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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask for your embarrassing work stories

132 replies

cringingatmyself · 10/03/2023 20:57

I'm currently a deep shade of beetroot as I've noticed a major typo in an announcement email I've sent at work to a few hundred different people. I've somehow put someone's surname as a completely different name. Think 'Simon Smart' but I've written 'Simon Simpson' . No idea where that even came from!

I know it's absolutely not the end of the world and no has died but I just had that moment where you spot it and your stomach drops and you start to feel hot and panicky 😂😰

Can you please share your embarrassing work moments to help me stop hyperventilating - and more so to give us all a laugh/moment of solidarity, as I love these threads and they make me feel more human!

OP posts:
BensonStabler · 10/03/2023 23:37

Rinkydinkydoodle · 10/03/2023 21:58

Wonder-Bra strap gave way in a client meeting, audible snap. One high tit, one just chillin in her hammock🤣

🤣🤣🤣 I love this!!

BensonStabler · 10/03/2023 23:41

pankihanki · 10/03/2023 22:46

I was on an exhibition stand waiting for some very influential people (men) to come to our table. It was very cold so I had an unprofessional jumper on over my professional looking top.

When I saw them coming I took off my jumper and they came to our stand. In the middle of telling them all about our product I got a strange look from them and I realized I was in my bra. My shirt had come off with my jumper. CRINGE.

oh bless you 😜 I’d have died.

DramaAlpaca · 10/03/2023 23:47

I went to work in my slippers. Not just once, but twice in the space of two weeks Blush

I work with a great team so I just styled it out and gave them all a laugh.

cadburyegg · 10/03/2023 23:49

This is very outing but I emailed one of our high profile academics to tell them to fuck off 🙈 I meant to send it to a workmate (banter).

On one of my first jobs I was late for work on my first day cos my car wouldn't start 😩

One of my current colleagues fell over in her interview! She still got the job lol

BensonStabler · 10/03/2023 23:50

MavisMcMinty · 10/03/2023 23:23

I’ve always had small (but very nice) breasts, and didn’t really need to wear a bra when I was a young nurse/ward sister. One summer day, when it seemed every patient and visitor was outdoors in the sun, I was walking between wards when a winged insect landed on my uniform lapel. I went “ugh!” and tried to flick it off, but just flicked it right inside my uniform instead. I shrieked like a mad shrieky shrieker, doing a mad shrieky dance, and ripped open the press studs, exposing my small (but very nice) bare breasts to half the hospital, including the gorgeous porter I fancied so much.

Always wore a bra after that, although it never happened again.

😂 okay I was dying at the thought of accidentally undressing to a bra, you took it to a new level haha I would have left the country!

At least you had nice boobs lol. Did your porter like you back following this?

Bonneylass · 10/03/2023 23:57

My first week in a new job. Office was bloody freezing so I brought in a small fan heater to put under my desk. It must have been on the wrong setting and this awful burning smell started. Whole office was evacuated. Bad times!

BensonStabler · 11/03/2023 00:08

Aged 19 Working in a heavily male dominated laptop repair company, I was walking through the open warehouse type floor on my way to my lunch break, I noticed something on the floor, on closer inspection I realised that yesterday’s knickers had fallen out from the ankle of my jeans. They were very distinctive and 100% mine! I would sometimes get two days use out of jeans, and despite being showered and wearing clean underwear, there lay for all to see my dirty underwear 😳 By now there were too many people around and watching me, so I couldn’t discreetly pick them up!

maddy68 · 11/03/2023 00:09

I once sent my boss a message saying "meet you at the hotel tomorrow at two. Love you "

It was meant for my dad we were going for lunch !. It caused no end of trouble for my boss as he was genuinely going on a stag weekend meeting at a hotel at 2 !!

I swear I almost caused a breakdown in their marriage. It was horrific

Yumsnet · 11/03/2023 00:12

Wrote ‘Dear Shitley’ instead of ‘ Dear Shirley’ in an email.

Whoops.

JudgeJ · 11/03/2023 00:17

When I was called for interview for a job in UK when we werestill living abroad the first thing they asked me was what was my first name! I didn't have a lot of time to fill in the application form, long before email etc, and as I started to fill it in the phone rang, when I returned I wrote my surname again, rushed for the post without checking it properly. I did get the job though.

OnTheRunWithMannyMontana · 11/03/2023 00:19

I pus kisses on a teams message to our head of IT this week (coincidentally he is also bloody gorgeous).

In my defence I was texting my husband at the same time so brain hadn't switched off from husband mode.

