Management

I have been the manager of my office for almost 16 years. I still keep in touch with most of my employees. The reason is that I am a manager who understands situations and acts accordingly. Before I make a decision or pass a comment, I think of how my employee will feel. Yesterday one of my receptionists told me that her mother surprised her with a ticket to Miami for her birthday. She would need to be off 2 days. One day I will have a replacement the other I will not. She said she was so sorry that her mother did that because now it effects the office. I had 2 choices when answering. One was to reprimand her for leaving the office without help when her family knows her schedule. The other was to be excited for her and tell her to have a great time. I chose the latter. She is a great worker, has a future with my office and is very reliable. I was making an investment in her by being kind. She was so happy that I reacted as I did and said that she would never leave us short staffed again and would be available to help out anyone else on her days off. My rationale was that she had a plane ticket and she was going no matter what. Why ruin it for her?