Have you ever made a serious breach of office etiquette that made you want to call in sick? This hilarious conversation on Twitter has people sharing their stories of times they’ve screwed up in the workplace and ended up looking pretty unprofessional.
One user named Maurice started off the story round with a time he was annoyed when a business contact spelled his name wrong, so he called them out only to be told that they were just following his lead, and to take a look at his own signature. A lot of people were reminded of their own fails, and this thread was born.
Some of them can be blamed on Autocorrect, which has been “ducking” us over since its invention. It’s usually fairly benevolent when you send an unintentionally crude message to a friend and you both giggle like you’re 12 years old, but when you send it to the whole office, it can feel like the equivalent of having your pants rip while you’re giving a presentation. As much as we resent autocorrect, though, we’re not much better off without it. When you simply mistype, forget words, or send an email to the wrong person, unfortunately, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
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I once texted my boss, and instead of saying "many thanks" I typed "many bitches"(in my language there's a one letter difference between those two words, dzięki/ dziwki. Clearly a typo :P)
I sent once to a senior manager an email in which I mentioned that I am attaching the "screen s**t" instead of a screen shot. I apologised but he told me that he find it rather amusing. :)))
I once finished an email to a client with "the work will be sent to you shorty" instead of "shortly". Unfortunately he was rather small too. Whoops!
I had a student write 'Kindest Regrets' under his mail. Truth be told, I regretted his email too ...
'Cause I speak of the pompir(t)ous of loooove...
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I once sent out my shift report, in an email that was supposed to be titled... “Shift Report”. Except I somehow failed to type the F in the title before sending. I cringed hard, then secretly looked forward to the laughs, but in the end, nobody noticed.
for a test i had to say what i wanted to be when i grow up i said unicorn the next qusetion is what my prevet me from doing that i said realty
Had a trainer at my last job who often told us about a time she did this exact thing (the T for G swap in Regards). Always proofread your emails folks!
Well happened to me that quite long ago when my English wasn't great I replied to customers and colleagues King regards :) when I realized my mistake I want just hide in the deepest hole. Weird is that no of my customers and colleagues didn't say anything about it.
I accidentally incepted a co-worker once... client's name was Spanish "Arce"... and I, being an immature idiot giggled and said "Poor guy/girl... that must've been c**p in elementary school... can you imagine? 'Hey there A**E...'"... and in his response to the client..................yeeah... wrong misspelling...
Several years ago I was building some technology for a group of tech firm clients, that included Microsoft, and Bill Gates participated in the project. Someone from one of the other companies sent me an email asking why our website was having problems and I responded that Microsoft needed to fix their buggy web server technology. After I clicked send, I had a panicked thought to check if anyone had been cc'ed on the email (I hadn't thought to check before responding). To my horror, I see listed all of Microsoft's international offices! I freaked out and thought my career was surely over. Agonizing hours of waiting for the ramifications to land on my head turned into days... then weeks... months and years. Funny thing but I never heard a peep from anyone at Microsoft about it, and I didn't lose my job.
My friend Maurice's handwriting is SO bad his first email address was mavrice@telekabel.nl
well, best level of sarcasm is calling idiot "idiot" the way he doesn't notice...
That is pretty correct. I find that most men tend to fall into one of these categories ... ;-)
In 2018, the United States Embassy in Australia accidentally distributed an email titled “meeting” inviting recipients to a “cat pajama-jam” with a picture of a cat wearing a Cookie Monster costume and offering a plate of cookies to illustrate. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the email also contained a section of Latin (the trusty sample text Lorem Ipsum, perhaps?) and a RSVP button. The public affairs counselor described the mistake as a “training error” made by a new hire learning their way around the email newsletter procedure.
Had the same problem! Only realised my mistake when one of my professors said he got an inquiry from an odd email account... I was mortified!
If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t notice your mistakes until the moment you’ve pressed the send button, it might be worth turning on the “undo send” feature on your email. Just make sure you don’t get too comfortable with it, or else you’ll start not noticing your mistakes until the buffer time has passed and it’s really sent.
