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What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?

957 replies

shehardlysleeps · 20/04/2026 17:18

I’m in a reflective mood, and it’s got me thinking about something I did a few years ago which is probably the thing I’m most deeply ashamed of.

There was a coworker who really rubbed me up the wrong way. I was very unhappy at the time, and going through an awful time personally. She would make snide comments about me, do things with my family members (who were colleagues too) which really got my back up, I felt like she judged me harshly and was pretty rude. Along with another colleague they made three or four very nasty comments which still stick with me.

Instead of raising a grievance, which I should have done, I took to posting about her on another website (along the lines of Mumsnet), not realising she used it too. She saw the posts and reported me, and I ended up facing a meeting with HR and a senior partner of the firm I was working in. It damaged my reputation within the firm forever and I ended up leaving after not being offered a promotion. I still feel ashamed of it now, nearly half a decade on, and feel like it’s tarred me forever.

Whats the worst thing you’ve ever done?

OP posts:
Vintageblueribbon · 23/04/2026 15:46

hevs03 · 23/04/2026 15:19

Your post has really touched me, what you went through is child abuse plain and simple, I really hope you are now in a much better place, living a full and happy life, and of course can completely understand why you are no contact with your parents. I wish you lots of happiness.

Thank you

Im happy-i have dp and my adult dc (and a grandchild!)

They are who matters

I will always feel bad that I stole that money but if they had been decent parents,I wouldn't have been pushed into taking it

I wouldn't dream of stealing now,dp says im 'too honest' (god knows what he means by that!) but I try to be a good person

They are sniffing around for me to do their care now they are getting older

It's not happening-they made their choices and I've now made mine

hevs03 · 23/04/2026 15:28

Allseeingallknowing · 23/04/2026 14:48

Yes, you do sound nice…

I am, I was young when I pushed the cat out of the window (3 years old) and as a teenager like so many teenagers I was foolish and a bit headstrong, very loyal to my friends. Thank you

hevs03 · 23/04/2026 15:19

Vintageblueribbon · 21/04/2026 10:06

When I was a teenager (about 12 onwards) my parents stopped paying for anything I needed

(My mother is a narcissist and my father goes along with whatever she wants)

Food/sanpro/school uniform/school books/school shoes/clothes/teenage treats/chocolate/period painkillers etc-i had to fund it myself

I got a babysitting job that would pay £5 per day (stay over,get to,get the kids to school,go to school myself,come back,pick the kids up,start the evening routine,put them to bed,rinse and repeat for years)

Dad wasnt very hands on and mum was either in the pub or at work-they split up and mum really went on a bender with dad in the background

I also had really bad periods-id go through a pad an hour/hour and a half and had to fund these myself

One period,I had no money at all for some reason (I would have been about 14) and knew neither parent would 'lend' me a few quid for some always so I saw £10 on the side and swiped it

I bought the pads i so badly needed (didnt have enough for food so stole some pasta when they where out) and they knew it was me-i got into so much trouble but it was either that or miss school/work due to free bleeding and the cycle would continue (no work,no pay)

They are millionaires who could afford to miss a tenner but I still feel so unbelievably guilty and have paid my dues to them (financially and emotionally) in many ways since

Im now nc and they can't understand why

Your post has really touched me, what you went through is child abuse plain and simple, I really hope you are now in a much better place, living a full and happy life, and of course can completely understand why you are no contact with your parents. I wish you lots of happiness.

Allseeingallknowing · 23/04/2026 14:48

hevs03 · 23/04/2026 12:56

Killed a cat when I was 3 years old, threw it out of a bedroom window because my cousin (who was 5) told me to, don't know whose cat it was, it had wondered into my Aunt's house and ran up the stairs to one of the bedrooms, we followed it without my Aunt knowing or seeing the cat, it scratched my cousin who told me to throw the naughty cat out of the window. Cat landed badly and died, yes we were punished, rightly so, I bloody love animals, though I've never had a cat strangely.

