{"id":9026,"date":"2025-11-27T23:20:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T07:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/?p=9026"},"modified":"2025-11-27T23:20:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T07:20:05","slug":"from-the-obr-to-panorama-cock-ups-what-does-count-as-a-career-ending-mistake-these-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/?p=9026","title":{"rendered":"From the OBR to Panorama cock-ups \u2013 what does count as a career-ending mistake these days?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.independent.co.uk\/2025\/11\/27\/15\/24\/Screenshot-2025-11-27-at-15-01-01.png?width=1200&amp;auto=webp&amp;trim=0%2C9%2C0%2C9\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"main\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"hydrate-root sc-10wlkbs-0\" data-component=\"SupportNSCNative\" data-loading=\"lazy\" data-theme-name=\"base\">\n<aside class=\"sc-hez36s-0 dFpFuY\">\n<div class=\"sc-hez36s-1 iBibVd\">\n<h3 data-testid=\"support-nsc-title\" class=\"sc-hez36s-2 jVZWGn\">Your support helps us to tell the story<\/h3>\n<div class=\"sc-hez36s-8 juUDRT\">\n<div class=\"sc-hez36s-13 cqPbFA\">\n<div class=\"sc-aja53j-0 rAFIl sc-hez36s-16 jZSKtc\">\n<div class=\"sc-aja53j-6 PdmgT\">\n<div data-testid=\"dropdown-with-gradient-collapsed-content-container\" class=\"sc-aja53j-5 eZqxmv\">\n<div>\n<div data-testid=\"dropdown-with-gradient-collapsed-content\" class=\"sc-aja53j-4 tawua\">\n<div>\n<div data-testid=\"support-nsc-collapsed-content-tablet\" class=\"sc-hez36s-7 gZmYS\">\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sc-1uza6dc-1 cglitp\">Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><button class=\"sc-aja53j-1 keLMOw sc-aja53j-7 eMEmGu\"><span data-testid=\"dropdown-with-gradient-dropdown-tablet\" class=\"sc-aja53j-3 dHXFkr\"><span data-action-type=\"Read more\" class=\"sc-aja53j-2 dIsmaL\">Read more<\/span><svg class=\"sc-eaj12q-0 hUgQwJ sc-culv3z-0 eifaJK sc-a5wy94-0 hyKPon\"><use href=\"#ee6613da15642019\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"big-letter\">S<\/span>weaty palms. A sinking stomach. Hundreds of new Slack notifications. When you mess up to epic proportions at work, it can feel similar to having heart failure. Which is why, a Whitehall insider said they were sure someone \u201cquite junior\u201d at the Office for Budget Responsibility was having \u201cthe worst day of their working life\u201d after Rachel Reeve\u2019s budget was accidentally published 40 minutes early on the organisation\u2019s website this week. <\/p>\n<p>While it has since emerged that an \u201cexternal person\u201d may have been responsible, it remains that someone somewhere wasn\u2019t doing their job properly. The release of market-sensitive information saw bond prices and sterling start to shift as billions of pounds of trades were executed in the wake of the news. The yield on 10-year UK government bonds dropped by four basis points, while the pound jumped 0.3 per cent. \u201cI think I need a red box, I can deliver the Budget now in the studio\u2026 It tells you all the measures,\u201d the BBC political editor Chris Mason said on <em>Politics Live<\/em>, while Reeves glanced down worriedly at her phone in the Commons. <\/p>\n<p>The ODR had egg on its face. Chair Richard Hughes said he was \u201cpersonally mortified\u201d. It feels almost as bad as the recently robbed Louvre Museum\u2019s password for its video surveillance being \u201cLouvre\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>Roughly one in five Brits have made what they considered a \u201ccritical mistake\u201d at work. These range from hitting \u201creply all\u201d on an email, leaving sensitive documents on their desk, or forgetting to mute themselves while saying something inappropriate on a work call. Small fry, compared to, say, getting your organisation sued for $1bn by the US president because of an error in an editing suite. <\/p>\n<p>Charlotte Davies, a career expert for online networking platform LinkedIn, says making mistakes in the workplace is \u201ccompletely normal\u201d and something experienced by even the most \u201caccomplished leaders\u201d. Taking in the recent cock-ups from the BBC to the OBR and Angela Rayner underpaying stamp duty on a property when she was minister for housing, this we know. <\/p>\n<p>Davies recommends the best way to get over a workplace mistake is to recognise what went wrong, turn your misstep into a lesson, and share what you\u2019ve realised with your colleagues once you\u2019re out the other side. