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How to handle making mistakes at work
What do you do when curling up in a ball and dying just isn’t an option?
It’s an unfortunate truth that everyone makes mistakes. It’s inevitable, no matter how hard we try and prevent them, we will make mistakes. After several accidents and miscommunications were brought up once in an old workplace of mine, a colleague responded with the unforgettable, endlessly quotable line: ‘I don’t make mistakes.’ I pointed out that all humans do, so unless she’s a robot, she can’t be telling the truth. She never did reply to that e-mail actually…
Anyway, the point of that little story is, DON’T PRETEND A RIDICULOUS SENTENCE LIKE THAT COULD EVER BE TRUE.
It isn’t easy, especially at work, to realize you’ve done something wrong, and then admit it. It’s generally very uncomfortable and, depending on the type of boss you have, could lead to trouble. I can’t tell you what to do if you have a mean boss (I mean, I can, but that’s for another day), but I can tell you how to handle it when you make a mistake in the workplace.
- Accept that you made a mistake. Yep, the first step is one you do alone. Unless there’s a life and death urgency to the occasion…
