It’s true: Not even HR is perfect. We asked you to identify the biggest mistake you ever made in the course of doing your job. One defiant respondent said simply, “I won’t tell you!” and several others volunteered that their marriages were the biggest mistake. A few claimed that choosing HR as a career was their biggest error. Hiring the wrong person was the answer given most often. These mistakes, however, struck us as the best excuses to get a drink after work:
- Accidentally faxed a termination document to the employee, rather than to his manager.
- Called the current employer of a job candidate instead of a reference.
- Forgot to transfer money to the payroll account.
- Left some paperwork about a layoff in the copier, where employees found it.
- Miscalculated the bonus for an underperforming manager and paid him an extra $2,000.
- Didn’t read the small print in the group life insurance policy I purchased.
- Slept with the boss.
- Tried to be a strategic partner in a completely dysfunctional organization.
- Canceled an existing health insurance policy before a new policy took effect.
- When my boss was feeling like a failure and asked my advice, I told her she should carve out a job she’d be good at.
- Didn’t file the S-8 paperwork for the directors’ stock option plan, which made it impossible for them to exercise stock options.
- Played with a new HRMS system and gave 850 employees a 5 percent raise. I didn’t think it went through until pay day. It took three people three days to correct the error.
Workforce, June 1999, Vol. 78, No. 6, p. 38.