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need advice about making mistakes at work
May be hard to keep this short:
I've been fired from 4 jobs (OMG, that's a Freudian slip, it's actually only been 3) and I was almost finished this post before I realized it). One was a bad situation where I was miserable and couldn't seem to get ahead (they hired me because they were so backed up work to begin with). The second job was my first job out of grad school, and I was there just short of 5 years. I had an poor boundary relationship with my boss, that turned sour at the end and my workload ended up increasing to a point where again I couldn't keep up. I then briefly held a job, where I was let go after 6 weeks because I wasn't learning fast enough and over all it was a bad fit. When I got this current job, my current boss spoke to my former boss who I think gave a review along the line of "wasn't a good fit, but she's a hard worker".
So this is trend that I can't figure out...I somehow get behind and go full out trying to redeem myself and catch up and do better and be impressive...and fail at it. The feedback I've gotten from all these places is I'm very dedicated, have a lot of enthusiasm, I'm a good team player, a hard worker. I think in my effort to impress, I excel at these things, but still fall short.
I'm afraid I'm going to lose this job. I WILL DO ANYTHING TO KEEP THIS JOB. I love this job. I've loved all my jobs, I would have done anything to save those.
So I do psych testing, I write a report that generally gets sent to a post doc where they make sure everything is okay, and then on to the attending doc. So a lot of my learning over the past 6 months have come from feedback from them, so they show me my mistakes. These mistakes range from the template was wrong or this doctor prefers it this way, or "I see why you scored it this way but I think this is better". Many times though, the mistakes are stupid, like putting the birthday where the current date goes, or not lining things up on the chart, or just calculating or transposing errors.
Sometimes, a post doc isn't available, and we send our report straight to the doc, no error check built in. One such time occurred two weeks ago, with the big boss. He set up a meeting with me where basically I got yelled at. He told me "this isn't good" "things should be smoother than this" and scaringly "if you keep making these mistakes then maybe this isn't the job for you". Nothing was written up. I had a review as my 90 day probation ended and nothing was written up then either. I told him I was confident I could improve. The mistakes were I spelled the name with an e instead of i, had years of education wrong, had wrote some of the tests name not in the way he preferred. He did say "everyone likes you, I like you, I know you're a hardworker, and have been staying late"
So I work on another of this doc's case with a post doc...the post doc brought a few errors to my attention (which actually I didn't make, a coworker had helped me do a few things because I got stuck with such long cases and she had no work to do). He follows that up with an email saying "please be careful of making errors, especially on legal cases, there were a lot of them on Dr. B's recent case".
Another post doc was literally breathing down my neck to rush this one case and they seemed really frustrated that I wasn't getting it done as fast as they like
Then another post doc printed an email from me containing a report from early February, not the finished report he worked on, just the chart I sent orginally. I found this on the printer today.
I'm mobilized to work my butt off to make sure I don't make any more mistakes. I've been staying late EVERY day and really trying to double check and triple check my work. But part of me feels like they are gathering their info to get rid of me, I may not have another chance.
I want to say something, like please give me another chance, I'm very dedicated, I'll work hard, I'm staying late. But again, this is the stuff I'm already okay on. What is my problem that I don't perform well despite all this hard work? How can I figure this out, fix it, and convice them I'm worth keeping.
If I lose this job, I'll never recover, I just won't, I don't think I could face my husband or my friends
Re: need advice about making mistakes at work
It sounds like the issues are attention to detail and time management. Information not being relayed the way a particular person likes it is one thing, but after being told once should be corrected. If you report for several different people, you should have a template for each of them. Pain in the butt, yes, but that's what you were hired to do.
The other issues, like the birth date being in the spot where today's date should be are actually big deals when it comes to medical records.
If they have to keep reminding you about grammatical or clerical issues that could be big time suck for them. Most bosses don't want to, nor should have to, be making corrections like that.
I would try to focus on the details. What is probably happening is that you are making mistakes (maybe from trying to work too fast or from the monotony of the forms?), getting stressed out and making even more mistakes due to the stress. When you start to fill out these reports, take a breath and settle your mind. Take your time (don't let their pushing affect you) and go through slowly. Concentrate on the forms and make sure your work is pristine. That's all you can do going forward.
As for talking with your bosses, I wouldn't yet. You don't know why that one email was printed off. Maybe they are collecting data to use against you. But begging for your job isn't the way to go. That will just make you seem weak.
If you do feel the need to speak to your boss, I would approach it in a way that you are asking for feedback on specific areas you can do better, based on previous corrections you've been asked to make. Tell them that you like the position and are interested in being the best employee you can be. The hard part is that they've already told you what to correct and you've repeated the mistakes.
I've made some mistakes at work, but I've never been fired. I don't mean this to make you feel bad, but getting fired from 3 jobs is pretty bad. Have you been completely honest with yourself about the kind of employee you've been? Has it been the same type of job, or in the same field? Maybe that line of work isn't for you.
Good luck, I hope it all works out..
I realize this is a bit of an ironic question considering what you do, but have you ever been tested for a learning disability, or ADD or anything like that? Sounds like you have a good work ethic, and obviously a lot of motivation to improve, but for some reason it's just not clicking.
IF it's just that you are not a detail person, or proofing is not your thing, then yeah, you are probably in the wrong profession--and there is nothing wrong with realizing that and moving on. I'm sure you realize, practically every job you would have in the psych field requires meticulous documentation. If it's not your thing, it's OK to move on. But the way you describe trying and trying and trying and not being able to improve just reminds me of what I have heard a lot of kids with learning disabilities describe until it was identified.
I'm sorry you are going through this, and I hope you figure it out!
