Gonna be fired next week

LegacyUser

Finished college a few years back and have a good job in a bank.
It's an interesting job and I get on well with others. It's dealing with crazy sums of money from all over the world. Being responsible for millions and a simple mistake can be serious.

I know one person is leaving the department as they can't face the pressure and is transferring to another area.

I don't think I'm particularly good at it but I did my annual appraisal during the week and my manager gave me a good appraisal and said I was doing well.

Last month I made a mistake and I've cost my company $35,000. It was an easy mistake, I simply missed something for two hours and now someone is looking for compensation.

I waited until everyone was gone home and then I emailed my manager to tell them.

I'm off on Monday and I realy couldn't face admitting my mistake today, I just put it off.

Nobody in my office knows but me.

There aren't many jobs in Ireland that you can lose $35,000 in two hours but I managed it.

I'm dreading going into work next week and almost thought of not showing up. But at the same time I don't want to let people face.

Anyone else face the sack and have advice?

Dord

The best advice I can give is to face the music and dance. Ask your manager can you have a quiet word with them to discuss it and the repercussions.

A lot of people deal with large sums of money daily in their work, myself included. I've made my fair share of mistakes also. We're only human.

Marksie

You maybe should have done something immediately. But are you guaranteed the sack?

Thankfully its not a nick leeson, barings bank fiasco. that was a somewhat extreme example of what happens when someone tries to hide things

uberwolf

I also work in a bank dealing in these 8, 9 digit numbers. I would be astonished if your bank fired you for this. for every 35k you could lose them, you're making that back many times over. Human error is just that. They'll deal with it.

Victor

Pfff $35,000

If you are capable of losing that amount in two hours, it probably isn't an issue.

andrew1977

E-mailing your manager to let him know the problem wasnt the best thing you could have done, you should have asked to speak to him straight away in person .
But saying that go back into the job and front up to all and admit you made a mistake, we all do it in our working life, apologise to them for the error an take it from there.

Dord

Victor wrote: »

Pfff $35,000

Thats what I was thinking too.

LegacyUser

They will think much more negatively about you over the delay in telling them then the actual mistake itself. I suggest calling into the bank Monday even if you are off, asking to speak to the manager, explain that you didn't quite know how to approach it. They'll appreciate it far more then an email and you taking your day off as usual.

humanji

As was said, you should of owned up straight away, but it's too late now. Even though you're off on Monday, go in and see your boss. Tell him the whole truth and tell him that even though you sent the mail, that you thought it's be better to come in in person. It'll make a better impression and win you some brownie points. If you hide from this, it'll do you no favours at all.

It's not the end of the world. You might get fired or you might not. If you are fired, you'll get another job, simple as that. But if you own up to it, you stand a good chance of getting away with maybe a slight reprimand.

SingingCherry

I really think you're overreacting. My husband works for an investiment company and about six months ago 300 million was lost over 5 years because of a coding problem in their system. 300 million and no one noticed until it was way too late. There was a "oh crap!" moment in the IT department, but no one lost their job. You'll be okay.

Mezcita

From Wiki:

"Realizing the gravity of the situation, Leeson left a note reading "I'm Sorry" and fled on February 23. Losses eventually reached £827 million (US$1.4 billion), twice the bank's available trading capital. After a failed bailout attempt, Barings was declared insolvent on February 26."

Small beans OP. You'll be alright.

DublinWriter

Big Financial Institutions put back millions of Euro on the balance sheet for bad debts and sundry clerical mistakes.

OP - I really wouldn't worry.

eve

I have found that in general banks are very slow to fire in cases of a genuine mistake with this amount of money. If it had been malicious or for your own personal profit that would be different. Explain to your manager what happened and be objective-don't try to blame someone else for distracting you or not catching it. Best of luck

David Michael

There was a guy once who took it upon himself to sell about 250,000 worth of bits to a company he had traded with a few times in the past... but for much smaller amounts.
The company decided not to pay. The guy was in deep sh1t as it was a "cash" sale to a company with no real history.

Left work on a friday evening... found dead near a dalkey beach on the Saturday morning after drowning himself.

It is only a job OP. People make mistakes but your company is aware of that and most likely covered for such an eventuallity. The make "provisions"

You might get a roasting but thats life. Even if you were let go...it is only a job.

Best of luck next week.

The_Conductor

I concur with everyone else here- it was a genuine mistake, not something that you did for personal gain. It would be a good idea to report to your boss first thing on Monday morning- perhaps even before he gets a chance to read the e-mail. Running from problems is never a solution- in the cold light of day, these things all have ways of sorting themselves out. E35k might be a lot of money to you- but to the company while its an annoyance, it'll be forgotten before too long.

We all make mistakes, its part of being human. I really don't think its a firing issue.

S.

eirmail

A friend of mine used to work in citigroup . For the first 3-4 weeks everything he did was meant to be doublechecked as part of the training. He accidently sent 1,000,000 dollars to the wrong a/c . The guy doing the double checking missed this. They had to ask for the money back ,they got it back about 2 weeks later. They were down 5,000 on the interest , though. Nobody lost their job.

RuggieBear

You might get a bolliking but that is all, i reckon. we had someone where i work make a mistake that added 25 grand onto the cost of a project.

