with this awesome chart that compares prices, offerings, sides, and sizes of the top QSRs. It was supposed to help us develop the creative and strategic briefs for a project that yesterday, was put on hold.
Since I was done, and both my supervisors had seen it at some stage of the process, I decided to send it out to my team, thinking they all could benefit from knowing about the current competition's combo meals as several of our products are pitched against price points, or another restaurants particular offering.
Once I emailed and printed it out, several people on the team said they loved it! Meanwhile, my supervisor was calling me into her office. She loved the work, but was upset by the fact that I sent it to everyone on the team without her "final blessing". As I work on her pillar, any of my work is her work, and a representation of her. Also, she didn't find this project relevant to everyone on the team like I did, so she would have more carefully tailored the target audience.
She wasn't mad at me, but just wanted to establish protocol for things to come, which makes sense, and I totally appreciated.
But I don't think I've felt that embarrassed in a long, long time. I felt my face turn red and everything.
Thinking about it, sure I overstepped her in sending something from our end out to everybody, but there was no way for me to really know better. During my internship on the same team last summer, I sorta floated and worked a bit with everybody, so everything I did got sent out to everyone. I guess I figured that same framework still stood, but I've now learned that I'm in a subset of the team, rather than an accessory to the whole group.
Out of my 5 year career of various types of employment, I've never had to report to anyone before. In all of my past jobs, sure I had a manager or someone above me, but as far as my daily tasks were concerned I was totally autonomous.
At the golf course I operated as my own manager working the cash register, tee times, lesson bookings, concessions, guest needs & requests, and junior camps. I only looked to superiors if I had questions, it was something of their specialty (scheduling, outings, merchandise. . .) or if a situation was outside of what I normally handled.
As a campus day leader my morning duties, panel work, and tours were all my own doing. While I was greatly supported by my fellow leaders, the work and its time and execution was mainly what I wanted, and how I wanted/saw best to do it. This was a prided fact of our campus visits as compared to other schools as we didn't deliver you an "admissions packaged presentation" or a canned speech. Sure we were all trained the same, but each one if us had total freedom to execute the tour however we felt best.
In the mentorship office, Phd program, and marketing department, I was given a task and told what to do with it, but never how. I had free reign of design, execution, creativity, and information, and had total ownership of my work. When the task was done, I turned it in, discussed it with my manager/director/supervisor, received their critiques, recommendations, and approval, then moved on. There was a high level of "Jenna's Work" that had nothing to do with input or blessings from anyone else before it was deemed complete and ready to go.
I sort of miss those jobs, but in a way my current position can operate just the same if I only look at my pillar of 3, rather than the total team of 8. I'm really glad she called me in to explain the "office" way of doing things, as you never know the local logistics and protocol until someone tells you. I'd much rather know that here on week 3 instead of being told the same way down the line after having sent multiple messages without her final blessing. Its all a learning experience and I'm totally down for the ride.
Even though I was embarrassed today, finally feeling my face back to normal 30 minutes later, one of the executives on the team loved the print out and even suggested sending it out to the client!
So I must not be that big of a screw up after all :)
Peace, Love, and Happiness, (and plenty of learning experiences too)
~Jenna
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