DISCUSSIONS

I just had a situation at work where I unintentionally violated a policy.

Anonymous Image

Anonymous

Welcome to Fairygodboss!

We’re the largest online career community helping women achieve their career goals. Gain access to articles, jobs, events, and a supportive network of women and allies. Membership is free, always.

I just had a situation at work where I unintentionally violated a policy. I am a behavior consultant and some of the details of the incident I can’t share due to confidentiality. The case manager is supposed to proofread our assessments and treatment plans prior to submitting to the insurance for authorization of services. There was a mistake with the client phone number on the treatment plan. I did not catch the mistake and neither did the case manager. We got the authorization back and assigned a BHT to the case. She contacted the parent, but due to the phone number being wrong by one digit she got someone else on the line. She only used clients first name, no other identifying information. The woman threw a fit thinking we had her Information but we didn’t, it was just a case of calling a wrong number. The woman contacted our office and yelled at my boss about it. My boss then called me to the office and then yelled at me about the incident. I never said I was not responsible, just that a mistake was made and the case manager did not catch the mistake either. I was yelled at for not accepting responsibility, written up, and given a 2 week suspension without pay as disciplinary measure. I will be returning to work unless the boss fires me. How do I move on from this and show the boss that I want to continue working? I do have some medical issues that interfere with my job performance at times. She has made accommodations. The only other thing she stated when she suspended me was that from now on the case manager will scrutinize my paperwork for errors and I will make corrections accordingly. Any advice is appreciated.

Why women love us:

  • Daily articles on career topics
  • Jobs at companies dedicated to hiring more women
  • Advice and support from an authentic community
  • Events that help you level up in your career
  • Free membership, always

Like

17 comments

Share

Share your insight

Join an authentic community that helps women support each other at work. Share your professional experience or ask for advice — you can even post anonymously.

17 Comments

Join the conversation
  1. Anonymous

    I’d take my lumps on this one, reiterate that you want to keep the job, and lay out the steps you’ll take moving forward to avoid clerical errors like this in the future.

  2. Anonymous

    Like methodically copy-paste contact or any reference information.

  3. Shels

    I find it interesting that the same CASE MANAGER who will now "scrutinize my paperwork for errors" was equally at fault for not catching this mistake! I'd be very uncomfortable with this situation.

  4. Anonymous

    I’d be uncomfortable, too! So the OP has some options: they can say thanks for pointing this out, won’t happen again. Or…then can go to HR and try to drag the case manager down with them so the supervisor equally distributed this blame. The relationship will be forever destroyed. If the OP wants to keep this job, then i would stick with my original comment: take your lumps and bring this to an end. If they’re thinking of leaving the position, they could go down in a blaze of glory and go after the case manager to redistribute blame. They’ll never get a reference if this is the case.

  5. Maggie Stone

    I am a Therapist so I am familiar with HIPPA and privacy laws. I am sorry that you got suspended for what sounds like an inadvertent breech of the law (not policy) and that the individual chose to pitch a fit. Mistakes like this do happen, and are very, very rarely investigated or prosecuted. They are mostly concerned with egregious blatant mistakes.

  6. Anonymous

    I think it's a red herring to focus on the case manager's role here. If you've been working together for any amount of time, the CM (or anyone else who is supposed to double-check your work) is not scrutinizing everything you submit. They are 1) presuming you know how to do your job, and 2) skimming for blatant errors. That's very common and pretty normal. If your focus is on how it's their job to redo your job, you're missing the point. I agree that it's absurd that someone freaked out over a minimal error and your boss seems to have overreacted unless you make a lot of serious mistakes and/or tried to blame the CM for the error instead of taking responsibility. I would be shocked if the CM hadn't also been reprimanded and also completely derailed on the rest of their job if they'll have to double-check everything you submit. Your best bet is to keep your head down, double or triple-check your documentation, and be extra nice to the CM and your boss for a while. Good luck.

