Mistake at work- please make me feel better

[wheo]

Made a big mistake at work which resulted in a significant delay for a client who is furious. Waiting to speak to my boss about it now.

Please share some stories of work fuck ups to make me feel better!!

And on that note, I'm going to sleep but laughing my head off. This wins the internet today 🤣🤣🤣

I made a really serious mistake at work. More senior people had to deal with the consequences which went beyond our organisation. They were very very nice about it, but I felt terrible. Anyone can make a mistake op. I think the best thing is to take responsibility, try to figure out what allowed it happen and how to prevent it from happening again.

Hehe, yes, me too @MrsDanversGlidesAgain. I often have a quick read when my own work life chaos is erupting. 🙂

My late father used to work for an international Christian missionary organisation. In the 1970s he was responsible for ordering promotional and devotional items to be sold in their UK shops. He once approved an order for pens that had stamped on them "Jesus Chris is Lord", thousands of them. This would have been in about 1973. I believe that some of those pens are still being used in the organisation's back offices to this day. Some of his more roguish colleagues made up a song about it called "Roger Ordered Lots of Posters..." which was performed at a number of the annual missionary conferences. Hehe

I once answered the landline phone at my home early one Sunday morning from my friend/flatmate's VIP Boss wanting to speak to her, saying his chauffeured car wasn't there to meet him from a major UK airport. I very politely said I'm sorry I wouldn't wake her up - she was deeply asleep and it was the weekend so would he mind just getting a public black cab home... He sounded very hard done by that I wouldn't wake her. I don't think I've ever been quite so assertive to someone senior before (or since).

When she surfaced I told her and she said he'd specifically said he wouldn't need a cab - I guess his plans had changed and wanted her to jump to it. 🌹

When I was a very new, young teacher, there was a door at the back of my classroom onto the school field. I, stupidly, opened it on a very wet November morning to have a look and the fire alarm went off. The whole school- 1500 children and 150+ staff had to be evacuated onto a water-logged field. The alarm would not turn off and the fire brigade came. 1500 children had to stand on a very muddy field for almost an hour and then , soaking wet, trailed the mud through the school and spent the rest of the day drying off. The school lunch was shoved off-schedule, lessons were missed, extra-cleaning had to be paid for. The Head was furious with me and really nasty. I, pathetically, cried buckets and my dad wanted to go up and sort him out.

@Newestname002 I'm always a bit baffled by this type of story (and those a friend who worked with VIPs at conferences would tell). I can't imagine the level of self-importance you'd need to have not to just think 'oh my car's not here, that's annoying, but I'll jump in a cab to get where I'm going and query it later'.

At what level of pay and work responsibility do people just cease having the ability to look after themselves day to day?

I've done this 🙈 smaller amounts but the lady came back and showed us her internet banking and she was quite taken back to be charged £170 instead of £17 for her meal and when we checked I had.
I refunded the whole amount and comped the meal and luckily she was good humoured about it, I was mortified and couldn't apologise enough and she actually comforted me in the 'mistakes happen and you're only human' type way.
I'm very careful now and grateful for her understanding!

In my experience (there are probably exceptions) the more senior a person becomes, the less able they are to do the basics and exercise simple common sense.

In Newestname's example - in the time it took to phone his employee, and then try to persuade Newest to rouse her from sleep, the big boss could've called a dozen taxis for himself.

The other thing with things like having a driver who's not a company employee is that the person doesn't want to jump in a cab if the driver is on the way as it costs additional money. If you've been working away and arrive after a long flight you don't have to wait at a cab rank, etc if a driver is booked. The whole point of all this stuff is that they maximise the time they spend on the business they are invariably being paid a lot to lead.

That's hilarious. PMSL at that!

I was working at this auction house
(Away from the post room) when this happened:

www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/apr/28/artsfeatures1

Yes I know - I don't think he was used to being told "No", however politely. I actually had a boss myself who rang me (during working hours) to check where his car was. I reminded him he'd told me he didn't need one and so it wasn't on the extremely detailed itinerary I'd compiled, printed and handed to him, nor his calendar. He was fine about it though, admitted he was on auto-pilot and jumped into a black cab to go home. Different strokes.. 🌹

@NigelHarmansNewWife Well I kind of get that, except it's not their money and if they're in big business what's a cab fare in the grand scheme of things (a bit like my boss insisting we shop around for office coffee though I suppose, while we're spending 10s of 1000s on other things).

My friend who worked with VVIPs had middle of the night calls over hotel bedsheets being the wrong thread count or colour. Now that I really can't imagine the mindset of. Enormous main character energy.

I don't get what, "Enormous main character energy." means, sorry. If you're expecting a driver you don't want to pay for a cab as well, whoever's money it is plus they don't want to piss off said driver by mucking them about.