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This week I realized I made a big mistake at my job and tomorrow I have to talk to my boss about it - I'm so nervous!
I work in marketing and about a month ago, we decided to extend our client's campaign by a month using our existing budget and asked a vendor to set that money aside. We ended up getting a smaller additional fund to use towards this extension. I misunderstood and thought this budget was all we would spend, but it turns out it was in addition to what we were setting aside. The vendor already used that money so now we are $10k short for this extension. I feel so stupid, especially since this isn't the only mistake I've made on the job. I hope I get hit by a car on my way in tomorrow.
Anyway, what sort of mistakes have you made and what were the repercussions? I need some cheering up.
I worked as a 911 dispatcher. I forgot to send a car to a call once (it was a very non emergency). Poor lady waited 4 hours before she phoned back to scream at my sergeant that nobody showed up. I felt bad. I got a lecture.
Perhaps you've still got the memo that you misunderstood. That may help clarify the "why"....Take an apologetic, I've learned from my mistake approach.
Stay calm...Use the skills you have to diffuse this, and while you don't want to make promises that you can't keep, perhaps there is something you can do to remedy this, even if it is on your own time.
Often managers want to see that you've learned, you are apologetic, and that it won't happen again. Good luck on this.
Perhaps you've still got the memo that you misunderstood. That may help clarify the "why"....Take an apologetic, I've learned from my mistake approach.
Stay calm...Use the skills you have to diffuse this, and while you don't want to make promises that you can't keep, perhaps there is something you can do to remedy this, even if it is on your own time.
Often managers want to see that you've learned, you are apologetic, and that it won't happen again. Good luck on this.
Thanks for your feedback. I'll definitely tell my employer I learned from this mistake, but I worry because I feel like I've made so many mistakes in my 6 months on the job (all for different things). It just sucks because I constantly misunderstand my supervisor and this particular assignment was verbal so I don't have anything written to clarify my case. I can't fully blame her because no one else seems to mess up as much as I do. The problem is she constantly brushes me off when I approach her for questions, then she ignores my IMs/emails so I tend to tackle things on my own.
Ironically, I'm not so concerned about losing my job since I'm so unhappy here. But I do take pride in my work and if I'm let go, I want to leave on good standings and not as an idiot who messed up a lot.
A former boss of mine said he wanted his people the screw up at least once. That way they would learn how to fix it and learn from their mistakes.
We're all human and will from time to time mess up. The important thing is to learn how to repair the damage and not make the same mistake twice. Hopefully your boss understands that.
We had gotten in a large shipment and no one knew why. I made calls and sent out e-mails and no one had any answers. 6 months later it was still there taking up space (no invoice ever found). I should have googled the address where the items were from and researched it further, but I didn't. So after 6 months I gave permission to throw them away. I told only 2 people (both I can trust), the next day someone from our corporate office came in and asked about the item I had disposed of just 24 hours earlier! I said that I had sent them back to the company and was asked to get the information so they could be re-ordered. I felt like crawling in a hole, I also have a wonderful relationship with my boss and hated lying to her. One of the two that I told offered to take the hit for me with our boss, but since it my screw-up I had to face the music. Went into my boss's office and closed the door (something I rarely do), she said, uh oh, you're scaring me. I took a deep breath and told her what happened. She was angry that I had done it without checking with her, but told me that she would take the hit with the corporate guy when he followed up. I offered to tell him also, she said no, she would...but he never asked about it and it's been 7 months. Boy, did I learn a good lesson and it didn't change my relationship with my boss!
Missing one week's sales goal by $10. They gave me a written warning suggesting to the DM the following recourse: termination. I had never missed a goal, was never late and never been in trouble. I was always on the front few pages of the corporate sales ranking.
The manager admitted later on it was just a scare tactic to get me to sell more because I was that store's best seller.
Missing one week's sales goal by $10. They gave me a written warning suggesting to the DM the following recourse: termination. I had never missed a goal, was never late and never been in trouble. I was always on the front few pages of the corporate sales ranking.
The manager admitted later on it was just a scare tactic to get me to sell more because I was that store's best seller.
Way overkill on their part esp for $10. They could have at worst asked why you missed the goal and urged you meet it without that. Suppose you left for a different job over the threat? They would have lost a solid employee with a great track record.
When I was very new and very green at my job I sent someone to a tourist attraction, Only it was the wrong building completely in a different part of town.
Way overkill on their part esp for $10. They could have at worst asked why you missed the goal and urged you meet it without that. Suppose you left for a different job over the threat? They would have lost a solid employee with a great track record.
When I was very new and very green at my job I sent someone to a tourist attraction, Only it was the wrong building completely in a different part of town.
I showed her daily paperwork logging that the store had barely anybody in it, let alone sales. We weren't the only store in the mall suffering. I talked to other managers off-shift about it. She had this "you have to make sales appear even when nobody's in the store during your 9-2 Tuesday shift" attitude.
The manager that wrote me up got fired after a few months for being a terrible manager, luckily.
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