My first job after leaving university was a technical support assistant in a small graphics company, for the purpose of relief for my direct superior, the chief technical officer of the firm. He was new to managing someone, and I had previously worked at the company and been given somewhat challenging tasks and a degree of autonomy to solve them. The resulting effect was that I was often given tasks that I felt were below my ability, and I became rather complacent, upset and complained with other staff more than I should. The feedback from the managing director was that he had been asked to let me go as a result of my complaints, but had suggested that perhaps my feelings had been taken out of context and would speak with me about my attitude.
My response was shock at first, as being called to see the managing director about potentially being fired was unexpected. I explained that I had just left university, and I was still feeling unsettled about my performance in the last few months as it had been much less than I was capable and I was worried about my degree result. To also come into the situation of doing tasks that were below the scope of what I had imagined was quite unsatisfying, and I agreed that my current attitude was not helping myself and fostering a good environment with other people. I thanked the MD for his defence of me, and promised to take a more positive attitude and resolve any problems in a more intelligent and less public way.
The outcome was that I kept my job, and was relieved that the managing director had given me a chance to change. I made efforts to engage more with the work and look for ways I could do my job better and gain deeper knowledge of whatever tasks I was doing, rather than relying on the situation to be perfect. I also became more aware of how my actions and conversations affected others, and although I already had a good relationship with most staff, I should still make efforts to maintain and develop that. The benefit to others was that I was a happier person to speak to, therefore maintaining moral in the office. Improving my attitude also improved my productivity, which benefitted my direct superior, the CTO, while also developing the relationship of trust between us.
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