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.

@ememem84 that sounds familiar... Didn't that also happen in an Adrian Mole book? (The chilli beef recipe thing).

No, I lie. It actually did happen.. This isn't you, is it?!

metro.co.uk/2015/02/06/this-girl-accidentally-sent-a-jamie-oliver-recipe-to-a-prospective-employer-instead-of-her-cv-5052907/

Something similar to pp, raced into a conference (v late, horrendous traffic and parking issues), saw the host walking off stage at the time I was supposed to be presenting (40 mins into event). Thanked her and went to launch into my bit... tapped on the shoulder by CEO, who announced “I think I can do the welcome and opening) 😳😱. Note to self, if you’re late due to traffic on the area it’s highly likely that so is everyone else.... still haven’t lived it down!

Kind of work related but not quite...

I had an extremely flirty rapport with an overseas colleague, A. There was definitely chemistry +++ there which was manifest any time we were in the same room for work. Went to a conference that they'd organised. Pretty full on for them. Less so for me and various other 'more junior' colleagues. We went out on the razzle in the evening (and I flirted with someone else, B). At about 1am when I was in bed I was 'buzzed'. I assumed it was flirt B who I wasn 't that interested in at the time, so I ignored it. Months later (when I had a bit of a fling with B) I discovered it wasn't them who'd buzzed. Most likely A (who also helped me the following day sort out my full-on travel arrangements to neighbouring country, home to one of my close friends at the time). Enough said.... We continued to work flirt until I was nearly due to have DS - exchanged surreal letters just before his birth which really were an ode to 'what if...' No contact since but....

I authorised a payment of over £50m instead of £735k. Luckily it was to a public sector body and they bounced it right back.

That was a difficult day!

To all of you who have transferred incorrect amounts of money - I once had £6K paid into our family bank account which I knew not to be ours. I had trouble convincing the bank that something was amiss! I kid you not. I thought someone was trying to money launder through our account but it did turn out to be a mistake.

God there's loads,
The worst in terms of financial loss was when I helped to load many thousands of pounds worth of designer coats, heading to Harrods, into a van (our usual driver was off sick).
Only he wasnt. He turned up at his usual time about 30 minutes later. I'd sent them off with a thief. Never to be seen again.

When I was a Saturday teenage assistant in Macdonalds I dropped a huge vat of cooking oil all over the floor. They had to get professional cleaners in to sort it.

When working in an opticians I rang our sister branch in a different part of the country, being my usual cheerful, jokey self, only to find that their town had suffered a terrible, horrific, atrocity the day before and a bit of empathy would have been more appropriate (if only I had heard the news). This still bothers me decades later.

My DBIL once put the wrong yoghurt pots on the wrong packaging line and thousands of hazelnut yoghurts went into strawberry pots. Potentially fatal mistake but luckily spotted by quality control.

@lordfrontpaw I’ve no idea where they came from, or indeed how they caught leprosy - it was only cutaneous (skin) leprosy as they have scales, which are a brilliant large scale (pun unintentional!) model for human skin leprosy. Nothing ever fell off then! They were perfectly well with it, and fast as lightening as they skedadalled off.

Sent a £1m payment to the wrong bank details.. only found out when the bailiffs turned up demanding the money for the party who should have received it 😱

I forgot to bill a case and the delay meant we were deducted half the final bill - it lost the company £10k

I didn’t get sacked, thankfully. I got a written warning instead. The bosses took pity on me as it was when my Dad was terminally ill and then died and my head had been up my backside!

Fucked up an excel sheet, cost 12k as we had to give away 2 extra awards.

Oops

Someone who worked in my office (multinational energy company) ordered something from Amazon to be delivered to work.

Post scan everything, and felt the grenade that had come in an Amazon box was worthy of evacuating the building. We were outside for sometime and as it was the afternoon my team leader told us to go home after an hour or so.

Turns out he had ordered a gear stick knob in the shape of a grenade, to work!! Plonker 😆

On my first shift running my shop alone as a key holder I put a heater on that apparently let’s out a burnt smell when put on from all the dust sat in it. Didn’t know this and put it on full blast. It set the fire alarms off and the entire shopping centre had to evacuate. Somehow word spread as we were all stood waiting at the front of the centre in our hi-vis jackets with LOADS of customers from the whole shopping centre that it was a bomb scare. Children cried. I was mortified. I still feel guilty about it and embarrassed today

When I was airline cabin crew, I accidentally mixed up a kosher meal with a halal meal. Both passengers happily ate the wrong meals and I kept quiet.

I sent a confidential daily email and accidentally copied in a local Italian restaurant.... it was pretty banal until one of the A&E docs replied to my email with details of a Covid patient.

Cringe......

Ordered some expensive make up on the company credit card. I did it on my lunch and must have accidentally saved the card into my wallet I didn’t even realise until accounts asked if anyone knew what the transaction was as there was no PO. That was embarrassing having to confess to my boss

Signed the acceptance.

I once sent £325,000 to the wrong solicitor to complete someone’s house purchase. Had to call them ask to have it back and send it to the correct one. Never looked like such a twat in my life, it was excruciating

Working as a temp on the front desk of a company building. I had to press a button under the desk to let anyone in. I accidentally pressed the wrong button, but thought little of it until several police officers arrived, responding to a robbery in progress. Turns out the button I'd accidentally pressed was a silent alarm with a direct link to the police. I denied all knowledge & luckily left a couple of days later for a new job.

As a trainee solicitor in the London office of a major international firm I was tasked with starting court proceedings/paperwork for two major non-paying debtors of one Indian bank. One was based in Delhi, the other in Mumbai. I issued the Delhi proceedings in Mumbai, and the Mumbai proceedings in Delhi.

There used to be a reddit thread about this which is worth looking up, if you want to make yourself feel better. There was some poor kid who flooded the town library with the entire contents of the swimming pool further up the hill. Also something to do with radiation I seem to remember.

Oh, @Crystaltree - that reddit thread is awesome

Oh, @EssentialHummus - we’re you kept on on qualification?

ari - no. But I went from there to a ££££ US firm, so no harm done. And I steered clear of litigation .

I've just started reading but @OhMyDarling that is amazing!

As an apprentice In an office my mother was once sent to the butchers to ask for half a pound of elbow grease.

She went.