Week of February 16- Office Errors...

[andream]

So let’s talk painful truth this week intrepid readers.  What’s the worst mistake you’ve ever made in the office.  What implications did it have on your team or company and how did you handle it? Wait to get caught? Step up to the pump and admit your middle name was catastrophe? And what action was taken by your employer when the harsh light of day shined on your error?

Do tell…

Andrea

[gee4]

Can't think I have done anything major other than information going out in the post without a signature or with a spelling mistake.  I would always put my hand up and admit a mistake as it makes you look more professional than pretending you didn't know about it later.

G

[raindance]

Now, Andrea, that WOULD be telling wouldn't it?  

I think the worst thing I've ever done was to shred a letter concerning a formal complaint against a member of my organisation.  I realised my mistake whilst I was merrily shredding a whole heap of documents.  Fortunately, I managed to rescue and repair the letter.  Thank goodness for the reverse button and sellotape.  As for Bossie - I explained what had happened.  She just laughted, although the implications for my organisation if we had lost that letter might have been serious. Now I check my documents-to-shred heap every time, needless to say.

No matter what I had done, I think I would always volunteer information rather than be "found out".  It rather depends on your relationship with Bossie and Bossie's general temperament, but I think it is very disarming when someone says "I have done xyz and I am sorry.  What can we do to put it right?"  

Raindance

[bettylou]

A number of years ago I worked for a Bank.  I was employed to do relief cover for Head Office secretaries but inbetween times I had to work in a branch.  I hated branch work (not good with numbers) and the staff weren't very patient in traning me.

However I persevered and made a reasonable job of it.  One of my duties was to package up the money for collection by Securicor - this was usually anything between 10k - 60k and one time it arrived at the depot £2k short and it turned out I had dropped a couple of packets of money down the back of the sorting table!  It's a good job the money was found or I would have been on a very sticky wicket!  

I would normally always own up if I know I've made a mistake but in this case I didn't know anything about it.  Needless to say I was much more careful in future.

Bettylou

[sobriquetnic]

Oh dear - confession time!

1. My boss gave me some cash to pass to someone in our sister company in a brown envelope.  This got put (by me!) in our main Royal Mail post bag by mistake. Thankfully I realised my error before postie arrived and managed to retrieve it!  Actually, he wasn't my boss then so heaven knows why he chose me as his PA a couple of years later!

2. I did not respond to a letter quickly enough from a credit card company questioning our billing of a client.  They subsequently refunded the client and took the money back from us.  Only £135 thankfully!  

To date things are going ok - my biggest fault is not passing on telephone messages but I'm getting a lot better at that now as I saw that it was (and quite rightly so!) starting to irritate people!

All the best,
Nicola.

[countrigal]

I failed to get a secondary medical opion on a legal case here.  I discovered my lapse when it became a public issue and the Director started asking for the documentation we had on hand to help with her response(s).  This had the potential to hurt us not only in the public eye, but in our pocket book (to the tune of millions) so it was a big deal.  As soon as I realised what had happened, I went to my supervisor, explained the mistake, and what I was doing to keep one like that from happening again.  This information was then sent on to the Director.  I ended up getting my hand slapped, figuratively, and definitely was harder on myself for this lapse than either of my supervisors were.  It was never mentioned again after that initial discussion and "punishment" and doesn't appear to be remembered by anyone other than myself.  Luckily I learned that there was a missing report in my tracking log on this case and not one that did end up costing us money... that would have been even worse.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

[spitfire78]

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.

[chris68]

When I worked at the CPA office downtown years back, I was responsible for processing and sending out all tax returns for the office.  Well I had typed the address incorrectly on the mailing label and because I had used the correct Zip Code, it did get delivered (and Yes this was done in April, of course after thousands of returns went out without fail).  Fortunatley these folks didn't owe any money and were getting a hefty return.  Needless to say they were happy as heck to get their return in the mail.

