'[I] pretended to be the manager at my summer job': 25 Workers whose big mistakes at work could've gotten them fired

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 5, 2023 11:00 AM EST

Maybe you aren't brave enough to share what happened on your worst day of work, but these anonymous workers are. 

At any company, the big bosses have to allow some room for mistakes. There will always be human errors as long as humans are employed. For many people, when they mess something up, their immediate reaction is to try and hide it from their boss. It seems like that worked out in some cases for these employees! What your manager doesn't know won't hurt them (as long as they don't find out through the grapevine, or find some proof on the security cameras). 

The threshold for firing people seems to vary widely between organizations. For example, one person writes that on their worst day of work, they accidentally melted $1.2 million dollars worth of plastic equipment. They don't write that they were let go for that, though! Meanwhile, a different person who worked at a law firm accidentally sent some sensitive information to the opposing side. That person had to leave the law firm for their error, and were presumably let go for this one mishap. 

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  • Employees from all sorts of industries chimed in to share what happened on their worst days of work ever. And as the OP wrote, the numerous responses “Made me realize what a model employee I am.” Perhaps you'll feel the same way after reading through all these surprising stories below. 

    Then, check out this hilarious list of people who shared their best pranks, like one person who was crafty enough to construct “a shed on the head teacher's parking space."

  • 01
    that 'We were unloading a truck full of TVs... I probably broke at least 50' 40
    via Olena Bohovyk on Unsplash
  • 02
    What is the worst thing you've ever done at work? Something you did by accident, did on purpose, were told to do by your superior, have to do daily, etc. Just the worst thing you've done at any job you've ever had. Doesn't have to be work-related. Just something you did 'at work'. Edit: Quite the overwhelming response! Made me realize what a model employee I am, though still searching for a full- time writing position. Maybe I don't have a scandalous enough work history to be hired yet. Back to
    via u/AmadeusCrumb
  • 03
    peelandeatbananas One of my roomates told me this story. He was working at the parking garage in Universal Studios Florida during the peak of summer. He got bored with his coworkers and at the start of the day, decided to marshall every single white colored car to the third floor of the garage. By the end of the afternoon, the entire third floor was a sea of white cars. The next shift was las because they had to work extra hours since people were having a hard time finding their cars.
    via u/peelandeatbananas
  • 04
    TheTallGuy0 I didn't babysit one of my subcontractors well enough and they burned a condo down, 1 day before the job was done. 50k damage. No injurys, luckily.
    via u/TheTallGuy0
  • 05
    Enfrique I worked in a facility where we tested wafers of semiconductors. For some of the wafers, the process was: • Test on a machine • Put the wafers in an oven for a period of time • Test on a machine again Then the wafers would go out to be cut and used. The wafers would come to me, post-testing, in a plastic carrier that had twelve slots. The carrier was in a box with a latch.
    via u/Enfrique
  • 06
    So I would open the box, put the carrier on a machine that would transfer the wafers from the plastic carrier to a metal one. Then the metal carier goes in the oven. No problem. One day, my supervisor comes to me with a carrier with three brand new prototype wafers in it. No box. He says, "These have to go in the oven immediately!"
    via u/Enfrique
  • 07
    So I put them in the oven immediately. Since I didn't have the box to open, my routine was broken and I did not transfer the wafers to a metal carrier. "Hey, man, do you smell that?" The plastic carrier melted in the oven and adhered, very well, to the silicon wafers, which then cracked in many places. All of this rendered the fancy new, super-high priority wafers totally useless.
    via u/Enfrique
  • 08
    TL;DR: I'm such a creature of habit that when my process didn't start the way I expect it to I blew 1.2 million dollars in under two hours.
    via u/Enfrique
  • 09
    lalaino At work we communicate through skype. There was a coworker i kinda flirted with. We would ask each other questions, and the other person had to answer honestly. I asked the guy whether he had chesthair, but instead of sending it to him, i sent it to my boss. Fortunatly my boss laughed it off and told me to go back to work. I still cringe at the memory
    via u/lalaino
  • 10
    dangerousbrian I forgot the WHERE clause on a update query and there was no backup
    via u/dangerousbrian
  • 11
    trout 9000 I deleted over 750K data points from a medical database because I missed the = in my statement and it just assumed I meant the whole database. My company paid out $10,000 as a settlement for time required to re enter the data. TL;DR my boss paid $10,000 in damages for a database typo I made.