I worked in a bakery shop when I was 16/17 with my friend, one regular customer was a real bitchy girl, she was regularly nasty to my friend, we would sometimes see this girl who would have been about 18, when we would be out and she was always horrible, calling my friend names etc. Really don't know why as we hardly knew her. Anyway one Saturday I decided I'd had enough and picked a scab I had on my elbow, placed inside this girls roll she had ordered and served it to her. No regrets at all.

I am nice honest

Yes, you do sound nice…

Notaverynicepersondontcare · 23/04/2026 13:50

I went through a phase of only sleeping with men who had more to lose than me as I was sick of them trying to control me.

Married men have too much to lose and can be quite passive.
Suited me at the time

HaveYouHadYourBreak · 23/04/2026 13:09

rainbowunicorn22 · 22/04/2026 14:13

Living in a homeless hostel i was so desperate for food and no money i did use to take things from shops. if its any better i used to go to International the supermarket that was and take reduced sandwiches and yoghurts
In the same vein i have done sex acts for money would not now but at the time I needed money to live on saying sex acts it was only a hand job
i had to leave and my children go to a foster mum who was also a friend i broke down totally and was coerced by a dangerous nasty man who put me through two years of hell i only said temporary for the kids similar to staying with a grandparent for a short while but because i was so all over the place this bastard took advantage and I had no contact with anyone for over 2 years. in that time he knocked my teeth out, he knew i had a bad phobia about certain foods so used to delight forcing food down my throat until i would vomit then he would make me re eat it, shove me face first into a plate of hot stew, so many other things. i cry everyday about losing my kids and the lovely home we had.
leaving the darling little cottage i had i was so rude to my sister who tried to help and wish now i had listened to her
i regret my life from being sexually abused at 5 years to the life i have now

I am so sorry.

It doesnt sound to me like you had a lot of choice to do these things.

Are you accessing help and support?

hevs03 · 23/04/2026 12:56

Killed a cat when I was 3 years old, threw it out of a bedroom window because my cousin (who was 5) told me to, don't know whose cat it was, it had wondered into my Aunt's house and ran up the stairs to one of the bedrooms, we followed it without my Aunt knowing or seeing the cat, it scratched my cousin who told me to throw the naughty cat out of the window. Cat landed badly and died, yes we were punished, rightly so, I bloody love animals, though I've never had a cat strangely.

I worked in a bakery shop when I was 16/17 with my friend, one regular customer was a real bitchy girl, she was regularly nasty to my friend, we would sometimes see this girl who would have been about 18, when we would be out and she was always horrible, calling my friend names etc. Really don't know why as we hardly knew her. Anyway one Saturday I decided I'd had enough and picked a scab I had on my elbow, placed inside this girls roll she had ordered and served it to her. No regrets at all.

I am nice honest

HaveYouHadYourBreak · 23/04/2026 12:56

@Tredadt we have a member of our team whose mum got him the job. Like you, she gave him confidential insider knowledge, and actively blocked other staff from getting the information they needed eg she kept "forgetting" to give them access to the job description.

She has lost all respect from anyone and these days lots of people keep their distance because they've realised how two-faced she is and well, no one likes a cheat. She is excluded from things like access to confidential info.

He's a nice enough guy but no one has any respect for him either. When he makes mistakes (as everyone does) it causes much more shaking of heads than for any other trainee. He's been here 2 years, he's doing ok, not brilliantly but ok but everyone always has a certain amount of cynicism about him and people still joke about things like "what will his mum say?".

He's having to work twice as hard to earn the same respect as his peers. He will always be the person whose mummy got him the job. His mum's reputation will never recover.

You say the other people have jobs, families etc and you were scared your daughter wouldnt. Well they all managed it and your daughter isnt special. You also never know what is goinv on for them and how important that job was to them. You undermined her rather than helped your daughter earn it on her own merit. People will know what happened. You havent helped her at all.

