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“If I got a paper cut, that’s a tragedy. If you fell down an open manhole… that's comedy,” said Woody Allen (sadly), to illustrate that humor is often a matter of perspective. Most of us have messed up, but dropping a plate at home feels a lot different from sending an angry email to the wrong coworker.
So we’ve gathered a wonderful list of stories for those seeking some second hand embarrassment, this time about people’s on-the-job fails. Get comfortable as you scroll through, double check that you aren’t sharing your screen, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments down below.
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#1
I thought I was on mute on a company team call and I farted so loud and so long everyone stopped talking
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#2
Synchronized my menstruation app calendar with the company's calendar and everybody received the notification about my ovulation
#3
First day as an intern in a nursing home I tried to help an older lady back to her room for bedtime. she got a bit pissy so I figured she had dementia like some of the others on my floor. I kept trying to get her to come with me until she finally screamed "I'm a volunteer not a resident you fool" 😂
#4
set a wake up call at 7 am for the whole hotel instead of a specific room ....
LinkTheHylian 1 month ago
The dawn chorus of the modern age: every phone in a single hotel ringing simultaneously.
#6
I wrote a profile for a teacher candidate that said she "enjoyed torturing students with special education needs" when I meant to type "tutoring". It went out to hundreds of schools. 🫢
#7
"Accidentally" printed everyone's payslips to the office printer during Covid Someone else found it looked at all of them and made complaints of others salaries. We all god a pay rise. A win is a win.
#8
Instead of selling gas for 2.80 a gallon I accidentally sold it for 28 cents .. ALL DAY 🤦♂️
#9
My coworker accidentally sent a voice memo to the company WhatsApp group of herself sitting on the toilet, peeing, and letting out a long, wet fart. The worst part? She panicked and deleted it for herself instead of for everyone else 😭
#10
Forgot I was sharing during a meeting and a woman on the call was talking about her small town and where she lived. I zoomed in on her house and she said "yeah that's it" 😭😭😭
#11
I overheard my teacher and friend discuss adoption and whether certain places may have situations in which they increase increase adoption fees and I proudly joined the conversation and said “Perhaps it depends whether they’re a mixed or pure breed”. Both of them looked at me quite horrified, in fact my teacher commented that is very 1940s of me to say. I kept further trying to defend my point until all three of us realised we were discussing separate things; THEY MEANT CHILD ADOPTION, I was talking about animal adoption! 😭
#12
I wrote "Dear Madman" instead of "Dear Madam" 💔 on a letter addressing the director 😭
#13
I once took a resume from a man at an old job..his credentials included a 'bachelor o farts' Funniest typo ever!
#14
I printed multiple huuuuge banners for a conference that said "fossil fuels are our only chance" instead of "fossil free is our only chance". I work for a renewable energy company ...
#15
I sent the demolition team to the wrong house & well 😭😭😭😭😭😭
#16
Exposed the CEOs affair at the time of my termination for a nice little NDA payout
#17
I was a lawyers assistant and accidentally went to the bathroom to take a dump and flushed the usb stick that was supposed to be taken to court in less than an hour 😭
General Anaesthesia 1 month ago
Accidentally went to the bathroom to take a dump. That makes one wonder where you usually do it.
#18
I reused the format of a Memorial Day email but didn't change the subject line so my Juneteenth email said, "honoring those who served"
#19
I was training a new group into the company and on their first WFH day my partner walked past my camera ✨with no clothes on ✨
#20
A friend worked for a newspaper. She was doing an obituary, and wrote ‘please put in a box’ ie: put a border round the notice. They wrote the obituary but put ‘please put in a box’ at the end of the obituary notice!!! 🤣
Papa 1 month ago
My wife worked for the local small town weekly newspaper. Part of her job duties was proofreading, including an article written about raising pigs for the county fair. One line was supposed to say "make sure the pen is the right temperature." It got printed with the space missing between two of the short words. Guess which two?
#21
I went to quit the worst office job of my life and was waiting till the end of the day so I could still get paid for that day Imao but I accidently printed out my resignation letter to every printer in the office at like 1pm .. the way every printer started gsshhk gsshhkking
#22
I had a cold. Was in a teams meeting with some senior people. I meant to mute myself, to cough. I didn’t realise someone had already muted everyone. So I turned my mic on, coughed at everyone, and then turned it back off again 😂
#23
first day at my bank job i pulled the robbery alarm on accident because i didn't know what it was well it was silent so i didn't even know i pulled it until the cops pulled up 😭
#24
I was new and I fired 3 people instead of validate their vacation because I used the wrong option in the software.
