Yo.

Heya. Glad someone's around. Anyhow, right before I leave for the day, I discover that the document a co-worker gave me to edit and publish a few weeks back was the wrong document. In other words, she was working on an older version, and it didn't have some legally mandated changes incorporated into it. It's a training manual, and I discover the error when I'm comparing the teacher's notes (which I'm now editing) to it.

Part of me is thinking that it is her responsibility to make sure the changes were in there. The other part of me thinks I should have known to check, especially since this co-worker has been known to screw up before.

Yeah, rationally, I know that only a some of the responsibility rests on me, but I'm still freaking out. I'm exhausted, but can't fall asleep. This is too reminiscent of some situations from my old job. I'm also not looking forward to doing the cleanup on this project, as I'm already strapped for time.

I get the sleepless stress thing. But, really, ultimately, you aren't responsible for doing someone else's job.

Don't freak out, Anne.

The main thing is that (a) the co-worker made the original error; and (b) you did catch it before it went out. It sucks that you didn't catch it earlier, but those two factors take the onus off you.

Also, it means you did your function in the error trapping process. It has layers for a reason and you did catch it at your level. Ideally earlier, but still, it's caught.

Anne, there's only so much you can be expected to check for, and this degree of fuck up is beyond that level.

The problem is, the part with the error has gone out. There's time to catch it, but still...

Part of what's freaking me out is wondering how much else slipped through the cracks and how much time (time that I don't have) I'm going to have to spend fixing it.

And thanks for the encouragement, everyone. I just wish my subconscious would listen to reason and let me sleep.

Do you have other co-workers who can help check, and a complete list of every file she's touched?

That's probably what it's going to come down to. Problem is, we're down by one person, and people are swamped.

At least my boss knows this person has a history of screwups, and has asked me to document everything I get from this person.

Anyhow, I'm going to try to get some sleep. Wish me sleep~ma, please.