Stupid mistakes you've done at work

[Profpointy]

A few ...

- In a previous career I accidentally ordered 100,000 toolkits because I didn't realise they were sent in batches of 100. Took about 18 months of promotions to shift them

- Son no. 1 ate a student's exam paper ... before I'd marked it! Fortunately she had children and saw the funny side. Her response: "I did really badly, at least I get another go with a chance of full marks". I might have marked that attempt more generously than I should He's currently at Lincoln University doing a 4 year master's in Mechanical Engineering so something must've been OK with him

- Threw another student's exam paper in the bin ... after I'd marked it and needed to apologise to the exam board. Fortunately I'd remembered the grade and they gave her the choice of re-sitting or keeping it: she was quite happy to keep the grade.

- Left a batch of exam papers on a train. They were found sat there about 20 minutes later after I'd phoned in a panic.

The student is meant to say "the dog ate my homework" rather the teacher saying "my son ate your homework" - brilliant !

 

[Smokin Joe]

I skived off home in a new council Morris Ital and managed to lock the keys in it. I had to break the side window to get them, went back and complained that when I'd left it in one of the parks I was supposed to have been visiting some yobs had smashed the window. I was fully believed and a memo went round about keeping the vehicles in sight in that particular park as one had been vandalised.

The following day a colleague had to use the van while they were waiting for the replacement window to arrive, he got caught on a downpour and got soaked. I know it was wrong of me to find that funny.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Early 90s... I was tasked with opening a steel gate of a secure compound and securing that gate while a convoy of bombs was towed through. It was windy, I didnt secure the gate properly, and the gate blew and slammed against the side of a bomb trolley as it passed... the trolley had two live weapons on it.

The bombs in question were WE177 nuclear free fall bombs by the way.

 

[bikingdad90]

Providing the email address to a colleague of the tax tribunal and making a number of disparaging comments about them in the same email. I overlooked I had accidentally cc'd the tribunal in the same email. The eventual recipient passed my email up their chain and that caused me a bit of flak. Fortunately I could back up my comments.
Certainly with working from home, IT is providing a rich, almost weekly, source of cock ups as new software and groups are created to accommodate working from home. Only a couple of weeks ago, in error, someone invited over 3000 people to a virtual Teams meeting due in 5 minutes after the invite was issued. That was amusing watching the trail of responses.

First tier or upper tier tribunal or some other tax tribunal?

 

[tyred]

Many years ago, probably around 30 years ago, another colleague was sending me random pop up messages. He'd anonymously sent them. My reply went to every PC in the building. Fortunately no swearing.

I worked with someone who did that c2001 or 2001. I can't remember exactly what he said but he got the bullet for it - pretty much instant dismissal.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Early 90s... I was tasked with opening a steel gate of a secure compound and securing that gate while a convoy of bombs was towed through. It was windy, I didnt secure the gate properly, and the gate blew and slammed against the side of a bomb trolley as it passed... the trolley had two live weapons on it.

The bombs in question were WE177 nuclear free fall bombs by the way.

I think we have a winner.

 

[tyred]

In my previous job when programming one of the older telephone systems remotely using a modem for the remote connection, I was making changes to the extension port numbering, someone wanted the specific extension number 323 which was used for the modem extension. I deleted it and re-assigned it to the new user but forgot to assign a spare extension number to the modem port and point a DDI at it. The modem timed out when I was on my break, couldn't re-connect and had to send one of our field service engineers on a 120 mile round trip to talk to it directly with a laptop and RS232 cable to correct this so I could complete my programming work...

That particular model of telephone system was well known for strange random software issues or defaulting it's programming so I just acted dumb - don't know why it did that, maybe a power outage or a lightning strike

 

[Drago]

Left my rifle propped against a tree in Germany, and we were 20 odd miles up the road before I realised. We safely recovered it, but I was doing GD's for weeks as penance for that little escapade.

 

[Profpointy]

Early 90s... I was tasked with opening a steel gate of a secure compound and securing that gate while a convoy of bombs was towed through. It was windy, I didnt secure the gate properly, and the gate blew and slammed against the side of a bomb trolley as it passed... the trolley had two live weapons on it.

The bombs in question were WE177 nuclear free fall bombs by the way.

I suppose if it had gone off they'd never have worked out it was your fault, so you'd have got away with it

 

[Badger_Boom]

Not work but work experience with a firm of architects back in the 80s. Their technician and I spent a nice day out measuring the external dimensions of the wrong house.

 

[steveindenmark]

When I was a policeman in Reading, I was searching a 3rd floor flat for a wanted man. I forgot to check a wardrobe.

Just as I was walking down the steps of the house there was a huge bang right behind me.

The guy had come out of the wardrobe and thrown a fridge out the window at me. It landed a metre behind me.

I got up 3 floors in 3 strides😁 to arrest him.

 

[Accy cyclist]

About 12 years ago In my window cleaner days,i heard "Oh yeah,give it to me hard baby",just as i was about to climb my ladder to do the bedroom windows of a house. My mistake was that i didn't leave the bedroom windows till the next time! What i saw when i climbed that ladder still plays on my mind to this day!!

 

[Fnaar]

Me, my brother Del and Grandad were removing a chandelier from a stately home ... oh, hang on, that was a telly programme

 

[Accy cyclist]

I've had about 40 jobs (some only lasting half a day if that) in my life,so i'm going to have to jog my memory and get back to this thread.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Let me see...there i was in a pub kitchen,about 1983,making a beef sandwich for a customer. The place was packed out,so it had to be made in about 30 seconds. I was rushing so much that i put the joint of beef over the wire of the electric knife when about to cut slices off it. Bang went the knife..and the crappy job!!