Oops...

Saturday, a partner walked into my office with a bill. Luckily, I happened to be there.

He asked if I knew where a particular charge that was allocated to one of his clients had come from. I didn't *know*, but I could guess.

I think the summer associate I supervised on a project severely over-utilized some of our more expensive research services. How, exactly, one can rack up several thousand dollars of these particular charges, I am not certain.

But, I will find out on Monday and the firm will most likely have to eat the cost, since it never should have been incurred in the first place.

I assumed the summer associate knew how to avoid unnecessary charges. I also assumed the summer associate wouldn't do unnecessary work.

Well, you know what they say about assumptions...

So, while I'm over here making an ass out of you and me, and feeling sheepish, I've also got some good news to report.

I didn't freak out when the partner showed me my mistake. The constant fear that I'm fucking up at work is apparently at bay, because when confronted with an actual fuck-up, I took it in stride.

Also, he didn't seem to be overly critical of me, he just wanted me to handle it. It turns out, he was finishing up details before leaving for vacation, and the fact that I was there on a Saturday made his life a little easier because he could explain what he wanted me to do to fix the billing issue and leave with the comfort of having successfully handed it off instead of sending an email and hoping I understood.

I *rarely* go in to the office on weekends. When I work on the weekends, I do my best to work from home.

But this time, I'm glad I was there.