• Question: have you ever messed up in work

    Asked by anon-215223 to Laura, Kathryn, Ian, Chris, Bogdana, Alex on 14 Jun 2019. This question was also asked by anon-215215.
    • Photo: Kathryn Atherton

      Kathryn Atherton answered on 14 Jun 2019:


      Yes! Mistakes happen. For example, when I was a research assistant, I once accidentally saved over the top of a participant’s data, deleting it. The important thing is not whether you ever mess up, but how you react when you do. Have you ever messed up? And how did you react? (You could let us know in the comments)

    • Photo: Ian Cookson

      Ian Cookson answered on 14 Jun 2019:


      All the time! Everyone does, we’re human. There was a lot of interesting work starting in the 1940’s and 1950’s which continues to this day in designing systems that minimize human error, because we will always make mistakes.

    • Photo: Bogdana Huma

      Bogdana Huma answered on 17 Jun 2019:


      Several times! I always tell myself that mistakes are ‘part of the process’. The only way to avoid messing up is by not taking on any tasks or challenges. I found that what makes a difference is how you deal with these errors (minimise the damage) and what you learn from them (develop strategies to preempt making the same mistake next time)

    • Photo: Alex Lloyd

      Alex Lloyd answered on 17 Jun 2019:


      Yes, more than I would like! I once forgot to save a file and lost 3 hours of work. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes, now I save every 5 minutes!

    • Photo: Laura Fisk

      Laura Fisk answered on 17 Jun 2019:


      Absolutely – and the same as what these guys have said, we’re human so we all make mistakes. In clinical work, messing up can sometimes have massive consequences not only for you as an employee and individual, but for your clients as well. And then, sometimes people (I may be one of these, at least at times) can think they’ve messed up even when they haven’t (like beating myself up thinking it was my fault that bad thing hapened even though it was just bad luck). One of the most important things I’ve learned in being a psychologist is knowing bad things can happen and we can survive – and I have to do my best, but that is good enough. I need to be able to rationalise why I do what I do, have self compassion, and give myself credit for the good stuff that happens and be able to let go, move on and grow. That’s what I tell myself, and that’s what I help my clients to learn to do too

    • Photo: Chris Fullwood

      Chris Fullwood answered on 20 Jun 2019:


      Yes lots of time, but luckily most of the time nobody noticed!

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