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I'm a freelancer, a client hired me to do this big project along with another girl whom I've known for years, we've have a few fights and misunderstandings, but things were good when the project started. We worked in the project, some tensions and minor problems presented but nothing that couldn't be solved. A day before the deadline we met, didn't get much done and she had to go, so I told her I would work on it and then send it to her so she could add her part of the work and send it to the client, I also told her to check it one last time for mistakes. Woke up next morning and she had sent it to the client, I open the document and it had a bunch of mistakes, wrong tittles in different slides, wrong index numbers, graphics with wrong colors, etc. so I fixed everything and sent it again, in the message to the client I always spoke in plural "we noticed some issues that needed to be changed, please take this as the last version" Well... next thing I know she is mailing me and texting me like crazy, extremely mad, saying that "what I did was extremely unprofessional, that I should've talked to her first, that it looked as if I was trying to sabotage her" she also said that the whole time we worked together I acted as her supervisor and not her team mate and then she literally begged me to "not do anything else against her and not to do anything that could affect her pay" I don't know what to make of this... really need an objective opinion, was I wrong when I sent the document again?
1) you told her that you saw it and knew it needed to be fixed and sent out again, which you were going to do
or
2) you did what you did and just fixed it and sent it out.
I can understand her being put off by you fixing it and sending it out only to tell her afterwards.
I can understand why you did it but I can see her point as well.
Hard decision but you had to make one. To be honest, I probably would have called her before I fixed it and sent it over to the customer. Only because I know it would make someone mad to send it out without them knowing.
Thing is LuckyGirl, I just don't get why she got so mad, we're working as a team, work needed to be corrected and sent again, and I did it as fast as I could because the client needed to have the document translated. I spoke in the name of the team, and I know that if she had done the same I would have considered it normal. I don't know, maybe I just lack team work skills because I just don't see it
I understand you panicked and wanted to fix the issue A.S.A.P. She did not proof read or add anything additional as you both agreed. She had the opportunity to go over it one last time and she did not check with you before she hit send on the final product. She screwed up and you took the steps to mitigate the damage. Would she rather have the poor work product represent the both of you to save her feelings? Its business and it has to be right or you don't get the clientele.
In short, she needs to suck it up and admit she was wrong and you saved the project.
Thing is LuckyGirl, I just don't get why she got so mad, we're working as a team, work needed to be corrected and sent again, and I did it as fast as I could because the client needed to have the document translated. I spoke in the name of the team, and I know that if she had done the same I would have considered it normal. I don't know, maybe I just lack team work skills because I just don't see it
You did not give her the opportunity to save face.
In these situations, when there are critical errors in a shared work product that must be fixed, I usually fix the mistakes and send the revised report/presentation to the person that sent the material to the client. I give the co-worker the opportunity to send the fixed material to the client, so they can save face. Although it doesn't look good when you have to correct mistakes in your own work, it looks a lot worse (to outsiders) when someone else has to correct the mistakes in your work. I would also call/email/text the co-worker to let them know that I discovered and corrected critical errors in the material, and that I believe it is important that we send the corrected material to the client. I then politely suggest that, in the future, we both review and sign off on all materials (for shared work products) before they are sent to the client/customer.
You did not give her the opportunity to save face.
In these situations, when there are critical errors in a shared work product that must be fixed, I usually fix the mistakes and send the revised report/presentation to the person that sent the material to the client. I give the co-worker the opportunity to send the fixed material to the client, so they can save face. Although it doesn't look good when you have to correct mistakes in your own work, it looks a lot worse (to outsiders) when someone else has to correct the mistakes in your work. I would also call/email/text the co-worker to let them know that I discovered and corrected critical errors in the material, and that I believe it is important that we send the corrected material to the client. I then politely suggest that, in the future, we both review and sign off on all materials (for shared work products) before they are sent to the client/customer.
