To ask about your worst mistakes at work to make me feel better about my own?

[WhereverElse2019]

Hi all. Messed up royally at work yesterday, found out today. Can't say too much as it's quite a niche role so potentially outing, but needless to say it can be fixed but will likely cost the company money, and also impacts another company who apparently are not happy.

I am relatively new to this job (been here since June) and it's a very complicated job with a high level of responsibility. I am just so annoyed and upset with myself. I'd convinced myself I was going to be sacked. I broke down and cried in front of my manager (so embarrassing and not professional I know!) and he was great about it, reassured me it's absolutely fine and not to worry. But I cannot stop ruminating about it.

What're the biggest mistakes you've made at work? Please say I'm not the only one who's messed up royally 😅

In the late '90s I was emailed a full length video of Aqua's Barbie Girl by email. I was so amazed that I forwarded it to 10 friends in my workplace. The file was not virus-laden but was very, very large and very, very uncompressed. My workplace was a large, household name multi-media company and email was the backbone of communication between all global sites.
Within minutes, no-one on site could access that email. 1700 people unable to do their jobs properly. IT started delving in the servers and declared there was something very big slowing everything up. By this point I knew damned well what it was and fessed up with a red face. I was not popular with IT but they, very sportingly, didn't hang me out to dry.
I still cringe when I recall trotting to IT and saying, "Err, I think I might know why everything's gone wrong".

My exH, first day in a new job, arrived home with his shiny new company laptop (in the days when shiny new laptops were really new and eye-wateringly expensive) in the boot of the car. Parked outside our house, brought his stuff into the house, leaving the boot open as he intended to go back outside to fetch shiny new company laptop.

Immediately on entering the house he forgot all about the open-car-boot/shiny new laptop situation and didn't remember until the following morning. Car boot was still open, shiny new laptop nowhere to be seen.

Great thread OP. Some of these are hilarious and just go to show that we are all only human!
My work mistake was when I worked a summer job as a student. It was for the library service. I knocked down a bit of the low wall in one of the local libraries car parks with a council transit van. No one about so I drove off in a panic and got back to the van depot. I was scared to death because the van had a noticeable dent in it. I went to the old boy who looked after the depot and told him. He looked all round the van and he said ‘that dent has been there for years’. I could have kissed him! I really needed that job at the time.

Yes, for teaching staff. This was someone from the kitchen.

Thankfully I picked it up before it was credited so managed to retrieve it from the bank but neither the bank nor us where sure the recall had worked until payday.

I wish I’d not lasted long enough for the other.

I had a recent one where I was dealing with a patient who was quite unwell and spoke to her relative outside. I said 'oh ill let you back in to sit with your partner'...it was his mum. When I looked properly she was clearly at least 25 years his senior.

When I was a trainee doctor I was asked to confirm a patients death. I said “So sorry for your loss” to the family and they said “thanks” as I entered the room. As I was listening for a heartbeat the patient sat up. Wrong room. I still wonder what they thought when I gave my condolences???

Someone I knew at an audit firm sent a company's payroll info to the printer at a client for printing (back in the day when people used to go in person to clients, and work with things on paper not online only). The printer was broken so they walked away and forgot about it. Soon after when it was fixed everyone at the client knew everyone's salary and bonus info and needless to say there was quite the ruckus.

@CheekyAquaBeaker I probably shouldn’t be laughing as much as I am at that😂

My colleague once booked a Directors flights to Edinburgh, when he was supposed to be in Ayr, resulting in a rather frantic journey cross country for a client meeting.

Another colleague used £ in a settlement letter rather than euros, the exchange rate meant we were overpaying by about £10k and the company had to swallow it.

I once booked a Director an offsite meeting with his senior managers and forgot to invite the senior managers.

I booked a senior managers flight to Columbia from the UK and didn't realise changing planes in the US on route meant they needed an ESTA- they weren't allowed on the plane.

And in my first job, clearing tables at a very fancy wedding venue, I lost control of the cutlery and the gravy ledden fork left a very noticeable dark brown stain in the lap of a guest in a light coloured dress for the remainder of the evening...

One mistake rarely defines you at work or means a firing. I think everyone has a thing or two, we are only human. You'll certainly not make the same mistake again!

I worked in a science laboratory many years ago, somebody actually set their lab coat on fire, could have been nasty not funny but luckily a quick thinking colleague wrestled them to the ground and I rushed over with a fire blanket. Miraculously person was fine just a bit singed, you can imagine the ribbing they got as their surname was Burnett.

A friend of mine mailed out a highly confidential new prototype to a competitor. He was sacked.

Shouldn't they have been there for inset though if they thought it was inset?!

My worst mistake had to be when I started driving vans as a student. Hadn't ever driven a big van before, managed to get into and out of London and do all my deliveries OK. Was very proud of myself, especially since at one of the drops an apparently helpful workman had helped me park near to where I needed to unload rather than at the other end of the site as had happened previously in the day. Unfortunately I hadn't spotted that I was unloading right in front of a cement mixer. Styled it out and left the site thinking the worst was over. Oh no. On my way to drop the van back I stopped to fill up with diesel. Managed to successfully use the fuel card and was looking forward to finally clocking off. I unfortunately somehow managed to get a bit of the van stuck on one of the petrol pumps as I pulled away. Being a bit dozy I just carried on driving forward thinking the snag would somehow release as I went.
It didn't.
I pulled off the whole of the front of the petrol pump along with a substantial portion of the vans side. Ooops.
Agency I was driving for happily employed me for years after that! (although I never did THOSE drops again!)

