What To Do After You Make A Mistake At Work (With Examples)

You’ve made a mistake at work, and it feels like the worst thing in the world. You’ve got all sorts of bad feelings, yet it’s probably not as bad as you imagine. Those feelings are totally common, it’s also normal and common to make a mistake. Everyone does it once in a while, and, in most situations, it’s not the end of your job, and it’s definitely not the end of the world.

If you’ve made a mistake at work and are unsure of what to do, stick around. In this article, we’ll go over what to do if you made a mistake at work, provide some steps to take after you made the mistake, and how to recover from the mistake.

Key Takeaways:

• Before reacting to a mistake it’s important to take a step back, assess the situation, and don’t ignore it and hope no one notices.

• When you make a mistake at work, take responsibility for it, apologize, and work to remedy it.

• After making the mistake you should show that you learned from it and grew into a better employee.

What to do when you realize you’ve made a mistake

Once you realize you’ve made a work error, you should act quickly and avoid ignoring it in hopes it goes away. Here are more things to do when you realize you’ve made a mistake at work:

• Act quickly. If it’s a crucial error and harm can come from not acting quickly is your number one priority.

  Work Mistake Needing Immediate Action Example
  For example, if you didn’t turn off the equipment in an assembly line and someone could get hurt, it’s critical that you run over and shut it down immediately.

But we’re talking more about other types of work errors here like you missed a deadline or completely forgot to compile a report. Maybe you sent an email you shouldn’t have sent. Tagged the wrong graphic with a headline. Anything that doesn’t involve immediate injury or damage needs a second look and careful consideration.

• Stop and take a step back. Before you begin apologizing all over the place and calling attention to your error take a moment to breathe and relax. There’s no need to call attention to your mistakes if it’s not necessary. Do your best to fix it, tell the people who need to know about it, and move on.

• Don’t ignore the error and hope no one noticed. It’s human nature to protect your ego, but it’s better if you can step away and accept that a mistake was made. Then you won’t have that little bit of doubt and worry eating away at you. You also look better than if the error is discovered later and traced back to you.

It’s essential that you don’t impulsively go overboard or run away from a work error. Find your midpoint, and then move on to the seven steps below.

8 Steps to take after you make a mistake at work

After you’ve made a mistake, it’s important to accept your emotions and feeling, assess the damages, and be honest about the situation. Here are more steps to take after you make a mistake at work:

1. Accept your emotions and feelings and then move on. Okay, so you feel bad about your error. Whatever emotions it brings up, none of them are good. Treat these feelings like any other and manage them in a healthy way. The mistake happened, you’re going to react, and all of that is okay. But then move on and stop dwelling.

2. Assess the damages. So, what happened? Whether it’s a relatively minor or it’s an incredibly major mistake, you need to acknowledge the reality of the situation. Yes, this will prompt emotions, too. If it’s terrible, then you may feel the panic creep back. If it’s not that bad, you might be relieved.

   Once you know what has happened and what can happen, you can start curating a game plan for fixing the problem.

3. Be honest. If you’ve made a mistake at work, it’s important to be upfront about it. Let your manager know with a brief and truthful description of what happened. When you’re honest about the mistake, it shows your manager that you can take responsibility and it allows them to trust you in the future.

4. Apologize and take responsibility. Effusive apologies aren’t necessary. But being honest about your role in the error and taking responsibility is. This is important because it shows you can be a professional adult, but there’s another, more important, reason.

   When you accept responsibility for something, you’re permitting yourself to fix it. As long as you are placing blame elsewhere, you don’t have the authority to make a change. This applies to all areas of life, and it’s a critical lesson for adulthood, professionalism, and maturity. Even if something isn’t your fault, you can take steps to fix it once you accept responsibility.

5. Don’t blame. Show your integrity in this situation, even if it is someone else’s fault, or at least partially so. The blame really doesn’t matter when it comes to fixing a mistake.

   You may find that later, down the line, the blame is an issue to your supervisor or the human resources department. At this point, you should still not blame but state your case and the facts. Also, point out that you did what you could to find a solution. This will only put you in a better light.

6. Prevention and precaution. (Steps five and six work together.) How can you make sure that it never happens again? Are there steps you can take to prevent it from happening, or at least make it less likely to happen?

