History Main / CareerBuildingBlunder

** Leo does it to [[GilmoreGirls Paris]] after she leaks his former drug habit.

** Leo does it to [[HeyItsThatGuy Par]][[GilmoreGirls is]] after she leaks his former drug habit.

*** Unfortunately, subverted in a later episode where Worf again breaks protocol, this time to save his otherwise-fatally-injured wife, resulting in a totally botched mission (a valuable enemy defector ends up dead. Sisko, as his superior officer, advises Worf that ''this'' failure probably means he will ''never'' be offered the position of captain (plus Worf and his wife won't be given missions together anymore). Then, "as a man who lost his wife", Sisko admits he probably would have done the exact same thing in Worf's place.

** One episode revealed that Odo made a mistake not investigating a terrorist attack thoroughly enough during the Cardassian occupation which led to innocent Bajorans being executed. Odo is in anguish when forced to relive the events begging his past self to look into things he overlooked the first time. Given Odo's reputation for competence and thoroughness in his investigations during the series he took this lesson to heart.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': One episode revealed that Odo made a mistake not investigating a terrorist attack thoroughly enough during the Cardassian occupation which led to innocent Bajorans being executed. Odo is in anguish when forced to relive the events begging his past self to look into things he overlooked the first time. Given Odo's reputation for competence and thoroughness in his investigations during the series he took this lesson to heart.

* ''AshesToAshes'' pulls this one when Chris turns out to have been corrupt. Gene decides that the shame of still working in CID with everyone knowing what he did will be his punishment.
* In season two of ''TheWire'', Lt. Daniels hires Sgt. Carver as part of his team again despite Carver [[spoiler:snitching about their progress to the higher-ups which led to severe meddling in the investigation]] the previous season, explaining that he knows Carver won't do it again after seeing how wrong it went the first time, and with extra attention on him.

* In ''SoulEater'' [[BigBad Arachne]] gives this as a reason for averting YouHaveFailedMe.

** This trope is also how Wedge Antilles manages the formation of [[XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]]; [[ShellShockedVeteran previously-trained pilots]] who screwed up in various ways, many of them not really their fault, get one last chance. Wedge is scrupulous about the pilots he accepts, though; of the ~40 pilots that try out, only ten make it in.

* ''ThePractice'': Early in his career, Bobby put on a half-hearted defense of a man he'd been appointed to represent as a public defender, believing him to be guilty; the man was convicted of murder. The man was exonerated several years later, and hired Bobby to handle his wrongful-imprisonment suit, figuring he'd be motivated to atone for his own role in the conviction.

->''"I called over there for a reference, left word with some snooty girl, next thing you know I got a fax from Miranda Priestly saying that of all the assistants she ever hired, you were by far her biggest disappointment... And [[ArsonMurderAndLifesaving if I don't hire you, I'm an idiot]]. You must have done something right."''\\
-- '''''Literature/TheDevilWearsPrada'''''

* TripleH was the only one of a group of four people to be punished for what was known as "The [=MSG=] Incident." Triple H and ShawnMichaels hugged Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, who were on their way to {{WCW}}. Someone caught this on camera, and it quickly made the rounds. Since Hall and Nash were gone, and Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, Triple H had to take the whole of the punishment. One would think this incident would keep him at the bottom of the card for the rest of his life, and utterly ruin him, despite Triple H's love for the business. Fast forward to today: Triple H is married to Vince [=McMahon=]'s daughter, won thirteen WWE world titles in his career, and is being groomed to take over the business side of the WWE.

** Grand Admiral Thrawn promotes a subordinate who failed to capture Luke's ship with a TractorBeam. The subordinate received high praise because he went above and beyond his duty in his efforts, creating new strategies on the fly that, even though they failed, still bespoke top-notch problem-solving skills. (Bonus points for actually taking responsibility for his failure.) The tractor beam operator was then told to work out a way to counter Luke's trick. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome He ascerdid.]]

* In ''LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'', this is one of Reinhard von Lohengramm's most admirable traits: when a subordinate fails him, he just tells him that he knows the subordinate learned his lesson and will do better next time. He is universally right in his judgement. [[note]]He wasn't always like that. The first time Reinhard wanted to punish an officer who caused him to lose a battle, his best friend and living conscience, Kircheis, pleaded to him not to do it. Reinhard listened to his advice and learned the lesson.[[/note]]

* In the '80s restaurant chain Jack in the Box had cases of e. coli stemming from undercooked meat, causing some deaths. The resulting publicity threatened to close down the chain, but the company put out a lot of effort to ensure their burgers would never be undercooked again, and the publicity from those efforts helped make Jack even bigger than before.

