A couple of nights ago, I went to the apartment of one of my GM co-workers and she was basically just hosting a get together for some people at work to hang out and have some fun. There was about 10 of us ( a mix of some members from GM, electronics, and the front end) and it was basically just a casual night of video games and adult party games. During the night, we got to the point where we all took turns saying which TM we would fire if we had the chance. I mentioned this one fat little weirdo at guest services who just plain annoys me. He's in his early twenties and he's constantly changing his hair style every week. He'll come in one week with his hair spiked up and dyed purple, then the next week he'll come in with a green mohawk. The word from the front end team members is that this guy genuinely thinks that he's being cool by doing this and he's trying to get himself noticed and get invited to a lot of the parties that we like to hold. On top of that, there's something about his voice that just annoys me. I don't know what it is, but whenever I hear his voice on the walkie, my blood just starts boiling and I want to yell at him to shut up. The bummer is that he's apparently a really hard worker and he's still generally pretty nice to everyone, but I didn't hesitate to say that I would fire him purely because of his voice.
Today I came into work and my HR ETL pulled me into his office. He somehow found out about not only the get together, but also my comments about the weird porky pig look-alike at the front end. He first told me that I need to be more mindful about how I speak of my peers and he said that these comments won't fly from someone who's aspiring to become a TL. He also warned me to tread lightly in terms of the parties and get togethers. He said that I'm still allowed to attend them as a TM, but that I won't be allowed to as a TL. He gave me a whole lecture about being careful of what relationships I form with some TM's and that I need to keep in mind that I'm suppose to lead in a professional and unbiased way. He mostly just kept warning me about "conflicts of interest" but I didn't get coached or written up or anything like that.
The whole conversation just kind of shook me and it has me worried about my development as a GM Leader. I'm worried mostly about my comments towards the weirdo at guest services and I really hope that my SD doesn't find out about them. Does this whole incident sound like it'd be enough to derail my shot at a lead role?
