15+ Employees who made big workplace mistakes

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Mar 22, 2026 3:00 PM EDT

These employees can recall their biggest mistakes all too clearly 

At times, ones' brain just turns off. Who knows why — being sleepy or hungry could be the cause, or maybe you're preoccupied with other issues. For whatever reason, you lose focus of the task you're supposed to be doing, and instead, you zone out. That leads to some big huge mistakes, as some of these workers can tell you. 

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  • For example, one person started filling up a paint drum, then they left to take a bathroom break. And then they took an actual break. All while the paint was filling the drum. And so, as you can imagine, they came back startled to find that there was paint everywhere, thanks to their little momentary mishap. A big mess!

    Some folks made rather expensive mistakes, though. One that made my jaw drop was a person who shared that their boss assigned them to deposit that week's cash to the bank. That's a delicate job, and one that isn't trusted to just anyone. And yet, it went wrong, in a spectacular fashion!

  • Cheezburger Image 10616995584
    via Josué Sánchez

    Worker carrying 4 coffees in a tray suddenly trips and falls. 

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Someone made a bag that day, literally

    BeowulfShatner My boss charged me with carefully depositing our cash earnings from the week at the bank down the road. I walked out to my car, set the bag on top of the car, and happily drove off
    via BeowulfShatner

    It was someone's lucky day, and this person's lucky day simply because they weren't fired for that. 

  • Gone with the wind

    shawnwarnerwrites Drove a semi truck full of mail from Providence to Boston with the trailer door open.
    via shawnwarnerwrites

  • NooOooOoO

    redmooncat15 Was giving a presentation to 300+ people and rested my arm on top of the podium in a spot where there was a button that turned the entire system off, taking ~10 minutes to reboot and get my presentation back up. 2. minutes into talking again, I did it again.
    via redmooncat15
  • FormerStuff Brand new manager trainee. Had to sit through death by 90's OSHA videos. All stuff I had seen before and I was incredibly bored of it. At the end of the video there was a random guy in our office I assumed was a customer and I sarcastically said "well that was an hour I'll never get back". He goes "did you not enjoy it?" I said "yeah I
    via FormerStuff
  • didn't at all but like, I get it, safety comes first so it's necessary but the videos are so common sense it hurts. Anyway can I help you real quick? I have a meeting to get to, big guy from corporate merchandising team several states away is gonna be here in an hour or two".
    via FormerStuff
  • He goes "I'm filling in for big guy from corporate, I'm the North American safety director. Let's have a chat about your vision of safety at our workplace since you have that all figured out"
    via FormerStuff

    Just because you think a video you have to watch annually is boring doesn't make it any less important! It's funny that this guy was so serious about it… like you can be bored and still pay attention, lighten up! 

  • Whoops!

    Captain Hole I'm an assistant. My second week on the job I took my boss's $2000 personal computer to get repaired. When I was bringing it back to his house, I dropped it and cracked the screen.
    via CaptainF*rtHole
  • Thank God it was a small crack and my boss is the chillest person on the planet, I genuinely thought was going to get fired but instead he just happily started using it again and said it was no big deal since it still worked.
    via CaptainF*rtHole
  • Worker reaches down toward dropped broken phone on the floor.
    via Eduardo Ramos

    Worker reaches down toward dropped broken phone on the floor. 

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Salty DogBill Large printer, one of those office units.... Well, it had a manual switch to go between 220 and 110 voltage. Half way around the world and coworker forgot to change the switch to the correct voltage and fried the power supply. It's going to take a week to get a replacement unit but my coworker need to depart to
    via SaltyDogBill
  • go to his wedding. So a week later, I fly out to finish this guys job and install the new unit. I forget to check the voltage and fry it again. Ooops. A lady at work replied to a promotion notice with, "this b don't work at all, just takes credit for our work." Sent it as reply all.
    via SaltyDogBill

  • Now THAT would be a big mess to clean up

    Responsibility No4... Was filling a paint drum and left to use the bathroom then proceeded to go on break and midway through a snack realized and ran all the way back to paint everywhere.
    via ResponsibilityNo4442

  • Sleep deprevation will make you do crazy things

    skummelgutt Forgot to turn the sign to open. Coworker found out after he came out, asked why the place was empty and watched five people come to the door, stop, turn and walk away. I was hungover and stood at the counter like a zombie for an hour and a half having watched many people walk up and away.
    via skummelgutt
  • Coworkers greeted me until I resigned with "Are we open?"
    via skummelgutt

  • The chill this would send down a person's spine...

