‘I'm getting fired, aren't I?’: Sole QA employee gets blamed for a mistake that affects thousands of customers, CEO refuses to take responsibility for team being understaffed

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Mar 26, 2024 1:00 PM EDT

The constant threat of getting fired from a job is looming on pretty much any employee. Even if you only made a tiny mistake, or even if you haven't made a mistake at all, it always feels like someone is watching you and that someone is not happy. So when you do make a mistake, possibly a huge mistake that might affect the entire company, well, then you might as well pack your bags and leave without a word.

Much like the employee in this Reddit story. The employee (OP, original poster) is an overworked QA, and in this story, she wrote that she had made a mistake at her work that affected thousands of customers. She managed to fix the mistake in less than 10 minutes but word still reached the entire company. Even though she is the sole QA employee, and the company should really acknowledge this fact, the CEO now asks her for a report on everything that happened and for her entire process at work, and she is sure she is going to get fired any day now.

Keep scrolling to read the full story. Once you are done, click here for another story of an overworked employee who discovered that their boss has been lying to them from the start.

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  • 01
    cg", MAL); at.png", MILL)) "This system is broken" 5 2 Backspa --
    via Canva
  • 02
    I'm going to be fired today.
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 03
    I just made a mistake that has affected the websites of thousands of customers. I have a strong attention to detail and rarely make mistakes. Very rarely, in fact.
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 04
    The problem occurred during a lengthy process of creating information consisting of dates, numbers, various fields, etc. I have 140 of them to go through on an individual level. My
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 05
    manager is a very nice guy, but he is subject to the influence of his boss and rarely checks things because he trusts me, which means I can't do anything about it right now.
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 06
    I feel too threatened at work because there are only 2 people (me and my manager) in charge of it. There's a lot of cop I have to watch out for, and I've been in this role for 6 months now, and quite successfully too.
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 07
    I've made a few mistakes in the last 6 months that I've been working here, but they've been much less serious than this one.
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 08
    The whole problem was solved in less than 10 minutes and cost the company nothing. But now there is an uproar of people who have already started the
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 09
    witch hunt, tagging the head of the company in different channels and pointing their fingers at me. Do you have any advice? What should I do?
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 10
    EDIT: I have an update. Even after my honest attempt to accept the situation and suggest further improvements, I was greeted by a passive- aggressive company's boss who
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 11
    made sure to underline that our development is "expensive", despite the development team being paid a minimum wage close to a Walmart's one. Apparently, the fault lies on me and my manager for not
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 12
    reviewing the entire 1 billion fields of information with our 4 eyes despite QC/QA being completely non-existent in the whole process and my manager's honest inability to properly check my work since
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 13
    he is assigned to work on 1 trillion other things. I am left on my own, and as I expected, I'm being asked to provide documents on our QA process which does not exist. My 2 very own eyes make up the entire
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 14
    QA process, and the blame continues to fall on the 100% manual review process that 1 person does instead of 2 (me).
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 15
    P.S. My manager has yet to respond to me on any of this. Love the guy, but this is the time to join forces and at least try to have an honest and productive conversation about yesterday, the present and the future.
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 16
    We_Suppose All you can do is own the mistake and learn from it. People make errors. If they have no room for that, they may want to look into having AI handle their
    via u/We_Suppose
  • 17
    workforce. I think it's really sad that people are so petty and feel the need to magnify the issue and attack someone. They should be focusing on their own position.
    via u/We_Suppose
  • 18
    WallElectronic9458 OP. I WISH could "learn from my mistake," but there is NOTHING to learn from it. The only thing I learned is that my supervisor does not
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 19
    participate in the QA process, which leaves me completely in the dark. Does that sound normal to you? I'm more upset that it wasn't and shouldn't be my job to take care of this all by
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 20
    myself. I'm underpaid, and when I asked if new staff was coming in, I was told that it absolutely is, but that we're not there yet. This isn't a spreadsheet where you can take
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 21
    shortcuts, it's a broken system developed by a small team of developers who are tormented by the boss of the company.
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 22
    I have no help. I habe no ome to turned to. 1 small error, a single typo and the witch hunt begins.
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 23
    nancylyn 7 mo. ago Why do you think you are going to be fired? It sounds like from your edits you do a ton of necessary work that your manager doesn't want to do. Why would they fire you and make themselves the point person?
    via u/nancylyn
  • 24
    WallElectronic9458 OP. 7 mo. ago Because they don't know that. I'm in a spot. If I bring him up, It's game over for me in the long run. He's a truly nice guy and fully trusts me.
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 25
    nancylyn 7 mo. ago Then he should go to bat for you. He must have some pull if he's a manager.
    via u/nancylyn
  • 26
    WallElectronic9458 OP. 7 mo. ago He just did. Not in any substantial way, but at least he did. He stood up for me just now, but did not clarify how the mistake happened.
    via u/WallElectronic9458
  • 27
    Saneless 7 mo. ago Own the error and be the person who is so good and experienced that you've developed a process that ensures it won't happen again.
    via u/Saneless
  • 28
    If you do get fired it's probably for the best long term, because a company that doesn't allow mistakes is insufferable
    via u/Saneless

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boss workplace-stories employee fired manager job tales-from-the-workplace reddit story ceo overworked-employees workplace Reddit company funny
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