Worst Work Screw Up?

Give us your stories about the dumbest mistake you've made at work.

I'll start with two:

I used to drive a truck like this for delivering paint all over San Francisco


One day I filled it up with 75 gallons of petrol instead of diesel.  I figured it out just as I was finished.  Doh!  I wasn't cut out to be a truck driver .

Much later,  when I started to do software, I was working at one of those TV shopping channels.  I made a small change to the database and almost immediately a guy comes running in "Whatever you did, stop doing it, we are off the air".  I had broken the system that generated the graphics on screen and without that they had to go off air.  Fortunately , I knew I was working with an undocumented, brittle environment with no testing, so I had a rollback script ready to go.  Everything was back in less than 5 minutes.  This was actually not my fault, any normal company has test environments so you can test changes before you make them on a live system. 

Give us some stories

I worked for Orlando Police when I was getting my Bachelors degree.  For my last year and a half there, I did night shift (11pm-7am) and classes during the day.  I slept around my school schedule.  I worked the radio at this point (had a few different jobs there during my years).  We had a few ways to operate the radio including a foot pedal and a hand button.  As we were Headquarters, we had priority on the airway.

I fell asleep one night with my foot on the pedal.   

Ha!  Did they have to send someone around to wake you up?  Full on drooling on the desk?

Ha!  Did they have to send someone around to wake you up?  Full on drooling on the desk?

Yup!  My supervisor laughed and said it happens to everyone at some point.

EVERYONE knew about it as it was several minutes that no one could use their radios!

I was working as a crew member at Taco Bell during my undergrad years.  I had a tray full of food that I was about to take from the end of the line to the counter to serve it and somehow it slipped out of my hands and sprawled all over the floor.  I yelled, "Gosh darnit to heck!" and everybody in the restaurant just turned and stared at me.  Then my manager sent me to the back to compose myself while they remade the order.

I mean, I could've said something worse.  I'm glad that's all that came out, considering my vocabulary. 

You got in trouble for Gosh darn it?  Was this Taco Bell in Mayberry NC?  Those are the kinds of words I am trying to get my kids TO say.

You got in trouble for Gosh darn it?  Was this Taco Bell in Mayberry NC?  Those are the kinds of words I am trying to get my kids TO say.

It might've been the volume.  I don't know.  But I do remember thinking it was weird that that's what came out in the heat of the moment, and I still felt reprimanded for it.

But, yeah... it was in the south.  Searcy, Arkansas.  The big news from there this week is that a local restaurant got a private club liquor license from the Alcohol Beverage Control Board for the first time in decades.  Another establishment that applied at the same time was turned down.

Still, you worked at Taco Bell!  That must have been really cool , almost as cool as working in a Krispy Kreme

Still, you worked at Taco Bell!  That must have been really cool , almost as cool as working in a Krispy Kreme

Can you imagine having a caulk gun with sour cream in it?  I would be dangerous!

Oh god, I'd be sour creaming everything.  Like the sugar glaze waterfall at KK.  I would go through it myself if I worked there.

In 2008, I was teaching in Prague. In-company teaching, which means that I used to go to my students' offices and hold lessons there. I was living in a small apartment tucked into a corner of a weird sort of building complex. Street-level there was a restaurant and next to it a big, heavy door. Through the door was a sort of courtyard, half taken up by a covered seating area for the restaurant, On the other side of that was a set of stairs leading to a locked gate. Through the gate was more stairs, then another gate, then more stairs. On each of 3 stair landings, there was a balcony that went around the courtyard with flats all around it. My flat was tucked halfway up the second flight of stairs, between the two locked gates.

So one morning I woke up before 6 because I had a lesson at 7 and my supervisor was going to be there to observe me. I'd planned it all meticulously and had a load of supplies, which I didn't usually bother with because my students weren't that engaged and it was a pain to haul everything around on public transport. I was so caught up in remembering all my supplies that I left my keys on the hall table. The door to my flat was the kind that locked automatically when it was closed. So I was trapped without my keys in between two locked gates at 6.45 am in a country where I didn't speak the language on the morning of my lesson observation. And I was out of credit on my phone so couldn't call or text anyone. Eventually, my supervisor called to see where the heck I was and I had to confess everything to her. She was Czech and called my landlord and arranged for him to come rescue me. I felt thoroughly stupid, AND I never got to use my beautifully planned lesson because the observation was postponed and a few weeks later I quit that job to get married and move to England.

There really weren't any major consequences since I hated that job and was glad to leave, but it's the dumbest I've ever felt in my life.

Still, you worked at Taco Bell!  That must have been really cool , almost as cool as working in a Krispy Kreme

You know how when you hear that someone worked at a place where you really like to eat and say something like, "Man, that sounds awesome!" and they inevitably reply, "No.  Just, no.  I hate that place now."  Well, in the case of Taco Bell, it's not true!  I loved working there, and I still love eating there.  I am probably Taco Bell's number one fan, even after knowing all the behind-the-scenes info.  I was constantly making up different food combinations (and then hoping no manager made me ring it up to pay for it, or trying to figure out how to ring it up).  The only problem I have is I found a couple of really good combinations that are hard to explain/order, but sometimes I crave it.

But once when I went to one I'd never been to before and I ordered something not on the menu, this happened:



historyenne!  How long were you trapped there?

Oh man, I feel the tears coming.  I really fear what's gonna happen when you get to the UK Taco Bell.  I've never been to one here either, but it's not gonna be the same. 

For one thing, there won't be any Trump voters there, so that's good.

Oh man, I feel the tears coming.  I really fear what's gonna happen when you get to the UK Taco Bell.  I've never been to one here either, but it's not gonna be the same.

To be honest, I almost cried after my first trip to a Five Guys.  I am still confused as to how they could have messed up such a simple thing like Five Guys fries.  And the place looked like a riot had just taken place in there.  And it was far more expensive than I expected.  It was a thing, and I was introducing my husband to the thing, and it was an utterly disappointing (and costly!) experience.  And I wanted to cry. 

But with Taco Bell, I've been studying the menus, looking at pics of peoples' food.  I think if I stick to the basic menu items, and don't try to get anything fancy, it should be okay.  I hope.  I've decided to avoid nachos of all types there.

For one thing, there won't be any Trump voters there, so that's good.

A very small percentage of Trump voters actually have passports.  Probably.  But nothing beats America, so they wouldn't need to ever use their passport!