I dont wish ill of either of you but I hope you do actually realise how harmful for your daughter and colleagues your actions were. Hopefully she will have to apply for your job in a fair manner and others will have the same opportunity.

user9578 · 23/04/2026 12:27

BigBruisedFruit · 23/04/2026 09:58

Had an affair with a senior colleague. I was in a relationship and he was married. It's been almost ten years since it ended and I think about it every day. I'm so ashamed and can't believe I did something so awful and betrayed my partner at the time. I can't reconcile it with my belief that I'm not a bad person.

Bad choices do not automatically make you a bad person.

HaveYouHadYourBreak · 23/04/2026 12:26

ToffeePennie · 21/04/2026 21:35

A little thing I can admit to, and I find amusing, is to do with my husband on garden leave.
He had been informed he was on a verbal warning for refusing to do work which was both illegal and could have resulted in maiming, injury or deaths. (Think safety switches in a factory being removed - that kind of thing) He hadn’t had the appropriate training and was given a piece very different from the part he was asked to replace, refused to do it without the appropriate training or the directors signature on the work, meaning that if anything happened my husband would be liable for any jail time.
Naturally my husband refused and was given a verbal warning over the weekend. He fought it with his union rep on the Monday and got it removed. However, by the Tuesday, it was back and had been advanced to a written warning (although we never saw it) for insubordination.
Husband was seriously stressed, we have a new baby; he’s being told to do stuff he cannot do and commit to more hours and garden leave became his only proper option.
He found another job within 2 days, jumped ship and the day he left, I mailed a bag of elephant poo to the Managing Director.
We still know people who work there, apparently every year they hear about the MD getting something else from the random corporate client, opening at his desk and getting glitter bombed, covered in grass cuttings or getting a big bag of dicks to eat. One year I emailed him and sent a video of a cockroach with his name on being fed to a snake at a zoo. I send a different package every year on his birthday. This year will be a singing card that doesn’t stop even in water and if it’s ripped open…glitter and still singing. I’m asking for it to play “no more fucks to give” because he really hates swearing!
And no, he won’t recognise me from this post because he did this shit to so many employees!!

Maybe you need to let it go now. That's a lot of energy and presumably money and time you are putting into this.

I'd very surprised if they didnt think it was related to your husband. He leaves under a cloud (not of his making) and suddenly the boss starts getting horrible presents?...

Respect to your husband for standing his ground but even if he had, had the signed evidence, he would still have been liable as the person who did the action knowing it was illegal/dangerous.

SexyFrenchDepression · 23/04/2026 11:34

iamfedupwiththis · 20/04/2026 17:28

Not sure if having a poo outside as I was desperate is better or worse than an affair.

I think I would be more comfortable having an affair 😂

Wannabegreenfingers · 23/04/2026 11:32

I had a one night stand whilst married to my ex-husband. Not big or clever, but in a really bad place and made a huge mistake. Despite being divorced and ex-remarrying, he still gives me abuse for it 11 years later and has just got our teenage children involved. It feels like he will never let it go and still blames me for everything bad that happens, despite being happily remarried to the women he left me for after a number of years of trying to make our marriage work. I'm so exhausted with it all.

UnctuousUnicorns · 23/04/2026 11:15

EvieBB · 23/04/2026 09:35

😱😫

We paid £50 - must be ten or fifteen years ago now - to have our gas fire disconnected to let out a starling that had flown down our chimney. It flew all around the living room, wouldn't go out the open windows, presumably too disorientated. We managed to trap it in a towel and release it out the door from where it flew away, thankfully.

My stupidity was responsible for the deaths of those baby birds mentioned in my previous post, I still feel terrible about that to this day. 😢

Nollie · 23/04/2026 10:34

I'm not proud of it. They were both nice people who thought they were in an exclusive relationship with me. They didn't deserve my cheating on them.

EvieBB · 23/04/2026 10:32

tooashamed26 · 23/04/2026 09:27

You think have sex with two separate people in one day is an orgy?

Also saying 'wow' doesn't hide your judgy pants.

Ha ha....no the wow was not meant in any way judgy....it was wow that's amazing! You've misunderstood me
I've lived a v sheltered life and just wondered how it came about that's all....just interested/nosey x

Nollie · 23/04/2026 10:31

EvieBB · 23/04/2026 08:52

Wow, that must've been an orgy situation, yes?

