What’s the worst f*ck up you’ve ever done at work?

[divrack]

I'm surprised your still alive

My philosophy is keep god laughing at you and she might keep you alive for her amusement.

 

[Hoddy]

A few weeks ago I sent just over 200 million euros to Company B in our group instead of Company A. It’s not as bad as it sounds, all reversible and doesn’t lead to a loss, but a bit embarrassing. I’m also a currency dealer for our company and live in eternal fear of getting a trade the wrong way kind and buying a currency when I should sell it.

Ahhh someone that has somehow found themselves with a huge amount of responsibility while also a huge amount of capability to f*ck things up. To you my friend I raise a glass

 

[Ajhutch]

Ahhh someone that has somehow found themselves with a huge amount of responsibility while also a huge amount of capability to f*ck things up. To you my friend I raise a glass

I mean I don’t f*ck up often.....!

 

[Hoddy]

I mean I don’t f*ck up often.....!

Me neither. But this one hurt. Really hurt......

 

[ITMA]

I bet you'll be on here at some point in the future - not sure how far in the future - telling the story and laughing about it. Hope it's not as bad as you think, but tell us all how it pans out in the next week or so.

Nice youtube channel by the way - just subbed.

 

[AdeDunn]

Shish, and I thought yelling F' off extremely loudly at the counter staff, within hearing of all of the customers, when I was working in the kitchens at a Burger King (summer job before I went to uni) was pretty bad... So did the shift supervisor, manager and regional manager too, who all disciplined me for it separately... I mean, they were asking for it! lol I then told them to F off, and where to shove their job too... Good job they forgot to actually give me a contract eh? They tried to actually get me to work a notice period, when they'd only set me on on a casual basis....

I did have 2 patients die, and 1 nearly die, on me all in one shift once (I was nurse in charge of the ward, just to make it worst....), but that WASN'T anything I did luckily, just bad luck on the shift I got given.... My wife gave me a rather unpleasant nickname after that though that I will not be repeating here.... So that doesn't count, does it? The cycle ride home was terrifying! It was dark, and one particular stretch of road as I'd pass a street light it would go out, then come back on once I'd gone past... True story, I was on the phone to my wife at the time (hands free headset under my cycling helmet... lol) and was telling her about it as it happened, I was that scared.....

 

[divrack]

Working in a jazz bar a black American guy with a white girl came in and asked how much a San Miguel was but I heard "sambucca", and so when I replied "black or white?" And he confusedly asked why it made a difference, and I was like well it's more expressive for the black, just how it is... Eventually I realised what was happening, but I'm not quite sure he did. Hopefully it didn't negatively effect his opinion of the fine folk of Scotland, only prejudiced against the sassanach swine as we are

 

[Hoddy]

Shish, and I thought yelling F' off extremely loudly at the counter staff, within hearing of all of the customers, when I was working in the kitchens at a Burger King (summer job before I went to uni) was pretty bad... So did the shift supervisor, manager and regional manager too, who all disciplined me for it separately... I mean, they were asking for it! lol I then told them to F off, and where to shove their job too... Good job they forgot to actually give me a contract eh? They tried to actually get me to work a notice period, when they'd only set me on on a casual basis....

I did have 2 patients die, and 1 nearly die, on me all in one shift once (I was nurse in charge of the ward, just to make it worst....), but that WASN'T anything I did luckily, just bad luck on the shift I got given.... My wife gave me a rather unpleasant nickname after that though that I will not be repeating here.... So that doesn't count, does it? The cycle ride home was terrifying! It was dark, and one particular stretch of road as I'd pass a street light it would go out, then come back on once I'd gone past... True story, I was on the phone to my wife at the time (hands free headset under my cycling helmet... lol) and was telling her about it as it happened, I was that scared.....

There was a dude i used to play golf with who I had a nickname of “doctor death”. He was a technical consultant for a pace maker company. He used to have to be in operating theatres and do the first test to restart someone’s heart after having the pace maker fitted. Often after they artificially stopped someone’s heart, it didn’t restart.

Needless to say he had a dry and somewhat different outlook on life after watching at least one person a week die on him.......

 

[Clint]

I suppose f*ups sound relative...if you deal in big money contracts etc ..your mistake will be just that...just like when I worked in the plant making carbon fibre products for aerospace "stuff"...a lot was run between paper that had a high release silicon coating...as in its raw,uncured state it was as sticky as hell,so the customer needed to be able to separate it from its base...some chaps loaded the paper upside down on the machine,the reverse having no release,and proceeded to make a few thousand meters if scrap product...at a few hundred quid a meter...

 

[Dutto]

One night I pumped about 20,000 gallons of Propane to the flare on a refinery I was working on. I misrouted a Propane pump and discovered my mistake when, on the way to the laboratory about two hours later, I noticed that the flare-line and Flare Knock-out Drum were both inches thick in frost.

I immediately knew what I had done wrong, so after re-starting the transfer properly (I should have been transferring propane to another bullet), I went and checked on the level in the Flare Knock-out Drum.

The level was "High" (obviously) but when I attempted to pump the liquid away I discovered that the inlet to the pump was frozen solid and that the reason for this was that the steam heater in the bottom of the Knock-out Drum was also frozen solid. (When the heating coil thawed out, it was found to be ruptured due to ice expansion; and by the time the inlet line to the pump had unfrozen the propane had evaporated anyway!

