Why do I feel bad for what happened in the office today?

Question

A VERY careless mistake was made and my supervisor and the others think I am the one who did it. My supervisor sent out an email to the mailing list (i.e everyone knows about the mistake)

So I replied to the email implying that the mistake was not made by me. My supervisor replied in a shrug-off manner and asked me to fix it.

I know that it was a mistake made by my coworker. So I went to him and let him know in person that he had to ask my coworker (who worked on that part, and thus caused the mistake to happen), because I don't know much about that part of the project.

It's hard to explain, but because of his kind of "okay, okay, I see. Thanks" reaction, I now feel like I did wrong for saying it's not my fault. I also feel like I told on my coworker behind his back and that my supervisor didn't like that.

I'm so confused. I am young and don't have much experience in workplace. What should I have done in this kind of situation? And why do I feel like c**p? :(

Answer 1

The best thing to have done was talk to the person who did it. Sometimes, the best thing to do is not what we end up doing. If you got the blame for something then I can understand your reaction. We all make mistakes in life and we try to learn from them. The deed is already done so there is not much that you can do about it. The thing is, maybe what you did was right. Maybe the supervisor prefers that you go to him when you have a problem. So I really don't know if what you did was wrong or not. Just try to not let it ruin your evening though because your not at work now and your supposed to be relaxing right now and refreshing for work tomorrow. You can deal with it then. Hope you feel better.

Answer 2

If you didn't make the mistake.. and you know it was your co worker then you did the right thing.. not to accept blame for something you didn't do.. you should stop feeling bad about this.. your coworker should have come forward and said it was her or his mistake... it's important to be honest .. and not let others take the brunt for a mistake they make.. so you did right.. I hope you did convince them... but you have to stand up for yourself.. and if someone else makes a mistake.. you either have to confront them and ask them politely to go and see the boss and tell him that they made a mistake and own up .. or you have to tell he boss .. they can't use you as a scapegoat.. so don't feel bad..don't take blame for things you didn't do .. keep on standing up for your rights...

Answer 3

You probably feel badly because you don't want people to believe that you were the one who made the mistake, but you also don't want to be seen as someone who points the finger at someone else to make yourself look better.

Your're right in that you shouldn't take responsibility for situations that are not your fault--but you also don't want to seem like you don't support your coworkers when mistakes are made. There's a delicate balance there that you'll learn with experience.

You did the right thing by telling your supervisor, but maybe you did it in the wrong way--it's not what you say, but how you say it. For example, saying, "I didn't make that mistake, Joe did" you could say, "Joe was working on that part of the project so I haven't been very involved, but I'm happy to help in any way I can." That lets your supervisor know that you weren't responsible, but you're also trying to be helpful. At this point, even though it's bothering you, I wouldn't mention it again. Concentrate on putting it behind you.

Answer 4

There's two reasons you'd feel like c**p... you either know you played some part in this mistake, or you might feel like a tattletale.  

At any rate, if you truly had nothing to do with the mistake and it was really out of your hands to fix it, move on with your life.  There's no need to lose sleep over something you can't help with.

Answer 5

Next time you're in that situation, hit "reply to all", and say something like.."I was not involved in that part of the project, but let me know if there's anything I can do to help correct this."  You shouldn't feel bad, in a finger pointing culture, you have to look out for yourself, and, you didn't do anything wrong by letting it be known that you didn't make the mistake.  You just need to use a little finesse so as not to ruffle any feathers...and feel bad about it.

Answer 6

First of all, you were right to stand up for yourself and correct the misunderstanding everyone had. It sounds like you handled this the right way - going to talk to him in person.

The best thing you can do now is drop it. Don't talk about it, don't apologize, don't bring it up, etc. And don't let yourself feel bad . . .this person brought it on himself by making a careless mistake.