* ''HappyDays'': Chachi accidentally burns down Arnold's. Al (the owner) is upset about the fire but doesn't blame Chachi because it was an accident. Fonzie chews Chachi out about it; then appoints Chachi as his representative at [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks the new]] [[InNameOnly Arnold's]] (in which Fonzie's partner with Al), because Fonz knows Chachi will make sure not to screw up again.
* ''TheSandbaggers'': The Director of Operations uses something like this to select his titular spies; his secretary observes that all his agents are superhumanly dedicated to make up for a self-perceived defect or inadequacy.

** Grand Admiral Thrawn promotes a subordinate who failed to capture Luke's ship with a TractorBeam. The subordinate received high praise because he went above and beyond his duty in his efforts, creating new strategies on the fly that, even though they failed, still bespoke top-notch problem-solving skills. (Bonus points for actually taking responsibility for his failure.) The tractor beam operator was then told to work out a way to counter Luke's trick. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome He did.]]

* ''Series/DeepSpaceNine'': One episode revealed that Odo made a mistake not investigating a terrorist attack thoroughly enough during the Cardassian occupation which led to innocent Bajorans being executed. Odo is in anguish when forced to relive the events begging his past self to look into things he overlooked the first time. Given Odo's reputation for competence and thoroughness in his investigations during the series he took this lesson to heart.

-- '''''TheDevilWearsPrada'''''

** In Season 4, Thirteen fatally confounded a diagnosis by accident. Dr. House reasoned that Thirteen would be incredibly attentive to detail after that case. On another occasion, he helps an astronaut further her career in spite of medical considerations that could have made NASA wary. House simply concluded that his patient would be the safest astronaut NASA could possibly hire, given how informed she was about her condition and how desperate she was to do her job well. [[spoiler: Then he called NASA and told them she was medically unfit to be an astronaut, because hey, it's dangerous up there and she ''is''.]]

-> ''If I was going to fire you, you'd be gone already. You're never going to let anything like that happen again, are you?''

** In Season 4, Thirteen fatally confounded a diagnosis by accident. Dr. House reasoned that Thirteen would be incredibly attentive to detail after that case. On another occasion, she helps an astronaut further her career in spite of medical considerations that could have made NASA wary. House simply concluded that his patient would be the safest astronaut NASA could possibly hire, given how informed she was about her condition and how desperate she was to do her job well. [[spoiler: Then he called NASA and told them she was medically unfit to be an astronaut, because hey, it's dangerous up there and she ''is''.]]

* ''TheWestWing''

* ''{{CSI}}'': Grissom is told to fire Warrick because Warrick left a scene and, as a result, rookie CSI Holly Gribbs is killed. Grissom tells Warrick that he's already lost one CSI, and that he doesn't want to lose another. [[note]] If he fired Warrick for making a mistake, he'd also have to fire himself and the rest of the team, because they've ''all'' made mistakes at one time or another. [[/note]] Warrick then becomes one of the most reliable members of TheTeam.

A subordinate screws up badly: someone dies, lots of money/time/resources are lost, a battle is a rout. He thinks he's screwed, but the Boss decides to keep or even [[PromotionNotPunishment promote]] them on the basis of this failure on reasoning that the subordinate will forever more be motivated by [[MyGreatestFailure that mistake]]. Thus they are giving the subordinate a opportunity for MyGreatestSecondChance.

A subordinate screws up badly: someone dies, lots of money/time/resources are lost, a battle is a rout. He thinks he's screwed, but the Boss decides to keep or even promote them on the basis of this failure on reasoning that the subordinate will forever more be motivated by [[MyGreatestFailure that mistake]]. Thus they are giving the subordinate a opportunity for MyGreatestSecondChance.

* When [[Series/LawAndOrder Ben Stone]] was a young Assistant District Attorney, he accidentally sent privileged information over to the defense in a case he was working on that cost them the trial. The DA at the time didn't fire him, figuring Stone would be not only more prudent but also forgiving of others when they made similar blunders.

A subordinate screws up badly: someone dies, lots of money/time/resources are lost, a battle/constent is a route. He thinks he's screwed but the Boss decides to keep or even promote them on the basis of this failure on reasoning that the subordinate will forever more be motivated by [[MyGreatestFailure that mistake]]. Thus they are giving the subordinate a opportunity for MyGreatestSecondChance.