#25
Vet nurse here: I went to a conference and did a bird lecture. When they get stressed they faint (in clinic). They said to gently throw them up and their natural instinct is to flap on the way down. Told my boss: he had a granny with a canary. It fainted. He panicked and chucked it up and it hit the roof 😳 it did NOT flap on the way down. Dead as disco. Floppy yellow pretty bird and horrified granny. Oh.
#26
I worked managing stock packages for a high street retail chain with over 2000 stores. I sent an email with about novelty socks but put the subject as URGENT: Novelty C0cks 😐 it’s been 16 years and it still haunts me
#28
Subject line was supposed to be: Arizona public offering. Left off the L in public 🥺
#29
Forgot I was sharing my screen and started to type on teams about how the person we were in a meeting with was useless 😂 was messaging the CEO who also replied "I know" 🙈
Upstaged75 1 month ago
I did something like that. Except it was during a webinar and I posted it in the chat to the entire audience. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. No idea how I didn't get fired.
#30
I left the Teams meeting on my computer but forgot to hang up my cell phone, which was using for audio. I walked around and talked to a bunch of random coworkers about company gossip. Turns out, Teams was adding all my interactions to the meeting transcript and Al added a post-meeting summary section with a bullet point to summarize each thing I gossiped about.
#31
Deleted the company website
#32
I used to work in private psychiatric hospitals. Once I accidentally walked off with the keys, didn't realise. It's the equivalent of walking off with prison keys 😭 Whole hospital went into lockdown whilst they tried to get in contact with me. I had to get escorted around for a month and redo security training and clearance 🙂
#33
my email profile picture was THE SNEEZING PICTURE FROM BOJACK HORSEMAN for sooo long and one random tuesday I realized i've been talking to my boss, HR and EVERYONE with this.
#34
I worked for a photographer and he came back from doing this extensive job at Disney. He was hot, exhausted, and said "I'm so glad that's over" and then I accidentally deleted every single picture
#35
I accidentally placed an elderly woman's birthday announcement in the obituaries section of the newspaper.
LinkTheHylian 1 month ago
"John and Louise would like to wish Enid a happy 86th birthday! For any family and friends reading this, please send flowers in lieu of gifts."
#36
My partner and I lived in a studio and after covid hit were forced to work from home. What is the only other room in the studio where you can go if we both have a meet? Yes, the bathroom. Long story short when he stopped sharing the screen he realised his camera was on the entire time. It was evident he was sitting on the toilet. He was leading the meet…
Blue Bunny of Happiness 1 month ago
During the pandemic, anything goes in terms of WFH.It was a bad day if your teams meetings weren’t interrupted by a pet walking across the screen or a family member wandering in…
#37
Some diplomats from the Japanese embassy were due to arrive at the office any minute. When they arrived, I offered them food and something to drink and showed them the meeting room. Come to find out, they were just random Japanese people who had come to our office by accident, thinking it was the English language school on the floor above. They were very confused by the welcome party
#38
I got a body embalmed, instead of an autopsy
DeoManus Argentem 1 month ago
Does the medical examiners office (or coroner, or whatever) also do embalming? I thought that'd be something a funeral home did.
#39
I was working behind a bar at a wake once and walked into an ice bucket made a mega loud noise. every1 looked at me and i said 'sorry that was me I just kicked the bucket' 😳😳😳😳😳😳😳
Never Snarky 1 month ago
My daughter and I got the giggles at my mother’s funeral when somebody made an apt mistake in the service. We couldn’t stop laughing.
#40
my old boss mistakenly picked up her normal scissors instead of the thinning scissors, cut a clients fringe off, it was sooo short 😭
#41
Sent an email to everyone in my office to see if anyone could swap a shift with me. Subject line was 'Shift Swap.' I missed out the letter 'f.'
