Made a mistake at work and I am FREAKING out

[Schhhteeevie]

I’ve been there 6 months. I had to work out some costs (covering a project inflight over the last 5 years, so before my time) I worked them out (took a couple of months) but basically duplicated one of the costs. We haven’t actually invoiced the customer, but I’ve outlined the costs already in detail and provided the paperwork. They haven’t realised that I’ve almost overcharged them (circa 40k) so I will have to come clean and tell them it’s a mistake. That’s embarrassing.

Worse still, I’ve already let the senior team know that we will be invoicing 160k but actually it’s going to be more like 120k. So, the client AND my colleagues are going to think i’m a complete idiot.

My mistake seems so glaringly obvious to me now. I’m just really spiralling into horrible thoughts.

1. Im going to be fired
2. Im actually quite stupid

3 Best case scenario I don’t get fired but lose the respect of my colleagues

Im really, really anxious about this, how bad is it?

You made a mistake. You spotted it before it became an issue.

The client will appreciate your honesty. As will your employer.

Sometimes it isn’t about the mistake but how you dealt with it that is remembered.

Honesty is the best policy here. Your bosses will be impressed that you spotted the error yourself,and have owned up to it.
Come back tomorrow and tell us how it went. In the meantime try not to worry too much ( easier said than done, I know).

The sooner you rectify it the better.

We all make them, the difference is what we do after we make the mistake, how we see the mistake. A learning experience or a failure. Choose learning experience.

You are not the first, nor will you be the last, to make a mistake like this. The probable outcome will depend on how you handle it. Go to whomever is in your chain of command, tell them that something was niggling at you, you rechecked your figures, and found the error. Do it now. They will be far happier that you found it now and admitted it than they will be if the customer finds it and complains, as they surely will.

It's really not that big of a deal. If they had already been charged the amount then maybe not ideal but it's not the worst!! First thing in the morning, email your superiors and say:

"Good morning X,

I was looking over the invoice for Y again last night and realised I actually duplicated Z (insert date of Z/reference number). Due to my error, the corrected amount is £120,000 and not £160,000.

I sincerely apologise for my oversight, it will not happen again.

Kind regards,

@Schhhteeevie

Honestly I (like everyone) have fucked up majorly at work on many occasions. I'm very senior and my fuck ups were serious. As long as you admit it in good time, no one will think less of you. Mistakes happen to everyone! But make sure you admit it before the invoice is raised. Honestly no one will fire you for it

@LostThePot

Surely it’s better that you overestimated costs rather than underestimated them?

Just come clean and apologise. You’re only human.

Exactly this! And it's not the mistake that's the issue. It's how you handle it. You have an opportunity to make a really great impression of you handle it well.

Blame it on the previous administration like the government would - they seem to get away with it!

The client will probably be happy costs are less and management are usually ok if the client is ok.

Just own up as soon as possible, everyone makes mistakes and tbh at least it’s this way round, the client will be over the moon. No harm done

Yes this is one of those “own it, figure out a way to avoid in the future, apologize, move on” situations.

It happens and as a manager if the above was followed it would be but a blip on the radar to me if an employee made this mistake.

If you work with big numbers the mistakes will be relatively big as a result.

I totally understand how you feel Op , that cold sweat and panic when you realise what you’ve done is awful. It can be rectified though and once you’ve told someone you will feel relieved and in time it will be forgotten.

I do understand your anxiety, I've fretted over work situations in the past. But ultimately, nobody's dead or maimed beyond recovery from this event.

And there's lots of good advice on here including the very well-phrased text from @Cocomarine which I am going to store away in my "very useful and practical ways to phrase things" vault.

And if you were working on a government IT project of any kind, the project probably would increase by at least £40K in any case by the time it was delivered...in fact, that's probably a major underestimate...(No, not cynical at all here...not that the private sector is any less batty judging by friends' jobs, it's just not held up to such scrutiny a lot of the time.)

Don't worry. Everyone makes mistakes and you spotted yours. Be clear and apologetic as that is the professional approach. And don't worry - everyone wants colleagues who own their mistakes.

I put a wrong address down in a report, typo of one house number (9 instead of 8) meaning a telecoms expert had to fly back up from London to Glasgow to redo part of a telecoms report for a court case.

That wasn't a good day. But I survived!

@BatshitBanshee

It's really not that big of a deal. If they had already been charged the amount then maybe not ideal but it's not the worst!! First thing in the morning, email your superiors and say:

"Good morning X,

I was looking over the invoice for Y again last night and realised I actually duplicated Z (insert date of Z/reference number). Due to my error, the corrected amount is £120,000 and not £160,000.

I sincerely apologise for my oversight, it will not happen again.

Kind regards,

@Schhhteeevie

Exactly this. Do not worry OP, this sort of thing happens all the time.

The customer will be fine - it's just costing less. Your company has less revenue but also less cost, so the profit stays the same. So no one is really losing out.

Whenever we find a mistake at work, my approach is to fess up as soon as possible- you don't want to look like you're hiding something - and also explain how we're going to improve controls to stop it happening again. That preempts the question that naturally follows from fessing up.

Don't panic! Everyone makes mistakes and it's really not a bad one for all the reasons everyone else has already said. As long as your boss isn't a dick then they'll just help you sort it out as that's part of their job, no harm done. Do bring it to someone's attention as soon as you can though.

The best boss I had always took the attitude of "we are where we are, let's sort it out together and then look at how we can avoid doing it again" without any judgement or anger. If it's just a one off mistake and not a pattern of behaviour then the how to avoid doing it again is the dealing with the fallout! He had a great team around him - we all helped each other and noone was ever afraid to ask for help or raise their concerns.

You found it before they paid, and the client will probably be happy that they have to pay £40k less.

I don't think you'll be fired. It will help to not look like you're freaking out when you tell your boss, because if it looks like you've lost control, they will lose confidence in you. Explain what happened concisely and calmly.

For anyone who suffers with anxiety, please consider remembering this thread and the op and her panic next time you are anxious or panicked about a mistake or something else at work. It seems like a totally normal thing to have happened to us looking in but I know how bad it feels when it’s my mistake/situation so I shall be using this to help regulate my own thoughts in the future.

Most importantly, I hope my comment above, addressed to others, helps you to understand what this seems like to us looking in op. This is a totally normal kind of situation that you can put right and move on. Hope you are able to get some rest and perhaps support for anxiety in the future. It’s the worst.

I'm sure in these times they will be greatly relieved and you may even be taking a lot of pressure off them to admit it. But do get a colleague to double-check the workings out.

You've only been there 6 months. Is anyone mentoring you?

It’ll be fine.. I’m a senior director and have made the occasional error like this over the years. Just ‘fess up, don’t make a huge deal of it and move on!

It's fine, everyone makes mistakes! As long as you own up and act with integrity, it doesn't matter as a one off.

It's better to go back to your client to say they owe you less than you invoiced, rather than more