Drinking in Japan

In case you haven’t been reading regularly, I had way too much fun on my birthday with coworkers, and had to call in sick the next day. I was expecting to hear about it from someone, and finally did today.

At the end of my shift at Keikyu Kawasaki NOVA, one of the Japanese sales staff told me that I had a phone call from the area manager. I picked up the phone and he proceeded to express how unhappy he was with me about missing work due to drinking too much at my birthday party. He told me that it was unprofessional and immature, and said that it was worse because most of my coworkers were there and knew why I missed work the next day.

He reminded me that he was very flexible at approving shift swaps, and that the next time I wanted to celebrate something, I should make sure I have the next day off. He then went on to say that he usually doesn’t approve the number of shift swaps that I was allowed to have, but did so because he thought of me as a responsible, reliable employee. I also learned that I would have been considered for a promotion if I didn’t request a transfer, but he had lost some trust in me over the incident. He seemed legitimately disappointed in me.

The area manager continued for about ten minutes, and I listened quietly. At the end, I apologized and told him that I had no excuse for my behaviour and was embarrassed about the whole situation. I didn’t really have much more to say because I really was embarrassed about it. I thanked him for talking to me and promised that it would never happen again.

I took the call in the tiny teacher’s room, so Anzac and the other teacher caught the gist of the conversation. They asked me about it, and thought I handled it well. I have never been chewed out by a manager like that before. The worst part was that I knew it was my fault, and was avoidable. The only good thing to come out of the phone call was knowing that the area manager (previously) thought of me as a responsible employee who was worthy to be considered for promotion. I will try harder in the future.

(2014 Update) In my original blog entries, I didn’t mention anything about missing work after my birthday or getting chewed out by the area manager. This is all new material, but I remember the details clearly. I am happy to say that nothing like this has ever happened again.