'I sank the company boat': 20 employees share their most egregious errors on the job

Sure, everyone indeed makes mistakes, but some of these employees really messed up. 

I'll never forget my first internship. I was asked to do a ton of data entry as the company I was working for was preparing to switch databases. After a few hours into this task, I realized I mismatched one address to a name, which led to every subsequent address being mismatched as well. Of course, this would undo hours of work, and my 16-year-old self certainly had the passing thought of "what if I just kept going and said nothing?" However, I am simply too much of a goodie two shoes to be that unprofessional, so I told my supervisor that this was going to take much longer as I had to go back and essentially start from scratch. She understood, and that was that, but my unnecessarily anxious self still was on the verge of tears all the same. 

Clearly, this was a minor flub compared to what these employees did. Keep scrolling below for their egregious errors. For more, take a look at this list of relationship red flags.

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  • 01
    "18K gone in less than 30 seconds"
    via charlesdeluvio

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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  • 02
    What's the biggest mistake you've ever made at your job?
    via [deleted]
  • 03
    vostez⚫ I worked at a Marine Mammal Rescue center for a time in Alaska, working with seals and sea lions. Very cool job, but it could get extremely disgusting at times. During training, before I started, one thing they taught us is "If you're approaching one from the front, you have to hold your breath until you can get to the side of it - their breath will knock you over."
    via [deleted]
  • 04
    I remember laughing and thinking it was a half-joke. It is not. My second week there I was walking up to a sea lion, and it belched right in my face from short range. A good 4-second- long belch, as they're known to do. I actually dropped to my knees, puked, and took a solid two minutes to recover. Didn't make that mistake again.
    via [deleted]
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  • 05
    Cheezburger Image 10449810944
    via Cytonn Photography

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 06
    Karakoima ⚫ Saying yes when offered jobs that don't suit me at all.
    via [deleted]

  • Pausing the action here to remind all you job seekers out there to not let your desperation get the better of you when you're trying to find the right opportunity. It's easy to give in, of course, depending on your situation, but the last thing you want is to settle for mistreatment that will inevitably require you to search for a new job anyway.

  • 07
    ttwisted. Software development consultant for small/medium sized businesses... One Saturday my task was to get a copy of a client's MS Access database,
    via [deleted]
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  • 08
    make some changes to it and then upload the modified version back to the client. I was instructed to use FTP (command line) to get the database. But I f'd up the command, resulting in wiping out the file... Destroyed all of their data... They had a backup that was 3 days
    via [deleted]
  • 09
    old but still, highly unprofessional and lost them 3 days of business data...
    via [deleted]
  • 10
    tukk_vuly. My first week as a vet tech...doing a gland expression on a dog for the first time. Didn't realize you weren't supposed to hold your face that close. Got sprayed right in the face.
    via [deleted]
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  • 11
    TheStarcraftPro. Was a IT Admin for a large entertainment company in Hollywood (think Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, etc).
    via [deleted]
  • 12
    I accidentally deleted the entire AD profile of a senior level exec because he shared the same name with 3 other people at the company.
    via [deleted]
  • 13
    Had to go into emergency mode and get that profile restored to its state before he logged in the next morning. Thank goodness for backups that sync every 30 minutes.
    via [deleted]
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  • Imagine working in IT for an entertainment company. Sure, the stakes might be high but you also are likely to find out all the hot gossip before the rest of the world knows anything. Just saying: there are pros and cons to that situation, although based on that guy's story, the negative aspects of the job seem to outweigh the perks 99% of the time.

  • 14
    Cheezburger Image 10449811456
    via Gabrielle Henderson

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 15
    NoDanaOnlyZuuI Not getting writing in
    via [deleted]

  • Ah, classic mistake! Let this serve as a friendly reminder to document everything, people! Get it all in writing and leave a paper trail. You never know when you might need it!

  • 16
    hisho9. Running out of bags, as a professional dog walker. Unfortunately it happened right in front of an officer, and he saw me walking away. Told me that if I didn't pick it up (right then, no "going back") I would be arrested and face 30 days in jail.
    via [deleted]
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  • 17
    I said I had no bags or gloves, and he said "You have hands, don't you?" So that was fun. It was a German Shepherd, too
    via [deleted]
  • 18
    picksandchooses I sank the company boat
    via [deleted]
  • 19
    Levibo2005. Not my mistake but I was there. Guy was moving a 36 built in Bertazzoni fridge onto the lift gate of the box truck and as he was moving it the screws ripped out of the pallet causing the fridge to fall off the truck. 18k gone in less than 30 seconds.
    via [deleted]
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  • 20
    Blackfell0518. As a manager, I tried being friends with someone I worked with. They now try to take advantage of that when it comes to scheduling
    via [deleted]
  • 21
    unsnailed. I kept letting people go without paying because I was 16 and too socially anxious to tell them their card got declined
    via [deleted]
  • 22
    perchance2cream. A buddy and I were both offered entry level cybersecurity jobs at GE 15 years ago. He took the job because it had good career prospects and I took a different job because it paid $10k more per year.
    via [deleted]
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  • 23
    Today I make $170k a year and he makes $950k. His wife drives a G Wagen and mine drives a Kia.
    via [deleted]
  • 24
    Pa17325 I was about 16, making salads for a 150 person wedding and I put portion cups of premade jarred scampi sauce on each one instead of Caesar dressing
    via [deleted]
  • 25
    FloConcentrate5448 I sent a $4000 order to the wrong address and couldn't recover the package.
    via [deleted]
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  • 26
    D3xnDinah · Talking to fit in... oooo that always ends badly
    via [deleted]
  • 27
    sirmosesthesweet. I work remote and one time I fell asleep on a conference call and started snoring. When I woke up everybody was already off the call and I had 3 emails asking me if I was ok. I asked my coworker how bad it was on a scale of 1 to 10 and she said it was a solid 8.
    via [deleted]
  • 28
    Solo-Yolo27. Naively mistaking my coworkers for friends.
    via [deleted]
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  • 29
    Nannyphone7. I lost it and yelled at someone. Apparently that was only allowed when yelling at subordinates and I yelled at a coworker. I got in big trouble but at least I learned from it.
    via [deleted]
  • 30
    Successful-Horse-976 · Being in a conversation with my boss then after all the speaking they do I ask what I'm supposed to do all over again
    via [deleted]
  • 31
    linux_user_13 · I backed over my supervisor with a forklift and it sat on his foot for about a minute or so. Another time I called my plant manager a dumb while we had visitors from corporate.
    via [deleted]
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  • 32
    Another time I called my plant manager a dumb while we had visitors from corporate. Honestly I'm surprised I haven't gotten fired over the last 30 years. Both times they just yelled at me for 20 minutes or so telling me what a dumb I was.
    via [deleted]

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