Learned something new at work, oops!

So after a decade of cushy office jobs, I currently have a part-time retail job working with clothing.

(We moved and jobs here that are identical to jobs in the last two metro areas I lived in require a lot more schooling as a qualification.  I tried applying anyway, everyone says experience will be looked at, not here.  Never heard back from any job.  Plus my disability flared up, so lower stress is good.)

This being my first time in retail, there are things that I am clueless on.  When I was hired back in September, I learned how to replace missing tags on clothing pretty fast.  I prefer doing that to matching loose socks and underwear and figuring out their internal number, and there's always plenty of both for our limited free time, so I've been tagging a lot of clothes since September.

Well, not a single person told me about the electronic tags to be added to the replacement tags.  I never heard the name, never was told of the concept, never saw the necessary supplies at the staging area, had no idea how the overnight people conducted inventory, nothing.

I found out today, 4 months later.  I've been screwing up the inventory of a nice woman named Martina for all these months, as she uses an electronic reader to conduct inventory once a week.  She was really nice about it, explained what they were.  Another person who learned last week taught me how to activate the tags.  And my boss was really, really surprised that I was clueless about it.  Not angry surprised, shocked surprise.

I'm thinking of getting Martina a box of Russel Stover's as an apology.

How would you know if no one told you? That should have been covered in training. Associates need to know more than how to use the cash register.

Chocolates for Martina is a good idea.

I agree with DreamerRose; that seems like an integral training step that was missed. I would feel awful too, even though it's not your fault! A small gift for Martina is unnecessary, but a very sweet gesture if you would like to. I am sure she appreciates you despite the unfortunate error!

I'm surprised she waited so long to teach you the correct way to replace tags.  I would have done it the first week.