  7. Anonymous

    I did take responsibility for the typo mistake and corrected it before being suspended. i did not try to solely blame the CM, just made a point that we had an agreement that due to lots of people in our office making mistakes on paperwork, she was to be proof reading and checking for mistakes. She is also human and I don’t expect her to be catching everything, as I am not the only one she has to check things for, there are 3 others. I was being singled out by the boss as being the only one to make mistakes on paperwork, when there is a whole bin full of paperwork mistakes almost every week for people to correct. The CM was not reprimanded for anything. This was my 5th time getting either a write up or warning. The other ones (3) were for body odor issues due to a medical problem I am being treated for, and it was categorized as “professionalism”, and also one incident where someone reported me for doing a restraint hold improperly (I took full responsibility and I did do it correctly as I demonstrated exactly what I did for my boss and there were witnesses who stated to my boss that I did not do anything wrong, and I re took the training and asked to be removed from the case and the situation was resolved). The CM and I get along fine for he most part. My plan moving forward is to just do my job to the best of my abilities and triple check my work and have a coworker that is also a good friend and my work partner help me with proof reading things when possible so that it’s not de railing the CM. My boss tends to over react, scream, yell, issue punishment and then apologize and work out a solution to the problem later. Thank You for your input.

  8. Anonymous

    I know you want to share responsibility with the case manager but if you want to continue working there, you'll need to take full responsibility and make sure your paperwork is immaculate. Over time and with a responsible attitude you may regain your standing.

    The red flag was your repeated attempts to include others in the scenario and offset and share blame.

    It will take time but you can absolutely regain your reputation.

  9. Anonymous

    Dyslexia runs in my family, as I have a sister and son who have it pretty severely, so I understand your issue first-hand. I also occasionally transpose numbers (some number combinations are worse than others, and some I can never seemingly get right, but that is part of the diagnosis). While yours may have been a simple typo, I agree that taking responsibility and agreeing to due diligence from now on are your only ways to salvage this. Having one or two double and triple-check your data entry from forms is one way to minimize the chance of it happening again. I also believe your boss was over the top in how she responded to the situation. Behavioral health confidentiality has the most restrictive confidentiality in the medical field (with the possible exception of HIV status). As one with a master's degree in Mental Health Counseling, this is as it should be. I am sorry this has happened to you, and I hope you live, learn, and recover well.

  10. Anonymous

    Thank you for understanding. I have already taken full responsibility, corrected the mistake, as well as other typos that I found, and will be working with the CM and a trusted co worker/friend to triple check for errors to minimize any more mistakes in the near future. Will be briefly meeting with the boss tomorrow to discuss returning to work this week. Thanks

  11. Anonymous

    My advice? If you’re in a place where you are being watched this closely, double check your work, have the case manager check it, and check it again. It sucks, but I am guessing your boss doesn’t WANT to push you out unless you have consistently poor performance - she just doesn’t want you making mistakes.

    I was once the boss who had to set a plan because my (mostly new) team kept making errors - usually typos

    but sometimes bigger. They weren’t huge and they were usually (not always) fixable without costing money (though they annoyed our customers), so I preferred just to have conversations. But they were still making mistakes and I had a lot of pressure on me to stop them. And I had to submit my plan to MY boss. So I set a department policy that someone else had to check to work prior to submitting it. I didn’t actually watch closely if they were doing that, but if they DID make a mistake and it hadn’t been checked, it was a three strikes rule. First time, conversation. Second time, retrain. Third time, write up. Again, much less at stake, so I could do that. It cut way back on mistakes. That was what I was concerned with. And I did notice when people were making improvements. There was less scrutiny from my boss and therefore less from me. BUT - if it was still consistent, it was usually a not so great review. I also got a not so great review.

  12. Anonymous

    If I were you I would file a claim with the EEOC for their treatment of you for a simple human honest mistake. While this is truly not an egregious one the HIPAA standards may come into play. If your company has an EAP use that to get a few sessions with a counselor. Perhaps going forward repeat twice the numbers that someone gives you back to them and have someone else second check things for the near term if it will give you comfort.

    Never, ever let your manager yell at you. Let them know that is 100% not acceptable and while you take the blame for the simple clerical error (be sure to state it exactly as such) there was no harm to the person or the organization. Release this from your body because keeping this in will harm you further emotionally.

