Administrator. Scenario 2 of 13. Owning a mistake

The wrong John

You email a spreadsheet of staff names and home addresses to John in payroll. A minute later you see that the address filled itself in as a different John, at a supplier outside your organisation.

Nobody else has noticed.

What is the best call?

Tell your manager straight away, and follow your organisation's process for a data breach.

Good call

This is a personal data breach, and time matters. Under UK data protection law some breaches must be reported to the regulator within 72 hours. Your manager can only act if they know. Speed is what you will be judged on, not the slip.

Email the other John, ask him to delete it, and leave it there.

Could be better

Asking him to delete it is a useful step, and it may well be part of the official process. But it is not the whole process, and you cannot be sure he did it. Your organisation still needs to know.

Try to recall the email and wait to see whether it worked before saying anything.

Not the best call

Recalling an email rarely works outside your own organisation, and waiting uses up the time that matters. If it comes out later, the delay will look worse than the mistake.

Say nothing. It was an honest mistake and nobody has noticed.

Not the best call

The people on that list have had their home addresses sent to a stranger, whether anyone noticed or not. Almost everyone sends a wrong email at some point. Hiding one is what turns a slip into a serious matter.

The principle

Everyone makes mistakes. What employers look for is what you do next: tell the right person quickly, say what happened, and help put it right.