Nah. One in the morning and one in the evening. They didn't know each other. I was in the throes of clinical depression and self esteem was at rock bottom. Not that that's an excuse really.

TrishM80 · 23/04/2026 10:26

Dolphin78 · 22/04/2026 18:00

Imagine if this was a men’s group….just leaving that there to think about for a moment

Indeed. The next person that posts the obligatory "all men are evil" thread would do well to read this one.

Yellowpapersun · 23/04/2026 10:16

EvieBB · 23/04/2026 09:14

Jesus, sorry you had to deal with that utter creep ugh! Good on you for spitting in his tea but I don't know why you would even bother to entertain them every week if he behaved like that. Did you ever tell grandma he was a disgusting pervert??

It was a different time, things were kept quiet. If I'd told grandmother she wouldn't have believed it. Also I had no choice really but to put up with them. As soon as I left home to go to Univ I rarely saw them again.

BigBruisedFruit · 23/04/2026 09:58

Had an affair with a senior colleague. I was in a relationship and he was married. It's been almost ten years since it ended and I think about it every day. I'm so ashamed and can't believe I did something so awful and betrayed my partner at the time. I can't reconcile it with my belief that I'm not a bad person.

Pattaya · 23/04/2026 09:49

LapisBlue · 20/04/2026 17:44

I slept with two men on one day. On two separate occasions, four guys in total, as it were.

That's nothing to be ashamed of bet you had a fun time.

I had two 3somes in a week whilst on holiday.
Then done the same again on my following holiday a year later.

Not a bad thing we was all up for it, caught in the moment.

EvieBB · 23/04/2026 09:35

IFeelHorribleStill · 20/04/2026 19:20

A bird ended up down the chimney. We phoned our gas engineer about taking the fire out and he recommended leaving it because the bird would get released depositing soot and bird poo everywhere. So that’s what we did. We left it to die.

😱😫

Poobs2022 · 23/04/2026 09:32

Mrsgreen100 · 20/04/2026 21:55

After discovering my ex of 29 years had been living a lie and cheating etc
he was still living in my home before breaking the news to our child , for two nights
I could not bear to have him in the kitchen etc
so because we lived miles from delivery food etc and he had nothing to eat
I made him a sandwich which I left outside the spare room door for him
before doing so wiped the dogs arse with it
Poor dog it was sour dough so not very soft a wipe 😞

I think this is one of the funniest things I've ever read 🤣

tooashamed26 · 23/04/2026 09:27

EvieBB · 23/04/2026 08:52

Wow, that must've been an orgy situation, yes?

You think have sex with two separate people in one day is an orgy?

Also saying 'wow' doesn't hide your judgy pants.

EvieBB · 23/04/2026 09:15

csandsickofit · 20/04/2026 18:35

Does karma still happen if the nasty person is genuinely sorry?
when I was young (14, many many years ago) I was really mean to a guy. I still think about it, and I am mortified. Only excuse was I was childish and stupid. I actually tried to contact him a few years ago via FB but he never replied. I would really just like to tell him that I am so so sorry, and that over 50 years on I am still aghast as how mean I was.

What did you do????

EvieBB · 23/04/2026 09:14

Yellowpapersun · 20/04/2026 18:24

My horrible grandmother remarried to an even more horrible man. He used to try to feel mine and my girl cousins' thighs and told me to open my mouth when he kissed me. I hated him. They used to come round one evening every week and I used to offer to make the last cup of tea before they went home. I used to spit in his cup, every single week. Over the years he must have drunk a gallon of my spit.
When he died my boyfriend and I went for a drink to celebrate. My friend was in the pub and I told her Uncle Sid was dead and she said Hooray! 😂

Jesus, sorry you had to deal with that utter creep ugh! Good on you for spitting in his tea but I don't know why you would even bother to entertain them every week if he behaved like that. Did you ever tell grandma he was a disgusting pervert??