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I wrote “adn” instead of “and” on a social post and my coworker sent it to my boss instead of me. I’m constantly begging them for time to work on social but they don’t care.
I make typos like this when rushed. I’ve told them I need to block time for social media but my boss is constantly adding other unrelated tasks like web stories, so good strategic planning never gets done. I’m always posting off the cuff (last minute requests from my boss) and postponing planning because there just isn’t time. My work takes forever to be handed in because my tasks are constantly being reprioritized. I like all the aspects of my job but if social media results are important then hello, I need time to work on it.
I work at a school board, so I understand why typos are unacceptable. But with a lack of time to plan and execute, mistakes are bound to happen.
What would you do in this situation?
__The situation:__
We have a new temporary coworker that’s working on our website redesign. She’s working closely with our web manager/graphic designer. She found a small typo (adn instead of and) in my social post and asked him about it. He referred her to our department’s boss… not really sure why. Our boss obviously referred her back to me to fix it.
I’m embarrassed of the typo and i’m more than happy to correct it, which would have been done hours ago had they not gone through this weird cycle.
I gently told her to send any social media changes my way from now on.
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1 Reply
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Don’t let them pressure you with more tasks. Simply work on one thing at your own pace. It is your fault for the mistakes, so the only right thing is not to rush things and make sure your work is perfect.
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Can you get a social media planner? My boss pays for Hootsuite for me, but I know there are others out there. It’s made a huge difference for me to not be making posts off the cuff. I’ve usually got everything loaded up at least two weeks ahead of time, and I usually go through at the beginning of every week and proof read everything that’s getting posted that week just in case I missed something.
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Honestly sounds like excuses. Maybe you need more time but double-checking is a skill you develop through errors like this.
We all do them and it’s part of the learning curve but also something to learn fast.
Just accept responsibility and change your patterns to reduce these obvious errors. Add spell checkers and similar layers of assistance.
Working at a school is working in a bureaucracy. There will always be someone with too much time critiquing everything you do… Take slow breaths and make wise moves. Try to enjoy the game if you can.
Give the book “Extreme Ownership” a look. Sounds like you may find it valuable!
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Probably the quickest hot fix for this would be to put the text into an app / website that reads it out loud, and then grammerly or something to ensure that you’ve used the right spelling for words that can sound similar.
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Make them pay for a Grammarly premium account for you. It’ll eliminate typos like this.
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Sounds more like a vent post
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Just wanna pop in and say it’s a dick move for that coworker to do what they did (rat it out to a higher up).
I’ve been running my accounts for 2-3 years now. Mistakes happen. If people find them, folks tell me directly. Once I’m told it’s all of 3-5 seconds to correct it… They don’t go to like the restaurant owner or whoever and be like “um someone mispelled ‘and’” lol.
Even a direct PM message to the social account would have worked fine if this worker wasn’t sure about contacting you directly.
Edit: It feels like this person wanted you to be on blast for making a small mistake. But maybe I’m reading too into it ????♀️
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The way to handle this is like this:
Them: OP, have X done by Y time.
You: No problem! I will have X done by Z time. Also, that will put me behind on A and B so they will now be ready at time D instead of C.
Them: I need it all done today.
You: Can you tell me, of A, B, and X, which are your top priorities in order? That way I can make sure they are dine first.
Blocking of time to do things and managing time and deadlines is your responsibility. If you need to block off and focus, then do the work and don’t answer the phone/calls during the time you are doing it. Being able to manage others’ expectations doesn’t mean “yes” it means “lets find out what the boss’ priorities are and focus on those first.”
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Tell him people like to correct everyone online, so you add the typos to increase engagement ????
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download the grammarly browser extension for typos / grammatical errors. saved my life many a time lol
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I run an agency, and I would never expect someone to be the writer/creator and the checker. This place sounds toxic. Typos used to be a big deal, but I don’t think they are anymore.
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Use ChatGPT to proofread for you
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I was once in this situation working for a marketing agency and handling social for several clients. Too much work all the time and my boss thought planning social media took a third of the time it does.
I suggest you make yourself a schedule on Google Sheets or Excel. Block out time in 30 minute segments and add all your tasks, estimating how long you think they will take.
You can refer to this schedule when people add things to your plate. Ask your boss about the priority of the task and figure out together where it should go in the schedule. This will show them that to do one task, another has to be moved.
Also quit because it won’t get better at a place with this type of work ethic.
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I was once in this situation working for a marketing agency and handling social for several clients. Too much work all the time and my boss thought planning social media took a third of the time it does.
I suggest you make yourself a week long schedule on Google Sheets or Excel. Block out time in 30 minute segments and add all your tasks, estimating how long you think they will take.
You can refer to this schedule when people add things to your plate. Ask your boss about the priority of the task and figure out together where it should go in the schedule. This will show them that to do one task, another has to be moved.
Also quit because it won’t get better at a place with this type of work ethic.
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Get the Grammarly plug in and type out all copy in a separate doc before posting. This has saved me a ton of time and headaches! Sorry this happened to you. It’s happened to me a ton too
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