To ask for positive stories after a massive cock up at work?

[PoppinsMoppins]

Just that.

I've really fucked up. Sitting here stressing and can't think of anything else.

Have you got any experience of cocking up and it all being ok?

I once got coerced into giving my view on how my employer (a major bank) was coping with the financial crisis at a client's social event. I was neither press trained nor authorised. When I realised they had actually recorded me with a view to airing it on the News at 10pm it provoked a major press office response at about 8pm that night to try and surpress it - culminating in me sobbing to the editor at about 9.55pm (just as he was about to go live), about how I'd get fired if it aired. It was actually on the cutting room floor. I didn't sleep a wink that night and walking into work the next day I nearly passed out with panic. Nobody seemed at all bothered. I was told to just be a bit more careful next time clients had press at an event.

Also I moved a patients bed and the lifting pole was still on the bed and went sailing into a wall and broke it ........ I actually knocked the wall down !!! It was the bit above a doorway. I was so shocked and upset they didn't even tell me off. I was only 18 just started nursing and was moving the bed with another student. I don't think it was our fault really looking back but we must have been bloody thick as shit lol

Is the trańsaction reversible or covered by a cooling off period? It's so awful when things like this happen, main thing is to be constructive if you can & carry on doing the good job that you usually do, don't let this one blip define you

Me... screwed up when depositing the store takings so they got nicked. Luckily insurance covered the loss (about £3k in 1989). My ex-boss is still friendly, though, phew.

I've been there

Messed up some important entries on cloud based software then made it worse trying to fix it (no restore latest back up option).

I confessed to client, spoke to my professional body and hired another professional to look and 'fix' from fresh eyes. It cost me but I was beyond stressed and on the constant verge of a panic attack.

Unfortunately the person I hired to fix it actually make an error as well but will drag through and be completely perfect after this submission so I'm still having anxiety over it

(I didn't actually lose the client over this but was due to stop working for them anyway, kind of glad though!)

Oh edwin so sorry that happend to you, sounds horrible! glad it worked out ok.

I think the reason I feel so bad is I had no idea I was wrong, and I really should have. My confidence is very rocked now!

I work for a financial adviser. I told a client the wrong thing to do, it was something I should have known but I didn't.

As a result I have probably lost the company the client. And the client may have some small financial loss because of it.

I used to work for a financial services company and we had clients being told the wrong thing ALL the time. Yes, they might be angry for a while but I guarantee someone has done something similar before in your position. At the company I worked for they went through a period of telling people how much each error they made cost the company - most were hundreds, some were thousands of pounds. You're human. It happens. It's hard to say much else without knowing exactly what the situation is but you're just going to have to ride it out - you've admitted your mistake, that's the main thing. Now learn from it.

The main point, I think, is that you have owned up. That should hopefully go in your favour best to go in to work tomorrow and face the music. Do you think it was something that you should have been told, and weren't?

As for a mistake I have made.....I once sent invoice 666 to the local catholic church . I didn't realise my mistake until they paid!

I've forgotten to go to work. Twice. I'm still employed though.
We all mess up at work. I hate that horrible feeling you get when you've fucked up and you know you have face the music in the morning.
I've recently took on a new role. Still a bit unsure of what I'm supposed to doing. But I'm always left to my devices. Nearly every day I think I've done something wrong the day before and I'm going to be pulled up on it. I dread going in most days.
I break stuff a lot too.
Wouldn't be too bad if it was dealt with there and then. It's the waiting till the next day.
Sorry no advice. But know exactly how you feel.

I know that horrible feeling you must have, deep in the pit of your stomach right now, but you are only human, and humans make mistakes. And it was an honest mistake too, so take salvage in that. Imagine being caught bitching about your boss or doing something dishonest, it deliberately bluffing your way through something. It's a very tough job, and from time to time you will make mistakes, but hold your head up, and go in tomorrow and own it. It's the only way you learn, and you won't make the same mistake again.

I made a relatively small mistake a couple of months ago. It was a double edged sword explaining it to my client as I was really embarrassed at making the mistake (missed processing a transaction) but actually my mistake ended up saving them £6k!! So really they were quite glad of it!! A rare situation to be fair.

My advice is to front it up, take responsibility and just plain out apologise to the client and your boss. We are all human and hopefully they will see that.

It's one mistake. We all make them. None of us know everything that 'we should'.
Honesty, as with everything in life, is the key. You've owned up. That's the biggest hurdle and I would always respect a member of staff who did that without prompting.
Go in tomorrow. Keep your head down, work hard and it will be yesterday's gossip before you know it.
You'll be fine. These things happen.

In terms of how you are feeling: have you seen anyone else in your company make mistakes with similar consequences? How were they treated by everyone?

