'[We] had to evacuate the restaurant': 20+ Biggest workplace mistakes people ever made at their jobs

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 28, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

They say that you're the only one who will dwell on your biggest mistakes in life, but these people beg to differ. Some mistakes are so big, so grand in their scale, that they'll follow you around for your whole career! 

With great power comes great responsibility, which is why a lot of these workplace mess-up stories come from the managers of the world. When you're overseeing employees, working on tight deadlines, and not getting enough sleep due to the stress of your job, the mistakes just make themselves. And in many fields this is considered a normal aspect of the job: working 40-80 hours per week or being on call 24/7 has a detrimental impact over time, leading to big mistakes.

When u/sspecZ asked for stories of people who majorly messed up at their workplace, thousands of stories poured in from every industry imaginable. It's a fascinating look into the lives of engineers, contractors, warehouse workers, and more. You can check out a handful of the best stories down below. 

Next up, read about how this concertgoer outsmarted some ticket scalpers that were giving them a hard time, explaining that "He offered me $10 each—take it or leave it." 

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  • 01
    Redditors who massively up at work, what happened?
    via u/sspecZ
  • 02
    AboutTimeCroco A very important and very big customer placed an order for some chemical bulk to be delivered early Jan. Our contract with them stated that every day we were late we would be fined millions. The bulk plant finished on time and just needed the drums to pour the bulk into.
    via u/AboutTimeCroco
  • 03
    Warehouse come up to my office (I was the purchaser responsible for buying the drums) where are the 250 litre drums!? Bulk plant need them. It's fine I thought, I placed the order before Christmas, I remember doing it. Looks at SAP why is the supplier late.....they're never late... checks my order mouth goes instantly dry and I start to sweat. I had placed the order, but I forgot that for this particular
    via u/AboutTimeCroco
  • 04
    supplier I needed to email them the PO. We had just changed the system to allow SAP to auto email the supplier after we placed an order, but not for this 1 supplier. I knew this, but must have forgotten. These drums had a 2 week lead time from the supplier so I knew I was dead. Not only would we have had millions of pounds of fines, but the production plant
    via u/AboutTimeCroco
  • 05
    would have been put on hold having to store tons of bulk with no where to put it. I went and told my boss and just told him I had funked up. Being an awesome guy and boss he thanked me for being honest and told me it's going to be ok. He called the supplier, sweet talked them, and because we were a good customer they allowed us to take another customers order. The drums
    via u/AboutTimeCroco
  • 06
    were delivered next day. That was about 9 years ago and I still think about it
    via u/AboutTimeCroco
  • 07
    Liz... I was a bartender. I knocked down the entire top shelf. Thousands of dollars in liquor. ETA I didn't get in trouble- the boss just built a stronger shelf. He found it HILARIOUS that the only thing I saved was a $6 bottle of Sloe Gin that happened to be on the wrong shelf.
    via u/LizardPossum
  • 08
    ShadyAidyX Accidentally left out the "MoveNext" method on a loop that sent out an email broadcast, which meant it mailbombed the first recipient in the loop until we realised what was happening and killed the process. The CEO's email was the first email address in the loop.
    via u/ShadyAidyX
  • 09
    He was an and was absolutely anyway, incoherent with rage when his outlook crashed when downloading 15,000 emails. inviting him to take a satisfaction survey. Good thing it was only a test!
    via u/ShadyAidyX
  • 10
    FatChemistry Teac... Chemistry teacher here, on my first day of teaching I set my classroom on fire after some unfortunate incidents involving sodium, water and a glass tank. The problem was that the glass tank was too big, so the hydrogen gas got to build up to a decent amount. Then suddenly kaboom! The glass tank exploded, there was shattered glass everywhere
    via u/FatChemistryTeacher
  • 11
