Here I am, very late of an evening, worrying and not wanting to admit to anyone how badly I have blundered.

[Futurehappiness]

I have to work tomorrow, a prospect that fills me with dread. I am sitting up this evening to avoid tomorrow morning happening; I would rather it didn't.

I feel dread because I made a bad error. I sent a really important email to someone in the team. I did everything right: double check all the email addresses including those copied in, check there was no email trail, check every single nuance of the message to ensure there was nothing that could be reinterpreted, that names/dates/facts were correct and it all struck the right tone.

Pressed send.

Then checked the sent message that it had been sent OK (yes I am really conscientious). What do I find? That in sending it marked confidential, I had somehow inadvertently marked it as 'low importance'. It was truly an 'elephant in the room' syndrome; but how do I trust myself to do anything right? However careful I am, how do these things fall through the net?

That was totally the wrong impression to give - the message was highly important hence all my care - so I had to recall and resend (I think successfully).

But I am feeling incompetent, that I can't do anything right. Who do I think I am holding a professional job anyway? How on earth could I be so stupid? I am an incompetent masquerading as a professional.

I once forwarded an email to my boss, moaning about the client who sent it. Unfortunately, I replied rather than forwarded. I survived the experience.

Fuck ups (real ones, and big ones) do happen because we are human. But some things that can help stop some of them, is not sending emails late in the day. If it's important, either get someone else to proof read it, or sleep on it and check it again in the morning.

Some bosses and clients do. I'm freelance, for one of my clients I'm client (i.e. their client) facing and one of their clients would absolutely pick up on this and make it an issue. I'm very experienced and respected in my industry and sending emails out with her in cc scares the beejeesus out of me. 😂

It's one email, in a sea of hundreds sent and recieved that day, in an ocean of millions of emails the recipients will recieve in their working life. In a world of thousands of other more important things people will be doing today, in the universe of your workplace, it is like a grain of sand and even if someone does notice it has been marked wrongly and mentions it, it will be a distant memory by tomorrow.
Its an email, not heart surgery. All will be fine.

Hi, I hope you feel better today. I know this feeling well.

but remember - This kind of thing happens… it went to the right person and no data breach etc. so all is well.

Yoh sound like you have imposter syndrome. I have this too. It’s rubbish.

I am a skilled professional, yet still frequently consider myself to be a bumbling oaf.

Do some power poses before work (I enjoy the ‘wonder woman’ ) and remind yourself that you are a competent, capable person.

xx

Seriously, get help for your anxiety. It’s a prison and you only have one life…how sad to waste it away worrying about an email category! ( and I say that as someone who has/had anxiety and is enjoying being free of it!)

Oh hun, I once sent an email to a client, which I thought was going to accounts internally, saying "oh Sandra hasn't paid... she's bat shit crazy so have fun chasing her" .

We all cock up.

@TheGetAlongGang did you tell that story on another post recently? I remember laughing about it.

I have mentioned it once or twice

Not recently though

Glad it gave you a laugh-both time ice slid through my veins lol

Thankfully ds has a sense of humour

Shame my family don't...

I sent out a calendar to over 7000 people with various holidays and events. Id checked and checked it. I guess Id checked it so much I didnt see it anymore. It had Christmas day on 15 December! I got numerous phone calls, including from racists ranting about it being a Christian country whilst acting in an extremely unchristian way.

I also had a poster printed and circulated that a member of the public designed. The name on it was not an English name so I just accepted it. But, when the customer emailed the information to me, spellcheck changed the designer's name to include a swear word. Think something like Mahmunt being changed to Mahcunt. I only found out when the customer contacted me. Luckily it was sent to partner agencies (most of whom would have just shoved them in a cupboard if we're honest) so I managed to get all the posters back before Mahmunt saw it.

That is just one of many errors I have made, some small, small big, some just plain "huh?".