• Replies 13 replies
  • Subscribers 11 subscribers
  • Views 7501 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

Mistakes at the workplace

Zoe

Hi everyone, 

Hope to hear stories about some mistakes people have made at work in the world of HR.

I have been working short term contracts in HR for the last year after a change of careers. But what I am finding is due to the short term contracts I feel I do not have anyone to confide in and chat too. In my other career I would make a mistake then tell my friends and they would tell me stories of their mistakes and we would laugh about it. But this would help me put my mistakes into prospective and realise they are not such a big mistake and I would from this experience as I am the type of person who learns quicker when making any mistake.

But now when I make a mistake I have no idea how big my mistakes are and I have no-one to confide in. Off course these mistakes then begin to build up in my head and I have no way to measure how good or bad I am with my new career.

It would be nice hear from other peoples experiences.  

Parents
  • Reading Robey's mistake just reminded me of similiar error I made.

    I worked in an American Bank as a telex operator, sending messages between traders/brokers and the main bank in the USA. One of the directors was Italian. The bank dealt mostly in stocks and shares for rather rich people here and there.

    Myself and the other telex operator were given messages giving to sell or buy certain shares. Unlike the military where messages were always written out on form which minimised mistakes, important items were spelt out too. But at this bank, we got instructions to sell on the back of old envelopes, bits of torn paper or simply a bit of writing circled on someone's notes they'd been discussing with a customer over the phone and covered in crossings out and deletions. It didn't help that some of their writing was amongst the worst I'd seen. Nothing was ever checked.

    One day the Italian banker dropped in a note to buy 7000 shares for himself in an American based company. So I deciphered the scribble, typed it up, and sent it to the USA.

    The next morning the Italian came in and pointed out that I'd made a mistake and in that I'd accidentally added/typed an extra nought to the amount.

    I didn't get sacked for that.

    And they still handed us scruffy illegible scraps and scribbles.
Reply
  • Reading Robey's mistake just reminded me of similiar error I made.

    I worked in an American Bank as a telex operator, sending messages between traders/brokers and the main bank in the USA. One of the directors was Italian. The bank dealt mostly in stocks and shares for rather rich people here and there.

    Myself and the other telex operator were given messages giving to sell or buy certain shares. Unlike the military where messages were always written out on form which minimised mistakes, important items were spelt out too. But at this bank, we got instructions to sell on the back of old envelopes, bits of torn paper or simply a bit of writing circled on someone's notes they'd been discussing with a customer over the phone and covered in crossings out and deletions. It didn't help that some of their writing was amongst the worst I'd seen. Nothing was ever checked.

    One day the Italian banker dropped in a note to buy 7000 shares for himself in an American based company. So I deciphered the scribble, typed it up, and sent it to the USA.

    The next morning the Italian came in and pointed out that I'd made a mistake and in that I'd accidentally added/typed an extra nought to the amount.

    I didn't get sacked for that.

    And they still handed us scruffy illegible scraps and scribbles.
Children
  • in reply to David Perry
    Similar to Robey, in my first job working for an Employers Association, I miscalculated and then put the decimal point in the wrong place so our National Agreement on Lodging Allowance nearly ended up as £1.50 per hour instead of 15p. That was a lot of money in the 80s! Luckily my boss spotted it before the Photocopy Room (yes, I am going back a bit!) photocopied and posted the allowances to all our members!