    and hit the students, who were all wearing safety glasses. A column of water grew from the glass tank to the ceiling and the ceiling started to burn. After a few moments the fire died out and the fire alarm was loud and I had to make sure all of the students were ok. Which they were.
    via u/FatChemistryTeacher
  • 12
    It ended up being one of my funniest classes to teach for many years. The students absolutely loved it, I was a bit of a nervous wreck for a few hours. The worst thing in hindsight is all of the comments saying things like "you started your career with a bang" and stuff like that.
    via u/FatChemistryTeacher
  • 13
    veemon657 Slammed a forklift into a camaro
    via u/veemon657
  • 14
    khendron I love telling this story... Back in the floppy disk, pre- Internet days of computers I was tasked by my job to do a software installation onboard a coast guard ice breaker. I flew from Ottawa to Halifax. Then I caught a taxi to CFB Shearwater, from where a twin otter flew me 1000 km north to a little town on the border of
    via u/khendron
  • 15
    Quebec and Labrador. From there I was flown by helicopter to do an at sea landing on the ice breaker. After landing I went down to the engine control room, where the computer was located, and laid out the disks: disk 1, disk 2, disk 3, disk 4, disk 6. Disk 5 was still on my desk in Ottawa.
    via u/khendron
  • 16
    joh... Not me personally but a guy I worked with at a feed mill accidentally added the incorrect mineral bags to the sheep feed mix that contained copper. Wiped out an entire flock of over 100 sheep
    via u/johnnybongoes2211
  • 17
    JP... I dropped a screw inside the engine (edit:motor) of a TGV train. Oh god. We spent half an hour trying to catch it by moving a magnetic stick inside the crankshaft, with oil spilling everywhere.
    via u/JPDLD
  • 18
    The engine was new and about to be mounted on a train that was supposed to run later in the day, I was so terrified I would possibly cause quite a lot of trouble. since no other train or engine was available. Shoutout to my manager who finally got that screw and definitely deserved his half a dozen of croissants the next morning.
    via u/JPDLD
  • 19
    mlorenzana12 I worked in a pizza place and they caught me eating olives on camera. It wasn't 2-3 olives, I could eat like a thousands in a shift, I really don't know why and it's a time in my life I want to forget
    via u/mlorenzana12
  • 20
    spaceduckcoast2... Working the stock room at MalWart, grabbed a pepsi pallet with the forklift and didn't realize it was a short pallet. The forks came out the other side and through to the pallet of glass coke bottles it was up against. When I lifted the pepsi, the coke came up with it and dumped the entire unwrapped pallet of glass.
    via u/spaceduckcoast2coast
  • 21
    bottles spilling all that sticky soda on the floor. That mess was to clean up. However the vendor had to eat the cost because that stores posted policy is that they cannot leave unwrapped pallets unless it is being worked.
    via u/spaceduckcoast2coast
  • 22
    MikeRabsitch I was new to SQL and accidentally mailed a list of people with deceased_date IS NOT NULL instead of IS NULL. So an entire marketing campaign was sent to dead people. That eventually led to our marketing tools being hard- coded not to mail dead people (which makes sense) but I was terrified when I found out.
    via u/MikeRabsitch
  • 23
    Chazzyberry The chef was angry that day. I was advised by my coworkers to do whatever it takes to get on his good. side. I thought, "eh, I'll just try to avoid him." He was standing in the cooler taking inventory. Beside him were the 5 gallon containers of prepped food. I sneaked in and tried to quickly grab the ranch
    via u/Chazzyberry
  • 24
    container, but in my haste, I nudged another. It was the french onion soup. All 5 gallons of it. On his pants and shoes. Yes, he was upset. The prep girl was upset. I had 10 minutes til lunch service started. I have no idea how I'm still alive.
    via u/Chazzyberry
  • 25
    1_art_please During the first week of my first job in animation after i graduated i had to move a bunch of scene files from one server to another. The files were heavy so i was told to just cut and paste them to make it faster. I accidentally put them in a wrong area and without thinking just deleted them, went back to move the files again...they werent there, i
    via u/1_art_please
  • 26
    had forgotten i hadn't copied them. I lost 5 minutes of full animation, my long time friend who recommended me for the job got in because his back ups didn't catch the files and my direct supervisor worked for 21 days straight to help redo all the animation.
