My colleagues keep messing up at work and we're all getting blamed for it

[neverenoughhh]

Me and three other colleagues started in a brand new department recently. We keep making so many mistakes and my manager is really, really annoyed at us. They are pretty careless mistakes that have really severe implications. My manager had a conversation with us all saying that it's unacceptable and can't happen, I didn't like her tone as it sounded like our jobs were on the line.

I have played over things in my head and all of the serious mistakes I know were not me. There are other mistakes that are less serious and just things that can happen when you are learning a new procedure but I know I've not made any serious mistakes. Some of the mistakes I have made are down to poor training and lack of communication, for example in my old department we always did something a particular way which I then did in this new department only to hear it is different in this department (which it shouldn't be as it's a general site policy rather than a departmental policy).

Now because of my colleagues making serious mistakes I am terrified of doing anything wrong and I feel like I can't allow myself grace to be new and still in training, I need to be 100% perfect as there is no more room for error thanks to my colleagues.

There is no proof of who did what, we are a team and all responsible. I now feel like I need to babysit my colleagues and watch them in the corner of my eye.

I keep crying and am really tearful, can't sleep at night, etc because I'm so worried about it.

There was an identical thread on this yesterday...

To be honest it sounds like you are making mistakes as well so can't just blame your colleagues - even little mistakes can add up and be part of the problem.

Maybe your colleagues are thinking exactly the same as you x

Ask for a meeting with your manager, either by yourself or go as a threesome, and request training to specifically address the issues raised by your manager. Follow the meeting up with an email to your manager detailing what was requested and what was agreed with the time frame agreed in the meeting.

Ask your Manager or HR for personal feedback. On your work alone.

Ask for specific incidences of mistakes you personally have made as you need to know in order to learn from them.

I have had to do this before with a Manager who liked to shout at a team of about 20 accusing us collectively of the errors of maybe 3 people.

In looking for these examples it should bring the point home that the major errors are not yours.

Also contact HR to point out you need adequate training.

@WoWsers16

To be honest it sounds like you are making mistakes as well so can't just blame your colleagues - even little mistakes can add up and be part of the problem.

Maybe your colleagues are thinking exactly the same as you x

The only mistake I can recall making was I accidentally used the recycling bin as a general waste bin as this department uses the 'wrong' bin for recycling.

My colleagues both in two separate incidences messed up pretty badly on some Excel files that took my manager hours to fix.

Have you posted about this before, is it the lab you work in.

Excel Files - do you know how to recover previous versions? Very easy to do once you know how.

Put in place some strategies to such as ensure they are ok each hour or something. It sounds like a lack of excel skills and more training or better desk notes are required!

If mistakes keep happening that suggests you don't have good enough procedures in place to work accurately and efficiently. Could your team try to work out some better ways of doing things?

It sounds like your manager is the problem if they can't approach individual members of staff to tell them off personally.

I do think you're being a bit dramatic. If you know you've not done anything wrong, why does it matter?!

If you're all working on shared documents, then either they need to be better monitored and backed up, or the manager needs to learn how to use undo or earlier versions.

Tbh the system does not sound fit for purpose, if you cannot identify who did what and when. That's just basics!

For you all to feel at risk of sacking, sound like the manager needs some management training! And really should be providing performance improvement plans and supportive processes.