Should I follow up with things that aren't my fault, or forget them? Example: was told I was late for shift I didn't know about

Question

In general I sometimes find it hard to decide to point out someone else's mistake, or forget about it. Here is a specific example. My manager called and asked why I was not at work. I told him I was unaware I was supposed to be. He said another manager left him a note saying that she called me yesterday at 3PM. I told him I don't have a recollection of such a call and it's not in my call history. Anyway, I just went to the shift as fast as possible.

We all make mistakes but I feel confident it wasn't my fault given it's not in my call history. I tried talking about it with the manager I was working with today and he basically said he didn't know what happened.

A second example is, the manager told me I did something wrong. I told him someone else told me to do it this way. Should I have said that, or just say "OK"?

In situations like this is it better to forget it or defend myself? Small aside, should I take a screen shot of my call history and send it to the manager, or would that be bad for privacy sharing my phone call history with them?

Answer 1

Mistakes are normal and do happen. A good organization will consider them as a fact of life and a learning opportunity. The "correct" way of dealing with mistakes is to NOT blame or judge, but to figure out what exactly went wrong and what needs to be done to avoid re-occurrence. This can be as simple as fixing a wrong phone number.

This ONLY works if everyone is open and honest it about it. So saying the truth and being factual (and not emotional) is always the right behavior. In your case, you answered this correctly "Sorry, I didn't get a call. I checked my phone log and there is nothing there". If you still got dinged for being late for your shift, you should follow up with your manager. " I got written up for being late for a shift I didn't know about. What can we do in the future to avoid this from happening again. I really don't want this to happen again, but I don't know what to do differently"

In situations like this is it better to forget it or defend myself?

Neither. All parties (including you) should try to identify the root cause of the problem and fix what went wrong. That's not "defending", it's fact finding.

Small aside, should I take a screen shot of my call history and send it to the manager,

No. Not unless someone specifically asks for it. Even that would be bad: it would imply that your manager thinks you are a liar.