30 Wild Mistakes People Made at Work

Can’t cry over spilt drumsticks — or however the saying goes
30 Wild Mistakes People Made at Work

Who among us hasn’t made a colossal mistake while on the clock? Between all the menial tasks and fantasizing about getting revenge on your boss, it’s hard not to make an oopsie every now and then. 

In most cases, these mistakes aren’t the end of the world. Life goes on, even if you grossly overestimate the amount of chicken to make for your shift at KFC. Sure, no one will ever forget your Great Chicken Blunder™, but it’s now immortalized on the internet for people to laugh at for years to come. What’s a better trade-off than that? 

Anyway, here are some massive workplace blunders you’ll be very grateful you didn’t make…

ogeronimogilgamesh . . 4y One of my co-workers at a grocery store accidently locked the only master keyset into the security office, then attempted to break the door down with a clawhammer before anyone could find out. Ten minutes of furious attacking only succeeded in attracting the attention of everyone in the store, breaking off the handle and bending the entire lock, making it inoperable by the locksmith brought in later. ... 1.3k
NicAgainstHumanity . . 4y I work at a call center. I reviewed a call where the guy thought the phone was muted and called the customer a stupid ass motherfucker. The customer called him out and he tried to backpedal and make up some story. Не was fired shortly after. ... 5.8k
reverendcinzia 5y I locked some old people into the YMCA pool complex and the fire department had to come clip the lock to get them out. Basically, I was the closing shift lifeguard at my local YMCA pool at 18 years old. I was pretty sure everyone was out of the facility and was really excited to get out of there and go hang out with my friends, so rather than walking through each locker room, I just yelled in at both doors to see if anyone was there, and with no response, I shut off the lights and finished
YoureNotYouAnymore . 5y A customer came in to return a watch he didn't want anymore. Did the return, he got 200+ back in store credit since he didn't have a receipt, and then the next day I came in to find out the watch was so old it was marked down to $5 in our system. So we lost over $200 that day. This came a week after I essentially gave another customer a free watch because there were no managers there to tell me how to handle a situation I had with his watch so I exchanged it for
idkingeneral . 5y Accidentally ordered 10,000 of the incorrect envelopes which cost $600 and none of them could be used so we had to then buy $600 of the correct ones... The mistake ones are still in the storage room. Luckily my boss likes me and let it slide, even tho I offered to pay the damages. ... 55
holland0207 . 5y I work in AC. We were installing a custom system in the attic of a very nice baby mansion. If you're not familiar with navigating an attic,you have to be very careful to walk only on the studs, and avoid the sheet rock. Near the access hole of the attic there was a complex duct system that we had to navigate in order to enter or exit. While in the process of straddling one duct and going underneath another, I lost my footing and fell through the sheet rock and ruined their ceiling. Luckily the customer was
benign_wish . 5y I work in food service, my only big screw up was blowing up a potato in the microwave. A coworker told me to leave it in for 10 minutes and I left it unattended. My boss found the microwave spewing black smoke and the whole place smelled like something was on fire.. but everyone was able to laugh it off ... 144
pickleboo 5y I was a receptionist at an obstetrics office. I took a phone call from a patient who was, at the time, eight months pregnant and had a ruptured disc in her back. Well, I typed the message into the computer and sent it to the doctor. Except I reported that the mother-to-be had a ruptured dick. And that is now in her medical record, with the correction. Her doctor found that hilarious. The moral is: proofread. Always. ... 295
lazyflyingcows 5y Was working for a tree service company last summer and almost got myself killed or hospitalized. Stood under a tree putting a fall rope back into its bag with my back turned to the climber as he cut a limb off about 4 feet long and 8 inches wide from 20 feet up and landed and inch away from my feet and missed my head by a hair. Yeah pretty dumb of me. ... 71 BMan121212 5y You mean to tell me that they don't shout timber anymore?? ... 54
PoppaTater1. 5y Not paying attention and ordering 40 10lb containers of a product instead of 4 X 10 lbs. $9000 error. We can't return it. ... 58
NEWS ggfergu . . 5y O I overestimated and cooked too much chicken for our dinner rush at KFC. By 400 pieces. ... 865
jweic 5y I'm a teacher. Early in my career a student went missing after second recess. I looked around and realized he never came back. NO ONE could find him. Called parents: no answer. Searched the playground: nothing. Bat signal: no response. School wide panic. Superintendent office was called and security & police came. Не never came to school that day. I missed the fact that he was gone all day when I took attendance first thing in the morning. Mom called in a panic wondering why she had 10 missed calls and cops were at her door when she
el-es-nine 5y I took the sunroof out of a vehicle and was waiting on the part to come in, so I covered the big hole in the roof with crash wrap. (Crash wrap is flexable plastic type material that is supposed to cover holes in vehicles to keep the elements out of the interior.) Parked the vehicle outside. Part came in a few days later. I went out to the vehicle and saw that the rain from a couple days prior had pooled in the center of the crash wrap and formed a perfect semi-sphere. The water acted like a
kara13 5y Serving. I once dropped a salad plate ON a baby's head. It left a small bruise. I've never felt more shitty. It was so, so awful, and so awkward. The family stayed to eat the rest of the meal. Fortunately my manager had another server take over the table. I didn't get fired, I just got a sitdown lecture about how I can't just go dropping plates on babies. They took the baby to a doctor later to make sure everything was okay. I never heard anything else about it, so I guess everything was alright. This is
MightyCaseyStruckOut . ! 5y It wasn't a fuck up per se, but when I worked at McDonald's nearly 20 years ago, some customer in the drive thru threw a chocolate shake at me, yelling that he'd ordered strawberry. I instinctively caught it and threw it back, hitting him in the face and getting chocolate shake all over the interior of his BMW. If my GM wasn't standing damned near right next to me as it happened, I probably would have been fired. Edited for possessive clarity. ... 1.2k