Another time I had sent one out fedex and back then I was hand writing them all in cause we didn't do it all that often  But the carrier misread the street address to one of our clients and couldn't find the address so naturally it went back to Fedex hub wherever in that city and tried again the next day.  I got the heat for that one cause the driver couldn't read my writing.  Happens when your in a rush I guess.

Those are a few things that I can think of off the top of my head.  Believe me when they are tax returns (and rightfully  so) they are looking for them to get them in on time and accurately and when something goes amis they get testy.

Chris68
Peer Moderator

[andream]

Okay, so here goes, maybe I can entice a few others out of the proverbial closet with my personal worst ever error as an Admin.  UK and International Users, if I hear snickering I will find you!

Once upon a time there was a younger gentler PA/AP she had a good job with a company who routinely sent people overseas.  This young PA did not actually have much experience in arranging travel of this magnitude, however she was resourceful and energetic and had been on the job about a month when in came a very large military contract.

Because it had to do with a ship that was on active service status, a team had to be sent out very quickly to deal with this issue.  Nine men all southerners, many of whom didn’t even have passports needed to get to Taiwan.

The younger kinder (thinner!) Admin was cautioned to get the BEST possible fares because this was going to be a substanitial cash outlay for the company, what with nine men and all their per diem and hotel etc.  So the young Admin bypassed the travel agent and got onto the web, finding SUPERIOR fares.  She was a STAR! Best ever ever EVER.

Getting this team to a place far far from home proved to be a logistical nightmare, visas, passports and to make things even MORE interesting the country where the team was travelling to, wasn’t all that crazy about Americans.  Which meant visas upon visas.

Everything sorted, the young admin sent “her boys” on their way, with little travel books in hand, itineraries neatly typed, special envelopes for travel receipts, why she’d even had the foresight to call the local bank and order in some currency, because you see, she was not just a star but a super star! She basked in the glow of “well done’s” As the boys marched off to the plane, and reminded them gently that they should avail themselves of the paperwork she had included on the local customs and culture.  Gosh it was good to be queen.

Until 12 hours later when the phone rang, at home in the evening.  It seemed that when the super star had booked the international legs of the journey she had decided to take “her” boys thru Athens on their way out. Problem was, when the superstar made the reservations, she backed up the dates, because you see she was very clever and wanted to account for the international changes in time.

Ahhh so what was the problem? She’d counted incorrectly and the plane that should have taken her boys to China, had left the day before…… they were stranded in Athens during what turned out to be a national holiday of some sort.  It took hours to sort out there wasn’t a hotel room in the entire city…

Though I did accept responsibility, and everyone took it with good humor, it meant that a jet lagged team would have to spend the night in the airport and then report to work almost immediately upon getting to their destination.  On the upside it did give them plenty of time to read the information about their destination and it’s culture, which later turned out to be pretty much useless.  And it also taught me an important lesson when booking business travel…  Sometimes it’s worth paying the travel agent….

Andrea

[ozbound]

Well, I made a couple mistakes here yesterday; not particularly earth-shattering ones although it felt shattering to a newbie employee trying to make her best impression in the hopes that she'll be asked to stay on permanently at the end of the "tryout period." #1 was that I was preparing some marketing sheets for bossie and I forgot to include the one that wasn't in the packet, but I had written down on a sticky note to find it because bossie said it was VERY important! (Luckily it was just a draft, and it turned out I needed extra help finding the info anyway because it didn't exist in the electronic format expected). #2. was that we had a roster going out, and I handed the receptionist both the client's copy AND our file copy to FedEx. So she dutifully Fed-Exe'd 'em both, meaning I had to make another one for our files and our confused client will wonder why they got two!

It was a bad day yesterday...but thankfully, things are getting better!

[Jackie G]

And Oz, tomorrow is another day!

But keep things in perspective - nobody died, and a competitor didn't get sent company secrets or anything like that.  Receiving a duplicate copy isn't the end of the world and having to make another for your own records is no biggie.

