1) I was told verbally to place an order for a particular item (some sort of test kit) and was told the item was the same as we had ordered last time. I placed an order for a CALIBRATION kit, which was the last order we had placed with the same vendor. Turns out they actually wanted a TEST kit (which is different from a calibration kit - who knew?) and wanted the same test kit that we had ordered previously. Bossie in charge of that budget flew into a rage (item ordered cost $1500 and was non-returnable - plus we still had to order the proper item) and went immediately to my business administrator. As soon as we underlings found out what happened, we instituted a policy whereby all orders are written out and signed by the bossie (no more verbal orders). Then, any errors will have her signature on them
I explained this to the B.A., who pointed out to bossie that it was an innocent mistake and that we weren't trying to bilk her out of $1500. I felt terrible about the mistake but was pleased that we implemented a system to prevent future similar errors.
2) Just before Christmas, I lost a form that had been on my desk. I searched everywhere and couldn't find it. I was pretty sure I had sent it in the intramural mail with other things. Bossie had printed the form himself and laid it on my desk while I was away from my desk with a note that he was then leaving the country. As soon as I realized I couldn't find the form I tried to contact him, hoping he could e-mail it to me. Couldn't reach him, I guess he was gone. As far as I knew there was no deadline, so I sent him an e-mail explaining what happened and told him we could deal with it when we reopened after Christmas holiday. When he spoke to me about it on our return, he seemed fine with it, even though it turned out that there WAS a deadline and it had passed. However, on returning to his office, he promptly sent an e-mail to me with a copy to a higher bossie, saying that he couldn't understand how such a thing could happen and that if I didn't want to do his work I should just say so! I fired an e-mail back (with a copy to bigger bossie) reiterating that it was a mistake, that I accepted responsibility for it, and that unfortunately I am human and while I will try to do better I will undoubtedly make mistakes again in the future! Never heard another word about it from anyone. By the way, the form was, in fact, found in an intramural envelope I had sent to someone with other papers that had also been on my desk that day.
