How fucking stupid am I?
Of course, that was a rhetorical question, I know how stupid I am. The backstory, 10 months ago, I created a secondary Facebook account to manage my employer’s Facebook pages, due to being bombarded by company page notifications day and night, and work was starting to take over my whole life, so I separated my work and home lives, also removing work Email from my smartphone.
Two days ago, that decision to move my employers Facebook pages onto a separate account really came back to bite me on the ass. Facebook has disabled my account because I had broken the rules on accounts. This was not a malicious act, I genuinely did not realize that I was not allowed to create an account specifically to manage business pages. And it’s impossible to actually talk to someone at Facebook to try to fix this. I have sent them a scan of my drivers license, green card, credit card (with numbers blurred out) and my AT&T bill in an attempt to recover my account, but I fear that will fail as although I used my real name, I used the formation date of the company as my date of birth.
I really wish that Facebook forced you to read the terms and conditions, instead of just showing a tiny link on the signup page, saying you must agree to these terms and conditions, who actually clicks that link? I have other opinions about the stupidity of Facebook’s policies, but this is about me beating myself up.
Now, the reason I am really angry with myself is because I am an experienced IT guy, and I preach to others about the importance of having a backup. And, in this case, there was no backup administrator, which means that any pages that did not have an editor or secondary admin have also been disabled, including the pages for some of our biggest clients and our primary page with six years of history.
I have barely slept in the past few days, my stress level is through the roof and up into the stratosphere, which is having a knock-on effect of exacerbating my depression, causing me physical pain. My employer has been incredibly understanding, much more than I probably would have been if I was the boss.
Some might say, it’s only a job, it’s not your money that is being potentially lost. But, I don’t feel that way about employment, if you are going to take on the job, you put in 100%, like it is your own company and your own money on the line. And, I feel like I have failed my employer and the trust they have put in me.
Financially, the damage is limited, Facebook was not a large lead generator, 95% of leads come from other sources. But, I still feel terrible about the situation that I have caused through not taking steps to prevent the situation. This is 100% on me, and it will take a long time for me to get over this mistake.