#42
Shared my screen in a client meeting, after I was done I forgot to stop sharing and then proceeded to shamelessly scroll on Pinterest for 10 minutes until someone finally said "are you trying to show us something or ...? "
#43
I worked with a guy who meant to put ‘early shift’ in his calendar on reoccurrence but missed the f out. We all have access to each others diaries so we all saw it and thought he was just trying to keep regular
#44
I ran in to the lounge when my husband was doing a multi million pound work winning bid and I thought the call had finished. I thrust a big cream gateau in his face and said “ah ah ahhh-ah look what I’ve got”. He couldn’t speak in shock and just pointed at the screen.
Paula Smith 1 month ago
Like the BBC correspondent live zooming from another country, talking about some serious news when his little girl ran into the room, followed by his mortified wife trying to catch her. He said afterwards that he was so scared and thought he’d get fired but the British public thought it was funny and sweet.
#45
I work with my husband, so we are both on teams. The company president’s son in law worked for me when I was 9 months pregnant with twins. I meant to send a teams to my husband, but messaged the son in law instead. The message said that my pelvis hurt so bad I thought it was going to split in half. He responded with, “oh no, that sounds painful”. It was mortifying.
#46
was searching for a job while still working and accidentally sent my resume to the place i work for 😂😭💀
Ray Perkins 1 month ago
I called in sick once so I could go to an interview for a better job and drove past my boss on his way to work. Luckily I got the job.
#47
My friend is in the police and went home with a firearm in the boot of her car and only realised when she was in the bath 🙃
#48
I was doing an interview with an older lady about her life roles, and when she mentioned she’s a widow… I automatically said - that’s great, moving on to the next question…😭😭😭
#49
I walked into the conference room to hand some items to the buyers & sellers of a real estate closing that I was about to do. I hit the chair and knocked my kneecap out of place. I started screaming and couldn’t move. My coworker came in to help me & called the paramedics. I never looked at the customers as I hobbled out of the room & often think about how I must have traumatized them that day. 🤦🏼♀️
#50
I was experiencing endomentriosis. Realized my period was so bad it was dripping down my leg onto the floor at work. I rushed to the restroom. Might have been able to get home without anyone noticing except I work at the police dept and came out to detectives doing their job following the “mystery blood trail” down the hall. Everyone was worried about who was bleeding 💀
#51
It was my first time using teams during Covid and I wanted to see clearly who was talking during a town hall meeting (over 100 people). I right clicked on the persons video and selected 'Spotlight', not realising it would make the person big for everyone else. I continued to do this for each person speaking until someone eventually said 'Can someone stop spotlighting the speakers please'.
Upstaged75 1 month ago
You have to pin them, not spotlight. Hopefully they couldn't see who was doing it. Very embarrassing!
#52
I work in a wine shop - a customer I didn’t recognise came in one day and I welcomed them in with my usual ‘hi there! can I give you hand with anything today?’ I thought it was a bit strange when he gave me a bit of an offended look… I hadn’t seen the hook where his left hand would have been until it was too late. Even worse, we had classic film scores playing on the speakers throughout the day and the main theme from Pirates of the Caribbean played while this guy was still in the store 🙈🙈
#53
Worked as a secretary in a law firm - accidentally forgot to transfer £1 million to a client on completion of their deal.
#54
Joined Zoom meeting just after someone accidentally played their bf’s voice msg unmuted (messy tea!!) I barely missed it so my friend sent me the recap in a voice msg… Guess who also forgot to mute? Me. So if people didn’t hear the first time they definitely heard it the second time 😭
#55
my pfp for my email was Shrek in drag & that was the email I used for buying my house. Yeah im totally an adult. 😭😂
#56
sent out a "last goodbye" email to the whole company on my last day there, with a GIF of Nick Jonas waving goodbye. Little did I know, the GIF wasn't working, so it was just Nick Jonas biting his lips and grinning at the end of the mail... 🫠
#57
I've done worse. Once I was in a meeting, and forgot I was still sharing, and began DM'ing someone else about how I couldn't wait to get out of the meeting. When the speaker said, "Uh, Amber, I'll try to be quick" I found
out. 😳
#58
My ex and me used to work at the same company and he accidentally sent an email to our boss instead of me asking him for a date 😭
#59
Was on a Teams meeting with my boss and about a dozen people. I wasn’t needed on the call so I turned my camera off, hit mute and started listening to a loooong voice note from a friend discussing a business we were planning on starting. A coworker was sent me a ton of DMs saying I wasn’t muted and they could hear everything, but I didn’t see the messages until the voice note was over 🤣
#60
I had an intern write bios for our company once, found out very quickly that he had no idea what each of us did. Best part was when called me an intern in mine....im the director. Didn't he think it was odd that he was being given directives and being reviewed monthly by another intern?
