Embarrassing Things You've Done at Work

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I had a meeting this afternoon which during which I ended up bawling. Needless to say, it wasn't very professional but I just couldn't help it. *sigh*

Anyone else ever reduced to tears at work? God, I hope I don't get sacked.

― ENBB, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:45 (eighteen years ago)

I reduced someone to tears at work once.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:47 (eighteen years ago)

oh yeah. . .it's been awhile (thanks meds!) but it used to happen pretty frequently. I'm still prone to getting really worked up and well, bitchy, but I'm working on it.

― Ms Misery, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:49 (eighteen years ago)

I should probably clarify that I'm not worried about getting fired because I cried - I was crying because I am worried about getting fired. I don't think it'll come to that but I screwed something up that I'm now having to try and fix and it's looking more and more complicated. ugh.

― ENBB, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:52 (eighteen years ago)

after a couple years of waiting tables, i get more and more frustrated by customers rude to their servers. it's frustrating having someone order with their head turned to the other side, barely mumbling something to you, and then acting as if you are at fault for not hearing. so i stopped being friendly about it. now i just declare, "i can't hear if you. if you want something, speak louder."

that's exactly what i did to a table of four people. the three of them ordered drinks, and the fourth, barely mumbled something under his breath nobody would possibly be expected to hear. i said, "i can't hear you. you have to speak up. it's loud in here and you are really quiet."

a couple minutes later, i realized with horror that he had some kind of mental illness and was doing the best he could.

― modestmickey, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:55 (eighteen years ago)

ENBB, I think crying is a perfectly valid response to emotional stress. It's a shame that it's often automatically perceived as "hysteria" or unprofessional in the workplace. Hopefully those you cried in front of didn't see it that way.

― Ms Misery, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 22:01 (eighteen years ago)

Good point - I hope they didn't either. I think I handled it as best I could and collected myself pretty quickly but still felt a bit awkward and silly. btw - thanks. :-)

― ENBB, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:11 (eighteen years ago)

Didn't happen to me but my boss a few years ago. reminded of this by modestmickey:

An obviously blind man came into the store and asked for directions and my boss said as he POINTED HIS ARM TO THE RIGHT - "it's right over there". There was a total of what seemed to me a full minute of silence, and I just said: "Bob, he can't see where you're pointing" . The blind man started to L-A-U-G-H...my boss got all red in the face and flustered and I wound up giving the man the proper directions.

― Wiggy Woo, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:31 (eighteen years ago)

I once powered down an entire nuclear plant. I'm not kidding.

― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:48 (eighteen years ago)

Uh... !

― Trayce, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:04 (eighteen years ago)

Showed up to a morning shift still completely drunk from the night before. 18-year old waiters shouldn't play quarters with the bartending staff. My GM just thought it was funny.

Got a gusher of a nosebleed while talking to one of my tables.

― milo z, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:16 (eighteen years ago)

I sat through an entire meeting with my zipper obviously and outrageously unzipped.

― Jenny, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:49 (eighteen years ago)

Knocking half of our network down one afternoon a couple of years ago did not look good. In my defense, I wasn't the genius that had electrical wiring wove into a big ball of spaghetti, but I was the one that made it go bye bye.

― earlnash, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 02:49 (eighteen years ago)

Went to work with my shirt inside out and walked around like that until lunchtime when someone pointed at me laughing.
Called my boss a f*ckwit.
Made a paper hat out of the racing guide and wore it to the company Melbourne Cup lunch.
Crashed my car into a pylon in the carpark under our building.
Flashed a boob at a boss at a black tie function.
Blew a powerpoint and almost started an electrical fire in the kitchen by accidentally closing the cord in the sandwich press.
Set off the fire alarm by burning toast.
Fell asleep in the compactus.

― Hard like armour, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 02:59 (eighteen years ago)

We were having a contest to see who, if anyone, could drink an entire Dunkin' Donuts Box O' Joe in our 4 hour shift, and I won hands down (finished it, the big loud dude who had the idea was the runner-up with just over half).

About an hour into it I started sweating like mad, so I went to the bathroom and removed my long underwear, leaving me with just my jeans. Another hour later, I ran to the bathroom to pee, and in my haste did not do a full shake. I return, and Moderately Attractive Girl With Badass Bodymods pointed out the half-dime-sized spot on my pants.

She then went on to tell us all about her adventures with IBS, so I still came out of it okay.

I work at the equipment cage in an art school. This kind of thing happens all the time.

― en i see kay, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 05:49 (eighteen years ago)

slept with coworkers. well, not right at work.

― mookieproof, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 05:58 (eighteen years ago)

Oh I hear that one! Been there more than once, you'd think I would learn.

― Trayce, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 06:40 (eighteen years ago)

i had some panic attacks

― latebloomer, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 08:18 (eighteen years ago)

Knowing how may embarrassing things I've done in my life, it's weird so few of them have happened at work. I once dated a coworker, which didn't result in anything, but there was no bad blood between us afterwards.

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 08:26 (eighteen years ago)

I both cried and stamped my foot in a meeting at work once. Possibly I also threatened to scweam an scweam and scweam until I was sick, I don't recall.

― Archel, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 08:47 (eighteen years ago)

Haha, I once made a rather petulant point about something to general open-jawed wtf-ness all round, turned on my heel dramatically and walked out, only to realise I'd left my jacket and bag lying under my desk and I had to go back in to get them again. Way to ruin the effect!

