SINGAPORE: After a man shared in an online forum that he felt really terrible for making a huge mistake at work, numerous Singaporean workers swooped in to show their solidarity by recounting their biggest workplace blunders.
In a post on r/askSingapore on Wednesday (Sep 25), he explained how deeply remorseful he felt after accidentally sending a client a report filled with incorrect numbers. The situation worsened when he informed his supervisor about the mistake and received a scolding.
“What do I do? I take responsibility for it, but I just don’t know what to do,” he wrote. “And I’m so sick of myself for making such mistakes. On top of that, I’m really slow at work. I feel like just accepting the scolding and submitting my resignation tomorrow. I’m so tired.”
“I shut down a national bank for 12 hours. It happens.”
In the discussion thread, a wave of support emerged as Singaporeans from various professions shared their gravest mistakes and most embarrassing workplace moments.
One individual said, “I got 50,000 cans of deodorant produced that couldn’t be sold in my market due to the wrong labelling.. you’re fine. Just a mistake.”
Another commented, “I shut down a national bank for 12 hours. It happens.”
A third netizen shared a story about a mistake he made during his first week of work. He said, “I cut a disk wrong which prevented a successful branch opening. Didn’t matter, stayed at the company for eight years.”
One commenter recounted a more significant error, recalling how his mistake took down the company’s entire production.
He wrote, “If you’re feeling bad – my mistake took down our entire production. Customers from all over the world could not access. Customers were in an uproar and complaints rose, and easily more than a million dollars in overall damages.”
Another individual recalled an experience from his first year of work at his previous company, where he mistakenly ordered $100,000 worth of unreturnable goods.
He added, “My boss had to source out buyers from global but failed to offload the items. We had to write it off. It wasn’t exactly only my mistake but I was dead scared that I would get into big trouble since it’s more than my annual pay at that time haha. My boss nagged at me for quite some time. I stayed in that company for the next 10 years.”
Meanwhile, others reassured him that making a mistake at work is a common experience and that it doesn’t define his abilities or worth as an employee. Many also emphasized the importance of learning from such situations rather than letting them discourage him.
One individual explained, “Making mistakes is a part of life, especially work life. The fact that you feel so badly means that you care enough about work and the people affected by this mistake.
“Apologize if you haven’t, the sooner the better. If there is time to fix the mistake, owning up to the mistakes as soon is possible is better.”
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