    via u/trout 9000
  • 12
    Sarcastic Panda When I was younger I was an auditor for a hotel rewards program. Basically, my job was to spot fraud and abuse and prevent it or stop it. My routine consisted of spotting trends, notifying our guests and asking for explanations of their activity and negotiating penalties with them. Now, I had a woman who I stumbled across by accident and she was guilty of major fraud and she was good. She had accumulated around 4 million points through her
    via u/Sarcastic Panda
  • 13
    scheme. I sent her an email and letter asking her to call or email me to discuss her account and put an account freeze so she couldn't use her points. She didn't respond after a week, so I sent her another email and called her and she promptly hung up on me. This went on for a solid two months. She had a trip to Paris booked and she was planning on using her points for this, which she can't do because her account is frozen. Also, because this is a sister company hotel, they must have the certifi
    via u/Sarcastic Panda
  • 14
    pay. So she gets there, enjoys her week stay and it comes time to check out, well, the hotel wants to be paid. She calls into customer service and pitches a fit and they can't help her because of the freeze I've placed on her account. The CSR calls me at home and I come in and call the hotel and finally speak to her. Her: They want to be paid, I need you to overnight a certificate to the hotel. Me: I can't do that, I've suspended your account because you've abused our program.
    via u/Sarcastic Panda
  • 15
    Her: Yes, you can, look, they want $7,000 or the certificate. Me: I've been trying to contact you for the last two months and you have chosen not to respond to me, we can discuss your account now if you'd like and we can compromise and I'll talk to the hotel. Her: No, you need to just give them the certificate, I'm not going to discuss anything with you, you should be happy that I'm spending all the time in your hotels.
    via u/Sarcastic Panda
  • 16
    Me: Look, it's Saturday morning, I don't want to be in here discussing this with you and it's not you that's been in our properties, it's been friends and coworkers. You've blatantly abused our program and it costs us money. Her: you, you don't know who I am, I will be calling the CEO and getting you fired, loser who you're just a thinks he's important, now, get the certificate you here and maybe I won't get you fired.
    via u/Sarcastic Panda
  • 17
    Me: Ma'am, I don't know you but your threats don't scare me, so here's what's going to happen: I've zeroed out your account, your guest status has been stripped and I've closed your account, we do not want your business. Thank you for your time. Her: WHAT?!? They are going to charge me $7,000!!! Me: Had you been nicer to me and responded to me, we could have settled this. As it is, your attitude has prevented me from being willing to do anything for you.
    via u/Sarcastic Panda
  • 18
    Her: Look, I'm sorry, I don't have $7,000. Me: That's not my problem, guess this is going to be a $7,000 lesson for you. /hangs up phone Ended up with a presidential complaint but nothing came of it.
    via u/Sarcastic Panda
  • 19
    Pg21_SubsecD_Pgrph12 While working at a national accounting firm of 2,000+ employees, I e-mailed a picture of a kitten to the CEO, every Partner/head honcho I knew, and my co-workers late at night. Alcohol was involved. No one ever reprimanded me. I left the firm (for other reasons), but from what I hear people still talk about it.
    via u/Pg21_SubsecD_Pgrph12
  • 20
    ✪ [deleted] I used to work in a law firm. I left a file in mail room and mail room sent it to the opposing side. I no longer work in a law firm.
    via u/ [deleted]
  • 21
    awan001 Literally 5 minutes ago, I squirted a policeman with a water pistol out of my office window.
    via u/awan001
  • 22
    elmatador12 I was working at an extremely busy gas station with a line. out the door. The woman came in going right to the front asking for directions. I said I would be glad to help her, but let me get through these paying customers first. (I was the only one there, and this is before google maps). Well she would not stop yelling about it and interrupting. So finally I asked where she was going. She said the name of a mall that was literally down the street.
    via u/elmatador12
  • 23
    I gave her directions to another mall 20 minutes away. All the customers watched and listened to me give these wrong directions. When she was in her car driving away, the 10 or so customers I had in the store gave me a resounding applause.
    via u/elmatador12
  • 24
    [deleted] When I got my first summer job I had a hardass manager who pointed out every minor detail about how the job should be done, and he did this repeatedly over the course of an entire summer, just drilling it in to my head. Well, for some reason they liked me and wanted me to come back the following summer. And that manager didn't work there anymore, and the other summer workers was completely new, I was the only one who had been there before.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 25
