Anonymous wrote:Maybe we should stop asking students/ interns to do certain types of work. They are there to LEARN not to be free labor

+1

Is this student worker getting paid? This student taught you how to do something that you later did 19 more times?
Welcome to the exploitation of workers in the US.

Her error set you behind THREE WHOLE HOURS?!?! Wow. Just stay late to fix it and don’t delegate this task to her in the future. I fail to see how this is a big deal for anyone.

Maybe we should stop asking students/ interns to do certain types of work. They are there to LEARN not to be free labor

Anonymous wrote:Work was assigned to you
You assigned the work to a capable person.
You did not follow up.
Work did not get done properly.

Your boss took you to task as he assigned the work to you.

You take the criticism from boss and you explain to boss how you prevent the mistake from happening in the future. (ie the buck stop here)

Boss does not want to hear you whine about your worker who failed you.

You then go back to worker and explain to them why you just got 2lbs of your ass handed to you on a carving dish. write up a letter of counseling and giver her a copy and provide a copy to her supervisor.

I am not allowed to do this. I do not supervise her, just give her daily tasks. I did not whine, or complain, I explained what happened and provided a plan, as suggested. Also, I did follow-up, which is how I caught the mistake prior to distribution but I should have followed up sooner, just not sure when and when I asked about a time to do it, they couldn't really determine it either.

I will just not utilize this aide again.

It's OK, OP. Delegating is fraught, which is why I don't do well in team work

Breathe. It's the weekend. Snow. Hot chocolate. Comforting movie.

“I gave it to Larla and unfortunately it went a little off the rails. I should have watched it a bit closer because she’s a student and sometimes I forget that, because she’s so capable!”

Work was assigned to you
You assigned the work to a capable person.
You did not follow up.
Work did not get done properly.

Your boss took you to task as he assigned the work to you.

You take the criticism from boss and you explain to boss how you prevent the mistake from happening in the future. (ie the buck stop here)

Boss does not want to hear you whine about your worker who failed you.

You then go back to worker and explain to them why you just got 2lbs of your ass handed to you on a carving dish. write up a letter of counseling and giver her a copy and provide a copy to her supervisor.

It went okay - somehow I still got the brunt of the blame, i.e., should have checked in with her to avoid the oversight.

Made a plan moving forward. Disappointing.

You don't need to take responsibility for it happening yesterday, but you do need to take responsibility for the future plan to avoid it happening again. Keep your attitude positive and forward looking. Nothing is worse than a defensive employee, just stay on message "Its unfortunate it happened yesterday, and here are 3 suggestions I have to avoid similar problems in the future."

Delegated it to Jane, and she made a careless mistake. When I delegate to her in the future, I'll briefly go over the procedure and check her work.

What did she do wrong?

Do I need or do I not accept fault in this situation for a meeting in 30 min:
-Student worker in the office screwed up a project I gave to her -- set us behind 3 hours
-I am allowed to delegate these sort of projects
-Student worker actually trained me to do this specific project -- we have done this specific thing about 20 times now, no reason to mess up, I have no idea why/how she did, I spent my time fixing it
-My bosses were really annoyed with me about it yesterday
-She has repeatedly messed up but I can tell my supervisors really like her as a person, as do I but not as employee

If I don't take responsibility, what do I say?
I am not her direct supervisor, just give her assignments.