What to do when you blow up big time in the office

Some years ago, I used to work with a very brilliant guy whom I’ll call John.  John was one of those typical IT wizard.  He looked the part, played the part and got the accolades.  That is until he made a blunder that nearly cost him his career.

John came in to the office one weekend to do some offline work.   He had come in to put in a new piece of hardware, a tape drive for the backups.  The servers had needed a reboot afterwards after installing the software that would talk to the back up drive.  Everything was singing along nicely till John discovered that one of the servers was not coming back up. 

And this was the server that was the bread and butter of the company…  The one that held all the customer orders, invoices…(I guess you are beginning to feel John’s pain, right?).

John’s weekend had now turned into a horror nightmare.  Not only could John not bring the server back up after many repeated failed and hair pulling attempts (what was left of his already bald head that is)…but there was one more calamity.  The server was dead and beyond resurrection.  And sadly, its will and testament was desperately outdated…the last backup had been done weeks beforehand. 

Saturday night into Sunday and finally Monday must have been the longest hours John ever spent in his life till then.  The drive to work must have been the longest drive ever.  John would now have to face the company big cats, ie the senior managers, to tell them his escapades. 

They graciously gave him time to rebuild a new server.  They graciously asked the employees to work overtime to start retyping in sequence in all the orders that had been lost since the last backup.  They graciously devised emergency plans to keep the company running while hell was breaking loose in the server room. 

Fortunately the paper copies were retrievable.  Finally after a long hard week, John was thrown into the lions den.  He faced a disciplinary action for costing the company time and money.  John was put on a year’s probation.  One further mistake would mean ‘see you later!’.  At least, John had kept his job.  Not too long after, John handed in his notice. 

So what do you do when you blow it big time?  Do you pretend that aliens attacked the office?  Blame the bad tea in the coffee machine?  Or run for cover under the beds never to come out again! 

When you make a mistake, it can be really stressful.  But you can salvage even the worse of mistakes without losing your dignity, while at the same time taking something from it.  Here are 9 things you can do:

##1  Take ownership

John took ownership of what had happened.  He was the back up guy, the hardware guy as he was known back then.  But what if you are in a team and you are a team player?  But you have done something that has affected the output of the team. 

Do you take ownership of the status of your part, or do you make it a shared responsibility?  Or what if you are the team leader and one of your team has done a big error?  Do you take responsibility for the team or do you go to your meeting blaming the team member for all things gone wrong? 

If you are a team member take ownership of the role you played.  It shows responsibility.  It shows you can be trusted.  It shows you are not afraid to own up to your own errors.  If you are a team leader, take the responsibility.  Of course, you can have a one on one with the party involved.  However, remember you answer for the output of the team.  That is why you are the l-e-a-d-e-r!

##2 Assess the mistake

How big or small is the mistake?  Who are those affected?  What is the cost of this mistake?  Assessing the mistake will prevent you from appearing too emotional and even out of control. 

When you know the scale of the ‘damage’ of the error or mistake, you know what you are dealing with.  It may not be as big as think it is once you have assessed the mistake.  Likewise it may not be as small as you think it is.  You do not want to add insult to injury by having this pointed out to you!

##3 Are there possible fixes?

Only when you know what the mistake is can you start exploring any possible fixes.  Do you homework and research.  It may be a common mistake that someone has found a solution for.  Why re-invent the wheel, check out what the possible fix is. Also check out any possible costs involved too.

##4 Tell!

Without delay too.  And put forward those solutions and fixes you have researched on too.

##5  Apologise

Don’t come across as arrogant.  Apologise but without the drama and tears.

##6  Accept any disciplinary action

Accept any disciplinary action with grace and humility.  We all make mistakes from time to time.  This is one you will remember and who knows, may pay its dividend later in your career cause you have the experience of something that others are yet to do!  In all you do, do not become resentful or start slagging off the company

##7  What are the lessons learnt?

To make a mistake and not learn from it is an even bigger mistake than the mistake itself.  What if it were to happen again…hopefully not with you this time?  Everyone will remember that you had the solution…and now have no answer. 

Document what you learnt.  Make note to self.  What could have been done to prevent the mistake?  What could be done to minimise the mistake even?   Is there a learning gap that needsto be filled?  What can you do to self improve?

##8  Forgive yourself

Don’t be hard on yourself.  We are not looking for perfectionist but for leaders who win the war even after losing a battle.   See the big picture.  See your worth has increased, yes, increased because of what you have learnt from this.  Then you won’t be so hard on yourself and can forgive yourself!  Unless you forgive yourself you can’t move unto the final and most important step.

##9  Rebuild trust with all parties including yourself

You documented what lessons were learnt earlier.  Start putting them into practise.  Start dotting the ‘i’ and crossing the ‘t’.  People may have long memories when we make mistakes but if we keep getting it right, it soon becomes a faded memory.  Why not put your efforts in doing right, confessing the right things about yourself, and see how you start climbing up once again

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About The Author

Zoe

Zoe met Eze (Chuck) in the 14th year of what turned out to be an 18 year ‘journey’ with mental illness. They got married less than a year of meeting with Zoe fully knowing Chuck had a diagnosis of mental illness. In the 18th year, Chuck defied the odds of mental illness. A consultant psychiatrist signed him off the mental health system with a bill of NO MENTAL ILLNESS. The consultant was so amazed by Chuck’s astonishing recovery that he even questioned how Chuck was diagnosed with mental illness all those years before, in the first place! Today Chuck is free from medication, its dependency and hospitalizations. Zoe’s award nominated book, DEFYING THE ODDS, chronicles the highs and ‘lows’ of this journey. Zoe, often writing from the standpoint of a caregiver, clearly understands that mental illness does not only affect an individual challenged with the disease, but also families, marriages and society as a whole.

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