Nearly 3 months into my job and made a major mistake

Lollipop95

Hi,

I started working for an insurance company almost 2 months ago. I made a pretty significant mistake in work yesterday, where I overquoted someone for a policy. They were happy with the price and gave me card details. I sometimes check my emails when I have days off and I wanted to see the status of the purchase (I had to give card details to another member of my team).

I logged on and saw a long email chain which had my boss and the director of the company and a couple of my co workers cc'd along with myself. It turns out I misquoted the person by €400. It all turned out fine as I saw from the email my co worker reached out to that person and they still purchased.

It's the first major mistake I've made and it's a real confidence knocker as I've only started thinking I'm doing an ok job in the last couple of weeks

Any advice?

ASOT

Lollipop95 wrote: »

Hi,

I started working for an insurance company almost 2 months ago. I made a pretty significant mistake in work yesterday, where I overquoted someone for a policy. They were happy with the price and gave me card details. I sometimes check my emails when I have days off and I wanted to see the status of the purchase (I had to give card details to another member of my team).

I logged on and saw a long email chain which had my boss and the director of the company and a couple of my co workers cc'd along with myself. It turns out I misquoted the person by €400. It all turned out fine as I saw from the email my co worker reached out to that person and they still purchased.

It's the first major mistake I've made and it's a real confidence knocker as I've only started thinking I'm doing an ok job in the last couple of weeks

Any advice?

Youll be find dont worry about it. Iv worked in the industry for years it happens. Just dont make a habbit of it.

bren2002

Not specifically to your situation, but always own up, take responsibility, fix it if you can and always be completely honest. Don't omit anything or try to dress it in your favour - it always comes out in the end. Managers can deal with a situation if they know all the facts and don't get blind sided by something later.

Ursus Horribilis

Go talk to your manager tomorrow and own up. Tell him/her everything and own the mistake. You can't change the error you made but it's not going to look good if you try to go to ground or twist the story in any way. You're not the first person who has ever made a mistake in their job but the way you handle it is very important. This particular error has been rectified but perhaps there are questions to be asked about how you came to make the mistake. Is there a flaw in the systems used in work? Do you need extra training? What can be done to stop this happening again?

Look, you're not the first person to have made a mistake in work. Most of these are fixable and I include your error in this. Your company didn't lose the business from this customer. Because they approached the customer themselves and told them they'd have a lower premium, the customer will probably be happy to continue with them next year. So it's all good. Try not to sweat this too much. I'm sure other than this you're doing very well.

Xterminator

Hi Op

mistakes are part of the learning process. Own the mistake, apologise once and move on.

1. I would suggest you learn from this and make damn sure that you are the most careful employee at issuing quotes from now on.

2. Is your training and support sufficient? If not discuss with manager.

3. Is this an easy mistake to make givin the software/processes in the office? If so think up how the process could be improved to rule out the possibility of making this error, and assess if this will make the job better or worse, IE is the solution less efficient/ more efficient. see can you come up with a suggestion to improve the process or training you received for future employees.

klm1

OP, as others have said, own up to it and speak to your boss.

Mistakes happen in all walks of life. Don't let it dent your confidence.

This mistake can either be what ruins you, or what drives you to be the best employee they have. Whichever happens is entirely up to you and what you do next.

beauf

Seems like a small mistake to me. One place I worked a mistake cost half a million and a few weeks worth of production was stopped.

Treat you job like a pilot. Have a check list. Analyse mistakes and create checks for yourself to avoid doing it again.

To make mistakes is learning. Just don't repeat the same mistake to often. That means you're not learning.

LegacyUser

Do you know how you made the mistake? If not figure it out. We all make mistakes but if you don't learn from them you'll just repeat it and that's less forgivable

NaiveMelodies

Look at this another way, you over-quoted someone by a significant amount yet you still got the sale over the line.
You're obviously a good salesperson and have a good manner over the phone.

Lollipop95

Thanks everyone.

Yes I know now how I made the mistake and I also learned information that I didn't know before, which is positive I guess. I'm going to make sure my boss knows this and I will explain that I'll be far more careful when issuing quotes in future

Ursus Horribilis

Are you in work today? Is your boss? If so, it's better to talk to him as soon as you can.

Lollipop95

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

Are you in work today? Is your boss? If so, it's better to talk to him as soon as you can.

I'm back in work tomorrow as I had the last 2 days off but I'm planning to speak to my boss first thing tomorrow. We are part of a company that has offices around the world - my boss's office is based in the US so all communication is done through email and phone

farmchoice

i work in insurance, this happens all the time, its happened to me, its happened to everybody in the business. believe me there are a lot bigger mistakes that can be made.

Pac1Man

OP you'll read this back to yourself in about a year and laugh about how much you worried. Honestly I passed by your incident and was waiting to read what massive blunder you made.

Don't get me wrong, I don't work in the industry so I'm ignorant to the significance of the mistake but I do know what it feels like to make mistakes early into a new job. At the time they feel much bigger than they actually are.

I guarantee you the director and whoever else was Cc'd on that mail didn't give it a thought once it was sorted out. Own it, learn from it and move on.

Done.

They're lucky to have you. It's tough to find decent, conscientious people. It's Thursday tomorrow and your attitude should be the same as it was on Monday: walk in with a smile and tell them they can all go suck your D.