To be worried mistakes at work will cost my job?

[Kendra43]

I'll start by asking I'm burned out and going on holiday for a week this weekend.

I started a new job 4 months ago. Everything was going well and I had a great end of probationary meeting where the boss said she was 'very happy' with my work. I moved jobs because I wanted a better salary and new challenges.

Last week I made a couple of small mistakes, a typo in one email and scheduled a meeting at the wrong time in another. My first errors. She brought these up in our 1 to 1 this week, asking if I'm ok and saying we need to work on improving it after my holiday.

Today I sent an email to an important client and forget to attach something. I caught it in time/sent the file quickly and when I looked at Teams she had already messaged telling me I hadn't attached the document. I told her I had already rectified it and she said 'I messaged you telling you before you rectified it'.

I get the feeling she is very annoyed with me and I'm upset about being pulled up over small mistakes and for making them. AIBU?

These are small errors and nothing bad happened as a result of them. I'm sure you'll feel better after your holiday and won't be so stressed and tired. Your manager sounds over the top. Don't worry too much about it. You're human and we all make mistakes.

She mentioned a typo in an email??!

Of course they are, unless you're sending everything hand calligraphied and by pigeon and it would take ages to warm up another pigeon.

I agree that sort of thing is annoying. I never get names wrong at least.

My attention to detail is usually very good and as I mentioned this only started last week.

I feel like I'm limping towards the holiday.

She said she forgot the attachment in an email to an important client.

@CasuirDubh thank you.

It's because I take pride in my work that I'm so upset.

Working with customers is a big deal for many companies and sending an email is not just your usual email. You look at it properly, etc , check the grammar, everything before sending

When I worked in sales and was sending emails, promotions, offers and price lists, the attitude was like you are making a serious application - you don't just overlook things or breeze out

Also I had wonderful female manager but big part of her job was to supervise what we are doing, sending, typing etc

Check, check and check again.
It's a big deal because of lack of attention to detail.
If she is your boss, it reflects on her you are making mistakes. It's quite normal she is checking you've done things if you have made mistakes.

If its intense for you, it is for her too, you have no idea if her boss isn't complaining about her team making careless mistakes.

She knows it's a small error, but slow down, check and be meticulous.

I was client facing for 15 years and now deal with a lot of VIP stakeholders. None of these things would be a big deal at all, happens all the time including from very senior people. If it's a consistent thing, sure, but the odd mistake here and there is entirely normal.

Honestly these errors aren't grounds to fire anybody.
I have a nit picking micro manager it isn't fun.
I think you you have to do a bit of a sanity check, forgetting an attachment is a very common error and you corrected it immediately.
One spelling mistake is really easy done.
Once your refreshed after your week off just take a breath, proof read and double check before pressing send.
Sadly I do think if you are on edge about making a mistake then making a mistake is more likely.

Ah ffs, I receive emails with missing attachments and typos every day from directors and higher management. Not a big deal. My boss schedules meetings incorrectly at least once a week. Non issues, get on with your day.

These sound like small mistakes to me, nothing to lose your job over! I often see typos in emails my very clever boss has sent to a client, happens to everyone at some point. If I receive an email with a typo or someone forgetting to attach something I really don’t think badly of them. If they did it constantly (like an annoying woman at my work who always spells my very easy and common name wrong, every time), that’s a different story. Don’t be too hard on yourself, enjoy your break and go back to work refreshed.

My boss schedules meetings with no zoom attachment e v e R y d a y 😭 it's infuriating 😡 but we laugh and ask him for a link 🔗 no big deal

Totally reasonable oversights. As long as it's not a regular occurrence I wouldn't think twice about it. There's a reason companies have controls in place to double check important communications and mitigate human error, because it happens! Put it to the back of your mind and enjoy the break.

Honestly I think half of my emails that are supposed to have attachments have a follow up of "oops actually attached this time!" Or something of the like.
And I once misstyped duck as dick in an external email. The supplier graciously never mentioned it and my colleague nearly wet herself reading it 🤦‍♀️

I guess it's more of a deal your job is data entry or public communications.

I manage a team of data processors and nothing OP has said would give me cause for concern. People are not robots and the odd mistake is bound to happen, it’s how they deal with them that matters more to me

My boss on £100k a year always forgets to add attachments, I forget! Everyone forgets that’s why outlook then started adding the flagging before sending. Is this something you can add again?

I would just be honest and say you are feeling burnt out and in need of your holiday. Have you also be feeling under the weather? Don’t stress and just come back from your holiday refreshed and a bit more on it. We have all been there, when you are burnt out you make mistakes, everyone is human. I know not worrying is easier said than done but I think the worry will make you more exhausted.

If she makes a big deal of it then I would consider whether it’s somewhere you actually want to work long term and would put the feelers out. It’s an employees job market at the moment, know your worth even if you considered it a promotion. We can’t recruit at the moment, having to interview people with much less experience than I needed for that level!

I was on a training recently where the trainer said he set up Outlook to send the mails after a small delay. Apparently because of the way our brains work, it's common to want to change something, or you forgot something after a mail is sent....so if it's in fact still there for a bit, it gives you that extra opportunity. I thought it was great idea, but haven't yet sussed out how to do it.

Some real nightmare managers on this thread.

OP if you're giving us the whole story, red flags that you've got a very poor manager with micromanagement tendencies. Keep on your guard.

Yes the name thing is particularly unforgivable by a lot of clients they won't forget it. Especially if it's something that happens to them a lot.

Yes that was one error what about the others

I've done this too. Every now and then it comes in very handy!

Sounds like my old boss. The worst of her pulling people up for typos was that she made more than the rest of us put together. In her case I always thought a lot of it stemmed from the fact that she followed on from someone who was a bit too hands off, and she was trying so hard to avoid making that manager’s mistakes that she went too far in the other direction, became a micromanager disciplinarian and couldn’t see where that in itself could be a mistake. (Those who know their Harry Potter, think Fudge and Umbridge, and you get the idea of my ex managers).