If you didn't know you had done something wrong, then how could you otherwise have known that you made a mistake? Who should have taught you the correct way? Is it something you rarely do? Is it an area outside your expertise?

What would you say to a colleague in the same position? You wouldn't want them to go home and feel like you are now.

You firm will have insurance to covers shit like this if the client decides to sue.

Everyone makes mistakes.

Apologies and show you've learnt from it.

I used to work in PR for a financial services company. One year, when preparing the annual results press release for the investment arm, I left off the "bn" in the headline and said that the funds under management had increased by £1 that year instead of £1bn (actually, I can't remember the exact number, but I had it in the single figures not the billions!).

Every single national paper had a field day with that one. My phone didn't stop ringing all day, my manager's phone didn't stop ringing and the PA to the director of the investment arm was awfully busy with her phone too. The release had been signed off by compliance and the investment spokesperson, neither of the, noticed this glaringly obvious mistake either, but it was my release and my mistake.

I hid away the next morning as I read all the diary pieces about it. Never made another mistake in a press release again...

Me!

Administered penicillin to someone allergic to penicillin.

A week after gave someone too much diclofenac.

Shitty times. Forgotten now, no harm done and my career is fine. Don't worry.

A couple of examples (some from the past month alone!) to make you feel better.

-An in house solicitor working for a major bank accidentally sending our office the wrong claim for possession, detailing all the gory financial details of some other poor sod, but definitely not our client's.

-A newly qualified and over eager barrister arguing relentlessly with a District Judge over their interpretation of an extremely basic point, before it became apparent they'd brought along a brief for a different client.

-A colleague sending an email making a sarccy remark about the quality of another employee's work to the entire office.

Oh Poppins you don't know what you don't know. Now you know what you don't know. Perhaps just have a reflect (sorry, I'm a nurse!) on a) why you didn't know what you should have known, and b) why you thought you knew what you didn't know? It might bring up a useful training need that you can take proactively to your manager and say 'I've realised that I need more training in this area, and I thought I knew x, y, z procedure, but I clearly didn't, so I'd really like to have that clarified.'

As for mistakes... we all make them. I've had a patient's electronic drug chart open, seen an earlier drug that hadn't been given and thought 'ooh they weren't on the unit when that drug was due', then clicked 'patient not on ward', only to see their entire drug schedule disappear, because the system assumes that if they weren't on the ward for one drug, they weren't on the ward for any drugs. I then had to inform the nurse in charge and beg a doctor to issue Stat prescriptions for each drug that had been due that disappeared, so that I could give them. Not popular at 7 pm.

We've had doorways taken out by X-ray machines...all sorts of things that wouldn't happen in normal circumstances, but just do.

The main thing is that nobody makes mistakes deliberately.

i'm in software testing, i've been doing essentially the same thing for years and i've made some indefensible mistakes when sleep deprived - testing things for 2 days and not seeing a basic issue. Somehow I'm still employed. Own it, apologize, you won't make the same mistake again. There are always new mistakes to make!

I got my centuries mixed up and had Rameau living for over 150 years, for the whole Festival Hall audience to read about in their programmes. I don't think many noticed, but the ones who did had a lovely time laughing at me!

Oh OP, these things happen ALL THE TIME - in fact my career depends on it lol. I'm a professional indemnity insurance broker and these types of policy cover firms for the consequences of cock ups like you've made, some of which are HUGE.

For what it's worth the only time I've ever seen claims which involve the employee being fired or disciplined is where they have acted maliciously or dishonestly - beyond that mistakes happen and without fail each of my clients encourages their staff to be open and honest about what's happened.

I know how worrying this must be for you but honestly, this will be ok

I signed off on a brochure with the wrong prices (far too low) in it. I realised when the office box came in, by which point they had already been distributed in a massive mailing. I owned up immediately, and it all worked out okay with a bit of jiggery-pokery, but god, that utter heart-sink moment. I had forgotten all about that until I read the OP - it will burn for a bit, but disappear after a while.

As pp said, it is only money. And as Einstein said, if you've never made a mistake you've never tried anything.

Please don't beat yourself up. I have cocked up way worse than that and although horrific at the time I learnt loads from it.

OP
I'm a 50+ Accountant
I ran out of fingers for the cock ups a long time ago
its the nature of the world

breathe deeply
and carry on
its not the end of the world

I've also just remembered a colleague of mine structuring a complex and very lucrative trade for one of her clients. In getting approval to go ahead from our mutual line manager, she wrote a detailed e mail outlining how much the trade could make in a best case and worst case scenario, how market savvy the client was, what the competitors might price it at etc etc.

And then copied the client in.