What's the worst/most embarrassing injury you have sustained at work?

[NoEffingWay]

I am notoriously clumsy, work is a minefield of beds, chairs, walking frames and hoists. Suffice to say, I am often covered in bruises.

The worst one was nearly rupturing my achilles tendon whilst stood on a sofa fiddling with something up high. It went one way, and I went the other. I ended up lying on the floor clutching my foot, and the patients helped me up!

No injuries (at work, plenary outside), but I did once have to admit that I'd put the duty phone through the washing machine.

I've not been injured at work, but I've twice gone to work with a black eye that were caused (truthfully!) by me falling off a wall while drunk and going over the handlebars of my bike and landing on my face.

The second time I was working on a demolition site and I had all the demolition guys lining up 'to sort out the bloke who did that to me'.

Punched myself in the face. Zumba instructor.

Cleaner here... Moved a bath seat and dropped it on my big toe and broke it. Never told the customer!.

Broken nose whilst standing on a chair (a desk chair with wheels) to get something down from a high shelf. Boss said he really didn't think that was a good idea, I said meh it's fine, then the chair went one way, I went the other and the thing I was trying to get leapt off the shelf and smacked me in the face.

There was a refit of the office loos making each cubicle smaller and I misjudged it - in fairness I am visually impaired and they didn't tell us what was happening, I assumed it was just redecorating. I wedged my leg between the toilet and the sanibin and cut my leg open extracting myself. Best accident book entry ever .

A Costa coffee cart blew up on me, leaving a me-shaped blast pattern on the wall behind.
A spider from some bananas bit me in the foot and I swelled up like a balloon animal.

I slipped on a frog (putting the bins out) years ago and damaged the ligaments in my knee. This was 20 years ago, and I still haven't lived it down.

Primary school teacher. Climbed under the desk to plug in an unplugged PC. Hit the back of my head on the underside of the desk and knocked myself out cold.
Kids didn't even notice. I came around with my skirt too high up for any dignity to remain.

Years ago, I was making flasks of coffee for a meeting. Put a long handled metal spoon in one of the flasks to give it a quick stir and the inside of the glass exploded, showering me in fragments of glass and hot coffee. Got a beautifully scalded arm for that daft mistake.

None...I work in the pharma industry where Health and Safety is HUGE! Most of the incidents mentioned already are massively avoided in my workplace. They just wouldn't happen. Standing on a chair or table to do something up high is a HUGE no no for us. We even gave signs telling us to hold onto the banister on the stairs, you can freely tell someone too if you see them walking up/down the stairs and not holding on. We are also not allowed to walk around in our phones.

Was sticking a display back up having stood on a chair to get on to the table. Joked with my class about them not telling the headteacher. Went to get back down and stood on the back of the chair rather than the seat and fell to the floor. Really wanted to cry . None of them told on me though!

Like @Shanghaisprize I have also sustained ligament damage slipping on a frog whilst taking bins out. Never properly healed.

Accidents do happen in pharma. Not often but often enough. They seem to involve forklift trucks a lot, or explosive chemicals being handled carelessly. I am always a bit cynical about making the safety system be largely around quotas and people policing each other. It removes too much responsibility from the company, I find and it can become more about meeting targets than actually being safe.

My worst was knocking hot tea onto my leg. I was soaked to the pants and had to use the hand drier to deal with it. ‘Twas not my finest moment.

Spray paint in eye
Cellulitis after a cut got infected
Scratch on eyeball
Sprained ankle
Scalded arm

All doing same job (outdoors) all required minor injuries visit. Cellulitis ended up in hospital on IV antibiotics for 3 days

I managed to shut my hand quite forcefully in the filing cabinet. Had to have excruciating accident review where I had to write “don’t shut hand in cabinet drawer” for the part about how to avoid the injury in future!
I also did a full on comedy slip on water and fell very heavily on side and boob area.
I was so embarrassed I had to do the thing where you jump up and pretend you’re ok when really I felt dreadful and was bruised for weeks.

@hungrywalrus yes that's why I said the incidents that had already been mentioned to be honest as they are the ones that are really avoided. It has been over 3 and a half years since we have had an "incident" on site so we're not doing to badly. (But still not good enough imo)

It's EVERYONES (including the employers) Responsibility to stay safe in a workplace and yes you are the only person who is ultimately going to ensure you are adhering to safe practices and keeping yourself safe.

I was putting up a wall display and managed to staple my finger to the wall with a staple gun. Strangely enough it didn’t hurt too much but cue an ambulance being called to release me from being a human display as I was well abs truly stuck.

Fell up, yes up, the stairs on the way to what was likely to be an uncomfortable meeting. I fell because as I was going up the stairs my shoe fell off. I sat in the meeting trying to work out if I'd broken the skin (it was agony). Boss said that it must have been a bad meeting as I "seemed pained". Explained I was in actual pain. Never seen bruising like it and a dent in my thigh where I'd hit the stair for about three years.

I'm really bad at going over on my ankles simply by walking, we had an open plan office, I was walking to the printer, flat shoes, went over on my ankle, staggered sideways and heat butted a cabinet on my way over. Painful and embarrassing. The whole office just went silent

Teaching a 5 year old to use scissors. He didn't cut where he was meant to on the paper and snipped the tip of my finger. The scissors fully closed so he took off a section of skin clean off, without any way to join it together.

Couldn't scream or panic. Had to calmly tell him I would be back and taking the scissors, had to use the paper towels to stop the blood pouring out of the hole in my finger.
Ended up in hospital as the blood wouldn't stop soaking into everything the first aider put on it. The first aider passed out with the sight of how much blood there was.

Working in a nursery. Stood in the outdoor play area. A child drove one of those red and yellow cars into the back of my legs. I twisted funny and dislocated my knee. Poor kid looked really worried

Fell over fuck all and broke my wrist.

I slipped in vomit and couldn’t get up quickly enough (for dignity) as I already had a weak and painful knee.

I once cut my hand on a slice of white bread at work.

In my defence, while the bread was fresh, I was working as a dishwasher and my hands after 8 hours in hot water were extremely soft