Made a mistake at work, meeting has been put in with my manager

[Anxioussss]

An error in a document was found during an external review where two number values were written the wrong way around. I have responsibility for doing the internal review before it goes out externally and I missed this error. I was comparing it to the source document and somehow missed that the writer had changed the order that the numbers were written, so that the labels were now the wrong way around.

The senior manager has put in a meeting with me and my manager for Monday to discuss it. I'm feeling really anxious and upset, and worried that I'm going to get fired or a written warning or something. I have a good eye for detail and do my best and I feel awful about this.

Does anyone have any advice? I've never had a meeting like this, and have only been in the job a few months. I had a similar job before but mistakes/errors weren't treated like this.

Read this now and then send it round to all the attendees before the meeting (and ask if they want you to moderate/chair)
retrospectivewiki.org/index.php?title=The_Prime_Directive

Yes, but the new employer may contact the former employer!

I was wondering the same 🤔 I'm sure it'll all be good though, man

This. They have a rubbish system. Suggest they change it going forward.

We do have a multiple step process to check things, I am the last one in that process before it goes to our client to review (who then do their own process of checking, and it was during their check it was picked up).

The consequences are that it makes our company look bad to the client, and that we are sharing incorrect information. It's not life or death, or going to cost any money to fit. I fixed the issue in literally 5 seconds and sent it back to the client.

I feel a bit disappointed that a whole meeting has been put in about it, with my manager asked to attend too. In my previous company, the attitude to mistakes and errors was a lot healthier - there was an understanding that everyone would make errors at some point or another. This would have been a quick Teams message sent to me asking me to fix it and nothing more said, not a formal meeting.

So no money lost then. No surgery went wrong. Client won't really care or remember, no matter how important your manager thinks your company is.

Don't give it any more thought.

Honestly I’m in an internal pipeline where for want of a better phrase, I’m the client. I spotted something had been put on the wrong code today, one number transposed so very much the same thing.

I know it’s internal so not quite the same but I emailed querying it, got the paper trail and asked the person who’d made the mistake to rectify it in the accounts next month.

As the ‘client’ I’d be very cross if anyone was raked over the coals for this. It’s human error, there was no loss. I hope it’s just you catastophising - if your manager thinks it’s a problem it’s a them/organisation/process issue. And I say that as someone who is a slave to attention to detail and would be doing exactly the same as you right now!

I mean, Liz Truss is still working so I don’t think you need to worry.… she got her numbers wrong big time, and has still lived to tell the tale.

This sounds so minor. Like, there was no impact, you put it right, and also you were not even the author. Yea, your job to check but unless that’s your sole job focus (ie quality control) then it’s very unfair and unjust to attribute it all to you. Even if it was all you, it’s still just a simple human error. Literally everyone on this thread has said ‘don’t sweat it’ - if the company makes a huge deal of actually or very little real world impact then the issue is with the company.

Love the Better Call Saul reference @HyggeTygge !

I don't know your organisation but that seems a bit much, if you aren't on a string of repeated failures.

Could this meeting simply be part of a 'rectification process' to show the client that your company is taking steps to avoid the mistake in future?

I once made a mistake at work which cost my company £10,000. Everyone was terribly kind and supportive about it. If you get fired for this it will be the gravest injustice of all time.

Hopefully it’s just going to be a chat about how to stop it happening again and not a bollocking over a very understandable error.

The 1st thing to do is admit that it was your mistake

the 2nd thing is to think about the process that allowed this to happen and the controls you might suggest to mitigate this situation happening again

Write down an action plan with suggested measures to rectify this for the future. Print two copies - at the start of the meeting place it on the table so they can see that you have already tried to think of a plan .
The fact that you are so concientous and worried speaks volumes about your commitment to your role

I'd acknowledge the error but wouldn't be going in all overly sorry and with action plans to prevent etc. Mistakes happen, and this was picked up in the next review step anyway. It's unrealistic to expect no mistakes going forward.

If the meeting takes on a more formal tone than you’ve been expecting, don’t be afraid to hold up a hand and ask if there is a formal process underway, and if yes, consider asking for the meeting to be rescheduled so you can have someone with you.

Equally if the meeting includes your team/peers and the manager leads the conversation away from processes and criticises you, ask if that conversation can be in a private, separate meeting.

Sounds pretty minor OP in the scheme of things.

They might get a bit obsessive about it, but that doesn’t mean their response is reasonable.

Or it might be nothing to do with you and an ongoing performance issue of the person you’re checking? Maybe they need more data to help them help that employee. Try not to jump to conclusions, and just go in prepared and calm with the tools previous posters have given you.

View this as an opportunity to find out how well this organisation responds when things go wrong - and believe them when they show you. If they are going to be difficult about this, imagine a real mistake of consequence! You have an opportunity potentially to get out now (soon) before anything really does go wrong.

If this is just an isolated incident then I'd be letting you off with an informal warning but have you agree that any further mistakes will see you reported to HR.

Proof-reading is one of the most vital skills needed to succeed in the corporate world, if you can't be trusted to do it properly then how can you be trusted to do anything?

Hhhm, sorry but I would be very upset if it were one of my employees. I don't ever want z client to pick up on out errors, their eye on any of our documents is purely to add or take away content. It's embarrassing.

If your role is to carry out final checks I would either be removing this responsibility from your task list or disciplinary process. Which would depend on the client and how competent you are generally.

Really? Blimey. People make mistakes. Have you considered employing machines instead?

I don't ever want z client to pick up on out errors, their eye on any of our documents is purely to add or take away content.

Two typos, and a comma that should be a semicolon.

Ah I really shouldn't have read the latest posts on here, they've thrown me into complete panic.

To be honest though, if it is dealt with that seriously over what is essentially two numbers in a very long document then I don't think it's the job for me. Even jobs with life and death consequences are given more grace.

All you can really do is apologise. If this is the first time this had happened then explain that you’ve not done it before and outline suggestions as to how you’ll ensure it doesn’t happen again. Eg if you’re checking whilst in the office, maybe book a meeting room so it’s quiet and free from distractions.

If working from home, put your out of office on for X amount of hours to say that you’re working on something and can’t respond due to high priority but will get back to them at X time. It’ll be fine.

Own up, apologize and say what you will do to prevent it in future (eg double check/ triple check) or if you can't amend the procedure at least show some insight into what went wrong.

You'll be fine if it's a one off.

This would be my nightmare job
I'd rather sweep the streets than this kind of work