You're worst mistake on the job (average, insurance, agency, pharmacist)

[D. Scott]

Originally Posted by ForkInTheRoad

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.

Having worked in Malls for the better part of a decade, I know how sales performance is pressed very hard in some stores. Not an easy line of work.

[MountainBiking]

A few years ago when I was working as a construction estimator on a big project I didn't order enough 6 inch X 16 foot long 18 gauge metal studs for the first of 9 buildings. The project was valued over $1.5 million for our various scopes of work combined. I never knew how I missed so many studs even after trying to retrace my take-off. Anyways, during that time period metal studs had a 2 to 3 week lead time because the Chinese were buying a lot of the raw metal used for making the cold formed metal studs so there were shortages of material all over California and most western states. My screw up caused a two week delay. The general contractor's superintendent just about died when our foreman told him that the office screwed up (that would be me ). He barked about delays. He barked about liquidated damages. He even suggested that our firm was unqualified for this big job. He just went off on me on the telephone and then again on my first visit to the job-site after the mistake. I was more concerned with the super than with my boss. My boss couldn't do anything because there was no material anywhere to order without a long lead time. I felt terrible. We finally got the material in about two weeks later and built that first building in record time and we made up the roughly 16 day delay by the beginning of construction of the 3rd building. The super would always question my subsequent orders like the plywood, wood studs, glu-lam beams and gypsum board and he really never forgave me for the error.

-Cheers.

[ackmondual]

An employee was making many of the rest of us miserable. Unfortunately, his dad has weight in the company, so he wasn't getting fired anyways. I regret getting bullied by a 23 year old child who only got the job because his daddy pulled strings, and he doesn't even do anything anyways. I should've handled that situation better and got the hell out of there MUCH sooner.

[Canned Heat]

A $400K mistake? Seriously this was the worst mistake of my career life at another company but my boss yelled and screamed and told me I should be fired. I could not sleep the entire weekend hating myself so much. A few months later he gave me a 11K annual raise AND a huge bonus. I was so humbled by my mistake.

[andywire]

We are human, and we all make mistakes. Nothing unusual there, and I've had my fair share.

Can't quite pin point the worst one I've made, but I did make one at the start of my current job. It probably should have been a deal breaker, and I'm surprised I wasn't shown the door. At any rate, my very first task on this job was to prepare stock for a CNC job. All I had to do was mill the stock (square) to size, with a predesignated amount of extra stock for grinding. About the easiest job you could expect to have. At any rate, I hit the dimensions with extra stock on two sides, but did not leave extra for the last.

In my defense, I believe the foreman did not tell me to leave stock on the last side. I think he assumed I would do so. I didn't argue about it, accepted the blame, and moved on to my next job. The botched job was a real bummer because nobody checked the material before it went out for heat treat. They noticed the error after the parts were ready for grinding, which was 2 days before their due date. I believe we subcontracted the job out, making it a real money loser.

I've learned to always ask questions if something doesn't seem right and never assume anything. Also, always assume your foreman is overworked, overstressed, and is not perfect. He may forget to mention pertinent details that could be the difference between quality work and garbage. I've since learned how he communicates and thinks. There is a method to his madness. Can't say I'd like to trade places with him either

[molukai]

Worst thing I ever done was go on c-d during my work shift... like right now. :X

[bs13690]

Several years ago, I accidentally formatted a hard drive which wiped all the customer's data. That's probably the biggest one.

[Wartrace]

Third day on a new job with a current employer. This job required six months of training to be let lose on your own. We were changing over a tire machine and I loaded some material under the supervision of my trainer. The tag was correct. When we finished the machine set up we built a check tire and I noted to my trainer that the turn up did not measure correctly. He said "Don't worry about it". The tire builder then built 170 scrap tires with the wrong material.

I was close to getting fired BUT I had connections that helped defend me.
1) The trainer should have double checked everything I did.
2) I pointed out the measurement problem and was told not to worry.
3) The mis-tagging of material had been a known issue from material supply. It was a computer problem they had been having for months.

I was called up to H.R and had a meeting. They were laying the groundwork for termination. They didn't know I had found out about the computer glitch. I asked them why my trainer ignored my question about the measurement (the trainer was sitting in the meeting). I asked why after three days my trainer decided not to double check everything I did. The then asked the big one. Why did they not correct a known problem that would have prevented this in the first place? (They should have fixed the tagging issue).

The screw up was worth about 25,000 retail value and about 14,000 manufacturing costs.

It was pretty low that they tried to pin it all on me.

[KittenSparkles]

I worked at a TV station for an internship during college.

One day, I was assigned to the camera. These cameras are on tall stands that can be moved, adjusted, rotated, etc. You've probably seen them when they show the behind the camera area on any TV show.

It was time for lunch and I left, not realizing I had not locked down the camera I was working on. So the whole thing tipped over.

I never found out how much damage was caused because that was my last day on my internship... they canned me.

[Oleg Bach]

Originally Posted by the_contrary

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.

For fifty bucks I will run over your foot...just tell me the time and where you will be...for an extra hundred I can get Joe to break your knee cap...That way you can get some sympathy when you have to use crutches to get around at work....so much for my joke.. You have a problem that is not one based on something personal...it's the fact that you were not watching the numbers...that is a serious bit of neglect...If I were your boss I would expect a committed statement out of you. Maybe something like "It won't happen again" AND make sure you never assist in an oversight due to you not looking out...You "misunderstood" Your job is to understand.

Here is my story - I was working on a film set doing a small bit in a cop movie. A stunt was about to take place...I had to drive the car in slam on the breaks and jump onto a garbage bin and point a gun at the culprit hiding inside.. There was a helicopter over head - people repelling out of the machine...another stunt person had to grab hold of a down spout on the building and - it was to break off and he was to swing into the scene...it was very complex - and you have to hit the mark with precision and the timing is down to a second.

Needless to say it was costing a lot of money for this sequence...So foolish me is sitting in the cop car with my partner...an out of work soul singer who was once famous...I wanted to be cool with this guy..He suggested that we smoke some pot...Never have I ever been impaired on set...but I smoked...

My car misses the mark...I jump up and grab the edge of the fake garbage bin...The side comes off...I scramble to point my gun...I wack one of the stars of the show in the head causing him some pain...it was a disaster...lucky no one figured out that it was me who screwed things up...They had to set of the scene and re-shoot it..I never allowed myself to be impaired again...People think that the film business is casual and cool...It is run like the military....very serious - With thousands of dollars flying by - by the minute...incompetence is not tolerated.