And once we had 25 grand of equipemnt nicked because a guy left it in his car overnight as he was too lazy to take it inside as he was supposed to.

**** happens.

Mighty_Mouse

The key point with mistakes is to face the music asap.
An email to yer boss after everybody has gone home plus not coming into work until Tuesday is not good.

Turn up Monday morning to explain the error. Make up an excuse why you waited to report it. ie you were investigating it, double-checking until the late hours of Friday evening.................or even just say you panicked.


Mistakes happen but how you've handled yours isnt great.

Ishindar

i work in a different industry but losing 35k when u deal with large sums of money all the time is just part of the job. no one should bat an eyelid, i wouldnt even let my manager know because its human error and u should never appologise for being human. ive lost maybe 50k in my time. a college once lost 8 million, we make the odd harmless joke about it but thats as far as it goes.
when u go in on monday, hold your head high and smile, your only human so erlax and enjoy your life

KdjaCL

Doubt you will be sacked for that, seen someone destroy a machine worth €750,000 in less than 8 seconds.

kdjac

kowloon

Where i used to work someone managed to destroy several million dollars worth of product through minor negligence.
They lost out on a few percent of pay rise that year and that was it.
A single mistake generally wont get you anything beyond a verbal warning as long as you didnt put anyone in danger (or harrassed another employee).

Oryx

Anyone can make a mistake, and most all of us do at some time.

What shows your worth as a person, and as an employee, is how you deal with mistakes when they happen. Dont run away or hide from this, go in and face your boss at your earliest opportunity. Take responsibility and see where it goes from there.

Id say the repercussions wont be half as bad as you imagine.

Froot

KdjaCL wrote: »

Doubt you will be sacked for that, seen someone destroy a machine worth €750,000 in less than 8 seconds.

kdjac

Battlefield is not the real world so no you didn't!

dudara

Froot You've already been warned on another thread for insulting posters. Please stay on topic and take the time to read the charter regarding helpful poster in this forum

dudara

Mr E

Banks have insurance against these types of mistakes. You're human, after all.
Quiet word with your manager, and see what happens.

dudara

Financial institutions have risk and compliance officers and are used to making losses through human error. Stand up and be honest. It's your best policy.

[Jackass]

Your manager is as much liable as you are for putting you in a position of such responsability if you weren't able to handle it.

I work in finance too, and as said, if you're in a position where you can lose 35k in a couple of hours it's not a major issue, it's just a fu*k up and if anything your mistake will be pointed out to you in a fairly harsh manner, your boss may try to make you feel a bit stupid giving you sh*t over it, but this is just so it wont happen again and these things happen, at least you're more experienced in your job now that you know what to look out for.

Dont worry about it. I presume you're working in a wealth managment role or ticket position for trading...these banks wipe their a$$ with 35k, they'll get over it.

Sleepy

OP, you'll be amazed at how people can react to a 'mea culpa'. Most of us are so used to people trying to pass the buck and blame others that we'll actually respect someone for the admission of guilt more than we'll look down on them for making the mistake in the first place. You can actually turn this into something that gains you kudos rather than losing it if you deal with it right. Go into work tomorrow and have a chat with the boss.

Dalfiatach

Sleepy wrote: »

OP, you'll be amazed at how people can react to a 'mea culpa'. Most of us are so used to people trying to pass the buck and blame others that we'll actually respect someone for the admission of guilt more than we'll look down on them for making the mistake in the first place. You can actually turn this into something that gains you kudos rather than losing it if you deal with it right. Go into work tomorrow and have a chat with the boss.

+1

€35K is nothing. Last year I had a minor role in a project that went horribly, horribly wrong and ended up costing the company...well, no-one knows for sure yet cos the accountants are still trying to disentangle the mess :eek:

Probly be somewhere around $500K though.

When the smelly brown stuff hit the rotary air-distrubution device, some of us just told the truth, including areas where we personally had messed up, and made constructive suggestions to senior management on how to stop that kind of thing going wrong in future. 2 other weasels tried to run and hide, blaming everybody else and loudly insisting to everyone that would listen that it was all Other People's Fault.

Guess who got the sack?

You'll be fine, as long as you just go into the manager this morning in person (phone him first thing to let him know you'll be in to discuss it), calmly explain what went wrong, apologise for all the hassle, won't ever happen again, etc. You'll then get a right bollicking for being an eejit, but as was said above this is just to make sure you've learned the lesson and won't repeat the mistake. By Tuesday lunchtime it'll all be forgotten about.

cold_filter

A friend of mine working in london, came in on a monday lost 100k sterling, 200k on tuesday 400k on wedenesday and nearly 900k on thursday, so over 1.5 million sterling, his boss didnt bat an eyelid banks are prepared for these losses.

the_syco

KdjaCL wrote: »

Doubt you will be sacked for that, seen someone destroy a machine worth €750,000 in less than 8 seconds.

kdjac

HAHAHA. Legend.

=-=

OP, if you're there a few years, and this is your first mistake of this kind, once you own up, you should be ok.

Overheal

OK ITS MONDAY

We need to hear back from the OP... for a change.

Black Ball

yeah,........what happened,..was thinking about it in wok on mondaY myself !