OnTheRunWithMannyMontana · 11/03/2023 00:22

cadburyegg · 10/03/2023 23:49

This is very outing but I emailed one of our high profile academics to tell them to fuck off 🙈 I meant to send it to a workmate (banter).

On one of my first jobs I was late for work on my first day cos my car wouldn't start 😩

One of my current colleagues fell over in her interview! She still got the job lol

I was taken on for a trial shift as a vet nurse when I was 16. Promptly fainted in the operating theatre when an artery spurted. Still got the job though!

JudgeJ · 11/03/2023 00:22

Sitting in the morning briefing the Depity Head kept smiling at me and nodding towards my shoes. When I looked they were odd, I'd bought two pairs of identical shoes, one black pair and one very dark blue pair, when rushing to get ready I'd grabbed one of each.

SeriyaDL · 11/03/2023 00:24

Was supposed to attend a more or less full day meeting in Lille, France, together with the CEO (on a Sunday, which I wasn't chuffed about, but that's by the by). Took the Eurostar to get there. Fell asleep on the train cause I'd had an early start, and as a result missed my stop to get off. The next stop wasn't for ages, and it was...... Disneyland. So there I am, boss phoning me asking 'where are you' and I'm having to explain that I missed the stop, and I'll get back ASAP etc etc, and yes of course I'll dial into the meeting meanwhile, all the while you can clearly hear people on rollercoasters in the background.

Mortifying at the time, bloody hilarious in hindsight.

The icing on the cake was that because it was a Sunday, trains were few and far between. By the time I made it back to Lille the meeting was over....

MavisMcMinty · 11/03/2023 00:25

BensonStabler · 10/03/2023 23:50

😂 okay I was dying at the thought of accidentally undressing to a bra, you took it to a new level haha I would have left the country!

At least you had nice boobs lol. Did your porter like you back following this?

Show quote history

D’you know, after I left that hospital, a mutual friend told me the gorgeous porter had always fancied me, which is just fucking typical, it also happened after I’d left school, when the boy I’d loved unrequitedly had apparently loved me back. I could have been Mrs Gorgeous Porter!

MolkosTeenageAngst · 11/03/2023 00:27

Wet the bed when sharing a room with a colleague.

Alex Drake · 11/03/2023 00:30

Not an embarrassing one but a funny one from one of my colleagues (was surprising as she was usually so quiet!)

Team meeting, boss discussing roles and responsibilities of a team in another office, came to Debbie "now, Debbie, what does Debbie do again?"
My colleague in a small voice from the back of the room "erm, Dallas?"

Lots of shoulder shaking went on.

TheAudie · 11/03/2023 00:32

Posting on a slack channel at work about something a bit controversial. Everyone was posting anonymously. I posted my thoughts. Thought it defaulted to anon. It didn’t. So my controversial thoughts were out there.. in my own name.

TheAudie · 11/03/2023 00:33

colleague sent out an email inviting us to come and eat some dognuts he brought in

Eeiliethya · 11/03/2023 00:39

WhiteBricks · 10/03/2023 22:14

When temping in an office I once answered the phone and instead of asking if they were a current client, tripped over my words and asked if they were a cunt BlushBlush fortunately the caller was talking over me at that point so got away with it... Unfortunately the rest of the office heard!

🤣🤣🤣

Eeiliethya · 11/03/2023 00:43

Online external team training. It was an onscreen whiteboard where we could all contribute to adding answers.

I must have picked a bolder pen line because my arrow just looked like I'd drawn a large penis in the centre. And the system automatically assigned my name next to it.

GulfCoastBeachGirl · 11/03/2023 00:46

When I was just starting out (and keen to make a good impression) I had to drive to an off-site meeting with a (very) senior male colleague. Just the two of us with him driving. I had barely slept the night before due to nerves and it was freezing outside. He had the heat blasting and I fell asleep while he was talking. Woke my self up because I was snoring...loudly.

I guess I did make an impression😴

gillybombilly · 11/03/2023 00:46

I sat and covered the reception telephone system with a colleague at lunchtime.

She took a call from someone asking for ‘Bought Ledger’(Purchasing Accounts department), misheard them and spent the next five minutes on the tannoy system asking for Bert Ledger to contact reception to take a call - (cue a dozen people ringing asking ‘who is this Bert person?’.

emmylousings · 11/03/2023 01:03

Summersend · 10/03/2023 21:15

Yep to this. Co wide message to people asking not to leave anything private in pubic areas

Show quote history

Best laugh of the day.

dizzydizzydizzy · 11/03/2023 01:08

Had an early start and rushed out the door very early. Arrived at work, took coat off......
Realized I had forgotten to put my blouse on. Blush