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Is my mistake understandable at work??


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chelle21689

This is my first office "big girl" job and it's in HR. I've been at it for 6 months and handle resumes, interviews, onboarding, orientation, etc.

 

Anyways, we send future new hires to a place to get background checks and drug tests. I remember my supervisor mentioning those in that lived out of our state within the past 5 years need two background checks; one for federal and one for state. After six months I found out from her I need to ask employees if they lived outside our state in the past 5 years, tell them to tell the place to do BOTH background checks.

 

I've always thought they did it themselves because I never asked and there was times where they'd do both on an applicant. I thought if they investigated the state and did they lived out of ohio the place would do the FBI check too.

 

So I had to tell one future new hire she needs to get it done and it'd delay her start date for 1-3 wks. She got rude with me and pouted and didn't answer me over the phone where I had to break the silence. I apologized to her too.

 

My boss didn't seem mad but the new hire was and it stressed me out because I don't like being mad at.

 

I mean my mistake is understandable right? Also I know how to do my job for the majority of the part but I still find myself making new small mistakes and encountering new things I'm not familiar with. Is this normal for a new grad? I don't repeat mistakes, well I rarely do.

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It's completely normal to make small mistakes while you are learning in a new position. I've been at my job for a year and I still learn new things. Take it as a learning experience!

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Mistakes do happen. You're new, and you didn't know. But I'm not going to tell you that it's okay.

 

It's not okay because the mistake you made directly effected someone's income and possibly the livelihood of their family. Losing 1-3 weeks of pay could be really devastating to most people, and you don't seem to appreciate that. You seem more annoyed that she stressed you out.

 

I mean my mistake is understandable right?

 

No. The person who lost wages is not ever going to understand.

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chelle21689

Well that's why I feel so crappy about it. I couldn't stop stressing about it yesterday night and it's been on my mind.

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I mean my mistake is understandable right? Also I know how to do my job for the majority of the part but I still find myself making new small mistakes and encountering new things I'm not familiar with. Is this normal for a new grad? I don't repeat mistakes, well I rarely do.

It sounds like important aspects of the employment process aren't set out clearly at your work and you find out the rules on an ad-hoc basis.

 

This is your manager's and your department head's fault, it is their job to provide thorough training, especially when it affects someone's employment/living circumstances. This kind of check isn't a small thing and how on earth would you know unless someone told you?

 

It's not just the fact that you are a new grad, an employee is expected to grow within her job, make it her own and learn as much as possible about it. However, important guidelines have to be set out by the company, how do you know what questions to ask otherwise? How do you know what is still a grey area for you?

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