    So I actually positioned myself as the manager and ran operations for the entire summer, being just as picky as the previous manager. Funny story is that the regular staff (the ones that was there year round) didn't mind that I did this, and they came to me and said: "This guy isn't doing anything, can you go and tell him to do his work?" I didn't even have to say anything, I just walked over there and he started working when I was around.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 26
    They all flipped at the end of the summer when I revelead that I was just one amongst them and that I didn't ever had any authority over them. And I had been sending people home when they disapointed me, saying that I was going to dock their pay and stuff like that, which of course I couldn't do. TL,DR Pretended to be the manager at my summer job
    via u/[deleted]
  • 27
    gatsbygirl93 I used to work at Kmart and this old lady who had a mental illiness, always came into the store and buy a ton of cans of cat food. When I would ring her up I wouldn't scan but maybe 10 cans. She was so sweet to everyone and kmarts prices were way to high for everything so I gave her free all the time.
    via u/gatsbygirl93
  • 28
    [deleted] Some a well done steak a minute before kitchen close. Grill was came in and orders off and just been cleaned, chucked the ..... in the deep fryer with the chips. Edit: "the of meat. "I being the cut Edit2: yeah I know it was a move, hence the thread I posted in. I have moved on since then and work in a lot better place, with much higher standards now.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 29
    [deleted] I repair generators at power plants. These things are huge, you literally work inside of them. You have to crawl around inside the generator to get to different areas. Well when the rotor is spinning in the stator it creates a strong magnetic force. It's also spinning at about 3500 rpm and the spinning parts weighs around 20-120 tons. Because of this everything we bring into the generator must be accounted for. Nothing can be left inside when we finish.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 30
    Well sometimes you bring tools and parts in and forget to check them in. I was working in the upper portion of the generator and the ratchet I was using just happened to break. The ratcheting mechanism fell apart and clincked and clanked all the way to the bottom. Now this a big problem. So I spent the next week searching for these parts for 12 hours a day. We obviously had to tell the engineer because we didn't want him to get 1 over. In the end there were two small screws I couldn't find and t
    via u/[deleted]
  • 31
    recovered. After we finish these jobs we move on to another plant so you have no idea if anything ever went wrong. I felt terrible for this because this could cause the unit to fail and when a generator this size fails its a multimillion dollar mistake. This happened on my first job to make it worse! incidents similar to this have happened again and it's always a very unnerving feeling knowing its your fault. Also because I was new I didn't know that common practice is to wrap the ratchet
    via u/[deleted]
  • 32
    in tape to prevent this from happening. No one said anything until afterwards of course.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 33
    dancinhmr One day I went to work. It was around 8:45am. Got on the Internet to do some literature search. Then my auto pilot kicked in. I don't even know what happened. Next thing I recall is that it was 2pm, all the reddit links on the top 600 hottest links were purple and only reason I stopped was to check time because I was hungry. I got paid for the whole day and felt guilty. Went home ate dinner slept and repeated again and again for the next 6 months
    via u/dancinhmr
  • 34
    roastbeefandtoast Worst thing I ever did, ever in my life, was when I worked at a cafe. I was running out orders and bussing tables, and I was just learning how to hold the tray properly with my left hand.
    via u/roastbeefandtoast
  • 35
    So I get an order; one cappuccino, one strawberry milkshake, for a mother and her little girl. As I get to their table, I put the coffee in front of the woman, then unbalance the tray and accidentally spill the milkshake. All over this seven year old kid. It was her birthday and they were her new clothes and shoes. Man, even her feet were just swimming in milkshake. Horrifying. Tl;dr: accidentally poured milkshake all over a kid on her birthday.
    via u/roastbeefandtoast
  • 36
    itscirony I dropped a brain... Actually if I'm being honest I dropped two... EDIT: For those of you who are asking, I'm a neuroscientist. The brains were for research purposes! (They were also mice brains, and anyone who owns a mouse knows how wiggly they can be!)
    via u/itscirony
  • 37
    hpotter29 My first job was as a dish washer at a small cafe. One morning a huge container of glop was sitting on my work area. I worked around it and cleaned and dried everything I could. An hour went by. I ignored the thing for as long as I could. Finally, I had to deal with it so I scraped all the grey mush into the sink and scoured and polished the stupid thing.
    via u/hpotter29
  • 38
