We’ve all made mistakes at work: sent the wrong email, spilled coffee on the copier, maybe called the boss “Mom” once… but these screwups? They’re next-level legendary. We're talking about the kind of epic workplace fails that didn’t just raise eyebrows… they raised pink slips.
These jaw-dropping stories are a masterclass in what not to do on the clock. So be ready, double-check your sent folder, and whatever you do: don’t hit “reply all”! These are the worst work screwups that got people canned… and you’ll laugh, cringe, and gasp through them all.
1
Ruined Two Trainees’ Christmas.
“I was in finance, handling pay for 30 trainees. One Christmas Eve, while on leave, I got a call: two trainees hadn’t been paid. One was crying down the phone to their manager because they’d been counting on it. It was 100% my fault and too late to fix.”
2
Bleached All the Tables. Entire Restaurant Stank.
“I used to work in a restaurant and instead of spraying the tables with normal cleaning stuff, I sprayed it with bleach and we couldn’t get rid of the smell. The customers kept complaining and everything.”
3
Didn’t Answer On-Call Phone.
“Wasn’t a sysadmin but got put on call. Phone was off while charging, so I missed a bunch of calls while grabbing breakfast. Manager was furious and gave me a written warning. Left the job five months later.”
4
Didn’t Measure Twice. Blew $10,000.
“I blew 10 grand because I didn’t measure correctly.”
5
Deleted the Entire Database.
“During work experience at a tiny startup, I accidentally deleted the entire database while making a change, rookie move. There was a recent backup, but some data was lost, and the boss had to fly to Canada to smooth things over with the client.”
6
Sent Confidential Docs to the Competition.
“Accidentally sent highly confidential info to a guy at a competitor, meant to send it to a colleague with the same first name.”
7
Forgot to Mute. Cursed Out Manager. Everyone Heard.
“Guy in a virtual team meeting said: ‘Oh f*** off this is b*llsh*t’ after a manager made an announcement thinking he was muted.”
8
Sent a $95K Order to the Wrong Country.
“I sent an order worth 95k to the wrong country once. Had to get it returned to us, then ship at again to the correct country. Costed the company 5k in shipping fees overall.”
9
Ham Sandwich Set Off Fire Alarm.
“Used toast pockets to heat up my ham sandwich at work, didn’t realise the toaster was full of dust from barely ever being used. It set off the fire alarm, evacuated the whole building, and the CEO had to continue his meeting outside, absolutely fuming.”
10
Snapped the Internet for All of Northern Ireland.
“Years ago, while on a ship anchored in Belfast Lough during bad weather, the anchor dragged before we could get the engine going and it snapped an undersea cable. That cable happened to be Northern Ireland’s internet connection to Britain.”
11
Deleted the Entire Manual.
“Me and the project manager once accidentally deleted the entire completed O&M manual for a brand-new plant: no backup, completely gone. It was Christmas week, so we spent three 16-hour days rewriting it all from memory.”
12
Posted a Retirement Pic. Management Called It Bad News.
“A long-time employee retired after 20 years, and his manager posted a nice farewell photo internally. I thought it was lovely and shared it on our public socials, got loads of likes and kind comments. Management asked why I’d post “bad news” without checking.”
13
Clogged the Wrong Toilet. Improvised. It Got Weird.
“Was working in a woman's house, took a dump while she was out, and then found out the toilet didn’t work, couldn’t flush it at all. Had to… improvise. Turns out she used the one out in the garden shed. Like I was supposed to know that!”
14
Called Out My Company Online.
“Posted about my companies covid strategy (or lack thereof). I was promptly told not to return to the office. Ever. My belongings were shipped to me in a brown paper bag.”
15
Truck Rolled Back into a £50K Engine.
“I used to move 5-ton flatbeds out every morning, often starting them without sitting properly. One night, a driver left a truck in reverse with a timer delay, and when I closed the door and moved on, it rolled back loaded with scaffolding into our most valuable truck’s engine, about £50K in damage.”
16
Intern Unplugs the Entire Factory, Then Goes on Vacation.
“I was an intern. Plugged the wrong AC adapter into a small network hub I used for IT work... This was in the same room as the production line AS/400 (large mainframe offered by IBM). Shut down the entire plant’s production line while I was on vacation.”
17
Took a Mystery Painkiller. Passed Out at My Desk.
“It was just two of us working. I’d hurt my back over the weekend and was in pain, so my co-worker gave me some painkillers her boyfriend had left with her. While she was out with a client, I passed out at my desk. She came back, thought she’d killed me, and started calling an ambulance.”
18
Hid a Bad Word in Artwork. It Went to Print.
“A friend snuck a bad word into artwork as a joke, expecting his friend in quality control to catch it. Nobody noticed, and it went to print. A customer spotted it, the whole product line got pulled, costing hundreds of thousands. The artist got fired, and the quality checker ended up on an improvement plan.”
19
Dropped a 2,000-Year-Old Gold Artifact. Museum Still Hurting.
“Someone I once worked with dropped a solid gold 2 thousand year old museum object onto a tiled floor.”
20
Toppled an Entire Pallet of Industrial Glue.
“Knocked over a pallet of industrial drums of glue…”
21
Ordered 200 Cases by Mistake. Cue the Fabric Softener Flood.
“I was a sales rep who always double-checked orders. One day, way behind schedule, I accidentally entered 200 cases instead of 20 for one product. No one caught the mistake, and a whole trailer full of fabric softener showed up. I got seriously grilled for that.”
22
Scratched. Broke a €1K Precision Tool.
“I broke a €1k precision measuring device by scratching my ars* with it.”
23
Contaminated a Million-Euro Pharma Batch.
"Not me, but a friend forgot to clear pipes before adding chemicals at a pharma plant, contaminating a batch worth over a million euros."
24
Gave a Stranger My Boss’s Business Card.
“Met a guy on a train, gave him my boss’s business card by mistake, and got called out about it later.”
25
Leaked 200+ Emails. Residents Formed a Hate Group.
“Sent a service update email to a building’s residents but CC’d instead of BCC’d, exposed all their emails. They formed a hate group against the company.”
26
£500 Bulb Shattered. Wrong One, Naturally.
“While training a colleague, I mixed up the bulbs and accidentally smashed a brand-new xenon projector bulb instead of the spent one, £500 gone in a single hit.”
27
Dropped a Screen on a Royal Chandelier. Literally.
“While packing down a big projector screen at a fancy venue, I let it fall like I was supposed to, only I hadn’t checked the space behind it. It smashed into a priceless chandelier gifted by the Queen Mother and took out five crystal arms.”
28
Set Off the Fire Alarm with a Burnt Bun
“Burnt a hot cross bun in the toaster at work, set off the fire alarm, and evacuated the whole building right in the middle of a strategy meeting with all the global heads.”
29
Oops, We Gassed the Atmosphere with 6 Million Cubic Feet
“We tried to blow down one of our gas plants but didn’t realize there was an unmarked connection to the supplier’s pipeline. Ended up venting 5–6 million cubic feet of gas into the atmosphere before we figured it out.”
30
Missed My Flight, Burned My Boss’s Budget
“Missed a work flight because I mixed up the date, was in bed thinking it was the next day when I got a “you here yet?” text from a colleague at the airport. Had to rebook using my boss’s grant money.”
