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Original poster

F*cked up massively - work related. Perspective needed

628 replies

Stupidworkgirl · 01/05/2023 22:16

I have an important business trip abroad tomorrow which myself and several other colleagues are going on. It is a major event in our industry and we have been planning it for a while. I have done the majority of the planning and have enjoyed it and was excited to attend. Our company director is going along with my boss and several coworkers, one of which reports to me.

I have lost my passport. I only realised this at 4pm today when packing. I am meant to fly out on an early morning flight. We have a very tidy minimalist home and have searched everywhere, it is definitely not here. I last travelled a few months ago and can only think I dropped it somewhere between security and my car.

I have called my boss who has told the MD. My boss was understanding and kind about it, I don’t know what the MDs reaction was. I’m absolutely gutted. Missing out on the event is a horrible feeling but is actually the least of it, that will wear off once it is over at the end of this week. It is more the damage to my reputation and how people might think of me going forward. I’m honestly considering leaving and finding a new job, as I don’t know how I will mentally bounce back from it.

Looking for reassurance or perhaps any similar tales or fucking up at work.

OP posts:
SheilaFentiman · 03/05/2023 18:23

Nelly91 · 03/05/2023 18:13

Could you phone the airport you last flew back to check lost property?

She did

OhcantthInkofaname · 03/05/2023 18:23

Is your passport at work? If your last solo trip was for work it might have stayed with your work materials.

SheilaFentiman · 03/05/2023 18:24

LoisLane66 · 03/05/2023 18:16

You'd give up a job because you misplaced or lost your passport? Unbelievable and ridiculous.

as you can read in her later posts, she has calmed down a lot since the initial panic.

Middleagedspreadisreal · 03/05/2023 18:26

If you left your job tomorrow, would anyone miss you? The answer is no. You are replaceable.
If you had a terminal illness, would anyone miss you? Probably quite a few.
Get some perspective.

Original poster
Stupidworkgirl · 03/05/2023 18:31

Just seen my thread has been resurrected, wanted to update in case anyone stumbles across it in the future and wanted to know the outcome.

I’ve calmed down a lot since yesterday, I feel completely different. I still have that ‘fear of missing out’ feeling since everyone is there at the moment but I no longer feel as mortified about it and certainly won’t be leaving my job. It’s a bit surreal thinking back to how upset I got, but I think it was just the shock of it happening as I have never done anything like this before and it made me doubt myself.

I appreciate all the help and advice I got here, it was very much needed when I was at the height of the panic.

OP posts:
LoisLane66 · 03/05/2023 18:31

Thanks @SheilaFentiman
I had read all the posts before commenting.
I thought it a bit OTT to have entertained the thought in the first place.

Wavescrashingonthebeach · 03/05/2023 18:31

I sent a 32 tonne full load lorry full of baked beans to the wrong depot. The other fucking end of the country! I cried.
Hope it turns up. Breathe!

ChimneyPot · 03/05/2023 18:33

These things happen and people miss business trips all the time for all sorts of reasons.
I think especially post covid people are more understanding.

yphtutor · 03/05/2023 18:33

Pray Angels seek Mary find, has always worked for me. Hope you find it tonight

Isinglass20 · 03/05/2023 18:38

Sit down deep breaths and visualise when you last used passport. Through passport control drive home coming through door putting bags down seeing DD ….. Tomorrow morning you will remember where it went missing and to take care next time

Mummystevo · 03/05/2023 18:40

I got a email with markdowns then a hour later another email with more markdowns, i emailed the person back telling them to piss off (we had that banter) i didnt realise i also sent it to everyone else on the email list, shops, consessions, managers, the full lot, luckily they seen the funny side of it 😂😂

pollymere · 03/05/2023 18:42

Two stories just to cheer you up:

  1. I was supposed to always be in ready to fly mode at work in terms of my passport so when I was heavily pregnant I didn't check it. I needed to by Godmother at my nephew's christening in a week and realised it was going out of date. So I asked the Travel Team at work to do a five day renewal on it as I was allowed to do as part of my role. When they heard when I needed it, this was upped to 48 hour service. Again, just about within my allowed remit. Imagine the horror that some bright spark saw the 48 hours and upped it to 24 hour/same day request. Basically a courier queued on my behalf to get my passport back within two days. It cost an absolute fortune and my boss raised a serious eyebrow when approving my expenses. Luckily when I explained I hadn't put the request in, he was okay with it... Apart from querying why the Company needed me to have an up to date passport if I wasn't fit to fly (I was Eurostarring for the Christening).
  1. My husband got asked to go on a business trip unexpectedly and got into a flap about it. He got to the airport and realised he didn't know the time of his flight and that he'd left his passport in the drawer at home... He had to explain to his boss that he was going to miss both the nonrefundable flight and the meeting...

And, if St Anthony isn't working, try St Jude - Saint for Hopeless Cases. In all seriousness, it used to be that you'd have to declare you'd prayed to both to report a missing passport in Eire.