Then the drug test came upon your return. "You know our anti-drug policy here, D."
My mom once sent an email to her boss to make him aware that "orders can be released now". Nothing autocorrect worthy, right? But we're brazilian, and the phrase goes "pedidos podem ser liberados agora". Instead of typing "pedidos", she typed "peidos"... which roughly translates to "farts can be released now". Stinks
A colleague who is very dear to me is called Mirella Marinaki. Why do I seem to always refer to her as Marinella???
Pray real hard they don't get shot or you'll be a prime suspect.
well, everybody has certain needs, although i can only wish to have day off from work for that :D
I podcast and one of the ертпы шт the check list my boss gave me was ask beforehand how a guest's name is pronounced to avid this embarrassment
Did she have a foreign keyboard? In some countries in central Europe, especially German speaking countries, 'Z' and 'Y' are exchanged when compared to the standard English layout (QWERTZ instead of QWERTY). Otherwise such a typo would be strange because 'Y' and 'Z' ar pretty far apart.
And this is why parents shouldn't fk with spelling just to show off their "uniqueness" at having a child. It's the child who has to spend the rest of their lives dealing with this s**t.
A coworker sent an email to our boss about the state of storage at the college facilities. She walked up with a copy of the email and said "I was unaware that this University engages in this kind of business. When did this department get started?" He reads the email title and groaned. Instead of stating "Current Status of the Warehouse.." He typed "Current Status of the Whorehouse." We all got a good chuckle out of it for a week or so.
I once sent an email starting with "Dear Mr xxx, I hope you ate well" instead of I hope you ARE well like a normal person would. Didn't notice until they responded with "why, yes I had a lovely salad for lunch and I am touched by your concern"
I make lots of typos. The majority of times I catch myself before I hit "send". Not always though. Once I started an e-mail to a client with a "Dead all" instead of "Dear all". Then, after some time I started an e-mail with a "Hell" instead of "Hello". Then, trying to correct myself and apologize, I typed "Hell agin" instead of "Hello again". They had a good laugh about it. And once I wished them "A great weekend". On a Tuesday. At 11 AM. Good times :D
I no longer refer to "auto correct" but rather "auto CORRUPT". Much more accurate.
I once wrote to a store trying to buy photography equipment. At the end I wrote kisses for my sweetie. I also had a letter open for my wife and wrote the end under a wrong letter.. The store wrote back asking what the hell is wrong with me.
I have had 2 embarrassing moments at work. Once I was working at a $2 shop and as I was serving a customer a wave of nausea came over me. I rang the bell for the manager (it was only I and the manager working at the time), she didn’t come so I rang again and again. Next thing you know I turn to the side and vomit everywhere in front of the customer. The manager FINALLY came sent me home, the worst thing was that I had to catch a train and then a bus home which was over an hour ride. I made sure I had a plastic bag just in case. I ended up sleeping on the train home. Second time I was pregnant and working in a supermarket, I struggled with morning sickness and asked to go to the bathroom coz I felt sick. I only made it to the locker room where I power chucked everywhere, I asked for the mop and bucket but my store manager sent me home (with pay) and cleaned it up himself.
You had a good boss.... Feel for ya on the morning sickness.
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My manager once sent and email the the executives in our company and wanted to say "sorry for the inconvenience" but she didn't realize she had said "sorry for the incontinence" I laughed so hard I fell off my chair,
At the hospital we can dictate medical reports to save time, we have an entire office just for typing them. The results, however, sometimes are a bit off. Thank goodness I always double-check or else one of my letters would have attested that instead of no peritonism the patient's abdomen showed no signs of patriotism.