    via u/1_art_please
  • 27
    The studio and everyone involved were way nicer to me about it than i expected, i kept my job and i brouggt in donuts for the whole crew for a week after. But it was an awful start!
    via u/1_art_please
  • 28
    tinyhypernova Very first tech job as a youngin' and I forgot to verify of someone had backed up files before a clean OS install. Lost the guys Outlook Archive files with 10 years worth of conveniently stored and important email. Apologized and sheepishly turned the issue over to admins.
    via u/tinyhypernova
  • 29
    Of... Controls Engineer. Made a copy paste error while programming and a 2 was a 3. So one machine tagged at 3 was waiting for conditions of 2. So naturally the lift moved when it thought it should and crashed into another machine. Course I'm Having to stand there figuring out the issue while maintenance is up there
    via u/OfTheAtom
  • 30
    replacing busted parts. But because I've made a thousand changes it didnt click fast enough and well... it happened again.
    via u/OfTheAtom
  • 31
    thebirdbrain I worked in a nice steakhouse. First week, I accidentally put salt in the sugar bowls and sugar in the salt shakers. Customers started to complain about their sweet steaks and salty coffees. We had to pull all the salt and sugar from each table. My last day as a waiter.
    via u/thebirdbrain
  • 32
    Me... I at least partially blame my employer for this but they fully blamed me so - I briefly worked for the city zoo. We used "carts" that were basically an ATV with a dumpable bed on them for cleaning enclosures. Zoos are large so we also used them just as transport.
    via u/Metal___Barbie
  • 33
    We had one with a known wonky parking brake. Maintenance had refused to replace it for months. One day I had to park it on an incline. I kicked it after parking, didn't budge. I turned around at least 3 times as I walked away to make sure it was still not going anywhere.
    via u/Metal___Barbie
  • 34
    5 mins later, I come back to hysteria. Naturally as soon as I was gone, it had rolled down the hill and taken out half the fence to the camel ride area. Knocked some lady over (she was fine, I think she had just been knocked off balance versus full on hit by it).
    via u/Metal___Barbie
  • 35
    My manager wasn't mad at all, maintenance finally gave us a new cart, but I still got written up because protocol.
    via u/Metal___Barbie
  • 36
    Danwoll My first day as a dishwasher at a resort, I dropped a tray stacked with executive china.
    via u/Danwoll
  • 37
    FauxPoesFoes228 I used to work at a company that organised festivals (art, music, literature, etc). We were in the midst of organising our annual literature festival - in the weeks leading up to it, everyone kind of pitches in with everything. We had created gift bags for the writers who would be presenting talks/workshops
    via u/FauxPoesFoes228
  • 38
    at the festival. These were some lovely gift bags, too. Lovely bottles of wine, L'Occitane skincare goodies, scented candles, books, literary magazines, etc. My team was in charge of putting the gift bags together, and we had a massive storeroom in the basement of our office where we were keeping all the gift bag things as they were delivered.
    via u/FauxPoesFoes228
  • 39
    It was a super hot Friday, there were storms predicted for the entire weekend, and my supervisor asked me to close the windows in the basement before I locked up for the weekend. I told her I would, but I completely forgot. You can see where this is going. We had cardboard boxes full of literary magazines that were going to go in the gift. bags. They got rained on all
    via u/FauxPoesFoes228
  • 40
    weekend. By the time we got into the office on Monday (and by the time I made it down to the basement), they were a soggy mess. The cardboard boxes had completely disintegrated and the magazines inside were falling apart, too. We had to reorder the magazines (at significant cost) for the gift bags, and I was reprimanded by my supervisor. She basically
    via u/FauxPoesFoes228
  • 41
    read me the riot act. As a fun bonus, the rainwater went all over the floors too, so some of the gift bags had been soaked through, so I had to hang them all up to air dry around the office... Which was embarrassing.
    via u/FauxPoesFoes228
  • 42