    Twinchad I accidentally deleted the entire project directory for my company thinking i was deleting a folder called proposals. We lost about 2/3 of the directory before i was able to cancel the deletion. The data was gone as the folder was too big to fit in the trashcan so it was permanently deleting files as it went along.
    via Twinchad

  • Crafty guy!

    Familiar_Cow_5501 Work in payroll so have $5- 10k+ mistakes aren't uncommon. Was testing out a new warning/deduction code on a new account and had entered $5k as a test check and forgot to delete it before processing, to a terminated employee, who promptly emptied his bank account so we couldn't pull it back
    via Familiar_Cow_5501
  • Much worse, a coworker rerouted something like 15- 20 direct deposits to her own account. It's all super traceable with username/time stamp records of every single change so she was promptly fired and I believe arrested
    via Familiar_Cow_5501
  • [deleted] First day on the job working for a cleaning company, the very first thing I did was pick a mop up from the bucket directly vertical, rather than at an angle, and shattered the overhead strip light above me. While talking to the boss.
    via [deleted]

  • Excuse me --- $100K??

    fatdjsin a 3d sensor we make slipped from my hands... dropped on the floor. i felt SO bad...we sell those for 100k :| (nothing broke ! we just had to fix the laser and camera alignements)
    via fatdjsin

    Risky move to handle something worth that much. 

  • we have a tradition now, i you drop a sensor, your name will be written on the floor where the hole left in the floor is (they make a nice mark in the flooring material)
    via fatdjsin
  • [deleted] I ordered 6 ASME water heaters in 3 phase configuration for a job. There was no 3 phase electrical anywhere on the jobsite. If you're not familiar with plumbing, ASME heaters are made to order non returnable. And you can't convert them in the field to
    via [deleted]
  • the correct electrical configuration. $9K a piece. Boss was not happy. I thought I was about to get fired. Luckily, we were able to make it up elsewhere further down the line.
    via [deleted]
  • FamousOnceNow... A typo in a technical report turned 101.0 into 1010. The minimum standard was 100 so it passed with flying colours. Of course, given natural production variation, there were soon many, many expensive problems.
    via FamousOnceNowNobody

  • Silly thing to be fired for

    Efficient-Lab1062 First job was as a cart boy at a golf course. Pulled all the carts in for the night and forgot to plug them all in. Most were de d come morning on a Sunday. Fired. on Monday.
    via Efficient-Lab1062

  • People yap on mute like theres no chance for error

    theBerj Teams meeting, thought I was on mute. Person I dislike shows up a couple mins late and I blurt out... "Stupid a finally decides to show up."
    via theBerj

  • As fun as it sounds, vouching for a friend tends to harm more than help

    [deleted] getting a friend hired. I worked for a restaurant for many months and it was great, never heard a complaint. one day they decided they wanted more help, offered my friend the job.
    via [deleted]
  • in less than six months, trouble was happening everywhere. I'll never work with a friend.
    via [deleted]
  • tychozero Left the lift gate down on a truck while adjusting position. Took out someone's rear window.
    via tychozero
  • Cappster14 Connecting duct to a new heat pump and drilled a screw through the copper refrigerant piping. Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft! In the basement of a very, VERY wealthy and influential family's vacation home.
    via Cappster14
  • Boss points out employee's mistake, while employee holds his head in embarrassment.
    via Getty Images

    Boss points out employee's mistake, while employee holds his head in embarrassment. 

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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