    Only then did the owner bustle in and say, "Where's the soup?" I was embarrassed, the owner was mad, there was no soup du jour, but nobody tried. storing food in the "To be Washed" section ever again.
    via u/hpotter29
  • 39
    banjo_07 I worked at Pizza Hut in high school. We had this manager, who we'll call "Jay," that was an absolute His life was one giant power-trip. One of those guys that takes his $8/hr job waaaay too seriously. Anyways, if you aren't familiar with Pizza Hut, they have a walk-in cooler in the back; I'd say it's about 12' x 12', and there are about 15 racks (with wheels) full of dough. Fast forward to one Friday evening during rush hour, it was busy as . My friend made up a story that he
    via u/banjo_07
  • 40
    spilled some sauce in the back of the walk-in, and he told Jay that he had no idea how to clean it up. There was just too much sauce on the floor. Jay goes into the walk in to check it out, turns out there is no sauce. He's in the very back of the cooler, though. Me and my friend proceed to scramble all of the racks of dough, making a maze of racks in the way between Jay and his exit. On our way out, my friend threw a towel over the handle to the exit, which glowed in the dark, just in case some
    via u/banjo_07
  • 41
    Jay was stuck in there for at least 30 minutes. At first you could tell he was trying to maneuver himself around the racks without knocking them over, but it was pitch black. The longer time went on, the colder he got, and the more frustrated. Eventually you could tell he was just knocking over racks (from the loud crashes we heard.) Once Jay made his way out, my friend got fired immediately, but somehow he didn't really notice that I was involved. He told the General Manager, and I thought all
    via u/banjo_07
  • 42
    of blew it off. I don't think he really liked Jay either. I feel a little bad about it looking back. TL;DR: had a crappy Pizza Hut manager, locked him in a walk-in cooler.
    via u/banjo_07
  • 43
    ✪ jfinneg1 I used to work at a WalMart distribution center. Once day we were unloading a truck full of TVs. This was pretty hard slow work loading them onto metal pallets. Aboud mid morning my manager comes over and says "jfinneg1 we get paid for quantity not quality, unload these things faster." That day I probably broke at least 50 TVs throwing them from the truck onto the pallet.
    via u/jfinneg1
  • 44
    I kinda felt like I was sticking it to the man everytime the pallet rail would bust through the front of the TV box and obvious go straight through the screen.
    via u/jfinneg1
  • 45
    DJStrongThenK I'm a server and I had this table fully of really mean women. They talked down to me the entire time and basically treated me subhuman.
    via u/DJStrongThenK***
  • 46
    One of them wanted their food in a box and while I was about them in the back, I accidentally threw her food out. After the other server walked away, I scooped her sandwich out of the trash and put it in a to-go container and brought it back out to her. I felt like a huge don't really regret it too terribly much. but I
    via u/DJStrongThenK***
  • 47
    Pigmy I made Henry Rollins pay for cole slaw at the airport.
    via u/Pigmy
  • 48
    [deleted] I worked for Sears Auto center for a bit after high school. I was a tech that did any oil changes, tires replacements, etc. In the stalls that were reserved for oil changes, there were these oil guns that hung from the ceiling that were connected to a 1000 gallon drum of oil that made it easy to refill a car quickly. Anyway, one day me and a buddy were both doing an oil change on seperate cars, both using a gun. He calls to me, I look over just in time to catch a full blast of oil stra
    via u/[deleted]
  • 49
    chest. What else could I of done? I fired back. This went on for about 15 minutes. We eventually grabbed flattened cardboard boxes as shields, and were shooting 5w-30 all over the place, just getting drenched in the stuff. Afterwards, we went to the barrel of superclean to start mopping up the gallons of motor oil all over the place to find that it was empty. Oh well, we took off.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 50
    I didn't work the next day but apparently it rained and was a nightmare, people slipping all over the place with the floor having a thick coat of oil and now water mixed into it. Wasn't fired.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 51
    Katorian Katorian I used to work in a restaurant that had this reward card program. A fellow server and I started signing up fake cards by registering them with email accounts we had created. Whenever we would get a cash table we would swipe the card after the table left and pocket the 20, 40, or 60 dollar discount. A few times a night, 5 days a week, over about a year= thousands of dollars.
    via u/Katorian Katorian
  • 52
    We kept trading cards with each other and we had enough that no one caught on. When I got my "big girl job" I passed the cards down to a couple other servers. A few months later the owner found out and prosecuted the three servers who were caught with the cards. They each had to pay a 2000 dollar fine and do community service.
    via u/Katorian Katorian

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