When mistakes happen.

[scoop 10]

If someone makes a mistake that affects you adversley, what do you want to happen?

[Alex C. 10]

Depends

 

Are we talking about a friend doing something stupid unintentionally (dropping you in it for instance)

 

Or are we talking about an employee making a mistake whilst working for a company?

 

Or something else?

 

My response would vary greatly

[scoop 10]

I'm not sure really.

 

I'm a nurse and a friend and I were taking about the reactions of people who have been injured in road traffic accidents caused by people who have made a mistake.

 

There often seems to be an overwhelming desire to see the person prosecuted, sacked (if they were driving as part of their jobs) and an absolutely vitriolic fury directed towards the driver.

 

Whre someone has been driving dangerously etc fair enough, but when its clear that its simply a case of a one off human error - why the need for revenge?

 

It seems that many people seem to be unable to accept that mistakes/accidents happen and accept an apology and move on.

Edited October 9, 2010 by scoop

[AGB1 10]

It's all about the compensation isnt it?

[purdyamos 10]

When something happens that's outside your own control it's a wake up call and you realize how vulnerable you are, how close to not being in control of your own life. It's We mostly live with an illusion that things will be OK if we take responsibility for our own end. Finding yourself at the mercy of someone else's actions can be quite alarming, and a shock to that prevailing feeling of security and self reliance. Even if the resulting injury isn't going to alter your lifestyle or plans, you can still get that shudder that your fate's out of your hands. With road accidents there's also an awareness of just how nasty it could have been, which is quite frightening.

 

Some societies are more fatalistic and not so surprised when someone else slips up and affects our life. We've gone to rather an extreme with the idea of individualism in recent years, which I think makes people much less patient with other people's foibles and mistakes. People don't like to feel vulnerable or dependant on others, which I guess in your patients would be a typical frustration. We live with the idea that there's always someone to blame, that life could be perfected if only it weren't for other people.

 

Incidentally, research has shown the risk of developing PTSD is much higher in situations where there's a perception that someone else had control over us. So losing your family in an earthquake is terrible but just one of those things that can't be helped. Losing them in a car crash because someone was playing boy racer lends quite another element to the grief.

 

Just my thoughts anyway. God I'm in a gloom this week.

[Karis 11]

If it's a mistake, then mistakes happen and no one is infallible.

 

Forgiveness is hard, but ultimately preferable than carrying around a load of baggage for the rest of your life.

[scoop 10]

It's all about the compensation isnt it?

 

No, it doesn't always seem to be.

 

Quite frequently there seems to be an overwelming anger and desire to see the person responsible punished.

 

Alot of the accident victims we look after go onto privately prosecute the drivers, even when it's fairly obvious to everyone looking in from the outside that it was a freak accident.

 

I've occasionally taken phonecalls from distraught drivers, begging me to reassure them that a cild they ran over or crashed ito is ok. Of course, I'm not allowed to divulge any information at all due to patient confidentiality, but the torture these drivers go through is obvious.

 

I just can't understand why a sincere apology is so difficult to accept these das.

[js2012 10]

Two words

Ka ching !

Nuff said

[Sean Hughes 10]

How bad is it though that when someone makes a mistake and someone else suffers as a result the first thing people are bothered about is compensation?