Once upon a time, fifteen years ago, I worked for a public
broadcasting company. A large network of radio stations with hundreds of employees.
Every workday, a hectic blur. Every email, marked "urgent." I held myself to impossibly high standards of perfection and wanted, desperately, to impress my colleagues and overdeliver in every conceivable way.
One week, my boss gave me an assignment. There was a big meeting coming up soon. Numerous people from our company—ten employees, in total—needed to be in attendance.
The plan was, we'd all gather in one room. Then, with all ten people assembled in one place, we'd do a video-conference meeting with employees from another radio station, located a few hours away.
My boss asked me to find a date that worked for everyone's schedule and set it up.
If you've ever tried to wrangle ten extremely busy people and find a time that works for everyone, then you know, it's a task of Herculean proportions. Somehow, I got it done.
The big day arrived.
Everyone assembled in the conference room, squeezing around the beige table. Cologne filled the air. Everyone was there—my boss, his boss, audio engineers, producers, the station director, plus three highly-paid consultants who had driven downtown especially for this meeting. A plate of croissants on the table,
untouched.
My boss dialed in to start the video conference.
And that's when I realized, to my absolute horror...
I forgot to contact the other radio station.
I never invited those people to the meeting.
I'd been so busy coordinating everyone's schedules here at my own workplace, I completely forgot to reach out to the other people. You know, the people we were supposed to be speaking to. The entire point of this meeting.
The video system rang for several long, painful moments. Beep beep boop. No answer from the other end. Obviously. Because they were never notified that this meeting was happening.
My boss looked calm at first, then puzzled. He glanced at me.
Finally, I piped up and managed to strangle out the words:
"Um, so...I don’t think they are coming."
Heart pounding in my throat, on the brink of tears, I explained the mistake I'd made and apologized profusely for wasting everyone's time.
I swear to you, a ghastly chill fell across that conference room. Colleagues eyeing one another, sending silent telepathic messages: "Yikes." "How embarrassing." "Oh, this is not good."
As people quietly filed out of the room and dispersed, I ran calculations in my head.
Salaried workers' time. The expensive consultants' time. Reimbursement for their travel expenses, round-trip. All together, this bungled meeting was probably a $5,000 mistake. I felt like vomiting.
Later, I apologized again to my boss.
I braced myself for a stern reprimand, willing to accept whatever consequences he doled out.
He said, without a trace of anger in his voice:
"It’s okay. These things happen, sometimes. We're all human."
He could have been upset, and justifiably so. I'd made him look bad, in front of his own boss no less. He could have lectured me. He could have fired me. Instead, he extended compassion and grace.
I have never forgotten that moment.
Tears of relief brimming in my eyes, I silently vowed to myself:
"One day, if I'm ever somebody's boss, I will extend the same grace to them. I will let them know that it's okay to be human."
Ultimately, in the long run, that meeting did not matter.
Life went on, the world kept turning, the radio station kept rolling, everything worked out fine.
How my boss handled the mistake, the example he set, that’s what mattered.
Perhaps today, you can offer an unexpected moment of grace, kindness, or forgiveness to someone in your life. And most of all, to yourself.
It’s okay.
Like a gentle balm to soothe a frightened animal, wild-eyed in the corner.
We're all human.
-Alex
PS. Suggestion: send a quick note to a colleague or friend. Tell them, “You’re doing a great job.” They might tell you, "I really needed to hear that, today." Your words might arrive at exactly the right moment.
PPS. In case nobody has told you lately: You're doing a great job, too.