Posted on: Monday, February 24, 2003

AT WORK
Worst time in career can become defining moment, survivors report

By Andrea Kay
Gannett News Service

It could have happened 30 years ago but you remember it like yesterday — the most embarrassing, hurtful or anxiety-ridden moment in your career.

Mine came after my manager told off-color jokes in front of me and two male employees.

I asked him if we could talk privately. We went in a back room, where he sat on a box. I told him I felt uncomfortable when he told those jokes. He responded with, "If you don't like it you can leave." And then the box he was sitting on split in half, and he fell on his rear end.

That was the worst moment — when I was torn between rushing to his side to see if he was OK, or laughing and leaving him in his humiliated crumpled state in the middle of a collapsed box. He would have deserved it. But I bolted to his side and helped him up.

Brian Rowe, a Macintosh computer consultant, says his worst career moment was when he worked as a graphic designer for a company that made pressure-sensitive labels. Part of his job was to type and proof the copy for say, a label of 150 words of pizza ingredients.

"I didn't know it at the time, but I have dyslexia. I just thought I had a spelling problem and was anxious about misspellings. So I'd proof the copy four or five times, and the owner kept logs on how many times the work came back because of my spelling problem."

This obstacle eventually led to his new career, which is a perfect fit with his visual and communication strengths. Today, the worst moment he faces is when he needs to tell a client, "Everything on your hard drive is gone."

Greg Wilson, an advertising executive, told of an important client meeting he had at 11 in the morning. He drove to the client's headquarters, which was two hours from his office. When he arrived, the secretary told him the client had gone to his office for the meeting.

"That day, I learned the importance of double-checking details," Wilson said.

Rosemary Deitzer, a meeting planner, was managing a weekend training session in Atlanta. The first day of the retreat, the chairman announced that he had just fired the president and that everyone present would be terminated within six weeks because the company was moving its headquarters.

"I was devastated and tempted to leave. But I stayed, making sure the meetings went flawlessly for the people who had just fired me. It was my worst moment, but perhaps my best moment because I left with my reputation and integrity intact."

You can probably recall your own worst career moment. And there may be more to come. Just remember that you'll probably come out of it unscathed, and in some cases, a better person for having gone through it.