Ok, I get that, and I will definitely do that if I have to deal with the same situation in the future. This particular time there were a lot of things that influenced my decision: Same thing happened before. We had to write a Flash Report, once it was sent I noticed some mistakes, I called her and told her about it, told her we should send corrections, we had a looong talk and she said she didn't think it was the best thing because it would make us look bad, so no corrections were sent. Days after there's a conference call with the client, they only called me not her because they know me better and somehow they think I'm the leader of the project (her feelings were also hurt about that) and guess what the client talked about the whole time? the mistakes... and I had to deal with that on my own. This time client needed to translate the document within hours, so I guess I thought we just didn't have the time to talk about it, and I was careful, I said "WE noticed some mistakes"
I do feel bad about it, and, if she had said something like "hey, you should have called me, I think this made me look bad, I should've been the one sending it" I would have explained and even apologized; but what she said about me trying to sabotage her and the way she begged me to "not to do anything else against her" was extremely offensive, to be honest, I wasn't even thinking about her when I sent the document. If it's worth something, they called me hours after asking for an extra slide, I told them to write an email to both of us, wrote her an email asking who would do it and she said she would send it... of course she sent it 4 hours later (asking me about my opinion before finally sending it) when I could have done it in half an hour but anyway I hope that it fixed some of the "damage" I provoked
I understand you panicked and wanted to fix the issue A.S.A.P. She did not proof read or add anything additional as you both agreed. She had the opportunity to go over it one last time and she did not check with you before she hit send on the final product. She screwed up and you took the steps to mitigate the damage. Would she rather have the poor work product represent the both of you to save her feelings? Its business and it has to be right or you don't get the clientele.
In short, she needs to suck it up and admit she was wrong and you saved the project.
That was exactly what motivated me to send it... this is about work, it's about money, not about emotions. And yes, I'm sure she would rather send a document with mistakes and get "the glory" of sending the final version. One of the reasons I decided to leave the office and work as a freelancer was that I was sick of dealing with all the office drama... well, here it is again
I'm a freelancer, a client hired me to do this big project along with another girl whom I've known for years, we've have a few fights and misunderstandings, but things were good when the project started. We worked in the project, some tensions and minor problems presented but nothing that couldn't be solved. A day before the deadline we met, didn't get much done and she had to go, so I told her I would work on it and then send it to her so she could add her part of the work and send it to the client, I also told her to check it one last time for mistakes. Woke up next morning and she had sent it to the client, I open the document and it had a bunch of mistakes, wrong tittles in different slides, wrong index numbers, graphics with wrong colors, etc. so I fixed everything and sent it again, in the message to the client I always spoke in plural "we noticed some issues that needed to be changed, please take this as the last version" Well... next thing I know she is mailing me and texting me like crazy, extremely mad, saying that "what I did was extremely unprofessional, that I should've talked to her first, that it looked as if I was trying to sabotage her" she also said that the whole time we worked together I acted as her supervisor and not her team mate and then she literally begged me to "not do anything else against her and not to do anything that could affect her pay" I don't know what to make of this... really need an objective opinion, was I wrong when I sent the document again?
Here is my opinion: You did the right thing. You have a responsibility to your client and they are paying you to do the work correctly. Your friend/teammate is a lousy worker, she should have sent the document to the client in tiptop shape because she is the one that you both agreed who would be sending it to the client in its final form. If somehow she was not able to that, she should have told you so you could do a final touch on the project. I hope you working with her is not a permanent arrangement. If it is, I say dump her and team up with someone else who is responsible, professional, and not hysterical. People like her are the ones who sabotage good workers' careers.
Also, she saying "hey, you should have called me, I think this made me look bad, I should've been the one sending it."-does she even think about you, the difficult position she also put you in, or the client. It sounds like all she cares is covering her own arse and she looking good. Her attitude stinks.
You did the right thing since, in the end, businesses need to produce working products not buff the egos of the employees. Every single time I've been involved in a failed project or business, the failure resulted from egos getting in the way of reality, so you've done the correct thing by pushing that aside.
That being said, you must let people save face, as others here have stated. You've done some of that, but there might have been more that could have been done. Still, this is a minor thing - a nicety - vs. actually fixing the problem, which you did.
Long term, if you can work with other, more responsible people, look for those options.
She may be a control freak..These people never object to you making yourself look bad but NEVER do anything to tarnish their record.
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