Pexels/Reddit

Starting a new role is not always smooth and easy.

This woman works as a server under the supervision of a kind and thoughtful manager. After working her first busy evening shift, she asked to cover another night so she could gain more experience. Her manager declined, and the feedback left her wondering whether she should take the comment personally.

This is a pretty relatable workplace situation, especially for someone who is still getting comfortable in a new role. Read the full story below.

Don’t know if I should be offended or not

One of the things I don’t like about myself is that I tend to overthink and take things personally.

Usually, I don’t care if a customer is rude to me, but I find myself caring way too much when it’s a manager or a coworker.

I end up wasting a lot of energy thinking about it.

This employee was advised by her manager to serve only when she was present.

I’ve only served one night shift so far, and it was a super busy Friday.

My general manager is the nice manager.

She told me she only wants me serving nights when she’s there because she wants to make sure I’m doing okay and not making mistakes.

She also said the other managers probably wouldn’t help me.

She asked if she could fill in for her coworker, but her manager said no.

My friend needed someone to cover their shift tonight (Monday).

So I messaged my general manager and asked if I could cover it since Mondays are usually slow.

I thought it would be a good chance to get more experience because I serve morning shifts all the time and felt like I could handle it.

She told me no because she only wants me serving nights when she’s there.

She also said I didn’t do the best on that Friday night.

Now, she’s wondering what the meaning behind

she should just let it go.

I mean, it was my very first night serving evenings, and it was extremely busy, so I wasn’t expecting to be perfect.

Am I overthinking this? Should I be offended by what she said?

Or should I just see it as part of the learning process and not take it personally?

I don’t think OP needs to take the feedback too personally. It sounds more like her manager wants to give her support and experience before letting her handle busy nights on her own. After all, everyone has to start somewhere, and she will definitely get there in time.

Let’s read the comments of other online users on this story.

Here’s a valid point.

An interesting perspective.

This one shares their opinion.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a client who regretted paying for a cross-country flight after the IT specialist just flipped a breaker.

Makes sense!

Finally, another one chimes in.

Not every piece of criticism needs to be taken personally.