The instruction at a work project was to select "random samples." For some reason I did "judgmental samples." And I didn't realize my mistake until one month later when I was talking to another coworker on the same project. I had to apologize to two managers. One manager was trying to be nice, but I could see in his eyes that, "Why, NaNaKo, why would you pull this shit".
This had never ever happened to me. Random sample vs. judgmental sample, that was basic newbie training. I also couldn't believe I saw it this late.
What happened to me?! 😱
13 July 2021 update: I finally explained the entire project to the manager. He had this WTF expression on his face. Then he mumbled, "How is a newbie going to be able to follow along and do this?" He was probably thinking of the new hire in another office.
I almost blurted out, "It's not that hard. HQ's instructions are convoluted, but I took one day to do one step so it's doable." Then I remembered my own fiasco about judgmental vs. random sampling. Apparently I can't follow instructions either. So I just kept quiet and let the manager think this project is soooo hard! 😜