Keep it together

"Stop panicking!" says Dr Merle Friedman, a Johannesburg based clinical and corporate psychologist and director of The Resilience Company, whose specialities include teaching personal resilience i.e. the ability to bounce back from misfortune or change.

"The first thing you need to do is relax. Remember, not every attempt at corporate suicide will end in unemployment, so your career-blowing move won't necessarily prove to be fatal."

"In fact, there's a good chance of extricating yourself from the mess," she says. "It all depends on how you react and the way you tackle your predicament, which is why you need to carefully think things through and employ all your emotional intelligence."

Bounce back
Own up, don't cover up. "When you lie, you always have to create another lie to support that lie and you quickly get entangled in a web of your own fabrications; usually with disastrous results."

"Don't think that by ignoring the situation, it will all go away. It won't. Which is why you need to face the music immediately and own up," says Merle. Remember that the sooner you admit liability, the more salvageable the blunder will be. Your initial embarrassment will be a whole lot easier to deal with than the shame of being branded not only irresponsible, but dishonest too.

"Confess at once about what's happened, apologise and volunteer to work extra hours to recover or reconstruct the lost information. Your willingness to go the extra mile will reveal both your professionalism and loyalty."

Have you recovered from a work blunder? Share your story in the comment box below.