Finger on wrong button costs 11 million

[Burninator]

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A worker accidentally tripping a shut-off switch at a major Ontario plastics plant will cost Nova Chemicals Corp. <NCX.TO> $11 million in lost profit, the company said on Wednesday, because it won't be able to fulfill some contracts because of the blunder.
A contractor's employee installing a structural steel platform at an ethylene plant in Corunna, Ontario, mistakenly activated a process shutdown switch on Monday afternoon, halting production and forcing two weeks of repairs at the facility.

It goes on to say the employee won't be punished. But would you still want to work there after that? I am sure the higher-ups would hate you and all the other employees would make fun of you.

I'm sure everyone has made mistakes that costed their company money, but 11 million...gulp.

[arsenal]

Yah, that would suck. I probably couldn't show my face in that place again.
But not nearly as bad as this:
Last year at Tokyo securities firm, an employee put in sell orders for 610,000 shares at ¥1 instead of one share at ¥610,000.
Reports at the time where that the firm would loose "at least" ¥27 billion (US$224 billion) and some reports suggested it could be substantially more.
I am not sure what the final loss was or if it even has been calculated.

From what I remember, the employee didn't get fired, but the CEO of the securities firm resigned, along with a few other people.

Link

[RougeUnderoos]

I was once the lowest man on the totem pole at a big company. Literally the lowest -- 500 people there and every one of them was my boss and I was the lowest paid person. I was the mail cart pusher/courier signer-inner.

One day the "head lawyer/big boss man" and his executive assistant come storming into my "workspace" and says "where the hell is Document X from Law firm Y? They sent it over weeks ago. This is going to cost us millions"!

For a couple hours I was under the impression, and so was everyone else, that I had effed up something big. I didn't know how big, but big enough to definitely make it my last day and maybe a few others. I really didn't care about the money the company might lose, but I didn't want to get anyone fired. Bla bla bla we finally follow the paper trail and sure enough, this "executive assistant" had taken the thing right out of my hands and signed for it. What she did with it next I never found out, but I was vindicated and she seriously looked like she was going to keel over. Later I learned that it was some sort of lawsuit/judgement/ or something and the number involved was 150 million bucks.

In other news: here's a tip for you office types -- be nice to those guys pushing the carts. They have access to a lot of stuff, including your precious mail, and sometimes it goes right into the garbage if you are a ******head.

[Frank the Tank]

How did he not get fired? Seriously.

One mistake on my end could cost in the small millions and I'd be gone for sure. Or are company would be shut down. Either way, I'd be unemployed.

[Burninator]

I don't think he got fired because it was an accident. Possibly something with wrong with their equipment that shouldn't have allowed the button to be pushed at that time.

Something similar happened at my uncles work. He works at a power plant in the control room. And someone he was working was sleeping and had his feet up on the control panel and hit a switch by accident. Apparently it was the wrong kind of switch/button that was installed and it locked on or something and caused 2 mil in damages. The worker wasn't fired because the wrong switch/button was there. Although I guess you don't get in much trouble there for sleeping, but it was Saskatoon...

[SaskaBushFire]

I'd do it again after they got it all set up, then quit.

[RedMan12]

ahh yes the 11 million dollar man.

[Ironhorse]

I can't see how activating a shutdown sequence (unless it was programmed wrong) could cause two weeks of repairs to a plant. That's poor design.

However, I can see lost profit due to the plant being down. Either way, it still sucks to be that operator...

[ken0042]

I think with today's shift towards safety in the workplace, they wouldn't want to repremand somebody for accidentally hitting the safety "off" switch; for fear that the next person might be afraid to push it and then somebody gets hurt.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Something similar happened at my uncles work. He works at a power plant in the control room. And someone he was working was sleeping and had his feet up on the control panel and hit a switch by accident. Apparently it was the wrong kind of switch/button that was installed and it locked on or something and caused 2 mil in damages. The worker wasn't fired because the wrong switch/button was there. Although I guess you don't get in much trouble there for sleeping, but it was Saskatoon...

Homer Simpson does that kind of thing all the time at the powerplant and he never gets fired. What a slacker industry.