What’s the biggest mistake you made at work and how did you resolve it?

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Just that really. I’m probably due one because I haven’t had one in ages but my last one was entering a new employees bank details incorrectly, the money hit someone else’s account and the new guy wasn’t paid.

Resolution was not guessing bank details ever again and always asking for them to be present when I do the set up.

You guessed? Or as in you were not sure what they had written? But why didn't you just check?!

Answering senior manager's questions truthfully, not what he wanted to hear, he stopped asking me.

Asked the wrong people to proof read some work, had worked out some dates incorrectly. Didn't realise till after the impact had been felt. Don't think anyone else has realised though.

Not really big but 2nd day on the job I stuck the dishwasher on, a pipe had disconnected and flooded the entire kitchen and through into the hall and on to the carpet. Not really my fault, the pipe has come lose before but still! I cleaned it up best I could. Luckily, no one cared.

I work in HR. Years ago I wrote an angry email about a senior leader's behaviour at a meeting. Snr chap had a very unusual surname so I checked the spelling- by using the email address book, and then accidentally pressed send with his name still in the "to" address line.
Very awkward BUT his behaviour did improve.

I was a tour guide and left the boat tickets from UK to France for 40 passengers in my London hotel room, and only remembered when we were at the Portsmouth docks ready to board the ferry at 5am. I went to the harbourmaster feeling ready to throw up and he was lovely about it. Said it happened all the time with pre-dawn sailings as tour guides never get enough sleep. And he just checked his passenger list against my hotel accommodation names list and reissued the tickets at no charge. This was before 9/11. Couldn't happen today.

I set up a half day meeting between our top execs and some of the leading surgeons in the country. The meeting was scheduled at short notice, but was necessary. I am sure multiple operations would have been rescheduled in several hospitals.

However, I sent the invite to the surgeons for an afternoon meeting, but had invited internal execs to a morning meeting.

I discovered my mistake on a train from Birmingham back to London about 2 days before the meeting. Luckily I was on good terms with several of the PAs. By the time I got back to the office the diaries of all our internal execs had been rearranged so they could attend in the afternoon. I had to go and confess to our chief exec, who is not slow to show his displeasure. He was remarkably good natured about it. May have been different if he had not been able to make it!