Made a mistake at work

[Feelingsad101]

Hello

I am in my probation for a government job . A favour was asked to my team from our admin team to help a customer out with some funding .I was free, so offered to help . As I am new my manager offered to help me. Turns out the customer was not eligible at the time .

The customer contacted me again and asked for help.I spoke to my team leader who said pass the customer over to another team due to her age. I did this and assigned this case to this collegue. They agreed the funding with their manager.

The payment the customer needed had to be signed off by someone. The customer needed it there and then so I signed it off in good faith , believing I had authority . Another team member also did the same thing .

Turns out I was a couple of quid over the limit for the authority . The other team leader should have signed it off , rather than passing it on.

I am so gutted at making this mistake as I was only trying to help and this customer did not even thank me . I realise my mistake and have informed my team leader who isn’t pleased.

What will the repercussions of this be? Has anyone had any experience of this ? I am in my probation , so it isn’t exactly ideal .

Thanks

It's a genuine mistake. I really don't think this would affect your probationary period unless they're absolute dragons.

That sounds like a genuine mistake. Likely you will have to retake some training / do some more training in this area.

The customer needed it there and then so I signed it off in good faith , believing I had authority

The rest of the story doesn't matter, this is the only part that does. You signed something off you were not authourised to do.

If it is literally only a couple of quid (or does a couple of quid have more significant problems?), and you have highlighted it, completely owned it and made it clear you have learned from it, you know the wider reasons why it is a problem and how you would avoid making a similar mistake in the future I would hope as a trainee they would give you some leeway if otherwise you are doing well.

(really any decent system wouldn't have allowed you to approve beyond your limit it in the first place!)

If you are concerned speak to your manager again to make sure they understand you have learned from it after they have had a chance to think it over.