There's a reason we were taught to proofread our work in school. It takes very little time and as this article points out, can save a great deal of embarrassment.
when i worked as telephone Operator and had to pick up phones in german, english and also french, i once asked a Client to hold the line saying "un moment, please"... yes, i said "un moment" with french Accent (since i was talking in french) and then added "please"... all my coworkers couldn't hold back their laughs
Several years ago I was building some technology for a group of tech firm clients, that included Microsoft, and Bill Gates participated in the project. Someone from one of the other companies sent me an email asking why our website was having problems and I responded that Microsoft needed to fix their buggy web server technology. After I clicked send, I had a panicked thought to check if anyone had been cc'ed on the email (I hadn't thought to check before responding). To my horror, I see listed all of Microsoft's offices worldwide! I freaked out and thought my career was surely over. Agonizing hours of waiting for the ramifications to land on my head turned into days... then weeks... months and years. Funny thing but I never heard a peep from anyone at Microsoft about it, and I didn't lose my job.
I've never had this happen; read all and have tears running down my legs.
A coworker sent an email to our boss about the state of storage at the college facilities. She walked up with a copy of the email and said "I was unaware that this University engages in this kind of business. When did this department get started?" He reads the email title and groaned. Instead of stating "Current Status of the Warehouse.." He typed "Current Status of the Whorehouse." We all got a good chuckle out of it for a week or so.
I once sent an email starting with "Dear Mr xxx, I hope you ate well" instead of I hope you ARE well like a normal person would. Didn't notice until they responded with "why, yes I had a lovely salad for lunch and I am touched by your concern"
I make lots of typos. The majority of times I catch myself before I hit "send". Not always though. Once I started an e-mail to a client with a "Dead all" instead of "Dear all". Then, after some time I started an e-mail with a "Hell" instead of "Hello". Then, trying to correct myself and apologize, I typed "Hell agin" instead of "Hello again". They had a good laugh about it. And once I wished them "A great weekend". On a Tuesday. At 11 AM. Good times :D
I no longer refer to "auto correct" but rather "auto CORRUPT". Much more accurate.
I once wrote to a store trying to buy photography equipment. At the end I wrote kisses for my sweetie. I also had a letter open for my wife and wrote the end under a wrong letter.. The store wrote back asking what the hell is wrong with me.
I have had 2 embarrassing moments at work. Once I was working at a $2 shop and as I was serving a customer a wave of nausea came over me. I rang the bell for the manager (it was only I and the manager working at the time), she didn’t come so I rang again and again. Next thing you know I turn to the side and vomit everywhere in front of the customer. The manager FINALLY came sent me home, the worst thing was that I had to catch a train and then a bus home which was over an hour ride. I made sure I had a plastic bag just in case. I ended up sleeping on the train home. Second time I was pregnant and working in a supermarket, I struggled with morning sickness and asked to go to the bathroom coz I felt sick. I only made it to the locker room where I power chucked everywhere, I asked for the mop and bucket but my store manager sent me home (with pay) and cleaned it up himself.
You had a good boss.... Feel for ya on the morning sickness.
Load More Replies... My manager once sent and email the the executives in our company and wanted to say "sorry for the inconvenience" but she didn't realize she had said "sorry for the incontinence" I laughed so hard I fell off my chair,
At the hospital we can dictate medical reports to save time, we have an entire office just for typing them. The results, however, sometimes are a bit off. Thank goodness I always double-check or else one of my letters would have attested that instead of no peritonism the patient's abdomen showed no signs of patriotism.
There's a reason we were taught to proofread our work in school. It takes very little time and as this article points out, can save a great deal of embarrassment.
when i worked as telephone Operator and had to pick up phones in german, english and also french, i once asked a Client to hold the line saying "un moment, please"... yes, i said "un moment" with french Accent (since i was talking in french) and then added "please"... all my coworkers couldn't hold back their laughs
Several years ago I was building some technology for a group of tech firm clients, that included Microsoft, and Bill Gates participated in the project. Someone from one of the other companies sent me an email asking why our website was having problems and I responded that Microsoft needed to fix their buggy web server technology. After I clicked send, I had a panicked thought to check if anyone had been cc'ed on the email (I hadn't thought to check before responding). To my horror, I see listed all of Microsoft's offices worldwide! I freaked out and thought my career was surely over. Agonizing hours of waiting for the ramifications to land on my head turned into days... then weeks... months and years. Funny thing but I never heard a peep from anyone at Microsoft about it, and I didn't lose my job.
I've never had this happen; read all and have tears running down my legs.