  13. Anonymous

    Filing a claim with the EEOC when your employer calls out errors=sure fire way to lose your job. The OP goes on to say that this is the 5th time she's been cited for work-related issues. While the case manager shouldn't have handled this in the way they did, it's no illegal to be an ass hole. EEOC...get real! Next up, call an employment attorney, report this to the evening news. My god, why is the default position always victim status on this board?

  14. Anonymous

    The EEOC exists to help those who are facing issues just like this. Your negativity and anger doesn't belong on this site. I never said she was a victim, so de re-read the sane direct comment I gave to the OP who asked for advice. If you don't have anything productive to say here don't say anything.

  15. Anonymous

    Human error exists. Procedures are put in place to reduce those errors. In your case, that procedure was not effective. I think that’s the important thing to highlight. It wasn’t just you or your boss- it was the process. Given the advancements we have in technology- this could be an opportunity to automate pieces of information.

    2 weeks without pay seems excessive. I have only ever suspended an employee if there was an ongoing investigation or if it was best to remove them from a heated situation but in most cases those were still paid since matters were pending and to reduce any liability of not paying someone. This definitely is another issue- I would escalate and seek outside counsel. You should also look for a new role. Their response was not appropriate for the situation.

  16. Anonymous

    I had a comment drafted, but it disappeared. I’m just going to respond high level now.

    1) It seems your boss doesn’t really like you. Maybe it’s time to seek other employment. Writing you up 3 times for body odor associated with a medical condition is concerning (given you were taking steps to mitigate/correct), and suspending you for this error is excessive.

    2) As someone who works in the HIPAA regulatory space, this mistake is fairly common and does not justify 2-week suspension. IMO, under normal circumstances, this would not even come to the level of being reportable to OCR under the annual reporting requirements. If the CM gave more information over the phone than the patient’s first name without confirming identity, that’s an issue for the CM.

    3) Going forward, make sure you review your documentation. Ultimately, you are responsible for whatever you document within the record, regardless of whether someone else reviews it. That said, if you stay at this job I would ensure the CM is appropriately reviewing clerical/demographic information as it is where mistakes are most likely to occur.

  17. Lori Dolan

    Two weeks no pay? Yelling? I would file a complaint with your HR department. That's excessive for a mistaken phone number; it's not like sensitive, private medical information was revealed. And what happened to the case manager who also missed the error? Seems like she hasn't received any similar repercussions but is being "rewarded" by not having her pay docked and now being placed in charge of proofing your work.

Browse recent posts

jljl3ph
Plan construction projects with the Concrete Calculator, a practical online tool for estimating material quantities, calculating concrete requirements, managing costs, and simplifying building work.
Hiii everyone!
I'm. Current looking for remote jobs
Your trusted partner for a cleaner, healthier home in Los Angeles, California. At Quick Clean Carpet Care, we've been providing top-notch carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, pet accident treatment, hard floor cleaning, rug cleaning, window cleaning, and house washing services for over 9 years. Our team of experts uses eco-friendly solutions and state-of-the-art equipment to leave your home sparkling clean and germ-free. From stain removal to deep cleaning, we've got you covered. Serving Los Angeles and surrounding areas, we're committed to delivering exceptional customer service and unparalleled results. Call us today to schedule your appointment and experience the Quick Clean difference!
Your trusted partner for a cleaner, healthier home in Los Angeles, California. At Quick Clean Carpet Care, we've been providing top-notch carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, pet accident treatment, hard floor cleaning, rug cleaning, window cleaning, and house washing services for over 9 years. Our team of experts uses eco-friendly solutions and state-of-the-art equipment to leave your home sparkling clean and germ-free. From stain removal to deep cleaning, we've got you covered. Serving Los Angeles and surrounding areas, we're committed to delivering exceptional customer service and unparalleled results. Call us today to schedule your appointment and experience the Quick Clean difference!
See more
Fairygodboss VIP
Achieve your career goals.
Be part of the largest online career community for women to find jobs, advice, and support — for free.
Fairygodboss members