Long story short: I started working at an extremely small company about 2 months ago (the owner, his wife, and one other employee). During that time, the owners were barely present at the shop – often taking days or weeks off to do outdoor activities, see family, or celebrate family members birthdays.
I thought it was strange because myself and the other employee had just started 2 weeks prior to the owners leaving for a 2 weeks trip – basically leaving two brand new employees to fend for themselves and run the business.
During this time I was working 50+ hours a week to help them turn their business around and really help it take off. That’s my way of showing gratitude ditude and appreciation.
Anyways, the owners weren’t at the shop one day (which was pretty common) and they called me to do a check in. We talked about the state of the shop and the products and that was it. Immediately after getting off the phone the owners wife sent me this text message and caught me completely off guard.
Apparently it was the owners birthday and they were both extremely upset with me that I forgot to say anything and didn’t go above and beyond to tell him to enjoy his day off and that we’d hold the fort down. I honestly just forgot.
I almost walked out and quite on the spot. I was always nice, always positive, going above and beyond for a company that didn’t really seem to care about itself (as evident by taking so many days off). The owner even said to me “I wasn’t at work, it should have been obvious that it was my birthday” after he just got done taking half a month off for random things.