bearkinjessie . 4y My coworker sold someone an auto insurance policy but forgot to check the effective date. Turns out she had pushed the start date of the policy out a month. Guy got into an accident a few days later. Cumulatively, we probably spent 10+ hours on the phone trying to get claims to cover this guy's accident. She ended up messing up the effective date on about 10 other policies before she left. ... 1.4k
jaimystery 4y In 2009, we had some layoffs (like a lot of businesses) and one of those let go was a mechanic. Since most of the mechanics bring in their own tool boxes, when one leaves the company - they will need to load up their box. The fuck up was that the supervisor of the shop that day did not pay attention/stick around while the mechanic was loading his box. The mechanic not only took his box, he helped himself to several company owned pieces of equipment totaling $18,000. But because the supervisor was not doing his job, there was no
gonebethebirds 4y New coworker on her first day went to get coffee from the break room. Was walking back with it when she just barely stumbled a little bit, just enough that some hot coffee dripped over the edge of the cup and burnt her fingers, so she reactively flung her hand and released the mug, causing lots of hot coffee to go all over the walls just outside the boss's office. She literally just stared frozen at the coffee- drenched wall and said Oh geez. We gave her hell for it about a year in a joking way; she
wangxian_mp3 . 4y Worked at Arby's in 2016. It's approaching 10 PM and everybody working really wants to go home. Guy making sandwiches accidentally gets some bread stuck in the toaster oven. For some reason he uses a knife with a plastic handle to try and get it out. The knife gets stuck so he uses a second knife to get the first knife (and the bread) out. That knife gets stuck, and he uses a third knife to get the other two knives (and the bread out). Now all the knives are stuck in the toaster oven and the
SwervingLemon 4y Watched a tech troubleshooting a cutting laser. Apparently the safety stop was locked up and he finally got the laser running, but tested it by waving his hand in front of the aperture. Instant 3rd degree burns almost all the way through the palm of his left hand. Smelled like a char-broiler. I never saw him again. I hope he didn't lose all his fingers but I wouldn't be surprised. ... 296
xavander 4y We had a girl poke herself with a dirty needle during the first week of her infection control externship. She was being closely supervised by our lead dental assistant Mary, who has trained dozens of new people. I didn't witness it but Mary told me that this girl tried removing an uncapped needle by grabbing it like she's trying to open a jar, stabbing herself in the palm. Mary was about to carefully explain the proper way to dispose of sharps but the new girl just instantly went to grab it before she could tell her not to.
Gnarbuttah 4y I watched another firefighter open a hydrant too early during a training exercise. The idea is to drop your hydrant man off, he wraps the hydrant with the hose and the engineer drives away, the hydrant man then screws the hose to the hydrant and waits for the engineer to tell him to open the hydrant, he's supposed to wait because the engineer needs hook the other end of the hose to the pump. We carry 1000 feet of 5 or supply hose on the top of our engine, there's a coupling every 100'; my buddy went ahead
kickgong . 11y Doctor wrote prescription for 80mg of blood pressure meds instead of 20mg. Lady came into the pharmacy because her husband couldnt get out of bed and his blood pressure monitor wasn't giving a reading. Called an ambulance right away and thankfully he was ok.
Kitt3n 11y I worked at a nice Chevy Dealer a couple years back. It was right when The Corvette ZR1 was just getting released. We got one in that was a pre-order from one of our wealthier clients. It was one of the first off the line. (Jay Leno actually has the first) Anyways one of the salesman though it would be a great idea to take it for a quick spin. I don't know what he was thinking! How he would account for the miles on the car. This by the way is unheard of and never really happens.
kukukele 11y Coworker of mine was on a big project. The client sent us an email with some request which resulted in some re-work for us. She mistakenly replied-all and said Client is such a anal-retentive asshole. Не needs to just make up his mind from Day 1. You guessed it, client was on the reply-all. This was a multi-million dollar account too. Luckily the client thought it was hilarious and replied to all of us with -- My wife calls me an asshole all the time! We kept the account (by some miracle). ... 375
4y ... Guy drops a glove in a deep fryer, sticks his entire hand in it before realizing it's on and set to 350 degrees F. My current job is a lab technician at a major university, and we had a new guy unplug the small -80 degree с freezer full of recombinant DNA because he wanted to charge his phone. 3.2k Reply
TheAlmightyHelmet . 11y I was working at a pizza place back in high school and was training a new guy. After showing him a few times how to take pizzas out of the oven with the paddle and move them over to the cutting board, I let him have a go at it. Не was trying to get a large cheese pizza out of the oven, but it slipped off the paddle. As it was falling, he made the terrible decision to try and catch it. Не succeeded, but unfortunately it landed cheese side down on his bare arms. Не
mfdoll . 11y When I worked at GameStop, my district manager paid for a prostitute with his company card (store manager conference in Vegas). Не still works there though (I don't). ... 77
tits_hemingway . . 11y One of my co-workers bear maced himself while trying to spray at a beaver. ... 607
MattsRod 11y I work at an entertainment company in LA where ever executive has an assistant. The head of the company has had floor Laker tickets for the past thirteen years. The waitlist for those tickets is over a decade long. Executive told the assistant that he also wants four non floor tickets for a certain game. Assistant thinks he means instead and switches his floor seats for non floor seats releasing these precious tickets forever. The exec screamed so loud that the floor above us came down to make sure everyone was ok. (I am not joking) Aparently the
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