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Original poster

Work fuck up, I'm panicking!

83 replies

sun04 · 04/07/2023 13:34

I think I have made a huge fuck up at work and deleted lots of information. Currently waiting for the IT team to get back to me so I know what the situation is.

I am absolutely freaking out so I guess I'm just looking for some words of reassurance !!

OP posts:
Pancake678 · 04/07/2023 15:41

We had this some weeks ago. IT ended up finding a back up and reloading it. 🤞🏻 yours does

JauntyJinty · 04/07/2023 15:43

I work in IT - important stuff gets deleted ALL THE TIME!!

There will be systems in place to deal with it!

DRS1970 · 04/07/2023 15:59

Best advice I can give is to own the mistake. Find out what the situation is with IT, then just come clean to your manager. Everyone makes mistakes.

sigfey · 04/07/2023 16:03

Unless you're the data manager and in charge of making sure people can't accidentally delete the only copy of something vital - relax.

Mistakes happen and there should be things in place to mitigate mistakes like this. And if not the company need to make sure there are going forward!

ErrolTheDragon · 04/07/2023 16:07

My best one was a script for moving source code around which unfortunately because a network drive wasn't mounted did an rm -rf on the whole source tree including the source control files.
And this was when the system manager discovered the backup tapes weren't being correctly written.

This was maybe 30 years ago and I'm still with the same company - but our systems are much better now!

SoftAsABearsElbow · 04/07/2023 16:09

Chill.

In some ways, 'lots' of information is actually far easier to get back than tiny bits of info.

It's a lot easier to find in the backups Grin

DrSbaitso · 04/07/2023 16:13

If you're not in IT, I'll be very surprised if you were able to delete stuff irretrievably.

wossgoinon · 04/07/2023 16:13

I thought I deleted a load of info of of SharePoint. It was retrieved 😅

lieselotte · 04/07/2023 16:14

Have you checked the recycled bin? I've lost stuff and found it in there and you can restore the files you've deleted. If it's more complex than that there is stll bound to be a back-up.

Employees won't be able to delete files - they might do so for malicious purposes, not by accident. Companies generally make sure this can't happen!

Diddykong · 04/07/2023 16:18

Blame Colin in accounts.

HollaHolla · 04/07/2023 16:19

mamnotmum · 04/07/2023 13:42

You can't undo it now. Just apologise and try to find a way forward.

This. Absolutely this.
Tell your Line Manager, and make them aware. It's worse if you try to cover it up....

3luckystars · 04/07/2023 16:19

Best of luck. Nobody is perfect.

Fightyouforthatpie · 04/07/2023 16:24

Do you work for Virgin email?

category12 · 04/07/2023 16:30

IT will almost certainly be able to retrieve it for you.

Yes, balls up, but very doubtful it's gone forever.

Darker · 04/07/2023 16:32

Fightyouforthatpie · 04/07/2023 16:24

Do you work for Virgin email?

Snort.

Labradorandshiraz · 04/07/2023 16:38

My husbands friend once told an oil company to dig in the wrong place and cost them tens of thousands upon thousands - an extraordinary amount.

He both remained employed there and liked by his boss.

I once worked with two newspaper Journalists who got caught shagging in the photographic room. Both remained employed.

My Aunty once got caught eating a slice of Birthday cake out of the bin at her law firm when she was a junior lawyer, by a senior partner. Must have been a stressful day.

My Dad once told a woman that worked for him she should spend less time staring at herself in the mirror and more time working - this one is a coup for him though that he didn’t find himself sued.

I like to think about these things whenever I feel bad. I hope it helps.

Prettylittleroses · 04/07/2023 16:40

My husbands friend once told an oil company to dig in the wrong place and cost them tens of thousands upon thousands - an extraordinary amount

that’s not actually possible. 😂

SpeckledlyHen · 04/07/2023 16:44

Many many many years ago I deleted the contents of a law firm's server (would not be possible to do now). It was recovered thank god but cost thousands, I did manage to keep my job.

Labradorandshiraz · 04/07/2023 16:49

@Prettylittleroses yes it is, he works in oil and gas and is responsible for pin pointing locations.

TeenLifeMum · 04/07/2023 16:51

Did you delete a chunk of the hospital Intranet? (Colleague did that last week 😬 and caused me a big headache… I’m responsible for the intranet 😩🤦🏻‍♀️) I don’t hate the colleague and have put additional training in place. We learn from our mistakes.

TheChippendenSpook · 04/07/2023 16:52

I hope it was all ok/fixable.

IsisoftheWalbrook · 04/07/2023 16:57

I've done this before. It's embarrassing, but all humans make mistakes. It is the company's responsibility to ensure that there is mitigation for reasonably foreseeable errors. Any good IT system should have backups to minimise any data lost.

As long as you (a) own up straight away, and (b) don't try and minimise it, you should be OK. Bonus points go to those to see it as a useful lessons learned opportunity to improve processes and systems.

Now go and have a cup of tea and a biscuit and try not to panic.

Coffeetree · 04/07/2023 17:20

I once did the same, like 20 years ago, and I contacted IT immediately to let them know, so sorry, etc.

The IT person absolutely went off on one, lecturing me about accountability etc. and what a disaster it was. She was on such a power trip that it completely erased any contrition I felt.

I finally said, "Right so you never run back-ups of this data?" And of course there was a daily back-up and nothing had been lost.

It's literally IT's job to have systems in place to protect data, so just tell them ASAP and don't give it another thought.

CrazyLadie · 04/07/2023 17:40

sun04 · 04/07/2023 13:34

I think I have made a huge fuck up at work and deleted lots of information. Currently waiting for the IT team to get back to me so I know what the situation is.

I am absolutely freaking out so I guess I'm just looking for some words of reassurance !!

Majority of companies back up their systems at the end of each day so at worst ya will not be able to retrieve what has been updated today but should be able to get everything else as long as it was on the server and not your C drive / desktop

TiaraBoo · 04/07/2023 17:42

It’s probably backed up and if not, take the opportunity to spearhead the new initiative on backing up data and encourage everyone to nominate you for an award 😊