So annoyed with myself - is this going to affect my probation?

[flowersrain]

I started a new job in Children's Services with a local authority at the beginning of the month. I haven't had much by way of induction thanks to covid and I have been thrown into the deep end a little bit but I am doing my best to get on with things.

Today we had an important meeting at 9am with lots of people (70+). For some reason, I thought it started at 9.45 (we had a meeting yesterday at that time, so maybe that's why) so when I started work at 9 I thought I had 45 mins to go through a workbook I had printed off for a child that I thought might be suitable for. My computer was on but had gone to sleep so I didn't get a notification reminding me about the meeting.

My manager called me on my personal phone at 9.15 to ask where I was and I said I thought the meeting was at 9.45 and she said it started at 9 so of course I joined and tried to contribute where I could. Later when I looked at my work phone I saw that she had tried to call me on that but for some reason it hadn't rung/I hadn't heard it.

I don't have much contact with my manager - she runs the weekly team meetings but that's the only time I see her. I have a mentor who supports me with day-to-day stuff.

I have my one month probation review with my manager next week and I'm worried that what happened today will affect it - the little one-to-one interaction she has had with me is because I got the time of a meeting wrong. I am worried that today's mistake will have made me come across as lazy and disorganised. I would hope that she would be able to see the work I have done so far and conclude that that isn't the case but I know that what happened today doesn't look good.

Do you think this will affect my one month probation review next week? Please be honest, I would rather be prepared for a bad outcome.

Oh love, no. Not at all. Don’t be so hard on yourself. It was a genuine mistake.
Must be so difficult to start such a role in these times. Good luck, I’m sure you’ll be fine.

Honest mistake. If you feel better about it drop her an email of apology condensing the above. Very retro but I live by a paper diary and its the first thing I check on a morning

It’s an honest mistake, one most people do at some stage, will it be mentioned? Most likely, but only to ensure you’ve done something to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Meant to add, I’m a scatter brain and second a paper diary for all meetings and appointments to be written down on.

Do not worry, in 6 months time you will not give a damn about missing 15 minutes of a meeting. Life in a LA children's services is not like in any other business. This will not be held against you. This is normal and happens every day. When you get further into the job you will understand what I'm saying. It can be days before anyone gets hold of me im that snowed under with my cases. As long as your evidencing on whatever recording system your using that your doing something then you'll be fine.

Thank you everyone, I did call her on Teams afterwards to apologise - do you think is ok or should I send an email apologising too?

You've apologised - now just move on.

Don't stress. The vast majority of people will give you the benefit of the doubt x

I work in a completely different sector, so feel free to disregard, but if you worked for me one thing that would go down well is to bring it up yourself at the review before she does and explain what you have put in place to stop it happening again (e.g.check your work diary at 8am each day to prepare for the day).

No one minds a mistake, but learning from that mistake an actually be a positive.

Thank you everyone, I definitely won't make this mistake again!

I was just going to say what @LastStarFighter said. We all make mistakes but it’s how you learn from them and put things in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again