I went and confessed my sins to the Area Superintendent before going home, and was forgiven.

The Area Superintendent had the patience of a Saint, because within a couple of weeks, I was sitting at home about 15 miles away and having my breakfast when I heard this voice in my head say "The Jalinga is ready to off-load."

I had left work shortly after receiving this message about an hour earlier and had failed to pass it on to my relief.

At that time, the "Jalinga" was the biggest oil tanker ever to have been up the River Humber and it cost the company £90,000 per tide in Demurrage Fees if she missed her sailing time.

To rectify my mistake, I had to go to a public phone box about half a mile away to phone the refinery. Want to guess who picked up the Control Room phone, heard my voice and immediately said "What have you f*cked up now?"

Patience of a Saint that man ...

... and luckily the Jalinga made her allocated tide!

Happy Days!

 

[Ajhutch]

I suppose f*ups sound relative...if you deal in big money contracts etc ..your mistake will be just that...just like when I worked in the plant making carbon fibre products for aerospace "stuff"...a lot was run between paper that had a high release silicon coating...as in its raw,uncured state it was as sticky as hell,so the customer needed to be able to separate it from its base...some chaps loaded the paper upside down on the machine,the reverse having no release,and proceeded to make a few thousand meters if scrap product...at a few hundred quid a meter...

Totally agree, perspective is everything.

 

[Norfolk79]

One of my cousins is a heating engineer. Whilst out at a customers serving her boiler, decided a bit of the gas pipe needed rubbing down a bit. Sandpaper out, gave it a quick rub and the residual gas caused a small explosion.

He lost his eyebrows Lucky boy!

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Not me, but a colleague was teaching last lesson of the day. A kid was playing up big style, so she locked him in the store cupboard. The kid fell asleep, the teacher forgot about him and everyone went home when the bell rang - everyone except the kid in the cupboard. At home, several hours later, the head phoned the teacher asking if she knew anything about the missing child - that definitely was a sixpence and half-crown moment

 

[Nicks90]

15 years ago whilst working on a technical help desk supporting the Home Office entire IT system, I did a mailbox restore for a user and clicked the wrong box on restoring permissions.
End result was i removed every permission applied to every mailbox, public mailbox and public folder for the entire home office, UKBA, prison service and police.
Took 48 hours for the exchange team to rebuild it all.
Ooops.

That meant things like prisoners couldn't get released as bail or probation paperwork didn't get received, court documents never turned up and cases rescheduled, immigration cases got delayed, etcetcetc
All my fault.

No I didn't lose my job

 

[Druncan]

Said I would Book a party of 7 in for a celebration meal nice people and fairly regular customers. Then I forgot to put in the diary, then had a night off. Folks have never spoken to me in 3 years since. I am very very careful about bookings now.

 

[foxbat]

15 years ago whilst working on a technical help desk supporting the Home Office entire IT system, I did a mailbox restore for a user and clicked the wrong box on restoring permissions.

There's a special circle of hell reserved for GUI systems that place the nuclear option right next to all the commonly used stuff. Especially so when it doesn't come back to you with a big summary of what you're about to do, in bold red, with the proceed option unclickable without a linked "I mean it" check box.

 

[dad_of_jon]

15 years ago whilst working on a technical help desk supporting the Home Office entire IT system, I did a mailbox restore for a user and clicked the wrong box on restoring permissions.
End result was i removed every permission applied to every mailbox, public mailbox and public folder for the entire home office, UKBA, prison service and police.
Took 48 hours for the exchange team to rebuild it all.
Ooops.

That meant things like prisoners couldn't get released as bail or probation paperwork didn't get received, court documents never turned up and cases rescheduled, immigration cases got delayed, etcetcetc
All my fault.

No I didn't lose my job

yup if you really want to f**k up something, you need IT. In my job we have millions of customers so there are systems I look after where I get a second pair of eyes before pressing the enter key/ ok button. especially at 3am!

 

[Clint]

A bad day for me would be leaving a valve open and pumping a ton of resin onto the floor...then having to clean it up... I've seen it done a few times. I treble check everything before switching on.
I seen a chap tip a vessel off the truck..over a ton of resin making its way across the floor in slomo...at around £85 a kg they weren't happy!

 

[mjjordan]

I get the 3am thing, years ago, middle of night, Heathrow foreign exchange for Lloyds Bank, got the decimal point in the wrong place, only a couple of hundred quid out in the customer's favour, but when you'rte fairly young it worries you to death, luckily I had taken some tracer details and the guy was magnanimous enough to give it back ! Much later, revenue not forcasting, but recording actuals, got it about a million and half wrong for several months, realised, put it right in one move, not a peep from anyone ! I did work with a temporary driver who went along M4, turned left at bristol onto M5 heading for Altringham, only realised his mistake when he got to Taunton...! Needless to say the agency were asked if they would mind awfuly not sending him to us again.https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...f-ck-up-you’ve-ever-done-at-work.78721/page-2

 

[GerritT]

I had to move a computer, a desktop. All cables off, lock open, move, lock again, all cables back in. It was the machine where the rosters for the whole school were assembled and published. Only machine with a very specific version of MSDOS, because the roster program wouldn't run under windows. Since windows 1. So that machine was old.

And somehow the 220 cable ended up in the 110 hole.