Not my error but hey ho! I had to attend some online training recently and it was run by an older woman with very short hair and thick rimmed glasses.
Fifteen minutes into the training, someone logged in late with their mic unmuted. Cue the awkward silence from all as they settled themself in, unaware, clanking chair, coughing, etc. The trainer waited patiently for the right point to say "welcome, please mute your mic."
Before she could speak though, the newbie said (presumably to a colleague in the same room) "hurry up, they've started and the bloke looks really fucking pissed off!"
It was AWFUL!

Working nights in a care home and doing the write up and there was a fly buzzing around. There was some air freshener and in my super tired state I thought well that's great I'll kill the fly. Said fly was sitting on a smoke detector at the time.
I proceeded to empty about half a can of air freshener onto the fly atop the smoke detector... Which did not in fact kill the fly.
It did however set off the fire alarm which I couldn't turn off. Other colleagues on shift couldn't turn it off.. I thought oh shit and rang 999 to say don't come as no fire because I thought they were automatically connected. They are not and said well you've called 999 we have to come.
It took 4 hours to turn off.., I had to call the manager had to come as only they had authority to get an engineer in, the fire brigade turned up and insisted on checking everything in case there was a fire, (expensive) emergency fire panel person had to come to isolate the detector from the system to be able to turn off the alarm.
4 hours of an alarm that couldn't be silenced in the middle of the night. Lots of disturbed residents and complaints from the neighbours.
They had to buy a new smoke detector in the office as I'd fucked it irreparably.
I was not popular for a few weeks as you can imagine. A lot of money and people's time wasted.
The manager made me one of the homes fire safely officers a few years later...the irony totally not lost on me.

I once had a job where I had to compare paper forms with a database at the end of the day. Parts of the forms were pre-filled and other parts had to be filled out by customers when they showed up for their appointments. At the end of the day I had to remove all the records from the database of customers who hadn't shown up. This took quite a while and we could not close up until the records in the database matched the the filled out forms.

One of my coworkers from the database team showed me a way I could do it "faster" so we could close up earlier. This involved matching up the paper forms from several databases at once (for some reasons not all customers were in the same database). So did it his way, but I accidentally ended up deleting the records of over a hundred customers who had shone up that day, making a huge mess of a very rigid system that I could not correct myself, because I had minimal access to the database.

It took the database team half a day to correct my errors the next day and they were not happy. I was put on other duties, that I could not mess up. This involved even more monotonous work than comparing paper forms with an electronic database and I had to do it all day. A few weeks after that I was let go. I wasn't sorry for it, though it was a blow to my ego how it all went down.

I’ve let a contract expire. The longer it goes on the worse it gets.

I’m going to try to sort it this week in the spirit of new year new start but I’m so nervous.

I ordered the wrong car when I worked for a garage. They built it to the incorrect specs I'd provided. I realised my mistake so told the manager but the job was completely wrong for me so they let me go. Massive relief. I hated it there

Sounds like you were doing fine until
your co worker tried to make you work faster?

Sorry you were let go.

Oh and other mistake that's not mine but a good friend's...
He got his dream job as assistant head in a very good school. He went in during the holidays to meet staff, get cracking on work, etc. The site supervisor came round at 5pm and told him he was the last one in and the building was being locked up now. Friend gathered his stuff and left via a side door. Only he didn't. He entered a vestibule type thing and the first door shut behind him. The second door, however, would not open as it was locked. He could not re-open the first door as he didn't have his work fob yet.
I will never ever forget this panicked phone call I received. He had 2% battery and didn't know what to do. He got cut off mid conversation. I rang the police who attended the school.... But the wrong campus!
He only ended up being rescued THE NEXT DAY when a residential trip returned the school and he managed to attract their attention.
This happened when he was about 28 - he is now 40 and we (I) still regularly laugh about it!!

someone in Hastings insurance sent an email today to 1.6m current and previous customers to say we were overcharged and will be getting a refund. maybe someone who isn’t keen on their job anyway?

I allocated someone quite junior, a company car that was only really suitable for someone very senior.....realised my error.,,,,no way to get it back, just needed to let the lease run its course etc.

I felt dreadful. Went into my managers office to confess, fully expecting to get sacked....she was so very understanding and pragmatic and lovely.

Whenever one of my team make a massive (one off, out of character) cock up, I remember my managers kindness and try and be equally understanding.

Financial mistakes happen and companies expect it.

Ive had lots of jobs and made mistakes. I’ve been a bus driver and damaged other cars , and someone’s garden wall!

In another job I’ve caused a power cut at work, making them call people out at 2am to fix it. Big call out charge there.

People make mistakes all the time just learn from them.

Also don’t forget in Wandsworth prison a prisoner to escape last year. That’s a monumental cock up and I’d imagine someone was in hot water for that one.