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can be uncomfortable to be vulnerable with colleagues, but in most cases it can open up a discussion about those moments that haven\u2019t gone right, which everyone can learn from,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve made many f*** ups,\u201d says 29-year-old Melissa, who\u2019s been in her job as a qualified property lawyer for a matter of months. \u201cMost recently, I didn\u2019t realise that a client owed nearly \u00a34,000 worth of tax on a property transfer and had to tell them after completion to cough up the cash,\u201d she admits. \u201cIt could have been much worse, but the client wasn\u2019t exactly strapped for cash, so they could afford it,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dI just had to do a bit of grovelling \u2013 but I was definitely sweating.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>There are many more tales of bad days in the office. I\u2019m told a story by the close friend of a cardiographer, who read a patient\u2019s data wrong and almost killed them by messing up the timing and momentarily stopping their heart. \u201cI don\u2019t think it was actually her fault, but I don\u2019t think she\u2019ll want to talk about it,\u201d they add of the adrenaline-spiking ordeal that\u2019s still only whispered about. <\/p>\n<p>Over on Reddit, one man who worked in a builder\u2019s merchant says he took credit card details for a large order over the phone, which later turned out to be fraud. Although the member of staff was supposed to get the guys who picked it up to fill in paperwork to identify them, the yard crew didn\u2019t follow the process. Yet, he was given the chop. \u201cI got fired and everyone else got to keep their jobs,\u201d he wrote beneath a post titled \u201cWhat one mistake ended your career?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The most famous career-ending mistake has to be that of Gerald Ratner. When the former CEO of Ratners made a joke that his company\u2019s products were \u201ctotal\u201d crap, \u00a3500m was wiped off the company\u2019s value in days. After being forced to resign, \u201cDoing a Ratner\u201d became shorthand for self-destruction at work. <\/p>\n<p>With an OBR internal investigation ongoing, Hughes has said he\u2019ll continue to lead the watchdog unless he loses the confidence of the Treasury committee or the chancellor, which Reeves\u2019s spokesperson has assured him he has not. When asked by the BBC flat out if he\u2019d resign for the OBR error, Hughes said: \u201cI\u2019ve given you a statement, that is all I have to say.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>We might all mess up, but you probably wouldn\u2019t get away with that response on a bad day in the everyman\u2019s office. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more Sweaty palms. A sinking stomach. Hundreds of new Slack notifications. When you mess up to epic proportions at work, it can feel similar to having heart failure. Which is why, a Whitehall insider said they were sure someone \u201cquite junior\u201d at the Office for Budget Responsibility was having \u201cthe worst day of their working life\u201d after Rachel Reeve\u2019s budget was accidentally published 40 minutes early on the organisation\u2019s website this week. While it has since emerged that an \u201cexternal person\u201d may have been responsible, it remains that someone somewhere wasn\u2019t doing their job properly. The release of market-sensitive information saw bond prices and sterling start to shift as billions of pounds of trades were executed in the wake of the news. The yield on 10-year UK government bonds dropped by four basis points, while the pound jumped 0.3 per cent. \u201cI think I need a red box, I can deliver the Budget now in the studio\u2026 It tells you all the measures,\u201d the BBC political editor Chris Mason said on Politics Live, while Reeves gl&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}