Today was one of my worst days ever at work.

For a while things have not been the best with my team. Management has decided there isn't enough profit in what we have been doing and we are being disbanded and moved around. Most of my team, having not been there as long as I have...or as gullible as I am, are not used to the Liberty way of doing things. My latest sarcastic catch phrase is, "You can't spell logic with Liberty"! So they are looking on this in a purely personal level; that they are the ugly step-children of the company, that "they" are out to get them, ect. Then it happened.

There had been a big sales push over the weekend and everyone who worked was supposed to get a $25 gift card for their efforts. Two of my team members had never done re-orders before and felt very uncomfortable trying during such an important sales drive; not to mention compliance issues. When it came time to pass out the cards today, one of my team members was left out. It was explained that she hadn't entered any orders at all and had left early. I was livid. It was unfair and the worst possible timing. She had tried. She did help out in an administrative way. She also had managerial approval to leave early. My supervisor and I are buying her a card out of our own pockets. Unless someone from another department tells her she will think she get to card late because of a paperwork screw-up and I will have saved a good employee.

I'm still upset by it as I type this 7 hours later. Every one of my team members are good employees who have put forward an unbelievable effort in the face of all kinds of obstacles and deserve recognition. I took it almost as personally as the employee did. I'd like to think I am the opposite of every bad boss I've ever had. In the face of our being disbanded, each team member has said they want to stay together as a team and me as their team leader. Makes me feel good about the job I am doing and further vindicates me, at least in my eyes, to how long it took me to get where I am.

Don't think I forgot the "young lady". From the moment she got in today she was having a bad day; she was in total work mode. We sat together at lunch and almost immediately after that the gift card incident happened. I joked with her saying she had jinxed me. I also said she owed me for it and had to pay me back by smiling. She happily did, hopefully thinking it was a romantic cutesy gesture.

Not too much of a surprise; when she flashed that breathtaking smile....my day did improve!