7. Cause and effect. Part of your prevention and precaution steps might highlight or pinpoint the cause of the mistake.

   If it did, hopefully, you noted it and maybe were already able to spot a way to prevent a future issue. Like, you’re overworked and overtired, so you realize that sleep needs to be a priority.

   If you didn’t spot the cause, it’s time to put your detective hat on and see if you can determine why you made the error. Once you do, you might need to go back up to step five and work a remedy into your plan.

8. Recover. Easier said than done. In fact, this topic deserves its own section. So, we’ll cover that below.

How to recover when you make a mistake at work

Since your reputation can be affected after making a mistake, it’s important to accept it and make the solution to the mistake your focus. Here are some more ways to recover after making a mistake at work:

• Accept it. Everyone makes mistakes. You not dwelling on your mistake can be the first step in others not dwelling on it. While you are accepting your error, it’s important that you accept mistakes by others, too. If you can’t forgive others for their mistakes, how are they going to forgive you?

• Make the solution the focus. Leave the mistake behind but hold onto the solution. If someone brings up your mistake, direct them to the fact that you also had a solution. Change the narrative.

• Take feedback. You made a mistake, you found a solution, but there’s a chance you could have done better. If someone offers feedback, listen to them, and carefully weigh it against your solution. It’s hard not to get defensive, but this could be one of those learning moments that can change you for the better.

• Grow from the mistake. One of the best ways to salvage your reputation and improve upon it is to let it define you in a positive way. Display your determination not to make that mistake again and to show you’re even better than before. This will do a lot to your professional reputation.

• Don’t do it again. Sure, this should go without saying, but too often, people don’t go beyond the immediate problem to discover what happened in the first place and how to prevent it. Repeated mistakes, especially the same mistake over and over, will definitely tarnish your work reputation.

• Be positive. A negative attitude about the mistake, about what people think of you, or about having to fix the mistake will drag you down. Even if someone sees you as the person that made that colossal blunder, your positive approach to the future can begin to erase their misgivings.

On the other side of a work error

Making a mistake is not all bad. Some of the most significant learning moments come from screwing up. It’s through these bad times that you’re forced to try new things and grow.

This can be something you laugh about in the future. It can become a cautionary tale you share with others as you train them for the position. You can make the most of this mistake and use it to prove that you’re someone who overcomes and finds solutions. In fact, the ideas you have could help you and the company avoid similar mistakes in the future.

If you don’t survive this mistake at your job, you can make the most of it. You have the self-satisfaction of knowing that you did what you could to fix it. And imagine how you can twist this into a wonderful answer to the question, “Tell me about a time you failed” at your dream job interview.

What to do when you make a mistake at work FAQ

1. Is it okay to make mistakes at work?

   Yes, it is okay to make mistakes at work. No one is perfect, so you’re going to make a mistake at some point, whether you like it or not. What’s not okay is making mistakes because you were careless. It’s also not okay to hide, blame others for, or ignore your mistakes at work.

2. Should I tell my boss I made a mistake at work?

   Yes, you should tell your boss you made a mistake at work. It may be awkward, but this is far better than your boss finding out about it from someone else, and it allows them to back you up in case others ask about it.

   When you explain what happened, make sure to apologize and detail the steps you took or are going to take to remedy it.

3. How do I apologize for a mistake at work?

   To apologize for a mistake at work, say you’re sorry, explain what happened, and detail how you’re going to fix it and prevent it from happening again. Make sure you don’t blame others in your apology or take too long to give an apology either.

4. What should I do if I made a mistake at work?

   If you’ve made a mistake at work, you should act quickly and let your boss know. Take a step back and know that everything is going to be fine. It’s important that you don’t ignore it and hope it will go away. Take responsibility and try to remedy your mistake.

References

1. Center for Advanced Legal Studies – Work Mistake? Fess Up to Your Mess Up and Fix It

Author

Kristin Kizer

Kristin Kizer is an award-winning writer, television and documentary producer, and content specialist who has worked on a wide variety of written, broadcast, and electronic publications. A former writer/producer for The Discovery Channel, she is now a freelance writer and delighted to be sharing her talents and time with the wonderful Zippia audience.