Bartlet for world domination 1 month ago
My young coworker uses ChatGPT when she doesn't know something so it's been a year and she still doesn't know shіt.
#61
Yesterday one woman in my office wanted to shake hands with someone behind me, so I moved out of the way and turned around to see but there was no one there… turns out that woman had a lazy eye and wanted to introduce herself to me 🫠
#62
We had to wear blue for a fundraising day in school. A teacher came up to me and said “I love your blue” and I said “thanks I love you too”. I left that school😂
#63
I volunteered in a charity shop and a woman had taken her Gucci glasses off while she tried something on and I only sold them for 50p. True story
#64
My toddler was sitting in my lap during a work call, I felt something warm so I asked him: ”Did you fart?” He replied “yeeesss haha!”… I was unmuted and the call was being recorded 😭
#65
On my first day of work once the guy training me said “once ive been to the toilet ill shoe you how to use the printer” only i didn’t hear the first part so i followed him into the toilet
#66
during a call with government offical I used the phonetic alphabet to spell a postcode and said 'foxtrot Wankee' instead of Yankee. I simply hung up.
#67
During my first month at Homebase, people would come in and exchange their gas bottles, and you have to do a whole complicated process through the tills where you do it as a return and only charge them half price for the new bottle. My first time doing it, I didn't do it correctly and ended up refunding the person £90 to their card. I never saw them again 😂
#68
one of my colleagues used to call me Goose, I replied to her email with a massive picture of a goose as my signature. Set it to default without realising and emailed MANY of the public, managers etc with it on there before I realised while looking for something in my sent folder 🙃🫠🤣
#69
I am the worst screen sharer ever. I once looked up the Wikipedia definition of a topic for all to see forgetting I was still sharing my screen when we were trying to sell to a client as an “expert” in that field.
#70
I was on a zoom lecture with like 100 people on it and I lost my vape so I asked ALOUD BECAUSE YES I TALK TO MYSELF "Where is my vape? Did you see it?". THE WORST PART THAT PEOPLE STOPPED TALKING AND I DID NOT NOTICE AND JUST REPEATED THAT WHILE LOOKING FOR IT FOR LIKE AN ENTIRE MINUTE until I heard everyone calling my name asking me to mute
#72
Phlebotomist here 🌡️I asked a patient with one arm to put pressure on the puncture site, the silence was so loud. Im always very mindful now 💀
#73
Almost ordered a lunch platter for 68 people instead of 6-8 (six to eight) people 🫠 thankfully I wondered how they’d all fit in the conference room and double checked
#74
One time I sold a hotdog for 1500 USD instead of 1.50, whoops
#75
We got clothes back from a washing company. The guy didn't speak german or English. I told him with my hands and feet to stay where he was, so I can get someone who had the clearance to sign the papers. The guy just got into the car and drove away with the clothes.
#76
Used to work in a cafe inside a mall. One day I burnt a slice of toast and set off the fire alarm. The whole mall had to be evacuated until they could find the ‘fire’! 😳😂
#77
Teams betrayed me - status said I was muted. I was in a meeting I absolutely did not have any reason to be in so I started playing trombone champ. cue text from my friend, telling me I was not in fact muted
#78
I was sharing the screen on a presentation and also forgot to stop sharing and went to see all my private messages discussing affairs with my mother while arguing with my husband on different chat 😭😭 eventually someone said you're still sharing 😭😭🙈
#79
I sent an email to my coworkers abt how the h our manager would ask us to do things that she doesn’t even know about. nobody answered. she was in cc. still employed but her and I clearly talk less to this day.
#80
I sent an email to the dean of the college I was working for, ccing my boss and referring them to "Serena Joy" at HR for the answer to a question. Got an email back from my boss asking if I meant "correct name here" or if I was making some kind of joke by referring them to a fictional character from Handmaid's Tale.
