Critical Reflection

Final Project

Author:
Enrique Del Castillo Chávez

Teacher:
Lourdes Ocampo
Enrique Del Castillo 15/02/2020
EGADE Business School A00354844
Critical Reflection

Before I start. I want to let you know that in order to protect the privacy of the people
regards my leadership crisis situation. I have changed the names of the places and the
people involved.

What happened?

While I was living in Neverland, I used to work in a restaurant called The Tree. I was part of
the kitchen team and had been for 5 months. I was just promoted to Stand Leader, this
meant that I had a team of 8 to 10 cooks as part of my team. It was a normal day and was
finishing my shift. Patrick (one of my close friends) came up to me and told me if I would
like to go out for a drink, which I accepted. Later that night Jonathan (also a close friend of
mine) joined us. While in the bar they told me, they were moving to an apartment since
they had decided to live together. So, they asked for my help and I accepted. At the next
day while checking my shifts for that specific moving week I realize that for the moving
date my shift had been moved to an earlier time.
This meant that I had 3 options: ask for a day off, swipe my shift with another cook or to
just ask if I could arrive late that day. After talking to Valish (my supervisor) regards the
situation and proposing the possible solutions, he discarded all options with the excuse of
been short in personnel on that specific date. Fortunately, later that day Patrick and
Jonathan told me that they planned to move early in the morning, which gave me a great
relief. So, after getting everything prepared for the day, we waited for the day to come.
Until…..caos happened. It was the moving date. After the three of us arrived at the truck
moving company. We realize that Patrick had booked the moving truck in another branch
of the company which was 3 to 4 hours away. After an hour of arguing and trying to solve
the situation. We decided to rent a minivan and started moving everything.
Things were going smooth and very fast. Unfortunately, not fast enough. By the time I
realize I had to go to work, I had 15min to arrive. I knew I would never make it, so I
decided to end the last trip. Gave back the van and paid a taxi to the restaurant.
It was 3:30pm I was 1hr and 30min late. My supervisor was furious, he starts giving me a
“lack of commitment speech”, I could not stand it and was way too tired and burned out
to think clearly. This led to a verbal abuse situation from Valish. By the time he finished I
went back to kitchen and stared crying. My friends take me out and Valish comes to talk
to me again, he kept going with abuse, I was very angry and started telling him that I was a
human being and that if he could not respect it than I would no longer care about
whatever he said, he said I could not cry and that if I would do it I had to go out and do not
let my coworkers watch me. I could not stand it and just came silent. After my silence he
realized I had my feelings hurt and just said “you can stay here as long as you need”.

What where the results?

That same day during my shift, Patrick and Jonathan thank me and apologised for having
to stand the abuse after helping them. A day after the situation, I arrived to work and was
told Valish had just been fired. Strangely I was not happy or sad I just could not believe it. I
Enrique Del Castillo 15/02/2020
EGADE Business School A00354844
never knew why he was fired; I was told he had a sexual harassment issue, but honestly I
wasn’t convinced.

Some negative results on my personality where: I was no longer secure about myself, I felt
as if I had to sleep for a long time and my authority capability level dropped for 2 or 3
days. I started having constant stomach problems.
Some positive results: The whole kitchen team suddenly started respecting me. They did
what I told them to. Patrick, Jonathan and I became the best stand leaders’ team of the
whole kitchen. I became a more stable, focused and committed person. At the end of the
day my friends stayed with me and had a stable and trustful relationship that still exists.

Why did it happen?

I strongly believe it happened because of my weak emotional development. As well as a
series of wrongly taken decisions by me and my friends.

What class concepts are relevant to this situation?

Personality and Values
Leadership styles
Emotions

What you learn from this?

I learned 3 things: speak up when you feel that you are being abused, helping a true friend
is more important than a day of work and that pain is what makes you stronger as a
person and as a leader, but if you do not know how to manage it, will damage you for the
rest of your life.