Menon 1 Essay

Submitted By sayheykid3
Words: 659
Pages: 3

The first thought that comes to mind when I consider this situation was a time when I desperately wanted to trade shifts with somebody. Normally at my former job, a chemist position working alternating 12 hour shifts, there would be no problem trading shifts with another employee if you reciprocated the favor, but this occasion happened to fall on the Friday before Memorial Day. I was working in San Diego, and my friends from back home in Iowa had planned a trip to Vegas for Thursday-Saturday. I desperately wanted to meet them, but would need Friday off for it to be feasible, and most co-workers who were either not scheduled or requested it off had already made plans. Given my desire, I began to pursue the seemingly impossible task. Considering I only had a couple weeks’ notice, I decided to send out an email to everyone else in my lab inquiring if they would be interested in swapping. I pushed on the fact that this was very important to me and that I had not seen my friends for a year, in hopes of earning some sympathy. I also mentioned that I had tried very hard to work out taking the day off with my managers, but it would leave the lab too shorthanded. This initial attempt to plead my case as a rare personal opportunity that I would be devastated to miss out on was a massive failure; no one sent any response to the email one way or the other. Looking back, it doesn’t surprise me at all that this was unsuccessful, given that my co-workers could ignore my impersonal outreach without having much emotionality involved. A couple days later, my desperation growing, I implemented a new approach: bargaining. I began to approach those not working that day one-on-one in hopes of striking a deal: cash, multiple days covering them, etc. Generally, I began by asking if they had received my email, and proceeding to ask again if they would be willing to trade. The answer given each time was an irritated no, with the exception of one squirrelly guy who had only been working there for a couple weeks. He proceeded to tell me that he had gone out of his way to request the day off during his initial entry into the company, but that his plans had fallen through. I saw this as an opening and inquired if he would be willing to