#81
I once choked on water at work and while I was coughing, I let out a fart Infront of my coworkers
#82
I used to work social media freelance but ended up doing loads of odd “digital jobs.” I was hired to record a podcast at a live event and didn’t record any of it 🙃
#83
Started doing sign language to a customer i thought was deaf cause she wasnt talking, then my coworker said she lived a few doors down from her and she had mouth cancer
#84
my friend accidentally live tweeted the bachelor from a member of congress's account
#85
was on a Teams meeting, working from home in my master bedroom during Covid. My son likes to use MY bathroom. He flushed, everyone went quiet and the manager said, ".....who's in the toilet?"
#86
yesterday I was on a meeting with about 300+colleague and I was not on mute...my husband asked me if I need something from the store and I needed maxi pads, I was trying to explain to him what kind I want and how many drops should have when I was interrupted by one of my colleague that I'm not on mute😳
#87
During WFH, I had my fat dog sleeping on my lap while on meetings with senior managers. He snored so loudly and I was unmuted. One of the managers scolded me for sleeping on the job nearly kicked me out the next meeting 😅
#88
I’m super embarrassed about this, but until about 10th grade, I thought you had to go to college and study Scientology to become a Scientologist little do I know now it’s just a cult lol
#89
At the end of the day I used to send myself email “to do lists” for the next morning. They had no punctuation or structure, just run on sentences that made no sense to anyone but me because it was just meant as a reminder for myself. Well once I sent this rambling email to an outlook group list of like 50 coworkers.
#90
When I was in high school working at McDonald’s someone ordered 30 cheeseburgers. I must’ve made at least half before I realized that I hadn’t put cheese on any of them.
#91
someone was talking too much on teams so I muted it, turned out i somehow muted the talker 😂
#92
I was sending a compensation sheet for review to a Senior Vicepresident with several HR people on copy. I wrote “here’s your sheet for review” but I typed an i instead of the two e’s on sheet 🙃
#94
Wasn’t me but I went to a shop and bought a packet of smokes (expected to pay $70 as usual) rang up to $10. I told everyone to go there because of how cheap it was. It was the girls first day and accidentally rang it up wrong all day so was selling cigarettes for $10 ALL DAY. never seen her work there again 😂
Jude Corrigan 1 month ago
A pack of cigarettes is $70! Someone needs to contact law enforcement and report a crime.
#95
i was at the store and the cashier asked me cash or card,i panicked and said face card..she let me go with groceries worth $83😃
#96
went in for an interview today after 3 years of being unemployed and never having a formal interview. the manager asked me to sell her a product and when I tried to sell her my phone she let me know that the interview was over and to keep an eye out for an email IF I got one… I did NOT get the job 😗👍🏻
#97
When I was a carer I took a blind woman on a walk, I accidentally walked her into a tree and she responded with I saw there was a tree there but in reality I couldn’t see it
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What do you think ?
Dragons Exist 1 month ago
This post can't decide what it wants to be lol, the title was "97 Little-Known Facts About The World That Prove That Truth Is Sometimes Stranger Than Fiction", now it's "97 Facts And Pictures That Belong In The Internet Museum", and the url is "worst-funny-work-fails-stories"
PenguinEmp 1 month ago
Y'all missed the joke. The post title is wrong on purpose. Get it? Someone failed at work?
Lesley Thomas 1 month ago
Still waiting for "97 little known facts about the world" as per title
The Other Guest 1 month ago
And I came here for “'She Weighed 67 Pounds': 44 Gripping Stories That Could Make You Want To Google For More Info". These title-vs-story mismatches seem to be happening a lot more often lately. So annoying.
Load More Replies... Dragons Exist 1 month ago
This post can't decide what it wants to be lol, the title was "97 Little-Known Facts About The World That Prove That Truth Is Sometimes Stranger Than Fiction", now it's "97 Facts And Pictures That Belong In The Internet Museum", and the url is "worst-funny-work-fails-stories"
PenguinEmp 1 month ago
Y'all missed the joke. The post title is wrong on purpose. Get it? Someone failed at work?
Lesley Thomas 1 month ago
Still waiting for "97 little known facts about the world" as per title
The Other Guest 1 month ago
And I came here for “'She Weighed 67 Pounds': 44 Gripping Stories That Could Make You Want To Google For More Info". These title-vs-story mismatches seem to be happening a lot more often lately. So annoying.
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