Just messed up at work - remind me that it happens to everyone!

[Anonymous]

A very good friend started a new job where another one of our friends worked. On the first day, good friend gets an email from the friend already employed at the company. The email was an all staff email, and posed the question at the end " What do you suggest we do?". Jokingly, my friend wrote back to his friend " I suggest you shove it up your ass". Yup you guessed it, he hit reply all and sent it to the whole company. This was ten years ago, and i still giggle at the thought of it.

[Anonymous]

As an intern, I sent a dirty joke email to a list of my coworkers but accidentally copied a very religious, high level, senior leader at the Fortune 100 company I worked for. This was back in the day when forwarding emails at work was not the huge no-no it is today. Thankfully the guy didn't turn me in and I got a job offer from them after the summer. I'll never forget the total panic I felt when realizing what I had done.

[Anonymous]

Speaking of email screwups--

I was checking my personal email account online at my job. This was about 12 years ago. I got an email from a friend with a link in it-- it was one of those spam viruses that send you to a porn site, and then send an email to everyone in your address book. Well, even though it was my personal email, the virus got into my Outlook (work) email address book, and it sent porn to about 2000 employees of the large school district I was working in... 99% of whom I didn't know. I got a LOT of email that day-- from people who knew me who were like, WTF? And people who didn't know me who were REALLY like, WTF??? And from my superintendent. That was nice.

Yeah. That was embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

OP here -

Feeling a little better, although sending out an inappropriate email is a little different than submitting poor quality work and getting called out on it with a permanent bad grade on my record.

My boss initially said he was going to reassign the assignment to someone else, but I just sent an email apologizing for my work product and asking for another opportunity to fix it, without asking him to change the grade and offering not to bill any additional time on it. I hope that was the right way to handle it but even if not, I guess it couldn't do any additional harm.

[Anonymous]

What industry is this that your product is given an actual grade? Really curious and nosey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What industry is this that your product is given an actual grade? Really curious and nosey.

Fed gov and its not a "grade" per se, its just outstanding, satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What industry is this that your product is given an actual grade? Really curious and nosey.

Fed gov and its not a "grade" per se, its just outstanding, satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Are you on a quota system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What industry is this that your product is given an actual grade? Really curious and nosey.

Fed gov and its not a "grade" per se, its just outstanding, satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Are you on a quota system?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What industry is this that your product is given an actual grade? Really curious and nosey.

Fed gov and its not a "grade" per se, its just outstanding, satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Are you on a quota system?

Yes.

PTO?

[Anonymous]

A new law clerk for a federal judge sent an e-mail to several other law clerks about lunch plans. Somehow this e-mail was sent to hundreds of federal court employees all over the country, including federal judges!

[Anonymous]

I was looking in Yellow Book online for child care. I clicked on a listing for a supposed daycare center in Bethesda. It was actually a pornado virus!!! Have you ever heard of a pornado. It literally locks down your computer and you instantly start getting hundreds and hundreds of porn images flashing one after the other. I couldn't stop it and I couldn't even get the computer to turn off. I had to run the halls to find our IT person to handle it. He had to erase the hard drive and rebuild it from scratch.

[Anonymous]

OP, you need to relax. You're not perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. Learn from it and move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What industry is this that your product is given an actual grade? Really curious and nosey.

Fed gov and its not a "grade" per se, its just outstanding, satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

NP here. Okay, I can see how it might be useful to grade work. It's clear feedback after all - but it still seems degrading and infantilizing. Sorry OP!

[Anonymous]

As a boss, I agree completely with those who say that if you admit your mistake, fix it and learn from it, you'll be fine. Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone has an occasional bad day. The only employees who drive me crazy are the ones who want to argue about how it wasn't really a mistake, and if it was a mistake, it was someone else's fault, etc etc. What that tells me is that the employee is going to keep making the same mistake over and over again, because they didn't learn anything. I can teach someone who lacks knowledge. I can't teach someone who refused to admit that they need to learn anything. I've been in my business for fifteen years, and I'm still learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a boss, I agree completely with those who say that if you admit your mistake, fix it and learn from it, you'll be fine. Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone has an occasional bad day. The only employees who drive me crazy are the ones who want to argue about how it wasn't really a mistake, and if it was a mistake, it was someone else's fault, etc etc. What that tells me is that the employee is going to keep making the same mistake over and over again, because they didn't learn anything. I can teach someone who lacks knowledge. I can't teach someone who refused to admit that they need to learn anything. I've been in my business for fifteen years, and I'm still learning.

Also a boss here and totally agree with the above statement. I would also add employees who mess up, admit it but ask for constant reassurance because they realized they messed up drive me nuts. OP, once you get a response back from your boss about whether you can try to correct your mistake, let it go. Do not keep bringing this issue up in hopes your boss will ease your worried mind.