Have You Been Making This Super Bowl Sized Mistake At Work?

I bet you can guess the answer to this…

Just today I was breaking bread (read: eating wings) with a friend of mine. We go back quite a ways…as we always do when we get together we caught up on what each of us have been up to professionally, family updates etc. At some point the conversation switched to discussing something both of us have noticed a lot in recent hires (are they still called millennials now?). Many make this mistake which instantly kills their credibility and with the job market as competitive as it is, you shouldn’t go putting yourself as a disadvantage because you didn’t know any better so I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Not owning a mistake when your manager or another colleague brings it to your attention is worse than making the mistake. So I’m begging you – please don’t say something stupid like “I don’t know how this happened.” Click to Tweet

Remember this guy?

Just like in that three second clip where we don’t even see what happened you can already sense the evidence is pretty clear (usually the case when someone asks that question). Bringing this idea back to the workplace example… you made a mistake, maybe even a careless one, and didn’t check your work as thoroughly as you should. Maybe you should try saying, “my fault, that’s for covering me. It won’t happen again.” At LEAST you can say that on the careless ones you should catch on your own.

There’s a reason consultancies and any other place you’ll work has manager and peer reviews and partner/executive reviews. Nobody’s perfect or exempt from mistakes, but if it’s clear from looking at what you prepared that you didn’t take some pride in your work product and care enough to look at it yourself for errors then we have a problem, a big one. This goes tenfold for you if you just joined a company. You MUST make a good great first impression. Think about how many talented people would be lined up for your job if you got fired today and act accordingly.

Think about it like this. If I have to spend all my time redoing your sub-par work then why exactly do I need to keep you around? Hint: I don’t. I can save some money from not paying you every two weeks and some frustration from not having to deal with your bad habits on a daily basis. Makes cutting costs a much easier task, so I guess there’s that.

Disagree or just have some thoughts to share? Let me know in the comments!