Tracking down a typo in a spreadsheet stole 6 hours of my Wednesday

I was sick with a sinus infection last Tuesday but pushed through to finish a client's quarterly report. Turned out a misplaced comma in a formula chain made every total wrong, and I spent 6 hours digging through 15 sheets to find it. Anyone else ever lose a whole day fixing one stupid mistake when you should have just rested?

2 comments

2 Comments

milalewis1d ago

Hard disagree. That comma wasn't a mystery, it was a sign you were too sick to work. You shouldn't have been in that spreadsheet at all. Six hours hunting through 15 sheets isn't bad luck, it's the cost of not taking a sick day when you needed one. Your client got a worse report because you were half asleep, and your health took a hit too. Next time just close the laptop and go back to bed. You waste a lot less time recovering from a typo when you aren't running a fever.

johnson.eva1d ago

Six hours hunting through 15 sheets sounds like a fever dream honestly. I once spent a whole afternoon looking for a typo in a formula only to find out it was a stray space at the end of a cell. Your brain turns into mush when you're sick, you just keep clicking hoping something will click. But yeah, closing the laptop and going back to bed is the real power move. Clients don't care if you worked through a fever, they just see the sloppy report and think you're bad at your job. Save yourself the headache and just nap it off, the spreadsheet will still be there tomorrow.