Don’t Fire Yourself

Nobody thinks of you the way you do.

Long ago, I was just starting a new job. I was new to customer service and managing support requests. I was new to talking with customers on the phone as a front line employee. I was new to the paperless office.

I can recall making what I thought was a mistake. I worried that it was a big mistake. So I’d see my manager and ask about it. “Nah, that’s nothing.” This happened over and over again until I just found a way to settle down. I started thinking about why I’m there, and why I was still there. They must like me or I would not still be working there.

I heard the stories of the guys who were let go. Some were watching YouTube all day. Some were just not taking direction well, they were not doing things in the right sequence. They didn’t follow the script. I wondered why it was so hard for them to follow the script. But that wasn’t me. I was doing OK.

I started to notice something else. As I brought up what I thought were my worst mistakes to my managers over time, I learned that they didn’t think of me the way I think of me. Those mistakes that I made? They were nothing compared to what other people were doing. And over time, I noticed that my managers didn’t talk to me much. I noticed that I’d go for long stretches, like weeks, or even months, before I heard from a manager.

And I’d get feedback. “Nothing to report here. Just keep doing what you’re doing.” One manager asked how I was doing my timecards because…