Do you remember your first job? Mine was at a Christian bookstore. I was young and I made a lot of mistakes. I think that because I made some mistakes it eventually led my boss to blame me for something and then write me up. Over $500 was missing from the cash register and he was convinced it was my fault. He told me that he was going to write me up and that it was going to go in a permanent file.
Now he never explained this permanent file where my write up would live forever. To this day I don't know what they do with my write up in my permanent file. Does someone pull out the file once a year to laugh at my mistake? If I do happen to visit this store do they talk behind my back because they've all read my write up in my permanent file? When I die do they mail that permanent file with the write up in to my loved ones?
I started thinking about this permanent file because one of my Students in my Community Group told me that he might get written up at his part time job. I think this permanent file is kind of silly. It reminds me of how we hold on to grudges and mistakes that others have made against us. Instead of forgiving the person who hurt us we file away their mistake into a permanent file of our mind. We hold on to it for no other reason but to remind ourselves about their foolish mistake. I think it's better to forgive and clear up the file space in our head. After all the person who hurt us goes on with their life. They don't hold onto or often times even remember the mistake they made. The only person this permanent file really affects is the person who is holding on to it.
A year after I left that job it came out in the papers that an employee that I was working with was stealing money. This employee stole thousands of dollars from the store. This employee was working the day I got blamed and then written up. I knew I didn't lose the $500. It would have been nice to get an apology that said they ripped up my permanent file with my write up in it. They never did. It's ok though because I forgive them.
rshep the kid strikes again! This bookstore ain't big enuf for the both of us! ... You seem to have a good perspective on this. I would have been pretty peeved if they had cleared things up and didn't call and apologize or even acknowledge that I had been falsely accused.
ReplyDeleteI heard that your permanent file gets show to your children to use as leverage in future arguments.
ReplyDeleteCarlyn, do you have any on file that you are nervous to show your kids?
ReplyDelete