Work mistakes told by the people who made them

Avoidable firings, angry emails, lost promotions and salary negotiation fails: real career mistakes shared by the MyError community, each with its lesson.

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• I said yes to everything my first year

  Every extra task, every weekend favor, every 'quick call' at 9pm. I thought it made me indispensable. It made me the person nobody thanks and everybod…

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• I stayed 4 years at a job I hated because it was safe

  Every Sunday night felt like dread. But the salary was 'fine' and leaving felt risky, so I let four years of my career rust away doing work I'd stoppe…

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• I accepted the first salary they offered

  My first real job. They said 32k and I said yes in the same breath, terrified they'd take it back. Six months later I found out the guy they hired aft…

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• I put 'advanced Excel' on my CV. I was not advanced

  First week, my manager asks for a pivot table with a dynamic dashboard 'since you're the Excel person'. I spent the whole weekend on YouTube tutorials…

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• I trashed a coworker in the wrong Slack channel

  Wrote a whole paragraph about how useless Marcus was. Meant to send it to my work friend in DMs. Sent it to the team channel. With Marcus in it. And m…

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• I quit with no other job lined up

  Rage quit after a bad performance review. Felt amazing for two weeks. Then 8 months of unemployment, savings gone, and I ended up accepting a worse jo…

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• I never asked what "we will see about the raise" meant

  Annual review: "we will see next quarter". I nodded and waited. Four quarters. The colleague who asked for specifics — amount, date, conditions — got …

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• I replied to an email angry and it cost me a promotion

  A coworker threw me under the bus in a thread with my boss CCed. I replied in 5 minutes with everything I had. I was right on substance, but the tone …

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• I took zero notes my first week at work

  They explained everything: systems, passwords, names, processes. I nodded confidently. Next Monday I remembered half of it and had to ask everything a…

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• I presented the project without testing the meeting room

  Worked perfectly on my laptop. In the room: different projector resolution, no internet, and a video format that would not open. Ten minutes of silenc…

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• I worked three months on a verbal agreement

  Three months working while my contract "was with HR". When I claimed full payment, it turned out that officially I had never worked there at all.…

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