How badly did I screw up today?

Post Reply New Topic

So I accidentally locked my keys inside the office I work at twice in the same day. Someone had to come by the office twice to let me back in.
I have opened and closed the door, obviously dozens of times without any problem but today seemed like one of those days when I have no brain whatsoever. I have worked at this office for almost 4 months and this has never happened, not even the place I had worked before which required a set of keys to open the shop.

I feel so stupid right know I want to crawl in a hole and die.The first time my boss first kind of laughed and was really cool about it but doing it the second time I think has destroyed any credibility I had left. He didn't sound angry the 2nd time I called, but the guy who let me in was with his parents and he said the 2nd time was the last time he would be able to do this.

I think I got so frustrated and distracted the first time it caused me to do it the 2nd time. That is really the only logical explanation I can think of to explain WTF happened.

Last edited by Mitrovah on 21 Jun 2014, 5:54 pm, edited 3 times in total.

one of my husband's coworkers locks her keys in the office every couple of months. she calls him. he runs to work and lets her in with his keys. he doesn't mind. don't worry too much about it.

yeah but do people have less confidence in her, I am sort of the new guy so I feel like a mistake like this may work against me and ultimately get me fired. I have never made this kind of mistake twice in almost the same breath. I have been locked out of my home before but that is sort of different; it is so common place and non consequential that it is almost considered normal because people ultimately come home and so its not too much harm. But doing twice in the same day at work, at someone's else's property, in a state where I can be fired for without any reason, is never good. I am just so worried about looking stupid that it may ultimately subconsciously make my boss decide to fire me later on.

Meh, not that bad. s**t happens. People have off days. It's not like you've done this repeatedly over the last 4 months. Sure, they were likely annoyed the 2nd time.. but you're probably being harder on yourself about it than they are. Relax, walk it off, get back to work and be more focused & present. Every day is a new day with a clean slate. Don't drag your feelings about this with you into the next day and let them be an anchor. Everyone makes mistakes. Just shrug it off and keep moving forward.

I just can't stop thinking about it, I doubt that the other people who work there made such a mistake twice in the same day. I feel so convinced that this one mistake is going to come back in someway and undo things for me. What really gets me is I have been having a pretty good streak of luck in the past few weeks and I guess it all finally caught up with me.

Deep breaths. Relax. Let it go. Forgive yourself. Move on.

They might joke with you about it, just don't take it personally or get upset about it - after all, you are the guy who locked yourself out twice in one day and it is rather funny. Just don't dwell on it and let it ruin you. It's a simple mistake or two that are over and done with and in the past. The more thought you give towards them the more they distract you from being present in the moment and enjoying yourself and/or being productive moving forward with anything more valuable than dwelling on that s**t.

Capiche?

It could be worse. You could have wrecked the company car.

Do you have a problem with forgetting small details in general? If so, maybe you can work something out with your boss. If they trust you with the keys for the office, perhaps he will trust you with an extra key you can keep on your personal key chain. I doubt you locked your own car keys in the office, right?

I have/had a *terrible* problem with forgetting things. Now, I am better at having some semblance of a routine for checking to make sure I have everything I need. But, small changes will often throw me off. For example, normally I keep my cell phone in my purse. But, if it is charging, I tend to forget it more often.

When I first started to drive, I locked my keys in the car numerous times. I left books I needed at school, or left homework at home, or forgot music on the night of a performance! Sometimes, these moments of forgetfulness can be serious. Other times, they are just an inconvenience.

If the people you work with like you, trust you, and think you do a good job, they are more likely to overlook these moments as minor inconveniences that are worth putting up with in order to keep you around. And again, maybe your boss would be willing to work out a solution for "just in case" in the future.

My dad (70) is very absent-minded. I found out just a few days ago that he keeps *several* car keys hidden all around the outside of his truck because he has locked himself out so many times (this is not age related.)

It is very important that you learn to laugh at yourself. This is one of the most important things that I learned (which my now-husband really helped me with when I was younger.) We absent-minded people will do things that make ourselves look really dumb, but are usually amusing and endearing to those watching. They will laugh, not to make fun of us, but because our unintended silliness tickled them inside. Laugh along. Most of the time, it is funny and not a real problem.

It is effective to crack a joke at yourself first, if you can. Like, "Oh boy, I did it again!" Or, give yourself a nickname that has to do with the blunder. It could become an inside joke at the office, which will help you to bond with everyone.

Now, I will tell you a real problematic situation that happened to me in college. I had a job house sitting while a family I knew was away on vacation. Now, like I said, change can mess me up. So, this was a big change. I wasn't at home, my route to school was different, etc. They gave me two sets of keys. One was left outside as an extra set in case I locked myself out of the house. Well, you can imagine that I DID lock myself out of the house. I let myself in with the extra set of keys, and then locked myself out again with BOTH sets of keys inside the house. I did not realize this until I came home after 9PM from school. The house was a raised ranch, so I could not break into the upper windows. I discovered that I could break in to the basement, but I had to rip the window screen to get in. I did so, climbed through the window, and went into the garage. There, I learned that the door between the garage and the house was LOCKED. This was in the day before cell phones, and the telephone number to reach the people was inside anyways. I figured the best thing I could do was go across the street and convince the neighbors that I was legitimately supposed to be at the house across the street. The husband came home after 2nd shift, got out a ladder and helped me break into one of the second floor windows. I was so extremely embarrassed, and the family had to come home to a window with a ripped screen. I never house sat again.

I tell you this because I can laugh at this now. It didn't feel funny at the time, but I did learn to laugh at this predicament I caused. And that was a true major problem. You did not cause any such thing like this at work!

I have a good system already, I keep my keys clipped to my belt when I am alone. I just kept forgetting today for some reason and the stress from the first mistake was so high I guess I just did it again out of sheer stupidity. I feel like history is repeating itself for sure, I make a huge mistake at a job I really like and now my credibility is destroyed and they probably will let me go some time in the near future probably next year when the busy season is over :-*( I feel like such a stupid little kid. i sure hope they don't think I was drunk or stoned, which I wasn't but either one would be the only logical explanation.

I don't think your credibility is destroyed just from this one event.

Leaving your keys in the office does not make someone think you are stoned or drunk. There are a lot more signs for those things.

If you keep thinking negatively about this, you could cause a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you keep thinking you will be let go, the stress from that will cause you to make more mistakes, and eventually what you thought would happen does.

This event, by itself, is not reason to fire someone.

how weird is it that I locked myself out twice in the same day?

It sounds like a fluke event. You are probably right that you got flustered from the first time, and that caused the second. I wouldn't be afraid of it happening again.

Nerdygirl's right about the self-fulfilling prophecy.

You have to take steps to make sure this doesn't happen again. I know you've taken steps already; more must be taken.

Otherwise, there definitely are worse things a person could do---like wreck the company car LOL

This is coming from a person who's done similar kinds of things previously, and is still doing them to this day.

THAT'S LIKE WHAT I DID! Only instead of locking myself out, it was spilling cleaning fluid. When I used to work at a fast food place, I had to use this bucket full of a cleaning product, and spilled it all over the floor TWICE in one day! My boss got angry the second time, and I worried I would get fired. Fortunately, he only remained angry for the rest of that shift. When I came back the next day, he was much happier. I never got fired.

Oh, if you noticed I said I USED to work there, that's just because I had to quit that job when I started college. No worries.

not weird at all. do you know how often I forgot my employee ID at work this week? three days in a row a supervisor had to go bail me out of security.

sh*t happens. don't worry about it.

I forget my password to CECAS at least once every semester...our Data Manager really loves me, I'm sure!