EXCEL rant - Nit picky boss

[bringthethunder]

So, I have a project whereby I am using Excel to calculate all Sales over a 18 month period, with some other intricate, fussy bits added in

[example: Add up total packets of crisps sold (its not crisps but don't want to be too specific as its a niche market we operate in)]

So, I've been working on this for 3 days, based on a 2 line email I received from my boss which offered very little info on what he really wanted. I was literally told "I want an 18 month breakdown of all sales, and total up all the crisps and all the customers".
I've had to go back to him umpteen times asking for further info on what he actually wants as some things just aren't countable! For example, I can count crisps, but I can't count how many people bought them as one customer could buy 1 packet, one could have bought 50!

Anyways, after 3 days I send him the completed project which was time consuming and frustrating due to the lack of info provided and having to employ some sort of psychic wizardry to estimate things. I was feeling quite pleased with how it was all presented and calculated. Sent it days before deadline.
But instead of even a basic "thanks" - he has come back to say that the "Crisps" column AutoSum function hasn't added all the way up the list 9making an incorrect total) and did I mean this or is it a mistake? stupid, passive aggressive question
OBVIOUSLY ITS A MISTAKE. JUST BLOODY DRAG THE AUTOSUM UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE. Why would he need to come and moan at me about one, tiny thing on a massive workbook, that literally takes him 1 second to correct?! I mean, I get that its my job and in an ideal world the mistake wouldn't have been there but I manage people also and I would never get at staff about such a thing.

So, my questions is: if you are a manger would you spend time writing out the email passive aggressively asking for the correction, waiting for it to be done and sent back, or would you just take 2 secs to fix the thing yourself and be chuffed that the work was done DAYS ahead of deadline?

Can I just say : I hate excel too.

I'm with your boss. Whilst we're all human and make mistakes, that was pretty sloppy of you. Next time take the time to check your work thoroughly. Sending it early is meaningless if it contains errors. Your boss was right to tell you. Here's hoping they haven't lost too much confidence in the quality of your work.

Instead of trying to cover all angles I'd have literally given what he asked for - no worrying about how many units were bought by each customer, if they bought other things too, etc. If he wanted more involved information he could then get back to you.

Agreed. It's part of my job to create spreadsheets. Part of the process is always a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between me and the client as the project progresses. That starts with a very simple spreadsheet which then has multiple revisions until we get to what the client really needs - 4 or 5 revisions is normal, but I've done as many as 30-40 on particularly complicated business models with multiple depts/branches, etc. The client isn't a professional analyst, he doesn't know what he wants until he sees it, so it's my job to help guide him.

@feistymumma What is impressive about a spreadsheet with a fundamental error?

I hate being pulled up on little things but only because I know I have missed something in my proof reading and I would be more annoyed at myself than my boss.

I second setting up a cross check formula.

Definitely with your boss on this one. Everyone uses Excel slightly differently and it is entirely possible that correcting one formula will throw out a whole load of other formula. Basically, you did not check it properly and made a mistake, so you need to correct it.

He probably doesn’t know how to use excel. Most managers don’t

If your salary wasn't added up properly, would you consider it a minor mistake, OP?

I would write back and ask you to fix it, minus the passive aggression.

It is your job to deliver correct and complete analysis to your boss. By asking you to fix it you know to check it's correct in the future, and if they have to write back to you every time then that identifies an issue with you being able to fulfill your job properly.

I get this a lot in my job, on both ends of the issue. I make mistakes and expect them to be called out to me so I can ensure I don't make them in future, and I do the same with people who provide info to me.

I wouldn't have written the email he sent you, but I would have sent one, or spoken to you if we were in the same place, saying that I'd spotted something that wasn't summing properly and could you give the sheet a check over before I spent time looking at it. As someone else said, if I found one thing wrong I'd wonder what else was wrong.

I get your frustration though, working for people who can't articulate what they want is a nightmare. It's also very common, so if this is your career you need to find a way to deal with it without going mad!

I would never get at staff about such a thing.
It's not "getting at" people to ask them to double check for errors. If that's how it feels to you then it would explain why you don't do it with your staff and also why you feel so annoyed with your boss. I'm not sure why you feel like that, but maybe have a think about. I don't think you're doing your staff a favour though, at some point they may work for someone who expects better attention to detail, in which case it's going to be a fairly rude awakening.

What your manager did is quite common in my line of work. I got one back for an incorrectly placed apostrophe - which I didn't put in but came in a template and I didn't feel entitled to correct it.

As your manager I wouldn't be grateful to receive work early when it contained error(s) and in future knowing that you do not check your work before sending it out I would have to check it myself which isn't good. Correct and on time is far better than early with errors.

feistymumma bizarre response.

Sorry op, but ....
I’m an accountant and your mistake would be classed as totally unacceptable.
You could have inserted checks into your spreadsheet to prevent this from happening. Instead, your work will have just come across as sloppy.

I wouldn't correct someone else's spreadsheet either, I'd ask them to go back and double check all the formula totals but in a neutral way.

It's easy to make a mistake, check totals is a good idea for next time - if you are analysing sales did it not stand out that your total wasn't the same as the number of sales, or is that too simplistic.

Asking if you meant the mistake is just showing the boss to be a bit of a knob

Well, you were unreasonably huffy about doing a basic spreadsheet job... and then you fucked up the sum function. So yeah , I'm with your boss!

I would have pointed out the error, but in a kind way, seeing that obviously someone had done a lot of work on it.

So: Many thanks for your hard work on this, it looks good. Can I just check column 10 with you...

Im with the boss, sorry.

Did it have a nice dashboard tab using pivots and slicers? I love them! -my team doesnt however!

I manage people who send me spreadsheets. I would check if it was intentional or not - I don’t know if you have linked formulas that would be impacted by me making a change.

Also it may be only a small mistake - but would make me think what else is a mistake and can I trust the numbers without checking every single formula myself.

Are you massively over simplifying the description of the task to make the thread easier, or did it really take you 3 DAYS to pull a spreadsheet summary of sales figures together?

Because if it was the latter, I’d be very worried. I’d also be pissed about the mistake. Because when my team are submitting analysis, my expectation is that they will have sense checked the data. If you had missed out multiple month’s worth of sales figures in the total and didn’t spot it, that either means you didn’t sense check it, in which case I’d be concerned about the accuracy of your work, or you did and didn’t spot it, in which case I’d be worried about how well you understood the information you were dealing with.

Sorry.

Reminds of this:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/18/uncovered-error-george-osborne-austerity

A student researching a famous economics paper about debt and GDP found that the original researchers had made an error in their spreadsheet and hadn't added up all the data in a column - they had to admit their paper was inaccurate and it has serious ramifications.

Easily done with formulas..that's why formulas should be checked

Did you have a checking function?

To be honest I'm with your boss. I did a similar Excel sheet a while back. To use your example, boss asked for a total of all our usual flavor crisp sales. So I had to total up all sales then minus off the special edition flavor sales. I included a footnote explaining this, but he didn't notice it. He "corrected my mistake" and added the special edition flavours back in. He thought he was being helpful. Thankfully I noticed before he presented the data!!

I’m with your boss. I used to produce and manage a lot of spreadsheets. I managed them and any alterations were requested. If other people were to get involved and changed them, there would have been implications as I wouldn’t have known yet was responsible for the data produced. The same applies with a report or letter etc. Unless a document is shared, it has an owner.

I'm with your boss.

He asked you to do a job and you didn't do it right. Instead of rushing it to get it done ahead of schedule, I'd have been happier to wait until the deadline and get a piece of work correctly done.

My boss is the same. It's draining