Basic Trope: A character screws up badly, only to be accepted/promoted because of having experienced this failure.
- Straight: Jack activates the bomb too early, rendering it completely useless when it's needed. Jim chooses not to fire him or promotes him, believing that because of this he'll never jump the gun again.
- Exaggerated: The explosion not only wasted the time and effort put into the bomb, but killed the entire, extremely valuable bomb squad placing it, yet Jack is promoted to second in command for apologizing.
- Downplayed: Jack accidentally spills hot coffee on someone Jim doesn't like. Jim thinks its on purpose and promotes him a single level for this. The organization has dozen of ranks so Jack doesn't go up very far.
- Justified:
- The mistake didn’t really affect anything, and Jack did a great job of trying to fix it anyway.
- Jack is being Kicked Upstairs to get him out of anywhere he can cause harm.
- That particular mistake is considered evidence of intelligence, as all the people who currently excel in the company made the same mistake when they were new.
- Failure is inevitable in that line of work. Jack was promoted for his efforts in damage control.
- Jack's failure was understandable. However, he admitted it immediately instead of trying to hide or downplay it, demonstrating honesty and initiative.
- Inverted: Jack completes an assignment perfectly and is fired because he did too well.
- Subverted: It turns out that Jim only kept Jack around because he hopes to prevent future mistakes by keeping an eye on him.
- Double subverted: ...and then the same situation comes up again and Jack makes the right call, proving that he really did learn from his mistake.
- Parodied: Jack's mistake killed the rest of team; Jim is now forced to keep him around- with him screwing up the whole time- until he can find replacements.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: As soon as Jim finds out it was Jack’s fault, Jack is demoted or fired.
- Enforced: "Status Quo Is God, so we can't remove Jack, right?"
- Lampshaded: "It was very clever of Jim not to fire Jack after the bomb incident. He's been the most trustworthy guy on his team ever since. Like some freaking movie character."
- Invoked: Jack intentionally makes mistakes in hope of being promoted.
- The company deliberately puts recruits in the paths of making mistakes, so that they know which ones will keep cool under pressure.
- Exploited: See Invoked.
- Defied: Jim and Jack's organization has rules stating that after a mistake in bomb-detonation protocol, the person responsible may not be promoted for several years post-incident.
- Discussed: "Do you think it's clever to give people another chance to prove themselves worthy if they screw up their assignment, big time?" — "Well, I'm no expert in management and employment psychology, but it sounds reasonable enough. Why are you asking? Did any of your kids screw up?"
- Conversed: "Don't you just love it how characters in movies or TV shows are never sacked, no matter how bad their screw-up is? In Real Life, their sorry ass would be unemployed in no time."
- Deconstructed: Jim's lax attitude toward mistakes makes the whole team lazy and undisciplined.
- Reconstructed: Jim makes sure to punish failures that are indicators of future performance as appropriate. He only shows lenience in cases where it's clear that the perpetrator regrets their decisions.
- Implied: Jack is terrified he'll be fired for his mistake, but the next time he appears, he's been promoted, though it's not explained why.
- Played For Drama:
- Jack doesn't think he deserves his promotion and suffers from severe imposter syndrome in his new position despite his excellent work.
- Jim uses Jack's mistake as blackmail material, promising to cover it up in exchange for his loyalty.
Okay, so you screwed up the Career-Building Blunder link, but I'm going to let you go back there anyway; bet you'll be more careful in future though, right?