DollyTubb · 03/05/2023 18:42

Poor you! This happened to me, I was due to fly out to Spain to meet DH, I even got him to take his suitcase apart because I was convinced he had taken it with him by mistake. I found my passport at the 11th hour, wrapped in my pyjamas at the back of my knickers drawer. I never wear pyjamas, how it got there is anyone's guess!

Noodles1234 · 03/05/2023 18:47

That’s so annoying! You sound like you’ve put a lot of hard work into this, and how annoying. How long are they out there for (is it worth an emergency passport appointment)?

like an earlier post, sit, close your eyes, breathe and try to remember your last hours of when you had it. Has it gone in a coat pocket or suitcase zipped area, car glovebox, side of driver chair in car, small hand luggage type bag, wardrobe (can you tell I lose things all the time)?!
I can only imagine how hard you’re taking this, but yes nobody died, and maybe when they all come back they will be easy on you and you may even have some laughs about it.

ChilledBeez · 03/05/2023 18:48

I always pray for St. Anthony when I have lost something and usually find it. He has been of great help to me over the years.

PumpkinsAndCoconuts · 03/05/2023 18:54

I once wrote a fairly long court submission (English?) About child support (for young adult children).

Slight problem, I put in the wrong date of birth. According to my entry the two teens studying abroad were babies. Which also meant that all my calculations about expenses (due to certain age based standard entities) were wrong.

I luckily still had time to amend it at that point without entering the issue of new facts/evidence after discovery. Otherwise I might have caused the firm to be potentially liable for a lot of damages.

My boss luckily found if hysterical (after I had fixed it). The face of the judge - who apparently still labored under the assumption that we were talking about babies - was apparently hysterical. 😳

I've had a few similar screw ups.

ChilledBeez · 03/05/2023 18:55

You say that you have done the majority of the planning so I am sure that people will only have sympathy for you and zero thoughts of malice. You have put all of that hard work in only to miss out on a big company event. Anybody with a heart would just want to hug you. As the saying goes - "This too shall pass". Please bear in mind that it is only a job. There are far worse things that can happen. Plus, you will learn a lesson and always have your passport in a safe place..

SofiaSoFar · 03/05/2023 18:58

Isinglass20 · 03/05/2023 18:38

Sit down deep breaths and visualise when you last used passport. Through passport control drive home coming through door putting bags down seeing DD ….. Tomorrow morning you will remember where it went missing and to take care next time

Bit late for that given that OP has cancelled the lost passport, isn't it.

Fudgewomble · 03/05/2023 18:59

I’ve got lots of stories about how mistakes cost 100s of hours of work and in some cases millions of pounds in damages - all f-ups involving the law firm’s insurers. Some involved me and some bad luck, some other junior colleagues. A lost passport before a trip, as long as it wasn’t the senior partner’s wouldn’t have even rated a mention.

this too shall pass OP.

HedgehogB · 03/05/2023 19:01

LoisLane66 · 03/05/2023 18:13

I wish people would stop writing 'myself'. You use the word 'l'.

I think you’ll find it is ‘One uses / should use the word ‘I’. Don’t be one of those people …..

AnnPannal · 03/05/2023 19:01

I found mine under my documents container on my desk. More in desperation than good management! Good luck.

TallBigP · 03/05/2023 19:04

Do not worry. Sit down have a cup of tea or coffee think of all the places it could be such as under the stairs, in your shoes, boots, boxes under the place your coats hang, under the bed or any piece of furniture. Sometimes I lose things between the mattress and the headboard because they slip down there. Just take your time and maintain a calm, logical approach If all else fails take a selfie and email it to all going on the trip with a few lines to say " Come hell or high water I am coming on the next one and will go all out to win business for the company and you can all send me postcards to say what a shame it was I could not be there.
I used to be an Account Director for Marconi Communications. I won a contract for £45m pounds with the Dutch equivalent of BT and six weeks later I turned up to a flight to Brussels sans passport. I searched high and low and had forgotten I had left it in the scanner at work. It cost me a round of drinks for eight and lots of laughs at my expense. Two years later I was made redundant because our Directors had made stupid decisions buying Dotcom companies, trying to go it alone without long-term allies, and allowing a Chinese tech company called Huawei copy our technology that they then sold at a nassively discounted price to our biggest customer BT who never played another order with Marconi Communications. That was a massive error that the whole board should have been fired for. Instead it was 55,000 hard working highly skilled employees including yours truly. I had the last laugh as I joined a KPN subsidiary on three times the measly salary I had been paid at Marconi. Relax and just put it down to a mistake I am sure you will never make again. Hang in there please.

speedqueen · 03/05/2023 19:05

Gutted for you, but seriously this crap happens. Nobody died and we are all human. Please do not resign, what good would that do?
keep searching as others have said.
I can imagine how disappointed you must be, but it will blow over and you will laugh about it one day.

Lovely13 · 03/05/2023 19:14

We are human and make mistakes. It’s OK. Have done it myself. Forgive yourself and move on. Your work managers sound understanding, which is good.

CarrotCake01 · 03/05/2023 19:16

I lost my passport just before a trip to Australia once. A friend of mine had been over a week or so before, spotted it on my shelf and hidden it inside a dvd case as a prank.
I didn't realise I had lost it until the day before so that was so stressful