A man named Steve Doherty has people cringing as they remember all of their biggest work mistakes, because some of them were pretty darn big.
Doherty works in radio and he shared his own nightmare scenario that happened while he was awake: he accidentally erased a master tape for a show on the BBC. That means it was irreplaceable:
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made at work? I once accidentally erased a section of the master tape for a Radio 4 Afternoon Play. It still haunts me.
— Steve Doherty (@SteveDoherty1) February 27, 2020
He explained the mistake and shared another story that made readers scream about accidentally talking sh—t about a guest TO the guest:
I also took the piss out of a guest who was waiting to go on air – I flicked a switch I *thought* would link me to a colleague in the next studio … but I spoke into the headphones of the guest who was down the line, somewhere.
— Steve Doherty (@SteveDoherty1) February 27, 2020
But on the scale of some of the things people have done, that ain’t nothing. Folks in the replies have caused all sorts of accidents, lost enormous sums of money, and at least one person spoon-fed a dead body. If you’ve been worried about making mistakes at work, this thread will make that anxiety a hundred times worse. Or it’ll show you how bad some people messed up…yet survived to tell the tale.
1.
I wiped out the passwords for every user on a departmental email server. I had to visit each person individually over the course of 2 days to give them their new password. https://t.co/6W3X0bvM4X
— Kyle E. Johnson (@kyleejohnson) February 28, 2020
2.
Turned up to open court as trainee solicitor and when judge said he couldn’t hear me, just spoke louder (I didn’t have rights of audience). https://t.co/XDNWzyKWT8
— Sarah Fox (@500wordlawyer) February 28, 2020
3.
I once deleted over $1.2B worth of payment instructions from the prod DB on our electronic payment platform. Think our backups were about 8h old, and no way to replay the logs to recreate the lost instructions. https://t.co/IbUT1zvJRW
— Alyssa Miller (Speaking at LFMS and WiCyS) (@AlyssaM_InfoSec) February 29, 2020
4.
When I was a car salesman (years ago) I got excited about taking a Ford Sierra 4×4 in part exchange.
It turned out to be a basic Sierra with 4×4 badges, it was stolen, and was a right-off too , my boss called me into the office and called me a ‘Prick’ https://t.co/KIu8NT3XBl— Halls of Llandaff (@hallsofllandaff) February 27, 2020
5.
Once ordering 52 8-seater minibuses instead of 8 52-seater coaches to assist with a line blockage and subsequently gridlocking the centre of Carlisle. https://t.co/ZDQy6Qyn3g
— Capt. Osbert Twinge Esq. (@RMcCarthy86) February 27, 2020
6.
fell off a roof without a harness and landed on top of my bosses new van, put a dent in it and he was more concerned about his van then me, was 17 https://t.co/gWdxQW5zsx
— ⛧Grim⛧ (@GrimBases) February 28, 2020
7.
It wasn’t me but when I worked in care, one of the carers spoonfed a resident but didn’t notice he was dead. https://t.co/9qxSZT7XUM
— Kell Magoo (@Kellbound) February 27, 2020
8.
I once played the jolly “Isn’t it good to know Capital radio” jingle, out of the news when the last story- a breaking news story- was about the sinking of HMS Sheffield in Falklands war. I had been monitoring in prefade and had not heard the story. And yes, it haunts me still.
— Nicky Horne, Esq. (@NickyHorne) February 27, 2020
9.
Interviewed John Inman. Forgot to press record. So went back to interview the very annoyed John Inman again. Forgot to press record.
That and asking a non pregnant woman in the audience how many months she was.
— Meryl O’Rourke (@MerylORourke) February 27, 2020
10.
When I worked in an art gallery I unpacked a load of enormous framed photographs in a panic because my scary boss said he wanted them ready to hang by the time he got there. I used a knife to open the boxes & when he arrived we realised I’d slashed the photographs as well
— Sian Harries (@sianharries_) February 27, 2020