Jackie
www.iqps.org
Peer Moderator

[mercury]

My worst ever was when I was in the Service as a newly trained teleprinter operator.  I was on weekend duty which meant working alone at a small switchboard in the exchange and also sending signals on the teleprinter.  When the NCO showed me around the weekend duty room to familiarise myself with the system, she must have thought it was a good idea to play a trick on the newbie and told me that if I couldn't get the signals out to the right number I could just dial the number on the teleprinter dial and send the signal to that one and it would be automatically forwarded to the right number.  I thought it was strange as in training the number on the dial was our own communications centre number but thought perhaps the system was different 'on circuit'.  Needless to say I had problems sending signals and, as directed by my superior, sent them all to the number on the dial.  When I went on duty on Monday morning I was called into the OIC Comms office, via the teleprinter room, whose floor was covered with reams and reams of teleprinter paper and punched tape!  Yes, I got told off and No, I didn't tell on the NCO - well, I was pretty green at the time.  Since then I have always trusted my instincts.

[movinonup]

Two years ago, around Christmas time, one of our sales engineers bought a bunch of golf shirts--12, I think, and asked me to ship them to our new Brazilian facility, to thank them for taking on a huge manufacturing project and meeting the deadline.
He asked me to make sure I put the actual value of the shirts on the commercial invoice.  I questioned this in my mind, because I figured that would cause the customs office to impose a heavy duty on them, but he said he wanted the recipients to see they each cost $50, so I did as he said.

I used Fed Ex for the shipment, because he wanted them there fast.  They shipped it and I got a call a week later from the Fed-Ex office in Brazil, saying the recipient refused to pay the duty.  I had checked off the wrong box when I shipped it (using the old, manual forms at that time), and so Fed-Ex would not deliver it.  I didn't have access to a manager to give me permission to pay the duty, but I asked how much it was.  They wanted $500 for the duty.  Since he wanted them there fast, I gave them my name and approved the charge.  (The only alternative was to ship them back to us, duty unpaid.)

That "gift" ended up costing $1150:  $600 for the shirts, $50 for the shipping, and $500 for the duty.  I quickly e-mailed the sales engineer and his manager to explain the situation.  Surprisingly, nobody said a word to me about it.  (I mentioned this later to another sales engineer, and he said that was because they would have spent twice that amount on gifts for them, the company was so pleased with their performance.)

Moral of the story:  I should have trusted my own instincts, and devalued the shirts.  How outrageous for customs to charge nearly the value of the shirts for the duty.  

Movinonup

[mbajjada]

I have never lived down this one - I am Secretary to our Faculty Board Committee, that is made up of external judges, barristers etc. In my first year of employment I had received an invite to watch the Sydney Mardi Gras from a hotel balcony and over email was organising this Saturday night party night with two of my girlfriends. None of us had ever been and were quite looking forward to it. Amidst one of the emails finalising details I was interrupted and asked the composition of the Board. I looked it up in my address book an accidently clicked the "To" box. My weekend email went to all of the Board membership and I began receiving responses via email and telephone asking if people could join us. I nearly died of embarrassment, particularly when one Judge's associate called and said that was the best laugh the Judge had had all morning. I quickly sent a retraction!

Edited by mbajjada on 29/03/04 01:58 AM.

[spitfire78]

Oh my gosh - that is so funny.  And it made me remember something I had forgotten - I had done something similar to that.  I have two groups in my e-mail address book.  One is internal and represents all of the people in the various areas of the company for which I do ordering/budgetary work.  The other is entirely external and includes the members of a nationwide organization in which one of my bosses is involved.  Whenever I am planning time off, I always notify the internal group, so that everyone knows I am not there and can plan their ordering appropriately.  Well, of course, one day I type up this e-mail letting everyone know that I will be off on Monday, and I send it to the external group!  I realized my mistake almost immediately (why, oh why, isn't there a way to reclaim something after you've sent it?) and sent out an apology.  I did get a response from one person who said that he was glad my boss actually gives me time off and to enjoy my day!  It was quite embarrassing.