To err is human...but is there a protocol on how to react after you’ve made a blooper?
Achievements are quickly forgotten but the goof-ups stay with you,” laments Reena Kataria, a personal tax professional handling almost 150 expat clients. During her first year with a leading consultancy firm, she misplaced an ITR sent by an Indian living in the UK, which led to his missing the filing date. The returns filing season is a period of frantic activity and the fact that she was new to Outlook Express made matters worse.
The first she heard of her mistake was when the aggrieved expat raised the matter. But when she found the “lost” mail, Kataria owned up gracefully. The goof-up cost her a positive appraisal and her company 9,000. Three years on, it’s all water under the bridge, but tax filing seasons still bring along those old jokes and lighthearted taunts from her seniors.
You probably have your own workplace boo-boo experience, be it a slight error of judgement or a major mistake. “Goof-ups are common and are a part of the learning cycle. Most organisations are tolerant enough to forgive harmless errors. However, repetitive erroneous behaviour is not taken lightly,” says Ravi Shankar, senior vice-president (human resources) at HCL Technologies.
Is it Carelessness?
The most common errors Shankar encounters are typos in the emails and proposals sent to clients or colleagues, which usually don’t lead to adverse consequences. His suggestion: take a break after you have structured a proposal or an email. This makes it easier to spot mistakes that you tend to overlook in the first read.
Apart from a spell check, make sure your email is complete. Preeti Alagh, who worked for an MNC, shares her experience with a “boss from hell” who was fanatical about grammar: “I would draft an email, proofread it again and again, making sure it was proper and professional, and then would forget to attach the PPT,” she says. The boss in question would then send back a stinker marking the “super seniors” in it, even before she had a chance to recall the email. Fortunately for her, she quit the company before learning the impact of such goof-ups on her career growth.
Says Namr Kishore, head of marketing at Manpower Group: “A calculation error can be rectified by damages or compensation. But it’s a different matter, if an error affects the brand in the eyes of a client or a customer.”
Don’t Shy Away
There is no other way to deal with a goof up than to own up. “We expect employees to be open and share mistakes that have happened. We believe this is the first step to correcting a mistake. Employees are also expected to come up with a plan of action that will avoid similar errors to occur again,” says Subhro Bhaduri, head of human resources at Kotak Mahindra Bank. If there’s a learning associated with it, a goof-up need not be a gross waste of time.
Bhaduri is a veteran of sorts in dealing with erring employees — the entire BFSI sector, in fact, is particularly susceptible to grave errors of judgment. But, as Bhaduri says, in a large firm, goof-ups are inevitable.
Own Up, Don’t Defend
According to Kishore, most organisations are progressive enough to give due benefit of doubt to erring employees. “Making a mistake is not a crime but defending a mistake is definitely one,” he says.
Vijay Dua committed this crime while working as a customer service representative with one of the banking institutions in India. On a particularly bad day, an agitated customer showered the choicest abuses on him, and an enraged Dua banged the phone down. That’s a strict no-no in the industry. Says Dua: “The customer had my employee number and in no time, the matter got escalated. I defended my stand, but thankfully, my manager understood. He just requested me to handle such matters delicately in the future.” And delicate he was — the next time he encountered a similarly agitated customer, he held on till the customer was done with his ‘verbal diarrhoea’.
Importance of a Good Track Record
Perhaps the most important criterion that determines an organisation’s response to a mistake is the erring employee’s track record. In a way, it measures the seriousness of the goof-up. According to Rajendra Ghag, executive vice-president, human resources and administration at HDFC Life, a repository of each employee’s activities and performance reveals whether a particular error is a rare instance or a routine occurrence.
The industry that Ghag works for is infamous for incidents of mis-selling, which makes it difficult for him to distinguish the inadvertent errors from the intentional ones. While he maintains that organisations generally don’t prefer to escalate such matters, sometimes it’s a matter of setting a deterrent. “At times we have to take strong action on serious errors even if the employee is innocent. This is just to send the right message to others,” he says. Incidentally, Ghag ends up sending 10-20 warning letters each month.
The essential learning here? The next time, or the first time, you goof-up at your workplace, don’t fret or hyperventilate. At the same time, being nonchalant is not a good idea. The rule of thumb is to own up and learn.
HOW TO GET OVER GOOF UPS
Own Up
If you realise you have committed an error, let your seniors know before they find out themselves
Avoid the Blame Game
Don’t blame others or circumstances. Evasive answers are never appreciated
Point a Solution
Suggest ways to rectify your mistake. Your seniors will welcome your sense of ownership
Take it as a Learning Experience
Understand where you went wrong and take extra care in future. Repeating the mistake will bolster the case against you
(:: Sunanda Poduwal SET20NO1111)
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