Recently, I've been out of town for a work event which I played a major role in organizing. Just for the sake of an example, let's say that this event was a 12 course dinner for 100 people, and I helped plan the menu, hire the chefs, and serve the food. After the meal, a diner came up to me to express that he was unhappy with a minor detail of the event—let's say, the quality of forks provided at the table.
The complaint was put to me this way: "I come to this dinner every year with the expectation that the meal will be of a certain caliber, and the forks this year ruined (ruined!) the meal for me. It was impossible to focus on the food while using such a terrible fork." And after assuring him that we did our best on the forks but certain compromises had to be made for certain justifiable reasons, he said, "I know, I know, and I'm sure you don't make the decisions about the forks! But please tell those in charge to consider how much the forks impact the experience of the diners here." And then he repeated himself: "I know that it's not your decision, but please just pass my message on the planners of the event."
Now, this is not the only complaint I received, and as far as the complaints went this one did not bother me very much. Despite the fact that forks usually have no bearing on the enjoyment of food—and the real subject of the complaint had zero bearing on the quality of the event—I have made peace with the fact that people have peeves and they enjoy expressing them.
What bothers me is that he didn't think I had any control over the "forks." I totally did. In fact, for this event I selected the "forks" myself. If he wanted to get the forks changed for next year, he was speaking to exactly the person with the power to change them! I was happy he didn't know this in the moment because I would have gotten another earful, but in retrospect it kind of pisses me off that he didn't think it was my fault. Not only did I have authority over the forks, I also made a ton of other, waaaay more important, decisions. And if he isn't going to blame me for the forks, then I won't get any recognition for the delicious escargot, or whatever (I'm probably stretching this analogy too far, sorry).
I just need to keep this in mind for the next time I'm held responsible for something going wrong. I'll try to remember to be happy that I'm in trouble, because it means I have enough power to screw something up.
(And now I realize that this entire post can be paraphrased by that dumb quote from Spider-Man: "With great power comes great responsibility." I am trite.)
The complaint was put to me this way: "I come to this dinner every year with the expectation that the meal will be of a certain caliber, and the forks this year ruined (ruined!) the meal for me. It was impossible to focus on the food while using such a terrible fork." And after assuring him that we did our best on the forks but certain compromises had to be made for certain justifiable reasons, he said, "I know, I know, and I'm sure you don't make the decisions about the forks! But please tell those in charge to consider how much the forks impact the experience of the diners here." And then he repeated himself: "I know that it's not your decision, but please just pass my message on the planners of the event."
Now, this is not the only complaint I received, and as far as the complaints went this one did not bother me very much. Despite the fact that forks usually have no bearing on the enjoyment of food—and the real subject of the complaint had zero bearing on the quality of the event—I have made peace with the fact that people have peeves and they enjoy expressing them.
What bothers me is that he didn't think I had any control over the "forks." I totally did. In fact, for this event I selected the "forks" myself. If he wanted to get the forks changed for next year, he was speaking to exactly the person with the power to change them! I was happy he didn't know this in the moment because I would have gotten another earful, but in retrospect it kind of pisses me off that he didn't think it was my fault. Not only did I have authority over the forks, I also made a ton of other, waaaay more important, decisions. And if he isn't going to blame me for the forks, then I won't get any recognition for the delicious escargot, or whatever (I'm probably stretching this analogy too far, sorry).
I just need to keep this in mind for the next time I'm held responsible for something going wrong. I'll try to remember to be happy that I'm in trouble, because it means I have enough power to screw something up.
(And now I realize that this entire post can be paraphrased by that dumb quote from Spider-Man: "With great power comes great responsibility." I am trite.)
No comments:
Post a Comment