The Front Row

C'mon man, you can't start a thread like this and not tell us what happened. You're not using your real name on here. So out with it! What happened exactly? How did things end up turning out. You have us all curious here. Ha.

I used to be a turn around manager, 2.5 years ago I went on vacation for a couple weeks and was let go the day I came back because "everything worked well while I was gone", that's what I was hired to do.....noted.

I work for the post office and we have two feeds of electricity coming into the building through two busses that are split to prevent total loss of power if one goes down. Well we had a power glitch that temporarily knocked out one leg and tied the busses. When I went to flip the switch to split them. I accidentally turned the wrong one and knocked out power to the entire building for half an hour. No mail got processed until I fixed it and it put us behind. Until you are the cause of shutting down operations that has hundreds of employees sitting on their hands you have not messed up that bad. I have done this procedure hundreds of times and I just locked in on the wrong switch.

This is an excellent post.... thank you for your refreshing honesty and concern for others!!!! When I have some votes I'll up vote you!!! PS... I'm a headhunter so I know a lot about work place issues...

A guy that got fired right before I started my one job 6 years ago was written up 3 times for talking about personal stuff at work.

Now this is a super relaxed work place, I've never been written up in all my years for my mistakes because I'm generally a really good employee.

The guy was talking about his rape case against him by his ex girlfriend that he had to go and fight in court, among other things. Holy shit dude, keep your mouth shut. By the way he was the current boyfriend of another employee's daughter.

Like I said, microscopic, though obviously not impossible.

I had a very similar experience..no fun. I know exactly how you feel. I've worked nights for twenty plus years. I also prepared a product that had already been prepared. It wasn't in it's customary place, there was some lack of communication, nonetheless it was lack of diligence on my part. It resulted in 400-500 dollars of waste. I fully expected at least a reprimand, none came.

I'm like you, have always considered myself to be a good employee with a strong work ethic. I've never taken my job for granted. Fortunately I must have built up enough of a bank of good will that nothing ever came of it, but damn did I beat myself up. I think you'll have a similar outcome.

I don't know how long you've been on nights, but there's a reason a disproportionate number of workplace accidents happen on third shift. It 'taint natural. Some nights you know you're in a fog and you've gotta be really, really careful. Other times you can think you're just fine, but you're really not altogether there. The old synapses just aren't connecting like they should. It can be really stressful. I'm finally getting ready to go to days. I always did it for the money and schedule (eight on six off). It got really hard to get adequate sleep as my kids got older.

Probably my worst experience was when I fell asleep about mid morning behind the wheel, after working the night before. I never thought it would happen to me, and it only happened once in twenty years. I'm eternally grateful that I didn't kill anybody. My cars' alarm woke me as I was heading over the curb into the marsh. Fortunately it was low tide. I know you know this, but if you ever feel yourself nodding, even a little, pull over and take a nap. I was less than a mile from my house.

Didn't mean to digress. Good luck, don't get too down on yourself. Got a feeling you'll be fine.

Thank god for my union job! Unions arnt perfect.. But after reading that... Uuugghh