Steps on My Spiritual Journey
I was about to say the same thing...possible dyslexia or ADD. I used to have a coworker who really wanted to do well, but had a lot of trouble with attention to detail. He just got distracted so easily. We were quite sure he had ADD but he refused to get tested, even though a diagnosis would have made his life easier.
One thing that helps me with error catching is to slow down and come back to things. Take your time with the form, then when you have completed it, put it aside. Later on when you get ready to send things out, pull the form back up and look it over again. That will be like seeing it 'fresh' and maybe help you catch things your brain glossed over before.
Also, maybe instead of just saying to them, "I will improve," it may help to let them know your struggle and talk about *how* to improve. If these are clinical psychologists they may know some techniques that could help you.
So, when I hear "she's a hard worker", I have to wonder, "is she working hard because she can't keep up?" "Is she working harder than someone else would have to in order to do the same thing?" That's where a manager takes the difference between "she's a hard worker and has potential" vs "she's a hard worker, but I'm not sure she'll ever get to where she needs to be." The good news is, if you weren't a hard worker, you wouldn't be getting as far as you do...
What do YOU think "working hard" means? What are you trying most to accomplish? Is it "just get everything done as quickly as possible so people don't have to wait for it?" You have to figure out what it is you think is driving your behavior, because that behavior is getting in the way of what is most important (it seems): Being Accurate.
Your job, though you *think* you're in psychology, is really a data driven, detail oriented job. It takes attention to detail, thoroughness, an ability to spend way more time making sure you get it right (even if you aren't already prone to getting it wrong). You're providing a service for the actual psychologists. You likely have to do work like this in a dues-paying type of career, but it can be derailing if you're not able to work your way up from it
IT doesn't matter if other people are making mistakes, too. Once you have a reputation that your work can't be trusted, people are going to be skeptical, and you'll still be attached to the blame.
Good luck -- it really seems to be that you need to find a system and a process that ensures your best attention to the details of the test completion, and not anything else at this point.
Thanks everyone, very good and thorough advice. Turns out the one report on the printer was for another doctor and hadn't even been worked on yet. I asked for a copy of the final report so I can go back through the template and make the changes so I don't repeat mistakes simply by using a bad template.
ADHD, honestly, someone proposed that me years ago and it's possible. It's funny because that is the testing I do and I've taken those tests as part of my training and I do well. I did very well with school too, maybe the only problem I had with school is doing homework, I would wait until the last minute or forget. In college, I had my boyfriend proofread my papers because I hated proofreading, so obviously there were grammatical errors there. But there are many symptoms of ADHD that do fit with me, like always misplacing stuff is a good example. I don't want to do medication, but I think maybe a book with some strategies at managing life may really help me, whether I have the disorder or not. Thanks for being open enough to suggest that.
Could be anxiety too, at least that one part with the form left on the printer was me being paranoid, and I guess that happens when you've been fired 3 times. I agree, that's not normal for anyone, and I'm ashamed of it and obviously trying to turn things around. The one thing I can say is, I definitely try to stick things out, vs cutting my losses and moving on myself. In fact, while I was at my 5 year job, I got offered the position I have now, and turned it down thinking things would improve at other job.
I really think stressing out is leading to more mistakes, so that was really helpful advice
Our little Irish rose came to us on March 5, 2010
Don't drink the water.
Disclaimer: I am not an MD. Please don't PM me with pregnancy-related questions. Ask your doctor.
Maybe it is the job fit. You sound like me. I stay late; I don?t like to bog people down I try to check and double check. I am also dyslexic (I very rarly give it any credit in my life, but I have it). Want to know what is ironic? I was an excelling English major J I can tell you a great story or summarize things really really well, but I had proofreaders, lots of proof readers.
I disappointed some people in my first position since I didn?t have a proofreader anymore (unless it was something I could take home and beg my husband or mother to read, but they can?t always do that). They also said I need to work on prioritizing. In my current job, I still hear that.
Maybe you should look at what you like to do at work. What parts do you like, what part do you not like. Is there a position where you can do more of what you like and are good at? If you have always had these troubles, maybe it is not something you can fix by trying really hard.
You're not in the wrong career field. If you love it, you can make it fit for you, we just have to figure out how. I agree with Dr. Loretta that you need checklists. It's amazing how much we take our memory for granted-when you put a simple checklist together, you cannot forget, and after a while it becomes second nature. I
lists.
Finally, there may be some "ownership" required on your part. As a manager of junior staff, I have seen junior staff submit half-done documents because they know I'm going to bleed all over it. But it's not content they're missing-it's the simple grammar that's usually the problem. They don't bother because they think it's my responsibility to make sure it's solid, and they don't really feel a sense of ownership. But guess what? If you TAKE that ownership, and ask for more time to get it done properly, I'll be happier in the end because even though it will take longer, I know I won't have to do as much work on my end.
Besides that, I think there's a lot of good advice in this post, and I wish you luck in improving your performance!
You've gotten a lot of good advice and I was going to suggest ADHD too. I always excelled in school, was very motivated, likeable, etc. but I constantly made CARELESS mistakes. My senior year in college, after seeing a psychiatrist for something totally unrelated, I was diagnosed with ADHD. I do take medication and it has made a WORLD of difference in my life. In my job details are extremely important & the days I forget to take my medication, I tend to make errors & fail to get much accomplished.
If you're opposed to taking medicine, I would agree with some of the PP's and suggest making checklists. Checklists, sticky notes, phone alarms as reminders and calendar notes can make a big difference. It sounds like you have a great attitude and that you work really hard, so don't admit your "shortcomings" to your bosses just yet. Work on your organization skills & time management, while keeping that positive attitude.
Good luck!
I used to work for Magellan Behavioral Health (in Columbia - I see you're in Baltimore) for many years. Would you consider working as a case manager there or for another insurer? You still get to work with patients but in a different (and maybe for you -- more relaxed setting because it's phone based).