so what's the BIGGEST mistake you've ever made...

[energizer]

Well, the BIGGEST (but certainly not the only!!  ) mistake I've ever made was on my third job many moons ago.  I was working for an executive search firm in Miami.  One of my responsibilities was to send out client resumes to interested corporations.  Well, I had assembled and sealed about 50 envelopes and accidentally put one client's resume into the wrong envelope.  It ended up being sent to his current employer!  I found out about it because another corporation received the resume this guys employer should have received, and the corporation didn't have an opening for a candidate with the qualifications on the resume!



How did I fix it?  I immediately called the client's current employer and asked for the HR department.  I was hoping that they hadn't yet opened the envelope (knowing that sometimes HR departments get backed up!), but they did.  I then prevailed upon their respect for confidentiality, and asked the HR Manager to please put the resume back in the envelope and send it back to me.  He assured me he would do that -- and he actually did!  To the best of my knowledge, the client was never told.  I did fess up to my boss, and he said that since I rectified the situation in a satisfactory manner, and then told him about it, he appreciated my honesty and integrity -- but to be more careful in the future!!



Energizer

[countrigal]

Whew.. talk about a close call Energizer.  What great thinking on your part though for solving the problem.

[barbri]

Hmm, biggest mistake I ever made. This one still makes me lose sleep. Some years ago I was working for an automotive supplier. Part of my job was to do cost estimating for flat die cut parts - my least favorite part of the job. If you've ever worked in customer service or engineering for an automotive supplier, you know that the car companies NEVER give you enough time to do anything! As usual, we were rushed, and on top of that we were not allowed any over time. (I know, I know, I'm making excuses and there's really no excuse for shoddy work.) Anyway, I had these quotes due ASAP and when I looked over the blueprints to get material quotes, etc. I measured the prints. What I never noticed was that they were half-size blueprints! Now, if we'd not gotten the business, there would have been no problem. Naturally, we were the low bid 'cause I screwed up big time. We didn't catch the mistake until after we were awarded the contract and had begun making dies. At that point, I was the one who found the mistake (I'm still glad that no one else had to come to me and tell me I messed up!). I took the information to my boss, who was nice enough to go to the head honcho without making me go along. Management went to the auto company and negotiated a new price - somewhere in between my quote and what the price should have been. I felt absolutely awful, but I know it could have been worse. The company would have been justified in firing me after I cost them thousands of dollars and made them lose credibility with our biggest customer.



So, what did I learn from this? I learned to refuse jobs that were really not up my alley and in which I had no interest. If you don't like what you do, you won't do your best! I also learned not to allow myself to be rushed - either by my own internal deadlines or by someone else's. If my management had stood up to the customer and told them, tactfully, that their time frame was unrealistic, this need never have happened. And I learned check, doublecheck, and recheck my work!



Barb

[ozbound]

I'm one of those people who HATES making mistakes, but I do make them! This may not be the biggest but the latest one, was that we have two people in our database with the same name who work for different companies on the same job. So one day I was trying to help out with mail and in a big rush, I accidentally sent a package to the wrong one. The company I missent the package to called the next day to say they'd received it in error and wondered what to do with it. Well, their location is 30 miles away so we really wanted them to ship it back so we could resend it, but they made like that would be a major inconvenience for them, so we ended up just sending out another one--to the correct party this time. The project manager who was sending it said no problem--I was sure embarrassed though!  

[msgladiator]

not to lie about making mistakes (because everyone makes them) and to be accountable for your actions?  

[bethalize]

I'll say! I won't do anything at work that I wouldn't be happy seeing on the front page of a newspaper. Transparency and accountability are very important to me in my workplace. People need to admit they are wrong. I have had culture clashes with people who need to save face. Very difficult.

[andrea843]

It was Many years ago ladies, time changes many things including my interpersonal communications style.



done now? Gee thanks.





 

[dragonladybug]

I've had a couple of "doozies" - I hate making mistakes and don't make many, but when I do "boy howdy"!



Early in my admin career, we had an inter-company message system that was sort of a fore-runner to e-mail.  We typed the messages on a PC and sent them to a central office, where they were forwarded to the recipients (thank God for small favors - I had gone out of my way to make friends with the guy at the central office).  Anyway, it was an extremely busy day and my boss gave me a handwritten message to send.  I added it to the stack, and when I got to it, typed it exactly as he had written it and neglected to proof it.  It was to our DAMS (account managers) and he had written cc: God DAM, meaning the manager of all the account managers.  As I said, I typed it exactly as written and it didn't "click".  I sent the message off and was horrified when the guy called me from the central office, laughing his butt off, to ask if I really wanted to send that message.  It really paid off that I had been friendly to this guy - what if I had been nasty to him and he wanted to get back at me?



The other biggie was the time I scheduled a meeting for the wrong date - for 25 rather high level people flying in from other cities.  The meeting was supposed to be on the 23rd and somehow, I communicated to everyone that it was on the 22nd - my boss was supposed to be out of town on the 22nd.  After several minutes of internal panic, I checked on alternate flights for boss' trip, found a way to get him back earlier, took several deep breaths and marched into the boss' office and just said "I really screwed up this time, boss".  Then I just  explained what had happened and showed him the alternate travel plans.  I held my breath, until he agreed that it was a workable solution.  None of the meeting attendees ever knew there was a problem!