Someone else discovered a mistake today at work that I made that will require lots of paperwork, reporting to officials and explainations as to why it happened.
As I was leaving the office today, I overheard my supervisor and higher ups discusing the problem and specifically heard "first she missed 'xyz' now this...." then they shut the door so I couldn't continue to easedrop. Which reminded me that this problem is a similiar mistake I made 2 years ago.
I keep trying to help people in other divisions and do things that make their lives easier and it winds up biting me in the back side. Hindsight is 20/20, now I see what I should have done differently.
Now I'm tossing and turning, can't sleep. I can't handle confrontation.
I decided first thing that food will not fix this. I will not stuff my feelings down with massive amounts of food. I will not allow this to turn into a weekend long binge.
I will own my mistake, accept whatever fall out there is and go on. It's not the end of the world.
Hey Sara-I can relate. I just started a new job a few weeks ago and I'm having trouble with people assuming that because I'm new-I should be given their extra work that they can't get to. I'm all for being a team player but I wasn't hired to do other people's work.
Yesterday, it got really bad and I ended up leaving work crying (I'm kind of a baby though haha). I ended up driving to the gym and working out my frustrations and felt a lot better. The old me would have turned into a fast food place as quickly as I could. But you're right-that's not the answer.
I'm proud of you that you didn't turn to food to help the problem-because it doesn't and it never will. Good for you and I hope everything works out at your job!
And yes, sometimes we all have bad work days, or work weeks, or months... I've been going through a hard week myself and no, I didn't turn to food. For the first time ever, I think I spent the week more focused on work than on food or anything else.
The only thing I can suggest is to make sure you take full responsibility if confronted and not to make excuses. (if you're in fact responsible) Apologize if necessary and say what you've learned from the experience.
It sounds like management needs a few days to cool off so I'd steer far away from them from now and let them bring it up - and not you.
I am the total opposite, stress makes me not want to eat at all. I guess that's a good thing...sort of.
I'll bet your office is downsized.
Work mistakes happen, just own up to it but never take on other's work unless you're getting compensated for it. That's one mistake I will never make again. I took on WAY more work than I was hired to do thinking I would get more pay. Wrong. Seems to be a lot of that going on now that every office is downsized due to the economy. The economy excuse is getting old. They're getting way too comfy/greedy paying less employees but stretching us as far as we can go. God forbid the owners go out to a $150 dinner a few times less per month and not take 5 vacations a year. There's only so much work one person can take on, and if they don't want mistakes to happen then they need to start staffing properly again so people can work efficiently. Period.
I can't wait to retire.
Didn't mean to steal your rant but crap like that irritates me. There's no need for closed-door ranting to the high-ups. I loathe that crap and it only makes the employee feel embarassed.
I could have written the original post myself. I was trying to help out our overworked admin people on Thursday and made a huge mistake that angered a client. I owned up to it, the problem was fixed (and wasn't as big as originally thought) and everyone was okay about it, but I know it will go into my supervisor's memory bank. And it was just a stupid mistake that I shouldn't have made, so I was angry with myself. I managed to not try to fix it with food, though, so that was a win.
Mistakes happen and the best we can do is try to minimize the damage and learn from them.
novangel, a big fat word to everything you said about employers.
Yes, mistakes happen. Frankly, I don't think 2 years between mistakes, even slightly big ones, are that bad. In our area, and woman made a quarter million dollar payment to the wrong vendor. I saw ramifications of that years afterwards but she didn't lose her job. It was just lots of confusion and paperwork to sort out.
If you're really worried, you can meet the problem head on and tell your supervisor you've been worried and thinking about it and perhaps how you can avoid it in the future, maybe with a new procedure or way to check your work.
work and mistakes