― ailsa, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 08:53 (eighteen years ago)

Once when I was working as a PA to a small-time Hollywood production lady, I sent out about 120 invitations to her monthly networking luncheon, but for some reason forgot to frank them before I did so. I was pretty late sending them out too. It was a disaster, and only about 4 people turned up to the lunch because I managed to get them on the phone. She shouted at me A LOT and I got quite upset, but actually she was fine about it in the end.

― accentmonkey, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 08:53 (eighteen years ago)

I did that once too ailsa! I wasn't even planning to come back EVER.

― Archel, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 09:00 (eighteen years ago)

I once clicked my fingers and did a double thumbs-up sign at my boss. Then stood there in a sudden cold rush of self-awareness.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 10:17 (eighteen years ago)

in my old office we had a very long meeting with some of our suppliers (I suppose I should be thankful it wasn't our customers). It went on for several hours and I was v tired by the end of it. Now the meeting room had this dreadful 1960s fake wood pannelling over the walls and doors. I opened the door to go out and found that I hadn't opened the correct door but a cupboard next to it, and a mop fell out onto me.

In my first job in publishing I was running an editorial office and sending out papers anonymously for peer review. Once I sent an author his own paper to review by accident! He was the twelfth author of twelve and was very nice about it saying that he couldn't review the paper because of a "conflict of interest".

― Grandpont Genie, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 10:23 (eighteen years ago)

x-post Haha Matt! That's fantastic.

I fell asleep in a meeting the other week and I think I may have uttered something (possibly 'fuck off') or at least groaned. I pretended it hadn't happened and I daren't ask.

― Dr.C, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 10:26 (eighteen years ago)

a couple minutes later, i realized with horror that he had some kind of mental illness and was doing the best he could.

Did you apologize for said mistake?

I have probably cried. Several times. I work for my parents, so it's not that weird. I also walked out of the shop when my dad sacked me for the gazillionth time. I just returned the next day pretending nothing had happened. I can't recall having anything really wrong in front of my customers but I must have... I just can't remember. Too many mistakes. :-)

― nathalie, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 10:30 (eighteen years ago)

I once came into work with only 1 shoe. That was quite embarassing.

― The Wayward Johnny B, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 10:50 (eighteen years ago)

I went to work once wearing one navy blue shoe and one black shoe.

Years ago, I'd been out on the razzle one night until very late and bizarrely decided to go straight into work rather than go home. I curled up and went to sleep on the floor underneath my desk, and was awoken by the cleaners vacuuming around me.

― C J, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 10:53 (eighteen years ago)

Ha, my dad did that once (the straight to work thing), though apparently he slept in a phone box outside his work, since the security guards wouldn't let him in.

― tissp, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 11:00 (eighteen years ago)

Dirty girl!</harry hill>

― The Wayward Johnny B, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 11:02 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, I once was out in the pub a bit tipsy and needed to call my husband and didn't have any credit in my phone so decided rather than spend 30p in a phone box, I would nip up to the office and use the office phone. Except I was tipsier than I thought, and couldn't remember the code for the alarm so had to phone my boss to ask him then still deal with a call from the alarm company "yessh, sshhir, I work here, I jusht popped back in to pick shomething up I'd forgotten and I musht have preshed the wrong buttonsh" etc.

― ailsa, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 11:07 (eighteen years ago)

Ha ha - classic!

― C J, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 11:09 (eighteen years ago)

The alarm was always going off at the pub I used to work at. After it happened once and I kicked the door in to get to the "alarm off" button, I had the kick down to a fine art, I knew exactly where to hit it to get the desired effect.

― The Wayward Johnny B, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 11:16 (eighteen years ago)

I slept in the office of a magazine I didn't even work for any more. It was not long after I'd gone freelance, so I'd still gone to the Christmas party. Woke up on a sofa in reception about fifteen minutes before the first people started arriving for work. Ran to toilets to sort out face etc and found a load of squashed strawberries in my handbag.

I was wearing going out clothes, but I had a very long coat, so with the make up washed off I think I escaped.

― Anna, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 11:19 (eighteen years ago)

I sobbed hysterically when my mother called me at work - just before I was going into a big presentation - to tell me my childhood dog had died. People were incredibly nice and comforting, but it was really comical blubbering. Massive grown man hyperventilating stuff. The best part is that a few hours later she called back to say it had been a false alarm; the dog somehow woke up... my Mom said she totally wasn't breathing when she found her, but then she seemed to summon life back and wakled across the room! But the pup did die 2 days later :(... ... .. . . .. . .

― Ben Boyerrr, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 11:38 (eighteen years ago)

Wakled? Walked.

― Ben Boyerrr, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 11:39 (eighteen years ago)

I once thought I could pass off a pair of Star Trek the Next Generation boxer shorts as real shorts by wearing underwear underneath them. This was at the Minnesota Daily U of M school newspaper in like '93. Chris Bahn, my assistant editor, took one look at me and got on the office intercom: "Um, everyone? Peter's not wearing any pants."

― Pete Scholtes, Thursday, 1 March 2007 03:58 (eighteen years ago)

I would be embarassed enough going to work wearing shorts, full stop.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 1 March 2007 09:06 (eighteen years ago)

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