Singaporeans dish on mistakes they made at work that almost got them fired
When a local Reddit user recently shared the mistake they made that got them in hot water, they asked others where they had made similar errors.
In a post on r/askSingapore from Aug 4, u/Feeling-Bunch-212 wrote that at work, they are responsible for work passes for the foreigners in the company. However, they forgot to renew one of the employees' Employment Passes (EPs). They found out about the problem when the employee was at immigration, as the officer told him that his EP had expired the day before.
'I felt my life went down the drain at that point. Genuinely wanted to die. Half of me was thinking that it is his responsibility to take note of his EP expiry, or at least wonder why HR didn't reach out to him for renewal, but the bigger rational part of me knows that it is my responsibility to ensure a valid work pass is in place, and I completely missed it,' the post author wrote.
A commenter wrote about an incident with their colleague, who 'accidentally left the client payroll file with everyone's salaries on another client table from Finance, who is not supposed to view such information.
Client HR director was very angry and lodged a formal complaint. Not sure what happens in the end, but that guy was withdrawn from the audit team.'
Others also wrote about instances when a payroll file, which is supposedly 'sacred' to companies, mistakenly got sent to those who weren't supposed to see it, with the sender getting into trouble.
'I was listening in to a conference call while showering but forgot to turn video off,' a commenter shared.
'I was a very immature intern, and one time out of frustration with the number of changes I had to make for a client, I named one of my layers 'f*** this s***'.
Just so happens the client requested more changes when I was on MC, so the other staff took over. I see an email come in from my creative director with a screenshot of my layers, and I'm absolutely horrified.
The next day, the boss scolded me pretty badly, and during the review, I think he said something like I almost wanted to fire you for something like that. I learnt a lot about emotional regulation during that job,' contributed another.
'Mine is mixing up the dates for an important chemical delivery. Had no idea the US uses different date notations,' a Reddit user wrote.
'I onboarded a client who is a Singapore PR but has nationality from a MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore)-sanctioned country. The application slipped through many hands. My manager signed off, processing approved it, and funds were disbursed. The application was flagged… Big hooha ensued.
Mgmt wanted to fire me as I was the most junior, and I was the one who brought the case in. The boss saved me. The case ended up being a case study at town hall for years,' shared another. /TISG
Read also: 'I've been quiet fired from my job, what should I do?': Singaporean worker asks after being put on no-pay leave See also A four-step video in renewed attempt for clean toilets
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