I fucked up on a project deadline at work, how should I approach this

[Brooksey5]

I had a big project to go out yesterday that we’ve been working on for months. My supervisor had told me earlier in the week that I should take a step back and let my assistant do most of the remaining work.

So where I would usually have taken half of it I left her to get on with it, checking in often to check she knew what was needed. The workload looked manageable and she was flagging most of the documents we needed as green for complete.

At lunch time yesterday she said she needed help, so we divided the work. To cut a long story short there was a whole lot more left than was previously thought, partly because we had to correct a load of errors that hadn’t been obvious at the previous reviews.

We stayed really late but the work didn’t get sent out and now I’m crapping myself.

I’m so annoyed with myself for not standing up the supervisor and saying no I should have helped my assistant earlier. But if I get called up by the manager I can’t blame the supervisor.

I don’t really know how to approach this, anyone have any tips? I haven’t worked at a company of this size for very long. We wouldn’t have lost any money through this project going out today instead. And I’ll go in super early this morning, I’m just dreading it.

Poor you. This sounds super stressful- only advice I have is stay focused on most important thing - client being happy and try not to worry about internal blame games. Manager should be more impressed you stayed and made sure it was right before it went - no point sending something wrong or unfinished. That would look a lot worse.

Maybe preempt any issues by suggesting a 'lessons learnt' session? Look over all that went on and highlight what went well and what you can do differently next time to overcome the issues you faced.

Hi OP sounds like you are in my kind of line of work. I'm v senior having worked my up.
Had many many situations like this. I recognise your worries

Remember. Shit happens! No one died. The world keeps turning. Ask yourself if yesterday would have made a difference. I'm guessing not. It's 2 days before many people are on holiday for a week.

What has worked for me and what I would expect from you as your senior is the following:

• let me know ASAP. Don't think I won't notice it hasn't gone out in time. Explain when it will ready (don't underestimate!). Don't blame anyone. Facts only.
• explain you thought all was under control but some errors popped up you hadn't expected. You are glad they were spotted!
• as soon as it was identified you and junior have worked overtime to resolve.
• make the point it is most important to you this is accurate and of high quality and you have taken responsibility to resolve.
• if it's a client expecting it , offer to contact them to manage expectations (they are always fine by the way!)

In your appraisal call it out as a positive learning experience for you and your junior.

Do not try to pass blame. Taking accountability is what I look for. That's what you've done. The lateness is irrelevant! I can manage that!

Good luck!

In fact please call out the junior for identifying the issues. "X has done a great job at ensuring this is high quality deliverable and rightly got me involved when they identified the issues" etc.

@nakedavengeragain Thankyou so much for this advice! Especially coming from the point of view of people more senior. And a great shout about praising junior for flagging up issues. I don’t want them to be demotivated by all this.

You all made me feel a bit more relaxed about the situation 😌

You're welcome OP. It's never an issue when someone takes accountability and sorts it. In fact I see it as a massive plus.
The delay is not ideal but I can sort a delay. It's harder to sort a bunch of errors!
You'll be fine. You've done everything right.