This summer I have had a rad intern working for me who has kicked major ass on a project and made me look very good, way above and beyond the call of duty for an intern. I wanted to show a little recognition and get him a Best Buy gift card for a going away thank you, but by the time I got off work tonight Best Buy was closed. I had a brilliant idea, though - the supermarket has that little endcap where they sell gift cards for everywhere, including Best Buy, so I went to the supermarket instead. While there, I got the gift card and about $10 of groceries. There was a problem activating the card (possibly somebody voided it and put it back on the shelf or something), and so, with a big line piling up behind me, they scrambled to void the sale and get me a new card, which they rang up separately. I went out to the car and looked at the original receipt and it said "CREDIT $xxxx" at the bottom, where 'xxxx' is the cost of the card plus my $10 in groceries. I was pretty sure they had just voided the whole first transaction, credited it back to me, and rung up just the card on the second one. This meant I had gotten $10 in groceries for free. I briefly considered just leaving, but then I thought better of it and went back in to give them their $10. After waiting in line again the manager took me aside to figure out what happened. Apparently I had it backwards: they had charged me full boat for the first transaction AND the second one; the "CREDIT" was me putting it on my CREDIT card. I had gotten charged for two gift cards, but only got one. She fixed everything up and refunded the cost of the first card to me. If I had taken off, I probably would (or maybe I wouldn't) have noticed the double charge on my credit card at the end of the month and then it would have been a big hassle trying to convince them to give me back my money. Since I went in to give them back the $10 I thought I owed them, I saved myself a ton of trouble and probably some cash. Being honest worked out this time, but of course it doesn't always - sometimes you just end up causing more trouble. FOCUS: When has being honest when you didn't have to worked out well for you? When has it backfired on you unexpectedly?
I have a cousin who, when we get drunk, begs me to tell her what I really think of her. This game as been going on since we were 13 and snuck liquor at parties. Because we are both drinking, I always end up telling her the truth, then she get offended, and storms off. When we were younger, this was a problem because she would steal the liquor. But now I just order another drink and try to apologize.
Had a boss once that no one really liked, everyone thought he was a brutal hardass. I on the otherhand, never had any person problem with him, he came in the morning said "Good morning" and thats all we spoke all day usually. When I found a new job opportunity I debated for a while whether or not to tell him that I was going to be applying elsewhere in the company. My coworkers told me not to tell him and that he would be furious and to just apply and let him find out through my two weeks notice. When the day came that I wanted to apply, I said "fuck it" and went into his office and told him straight up that I enjoyed working under him but needed to move forward with my career. He sat for a minute staring at me without a word and then opened up about how happy he was for me and he would do everything he possibly could to help me. He called the hiring manager the next day after I formally applied and got me an interview.
Wow, you were lucky. One of the managers in my old company would call the manager in the new department and give a scathing review of any employee trying to switch teams if he was short-staffed... which was pretty much all the time. Then again the old company's management bonus structure penalized any departmental turnover, even if it was an in company transfer, so I guess I can't really blame him too much.
The liquor store down the street I go to is a bit ghetto and, as such, has an old school cash register with an attached credit card terminal in which the credit card is swiped and the cashier manually enters the total amount. Well, a few months ago, I bought a bunch of beer and some liquor and my total came to something like 32.53. Well when I signed the credit card slip, I realized that it had only come to 2.53, the 3 hadn't registered or been pushed. So I informed the old dude who works the register and suggested we cancel the transaction and redo it. Well he was so impressed by my honesty, he told me not to worry about it and now remembers me and gives me little freebies (5 hour energy's, plastic shot glasses, etc...) whenever I come in and buy stuff. Probably should get the old badass a Christmas card.
FOCUS: When has being honest when you didn't have to worked out well for you? When has it backfired on you unexpectedly?[/quote] I'm not sure if this applies but I have been a very honest person ever since the senior year of highschool. I got into a fight with some hipster fuck when I was in grade 12. We mutually hated each other and one day I tripped him on his way out of school onto the buses that brought us home from school. He turned around and held up a tack ( the type that you would put into a bulletin board) and said that he would stab me in the eye. I beat the shit out of him (I cut up my hand and had to have stiches). When I went home I told my dad the complete truth and faced the consequences of basically being a slave during my suspension (helping my father build a fece around our yard, cleaning the garage to be spotless, not seeing friends, etc). This time was really a direct implementation of " if you can't do the time don't do the crime" and showed me that If I'm going to do something to make sure I can handle the consequences. To be fair I was a lying little shit before this point, but matured a hell of a lot over those few days. I hope to one day teach my kids the same lesson because I believe honesty to be a very mportant part of being a well respected member of society.