    Gen-Jinjur Oh I have up so many times. Here's my two favorites: 1. Worked at an egg farm and was carrying 12 flats of eggs. Didn't see the pallet someone left in the walkway. Tripped on the pallet and hundreds of eggs go flying and splattered all over the floor.
    via u/Gen-Jinjur
  • 43
    Meanwhile, I fell and dislocated my wrist and shoulder. 2. I was washing a dairy cow named Laverne before showing her at a county fair. She didn't like having her tail washed. She kicked the bucket of soapy water over onto my rubber boots and took off running. I grabbed both sides of her halter but
    via u/Gen-Jinjur
  • 44
    my boots were slick and she basically ran around the washing area in circles with me hanging on to her head while my tractionless boots acted like water skiis. Of course this happened in front of crowds of people who started laughing. Finally I lost my grip and sat down in a puddle while Laverne ran toward a little boy holding a
    via u/Gen-Jinjur
  • 45
    scone. He dropped the scone and ran, and Laverne ate his scone. I got night barn duty for that.
    via u/Gen-Jinjur
  • 46
    flannelsandjeans Concessions at a movie theater. I was making popcorn, but I had learned that if we used a bit more seasoning and oil, the popcorn tasted insanely better. What I didn't know was the popcorn machine had broken earlier, and wasnt stirring the popcorn anymore.
    via u/flannelsandjeans
  • 47
    So after I had made a new batch, and no popcorn coming out, I decided to check on the machine and a hot glob of oil flew into my eye. Started cussing and screaming in front of a whole bunch of customers and got rushed into the back to wash my eye out.
    via u/flannelsandjeans
  • 48
    Fclune Worked for a politician who was terrible with names so I had them saved in his phone as the nicknames he gave them. One of them was "That crazy, hot " so l had her saved as "Melissa crazy hot - One day the other staffer asked for her number so I sent it to him but accidentally sent the contact card to her instead.
    via u/Fclune
  • 49
    She kept ringing and messaging demanding to know what was going on and I spent all night dreading the scandal (we were mid election). The next day my boss dropped dead in the office and to this day I feel terrible that one off my first thoughts was "well I guess | got away with that"
    via u/Fclune
  • 50
    TheMidnightScor... Accepted 20 fake $100 bills because I hadn't been taught how to spot fakes.
    via u/TheMidnightScorpion
  • 51
    Se... Mixed bleach and ammonia. Had to evacuate the restaurant Edit: My first award! Thank you kind stranger. I never knew my first job would pay off like this. To clarify, we had a soaking agent for the silverware that didn't know was ammonia based, and I mixed it with bleach and water because I
    via u/Severedparadox
  • 52
    figured if I was bleaching the kitchen drains I might as well use something that'll foam up and take the mildew with it.
    via u/Severedparadox
  • 53
    jcw10489 I worked at a McDonald's and accidentally fell in the ice maker right at the beginning of my shift. They had to close the restaurant for the rest of the day to dump out and sanitize the machine
    via u/jcw10489
  • 54
    PeterPumpkinsEa... I worked at a retail store when two women walked by me and said "tell (coworker) that she gave us excellent service" on their way out of the store. I told my coworker about it afterward and she said "who were they?" And for some reason my dumbass said "umm I'm not
    via u/PeterPumpkinsEater69
  • 55
    sure but they were two heavy-set women" then described what they were wearing. And my coworker said "oh that was my mom and my aunt." I have never been more embarrassed in my life.
    via u/PeterPumpkinsEater69
  • 56
    DeliveryChick A manager at a pizza place I worked at years ago took a catering order of 50 or so pizzas for the next week. Well Monday at noon we got a call asking where the order was, turns out the manager out the order down for Tuesday instead of Monday.
    via u/DeliveryChick
  • 57
    They got the order for free, and surprisingly that manager didn't get fired. He did however end up in jail several weeks later.
    via u/DeliveryChick
  • 58
    ProductiveFidget... My husband works for our state government. He once skipped a line when reading a budget and misplaced $100 million. Fortunately his manger caught the mistake before the budget was signed into law, but it was a scary few hours after he submitted the budget and realized his mistake.
    via u/ProductiveFidgetget24

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