Look like I‘ve lied but I really haven’t!

[Pantsarentonfire]

Missed something key at work yesterday through the most ridiculous sounding and unlikely tech error. I didn’t find out I’d missed it at all, until the issue resolved itself today and I spotted the request in the system. My manager is really annoyed and wants a chat later today.

I explained the situation and 100% he doesn’t believe me. I don’t blame him. It sounds like the grown-up version of “the dog ate my homework” and I just couldn’t be bothered to do it.

Lost sleep over it last night and am super stressed about the chat later today.

I’m worried but I’m also very saddened that in the 10 years of working for him, he hasn’t built enough of a view of me to know I’m not a liar or skiver.

In the absence of being able to prove it, how do I stand my ground without making the situation worse? I really don’t want to be apologising and falling on my sword for something that I had no control over. I’m trying to remind myself that I’m an 40 something woman and not a child though, and I’d like to approach the conversation accordingly.

The manager is out of line on this, its surely only worth raising a. At work, not in your personal time and b. Ask questions from employees, coming in at this with blame doesn't Foster trust or good will.
Going forward I'd be screen shotting at the end of each day if a clear inbox is expected ,(though surely this potentially means its literally never done or do users have a time after which they cannot log something into the system?)

There was absolutely no material impact of it not being done immediately other than the client having to wait (it was non urgent on their side). We just like to turn things around quick for them and we wouldn’t tend to leave something not done, that came in within working hours. It’s a new client too so we’re still trying to impress them.

In the ten years I’ve been there though, I’ve never ever known that system to go down for just one user. Honestly if someone told me this had happened to them, I wouldn’t believe them.

I’ve asked IT to take a look but at face value they can’t see what the issue is.

I am 100% certain of it though. I’ve been double checking the same queue before I go home, for 3 years. It was empty when I left.

He’s not free till 5pm but hopefully I’m worrying unnecessarily.

I would focus on the end of your post there.

You've worked on this system for 3 years and have a habit of checking the queue every day before you leave. There's never been any history of you missing a request in the previous 3 years and you are adamant it wasn't there, despite what he thinks and what IT says.

Say that you can understand that it looks implausible, but given your past history of never missing anything before suggests a genuine mistake has taken place, whether that be on your side, or the IT side.

Time will tell if it's an IT issue as it will likely happen again.

Say to him what you said in your OP. You recognise how it looks but that you are not trying to pull a fast one and you hope he would recognise this after all these years working with you.

You have 2 problems.

1. you left early He has an issue with this or he would not have brought this up as a reason why you did not see the task.

So to solve this you need to have a clearly agreed end time if you need to leave before your scheduled time and it can not be subjected to finishing any workflow.

If you dont have an agreed early end time you need to become a clockwatcher and be seen to be working (or at least available) from the start of your work day right up to your end of day.

And if you work overtime (paid or not) to solve end of day workflow you need to highlight too.

2. the task not showing. That is a technical issue, you need to explore how it happened to stop it happening again.

Be very matter of fact.
I have made a mistake. I admit it. I apologise. I am willing to learn from it so it doesn’t happen again. I am not open to any drama. Thank you. Permission to carry on?

I absolutely did not make a mistake though. I’m perfectly comfortable holding my hands up if I do but I didn’t! Im asking more for advice on how to stand my ground without a) looking like a liar and b) NOT apologising for something that was completely out of my hands.

Do you work flexibly?

I would just be very firm and say that you are 100% certain that the request was not there so you decided to clock off because all your work was up-to-date.

FFS, nobody died!! (I also have a manager that makes a mountain out of a molehill and scolds me over it. You have my sympathies!)

@Pantsarentonfire He angrily messaged me last night

Well, he's way, way out of order.

He shouldn't be messaging you about work matters at night (outside work hours) but if you have an arrangement for this, he should be polite and professional.

I agree with others - you might like to rethink your employment with this organisation.

Whatever you do don't back down and change your story. Then you will look like a liar.

Report it as a near miss to IT, ask them to investigate thoroughly, if it happened once it could happen again with something more urgent. Tell your manager the truth, your concerns, and that you’ve reported it and requested a full system investigation.

This is a sensible course of action.

I’d say what you said in your first post. The request wasn’t there. You double checked, as you always do. You’ve worked for him for 10 years. He should know you well enough by now you’re not a liar, nor are you lazy.

Thanks all. IT seem convinced it definitely can’t have been the actual system and now I’m fairly sure I’m losing my bloody mind.

It’s a Mainframe based system that is in the process of being retired so I don’t think anyone will do any digging.

That said, I just managed to catch my manager earlier than expected and he seemed to have completely forgotten about it. I raised it and he shrugged it off and talked about something else.

He did tell me he was under a lot of pressure on a separate project, so I’m hoping that was why he acted so out of character last night.

Seems like I can breathe easy for the rest of the day!

If your interpretation that he was angry is correct, and unless you have a history of shirking work, he's massively overreacting to a very minor issue. I'd be apologetic but not grovelling, and if he's an arse remind him you've been there 10 years and has he ever known you to leave requests on the system unnecessarily?

Hopefully he's just annoyed at the glitch, not you, and is overreacting because it's a new client.

Cross post. Glad he's being reasonable!

He angrily messaged me last night

It’s such a horrible power move to message employees at night for no other reason to basically tell them your annoyed with them and want to talk about it in the morning.

I think you should just be honest: this is what happened, you’ve said sorry, you don’t know what else you can say. You’ve worked there for ten years.

Absolutely this. Who the hell does he think he is ?

Ten years? He should be kissing your feet for putting up with him.

This honestly sounds a bit toxic OP. You're adults at work together and he needs to fix his shitty attitude.

Ahh got you. In that case:
This happened
It happened because of X
As far as I am concerned, case closed. How can we learn from it?
I will not have any drama thank you. Permission to carry on?

Good reply!

Also at some stage, there is an element of "What's done is Done.." and although you wouldn't phrase it like this but what more does he want? Blood?

Similar happened to me once a minor "didn't spot it fault" eventually you get to the stage of "What more would you like me to do?"

You know it's not going to result in the fall of the company. You've a good character and got a plan of action. Speak up for yourself and don't allow him to put his spin on it.
As previous poster said, he shouldn't be ringing you at home late at night about it.

Sorry crossed post. Glad you sorted it OP. but ringing you "angrily" - you need to say something if it happens again.

*Quitelikeit

Seems odd that your system is broken at work?

computers and systems don’t lie and if they do then you need to get IT in to see what happened*

Of course they do, they are programmed by humans and humans make mistakes.

What I don’t understand is why when you said you missed the request, your manager said the request was there. It well might have been there. It doesn’t mean you didn’t see it and if you had seen it then you would have done something about it.
To be told off for something that was an honest mistake or a computer glitch after 10 years of working for a company with an unblemished record is probably indicating it is time to move on before you are pushed out

It always starts with an over reaction to something minor

He sounds like a bloody nightmare!

I’d seriously think of looking for another job. Who does he think he is?

If OP can go through HR to get this sorted them that’s great.

If my boss messaged me angrily at night and expected me to see and respond to that message outside of my working hours then that would be the problem I'd be dealing with.
I've seen you're update so looks like it's a non-issue now, but I'd still be bloody pissed off at being sent angry work messages in the evening. That is your personal time, and you should not have your boss invading it and ruining it.