To ask you about the worst mistake you've made at work?

[800caloriesofwine]

Terrible, terrible day.
Please tell me the worst mistakes you've made in the workplace.
Mine were sending £6,000 of dental implants to the wrong dentist, two days before they were due to be placed in someone's mouth.
Also writing the wrong patient down as dead.

My DH once lost a snake on the Shetland Islands that he had taken there as part of his work. Massive search, in local media etc.

Two weeks later, several hundred miles away, he was vacuuming his car. Lifted the boot carpet and found the snake! Completely unharmed

Turning down the offer of a date when I was 19 to someone who shall remain nameless but is a high profile and very very rich A lister. I say regret but I went on to marry my Fab DH which I certainly don’t regret. I think it’s just the what if. And the thought that maybe I would have a great story to tell my grandkids one day.

Yes and it was while at work so I think it counts.

In the days of faxes, in my youth I worked at a private GP surgery, the type of place you would go for a corporate medical & such. A lady presented with genital warts and needed a referral to a consultant gynaecologist/STD clinic. I thought I'd faxed the referral letter to the consultant's office but I mistakenly faxed it to her work place where there was a central fax area and it was picked up by one of her work colleagues.

The lady was informed and she, quite rightly, formally complained to the surgery. I got into big trouble and the surgery had to update its confidentiality policies and procedures over referrals etc, but I escaped being sacked. However, I was so ashamed of what I'd done, I resigned soon after anyway. I still remember it and feel ashamed of my error over 30 years later.

@TimeWastingButFun

I once ordered something but accidentally put the item number in instead of the quantity as the computer was slow and I was used to typing very accurately without looking. Think over 100,000 items instead of 48...

That reminds me of when I was working in purchasing. An engineer wanted 100 screws, I ordered 100 packets of 100 screws, the company delivered boxes of 100 packets of 100 screws!

Reading back someone's postcode using the phonetic alphabet when taking an order over the phone. The second part was 3WY and instead of saying 'three, whiskey, yankee', I kind of merged the last two words and said 'three wanky' . I looked up to see my colleague giving me a horrified stare and then I burst out laughing (still on the phone)- proper snorts and everything. The customer was not impressed.

Another time I absentmindedly finished a phone conversation with a client with 'love you' instead of a more normal 'goodbye'.

I didn't last too long in that job 😂

I once facilitated a self advocacy group for people with a learning disability ..we would discuss and campaign on issues but also had fun by organising bbqs etc.One particular bbq evening I knew we had a new client joining us , but didn’t check where she was.Unfortunately she went to the wrong room and spent the whole evening in a Weight Watchers session!

Reversing the company car into a bollard, denting it. In my defence, the member of staff who had badly parked the car, blocking someone in, was on the phone, so I had to move it to let someone out. I rarely drove the car and wasn't used to the fierce clutch - they'd parked on a slope and the car rolled back. The bollards had only been fitted the day before & someone else in the building had done the exact same thing. Still felt awful though.

Apart from that, nothing major, although I often have nightmares that I've pressed reply instead of forward when writing "what a twat" or similar. Not managed it yet - touch wood!

In a different role now, work alongside people like @overtimewoes, had to say 'shall we take a zero off this and see how they go' a few times over the years.

I wish people wouldn't refer to deleted posts in sufficient detail to basically repeat them.

Another time I absentmindedly finished a phone conversation with a client with 'love you' instead of a more normal 'goodbye'.

My boss once finished off a call with "ok baby" didn't realise what he'd said until we all fell about laughing. God knows who he thought he was talking to!

NRTFT but the worst mistake anyone makes at work is to take it seriously.

Work is a game.

None of it matters.

Email marketing. I once screwed up the autofill fields and sent an email saying "Dear bibbidybobbidyboo" to our entire mailing list.

Another time, fewer consequences but still hugely embarrassing, I was once sending an email about a VERY EXPENSIVE product and instead of linking to the product I had a pasted the link to a stupid BuzzFeed article I had just emailed my friend 15 minutes before. My boss discovered the mistake while proofreading and caught it - it he hadn't I would have sent it to 30,000+ people.

