Mistakes made while stressed at work

[RadioDorothy]

I posted recently about how stressed I was at work, mainly with weight of workload and no support.

Things have eased up very slightly and I've been feeling better, but I'm still weeks behind and now I'm stumbling across my own errors. One was a simple oversight (that several others had also missed before me) but the client went absolutely mad, the second was a minor error in a date that has already been presented and circulated to clients. It's been spotted so I've had to confess to my boss that I got it wrong so we might need to issue a correction. I haven't heard back yet.

It's not life or death stuff, I'll own it and my boss will be perfectly okay (probably), but I just feel like such an idiot. I'm usually so conscientious and accurate in my work, I can't bear the thought of everyone in the office sneering and laughing at me. I feel sick and I'm here working from home bloody crying for fuck's sake, I don't know how much more I can take of this - I'm making mistakes and that just isn't me, I don't recognise this person.

What the hell is wrong with me? It's stress, the bloody menopause or both. I wish I knew what to do.

But lots of people missed the error from the initial incident so it will be unlikely that you will be the only one held responsible. Honestly you really need to focus on staying calm and eventually all of this will blow over. Think of all the errors your colleagues have made and how things move on and eventually things just get back to normal.

Just saw your update....like bumpity says.....at end of the day lots of people also missed the mistake. You run your work past people for a reason so that they can comment/amend etc. - as one of the checks and balances to stop errors happening. Don’t panic (easily said!) - can you go for a quick 5 min brisk walk anywhere? Or cup of tea in the canteen with a friendly coworker?

Thank you Diymania and Bumpity, that is sage and calming advice!

I must crack on with work. What I really want to do is shut the laptop, go upstairs and put an audio book on while I do my nails for hours and just forget everything. Sadly I have 7 reports overdue, and another 6 about to become due.

And I've got to rewrite an article for a publication, because I've compounded the error in that too. Curses.

Thank you everyone who has responded, your words have honestly been so helpful - I don't really have anyone I can talk to about this stuff in rl, internet strangers are usually better at it!

I think when one is generally stressed and has very high standards, the tendency is to attach too much importance to mistakes, and catastrophise about them. I went back to work from ten years as a SAHM after my ex left me, and would lie awake at night reliving conversations and dreading repercussions. I also found criticism, constructive or not, hard to take. A helpful tip someone gave me was to rank things in importance out of ten. Another is to remember all work problems are team problems and very rarely does the buck stop with one person, so it’s a case of saying ‘what can we do now?’ rather than this is ALL my fault.

You can do this RadioDorothy. We believe in you. So does your boss

Thought I'd drop back in. Thanks everyone so much again for all your comments since it all kicked off, you made me feel so much better.

Yesterday was patchy - boss was forced to discuss details with me around both the recent issues (the client that went mad at me for a minimal oversight and then my date fuck up). He wasn't overly reassuring initially and certainly didn't let me off the hook - he had to be fairly blunt about it. But ultimately we have dealt with it, there could be a couple of repercussions but it's just a bit embarrassing more than anything. We might be forced to pay out a little compo to shut the first one up, but it's not a huge amount and it's only a gesture to make it go away. We have no liability because they suffered no bloody loss anyway.

By the end of yesterday everything felt much more settled, and boss sent me an email at 5pm saying "It happens, forget about it now."

So that was nice. I've had an enjoyable day or sorting and organising at home - sadly my intestines are telling me that I'm not quite over my distress. We went out for a pub dinner and I had a panini and a few chips before the entire world apparently dropped out of my arse (sorry TMI).

Poxy IBS. This happens at times of great stress, I'd had a bad flare up a few weeks ago and it was settling down, then this happened. Ah well. Think of the weight loss.

Sorry to hear about the flare up but pleased that the work issues seem pretty much resolved.