Placeholder forgotten on the cover of the Saturday paper - and other juicy work-life blunders

Veera's and Vellu's mistakes hit the editors' mailbox and Jussi's placeholder hit the cover of the magazine. Joel got a talking to from the bosses and Saku froze in front of Valtteri Bottas. Mistakes happen to everyone, so we decided to list the most juicy blunders from our careers.

Mistakes happen to everyone: share one of your workplace blunders?

Saku: Perhaps my most memorable blunder happened when I had to interview Valtteri Bottaste on TV as a spokesman for the Karting World Championship series in Lahti. In the morning I was told to come up with questions and I did. Well, almost. I thought there was no point in getting excited about the situation, even though it was a big star. In fact, I was so sure of myself that I wrote down the questions, mainly the headlines, and thought I would apply the rest when the situation arose. When the cameras were rolling and halfway through the question I forgot what I was asking, I decided that next time I would take my hat in my hand and write down and ask the questions word for word.

Joel: My most memorable blunder in my working life was during my last job. It's not so much a job failure as a workplace failure. I made a bet with a small group of people to see which of our colleagues would have the "most asses on their shoulders" at the company's crab feast. The list leaked to the ears of the frontrunners.

Jussi: In the summer of 2012, I worked as the editorial secretary of Lapin Kansan. One Friday morning I was designing the cover of the magazine. I wrote a placeholder text in the vernacular above the main picture in connection with the party convention of the Centre Party to be held this weekend. This of course ended up in the magazine and the Saturday morning Lapin Kansa reported "KEPUN PUOLUEKEEOKOUS ALWAYS BEGINS".

Veera. A year and a half ago, I wrote a press release about a TV series that was about to start. The timing of the newsletter was considered and changed several times. A colleague and I decided to distribute it on the morning of the start of the series and I wrote "Today on TV..." in the title. At the last minute we decided to change the time of distribution to the day before, so I changed the time of distribution, but the wording inadvertently remained the same and the title was not correct.

Vellu: Fortunately, no major mistakes were made, whether it was due to Kikka Korea's lessons. In the early days of my work in a communications agency, I had agreed with a big client that a cooperation announcement would be sent out at a certain time. Before the release, one of the parties asked for their own additions to the bulletin, and I was happy to accept them before sending the bulletin out to the world. Soon a client came along and asked me if this version hadn't gone out to many media - well, it had gone out to pretty much every media outlet in Finland.

Janette: My most memorable blunder happened early in my career when I was working as a summer editor for a local newspaper. One summer day, with the help of Google Maps, I went for a drive to a press conference in Ruovede. After about 50 kilometres of driving, I arrived. I wondered why there were no other cars in the driveway and was surprised when I called the contact person on the press release: 'Hey! I'm on my way to a briefing, but I wonder if I'm in the right place?" The contact person repeated the address and finally said, "In Keuruu." I was 70 kilometres away, in a completely different municipality, which happened to have the same street name.

What happened and how was the matter handled?

Saku: As such, there was nothing dramatic about the incident, because Bottas probably noticed my stumble and, being a nice guy, interpreted the questions more or less correctly and answered like a pro. And of course the questions were edited out of the broadcast. Of course, after the interview I was a bit annoyed that I wasn't a born Ron Burgundy, but I took it as a learning experience. No one came to congratulate me on my performance, though.

Joel: I ended up getting some serious talking points on the subject from more than one manager. I discussed the case and apologized to the predecessors. The matter was then dealt with. However, I was left wondering about the informer who leaked the list, whose identity I did find out.

Jussi: At Monday morning's breakfast meeting, we went through the weekend's papers and stared at the headline "The party's party meeting begins", after which the editor of the paper said in a surprisingly tame tone: "As a reminder to everyone, never use any other abbreviations for parties than their official ones." Fortunately, the honest Lapin men and women on the editorial staff were able to take the incident with a sense of humour.

Veera: I only noticed the mistake when the press release was distributed to the media with the wrong headline. The mistake was annoying, because I am very careful with such things, I read and check the texts many times. I wonder whether this leaves a sloppy impression or whether the error affects the circulation of the press release, even though the correct information was revealed in the text of the press release. I went to the information service to correct the text for the online publication, but found that my colleague had already corrected it. I thought that was a nice thing to do. He noticed the mistake, corrected it, but never pointed it out. Depending on the situation, it is also necessary to work through mistakes together, but in this case I don't think the mistake needed any further discussion.

Vellu: The temperamental client was quite irritated, and of course I admitted my mistake while wiping the sweat off my brow. As an inexperienced junior consultant, I took my blunder quite hard, but fortunately no major damage was done. It was soon forgotten in the end, and I learned to accept anything the client did before publication.

Janette: The story failed because I didn't make it to the press conference. Fortunately, this was rectified by a phone interview, but I was extremely embarrassed. Fortunately, my colleagues were understanding and comforted me by telling me about their own funny screw-ups. The whole thing was quickly forgotten, but I still tend to double-check that I'm going to the right municipality or city when I'm driving.

How do you deal with mistakes at work? How should the work environment deal with them?

Saku: Mistakes always happen, but mistakes caused by carelessness and laziness are unnecessary mistakes. If you sincerely try your best, you shouldn't really be given any flak for your mistakes. Often it is from mistakes that we learn the most.

Joel: How mistakes are corrected or reacted to is much more important.

Jussi: In the newspaper world, a senior colleague consoled me after a mistake in print with the words, "Tomorrow that paper will have a fireplace." At least for smaller mistakes, it's good to remember that, fortunately, they're quickly forgotten.

Veera: I wish people wouldn't leave things untried for fear of making mistakes. In communications, there is rarely an unambiguous right or wrong answer, so you have to try ideas to see if they work or not. I believe that when the possibility of mistakes is acknowledged out loud together, it's easier. I think that's one of the points of this blog post.

Vellu: Communication mistakes rarely cost lives, but they can cause considerable reputational damage. That's why I hope the work community will be careful and diligent in everything they do.

Janette: It's easy to overstate the magnitude of mistakes and life's embarrassments. When you talk honestly with another person about it, you realize the magnitude of the blunder and the shame can even turn to laughter. The work environment should create an atmosphere where people recognise that everyone makes mistakes and dare to talk about them openly.