I wasn’t always a rockstar in HR. I’ve made quite a few major blunders in my career. I’m going to share the stories of the ones that most impacted me this month in a series. Keep reading …

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Kevin was fired for a major quality error. He called to appeal the decision. He felt that he shouldn’t have been terminated because another employee had made the same error a few weeks before and only received a suspension.

I looked into the issue and found out he was right. There were actually 2 others who made the same quality error and only received suspensions. I brought it to my supervisor and recommended we reinstate Kevin. She agreed with me and said she would talk to the shift supervisor and tell him to bring Kevin back.

Kevin called me to follow up on his issue right before I left for the day. I let him know that we’d decided to reinstate him and were just waiting on the final decision on when he would return to work.

However, when I returned the next day, I learned my supervisor and Kevin’s supervisor had decided on a different course of action. We were not going to reinstate Kevin.

But I already told him that we were going to bring him back!?!

That’s what I thought. But I didn’t say that. I didn’t say anything.

EPIC FAIL!!!

I went back to Kevin and let him know about the change. He … went … OFF!! He called me names and threatened to sue us and demanded to speak with my supervisor. I didn’t have a choice but to transfer him to her.

I was cold busted!

I was written up and essentially benched from handling employee dispute issues for a good while. I disappointed my supervisor, who was someone I admired very much. And most of all, I really disappointed myself. My fear of “getting in trouble” actually landed me in more trouble than if I’d just come clean in the first place. And it cost the company money because we ended up having to offer Kevin a severance to avoid a lawsuit in part because of my screw-up.

But I learned a couple things:

It ain’t over til it’s over. When handling any issue that requires multiple approvals, do not announce or promise anything to anyone until everyone has agreed to everything. Most of what happened could have been avoided if I’d just kept my mouth shut. “We’re still looking into it” and “I don’t have an update” are more than acceptable answers. So is “I don’t know.” Use one of those instead of divulging details that aren’t final.

The cover-up is always worse. We all mess up. Sometimes majorly. Trying to conceal the error will never solve the problem — it will only magnify it when the truth comes out. And the truth always comes out! Take a deep breath and confront the failure. Then figure out what you’re going to do to fix the error and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

In case you missed the rest of the Epic Fail series, read and relive the ruin with Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3