Do you make mistakes at work?

Owain_Moneysaver

I once didn't realise that widgets were sold in boxes of 1000, and ordered 1000.

Stores got quite a surprise when the pallet arrived.

jobbingmusician

Was it actually your fault? (The sets of papers thingy).

Next time, ask for an RSVP, due by (at least an hour before the meeting - enough time for you to do the photocopying without stress) which states specifically whether the attendee would like a set of papers or will be downloading and bringing their own. (Your excuse can be that you are minimising resource wastage.)

xapprenticex

I also work at NASA, sent a m8s car into space accidentally, but my boss was nice enough to make a cover story.

Gavin83

Lots. Some really minor, some pretty bad. I've always learned from them though and haven't repeated the mistake. It's always important to be up front and own your mistakes too, don't try and cover it up.

Smodlet

According to Prof Brian Cox, *he once brought the Hadron Collider to a standstill by dropping his yogurt in it... Puts your "mistake" into perspective, doesn't it, OP? I doubt yours cost thousands of £s.

*An ep of "Would I lie to you?"... He said it was true.

P.S. I know you're all wondering; it was strawberry yogurt.

Gram_Parsons

Does accepting the job in the first place count?

lulu650

Gavin83 wrote: »

.......It's always important to be up front and own your mistakes too, don't try and cover it up.

This tenfold.

If you make a more serious mistake let your manager know. Even better if you can show that you are already trying to correct it and/or ensuring it doesn't happen again.

I've been on interview panels where one of the questions is to discuss a mistake you've made and what you learnt from it. The worst answer was from someone who suggested he had never made a mistake. Oh come on...........

p00hsticks

Smodlet wrote: »

According to Prof Brian Cox, *he once brought the Hadron Collider to a standstill by dropping his yogurt in it... Puts your "mistake" into perspective, doesn't it, OP? I doubt yours cost thousands of £s.

*An ep of "Would I lie to you?"... He said it was true.

P.S. I know you're all wondering; it was strawberry yogurt.

the large hadron collider appears to be quite sensitive - it's also apparently been stopped by a bird dropping a bit of bread and a weasel chewing throguh a power cable....

https://gizmodo.com/report-a-weasel-has-shut-down-the-large-hadron-collide-1773844627

patman99

Once sent a load to Coventry instead of Huddersfield and the load for Coventry to Huddersfield. All down to a paperwork mix-up. Luckily, the lorry loaded for huddersfield was only 25 minutes out, and the other was just leaving the yard, so soon sorted.

I work in despatch and the biggest mistakes come from lack of communications.

Last week, we had a mixed load come back from the painters and I was told that some parts needed to go straight onto a pallet and straight out via courier.
What I wasn't told until 10 minutes after the load had departed was that there was a 2nd pallet to go with it.
The guy who wanted it shipped was doing his nut. But as he had not informed my boss, my boss never knew to inform me.

Fireflyaway

Yes everyone will at some point. Not bringing enough paperwork is so minor, don't feel bad about that. I remember years ago working as a 999 operator I passed a telephone number to the police. It ended up with them kicking down someone's door, only it was the wrong door....! When my supervisor listened back to the recording it was the operator in the police control room who had taken the number id passed down wrong by 1 digit. I felt awful for a while faced with possible disciplinary and my employer having to pay damages.