I invited someone to a dinner with the Duke of Edinburgh who wasn't supposed to be invited. The invitee, who didn't know he wasn't supposed to be invited, was thrilled to be asked. My boss was furious. For years every time I saw the photos of that dinner I felt sick.

As far as mistakes go, I was given the master copy of a newly-edited film to keep safe in my handbag while the cast and crew took me partying round Soho. Then lost my handbag.

In my first job as a receptionist at a big media agency, my boss was having a lunch meeting in our 'in house' dining place. He asked me to go and fetch a bottle of wine from the fridge, which I promptly did. I was about 19 and didn't know much about wine so only asked red or white...

Anyway, I uncorked it and took it over to his table and was walking away when he called me back. He was a really kind man and just said "Hmmm Slightly, my fault for not being clear about the fridge I meant. This is actually a superb claret that I bought at Auction last year for the best part of £1500. So since it's now open, it would be a shame for you to not have a taste". He poured me, the client and himself a glass and was completely lovely about it.

I'm still not a great wine connoisseur, but boy, did that slide down nicely.

Back in the day (early 90s) I worked in a menswear shop that sold very expensive suits. Think £700 plus. To take a payment via card back then, you used a hand held machine thing - you'd take their payment card and you'd place it in the machine with special papers over the top and basically take an imprint of the card. You'd then hand one copy of the papers to the customer as their receipt and you'd keep the other two

I spent an entire Saturday selling suits. And unbeknown to me, completely cocking up the payment system - I didn't realise the ink wasn't transferring properly onto the copies, meaning we had no details

Came to light then the manager queried why we hadn't made any money that day. I'd basically given every shot, shirt and tie away for free

Checking in at the airport. Two couples both named Mr/ Mrs Smith. One couple going to Spain the other Canada. You can guess what happened! Never have I shit my pants so much in my life trying to source both couples to give them the correct boarding cards and had to sort their suitcase labels out too 🤦‍♀️

Sent out an email on behalf of the head of HR of a global bank to 1000 people without him approving it. Big miscommunication between me and colleague. I was absolutely mortified. 10 years in communications and I've ever done anything like that before or since.

My current job in aircraft maintenance

Got to the airport and parked my car at the office. Manager took me out for lunch nearby in his car to discuss the role etc

Came back and my car was at the other end of the carpark, leaning against a metal shed.

Manager goes into the office, starts questioning the engineers about who is playing a joke on the new start, who tampered with my car etc called them a bunch of arseholes

Remembered he had cctv. Of course, I’d left the handbrake off, the car had rolled down a slight incline and bounced off the shed. No damage caused to car or shed!

Came to realise the yelling and arsehole calling is just a normal day in the office there so no one batted an eyelid

Not mine, but our GP sent my DH a letter about her recent heart attack being likely caused by alcohol dependency and a drug addiction, advising her to attend addiction services.

It had DH's name on it but it was obviously about and intended for another patient 🤣

A lady who worked with me had an identical purse to mine. She left it on the staff room table. I saw it, thought it was mine and put it in my bag. It was Friday. I only used that bag for work and only kept a small amount of cash in it. I went home, shoved the bag in a cupboard and went off for a weekend away....
I got a phone call from a work colleague to say that Axxx had had her purse stolen with a large sum of money she had withdrawn at lunchtime. She was a single mum. The police were called. I didn’t realise what I had done until Sunday evening when I opened my bag and saw two purses!
I drove to her house and explained. It was ok in the end but I was teased a lot. I worked in a school and the police had questioned some of the students. Not my finest hour.

I had a mistake done by someone in my favour.

When we bought our house we have to put down a 10% deposit at the moment the offer was accepted (Australian system). When we completed we sent the rest of the money as normal.
I gather then the agency sends the 10% too. But they sent it to me! Over $100,000. Then called my and were quite agressively asking for it back. Like it was my mistake. I told them I have a $5,000 transfer limit per day.

I did pay it all back a few days later, but I always imagine the mortified accounts person when they realised! They could have been more polite about it.

Got into a passionate one night stand at a conference. Outdoor hot tub 'fun' that I thought was discreet. Turns out not so much, as my co-workers informed with next morning, when I was very tired and hungover. Awkward rest of day!

Did a radio interview to publicise an event. Had a panic attack and literally couldn't get a word out. They kept on asking me questions...