What's the biggest mess (like, physical mess) you've ever gotten into at work?

I worked at a local country club for four years during high school. It was a great job for a high schooler to have - as a pro shop clerk, I got free candy, free soda, and got to see all the hot girls from my HS when they came in to get something to eat or sign in a guest, etc. Plus, I got free access to the facilities on my days off. Usually I just played golf, but in retrospect, I should have used the pool a lot more.

The 'complex' consisted of a 9-hole golf course, four tennis courts and a pool. The pool equipment was pretty rickety and the club was planning a complete gutting of the pool over the following winter, but on this particular day, that didn't matter at all.

The chlorine tank had sprung a leak.

The pool manager ran (literally, ran) into the pro shop at about noon on that July day, almost hysterical. She had gone into the equipment shed that morning for her daily check of the tanks and pumps and filters, and discovered that the chlorine storage tank (about 600 gallons, though I can't remember the exact number) was slowly leaking.

My co-workers and I immediately paged our manager, and then locked up the pro shop and headed out to the pool to help out.

What followed was perhaps the most unsafe thing I've ever done in my entire life.

We formed a 'bucket brigade,' where one employee would take a bucket, scoop liquid chlorine from the tank, and then pass it down the line. I was at the end of the line, so my job was to dump the buckets of industrial-strength liquid chlorine into plastic trash cans for storage. I had no eye protection, and I was wearing shorts and a polo shirt.

I quickly learned that chlorine splashes. A lot. I was soon covered in chlorine up to my forearms, and my clothes became spotted with white very quickly. My arms also started to feel very warm, as a result of the chlorine. At the time I didn't think about it, but the chlorine was slowly eating away at my skin. I shudder when I think about it.

As time went on and the tank was evacuated a bit more, it became too deep to reach into with a bucket. So my co-worker borrowed a pair of waders from the golf course maintenance crew and proceeded to hop into the tank wearing rubber waders, and scoop chlorine out that way.

Again, this was probably the most unsafe occupational setting ever imaginable.

We eventually got the chlorine tank emptied and my boss gave me the rest of the day off so I could go home and shower. She also handed me a check on the spot for $50, so I could replace the clothes I was wearing that day.

It took about 4 days for the slimy feeling of chlorine to finally wash off my skin. Hopefully there's no long-term damage to my skin from that exposure, but I will forever remember that day as the biggest mess I've ever been in, while at work.

What's your story?

 

[JoeKing]

nothing compared to chlorine, but I was trying to refill the office cooler by myself. Those bottles are damn heavy. Sufficed to say the break room had 20 gallons of water on the floor. Luckily everyone thought it was hilarious. Especially when they saw I was able to get about 2 cups worth of water into the cooler.

 

[rsd]

Interesting story, but most random topic/question I've read in a bit

 

[Gulzakar]

you could have cleaned house with a lawsuit...even more so if you were under age.

 

[Aves]

This happened at my McJob when I was 16.

I was changing out the Dr. Pepper soda keg and the hose coming out of the new keg broke. The pressurized syrup went everywhere. The ceiling, the walls, the supplies in the stock room and me.

 

[walla]

well you know those 3-hole hole punchers? i dropped one and all the "holes" spilled every which way!! it took me 3 minutes to pick them up one by one. it was also the day of the series finale of friends! worst day ever!!!!

 

[bradruth]

Where would I start?

 

[KLin]

the grease trap got clogged up at the pizza place where I worked a few years ago. We tried using some industrial strength liquid plumr to get it unclogged but it didn't work. I ended up slipping in the filth and falling flat on my back. My whole backside was covered in greasified water. :thumbsdown:

 

[Bryophyte]

I posted this story in a similar thread a few months ago:

I worked for the USDA-ARS during, and for a couple years after, college. For a couple of those years, I worked for the world's biggest bitch. She was loud, pushy, and made everyone hate coming to work, even a few people who she didn't supervise. She would tell me to do the damnedest things, tasks that she didn't want to do, that weren't really my responsibility.

Once, she dragged me out of the lab to refill an ink pad (one of those things you ink rubber stamps on.) She then went to lunch. I took this bottle of ink, and tried to squeeze it gently to drip the ink on the pad. Didn't work. I squeezed harder. Nothing. Gave it one more squeeze, and the bottle exploded. There was blood-red ink everywhere...all over the carpet, desk, paperwork on the desk, my hands, my clothes, even spots on the walls.

I just sat down and was sorta laughing and crying at the same time. I mean, geez, that was so damn stupid, and I had no idea how to begin to clean up that godawful mess. After a few minutes, I heard a noise coming from the hallway. I opened the door (which had been open a few inches the whole time) and saw a crowd of people. Dead silent, wide eyes. One person finally got up the nerve to ask me if I was alright. I asked if they knew how to get ink out of my jeans.

Everyone started laughing. They all thought I'd finally gone off the deep end and killed my supervisor. Someone saw the mess through the open door and me at my desk acting strangely (laughing and crying at the same time.) Word spread quickly and since nobody had noticed my supervisor leave for lunch...

 

[Red Dawn]

Guy I was working next too hit himself in the face with a chainsaw. Made a mess out of his face for sure!

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: jumpr
I worked at a local country club for four years during high school. It was a great job for a high schooler to have - as a pro shop clerk, I got free candy, free soda, and got to see all the hot girls from my HS when they came in to get something to eat or sign in a guest, etc. Plus, I got free access to the facilities on my days off. Usually I just played golf, but in retrospect, I should have used the pool a lot more.

The 'complex' consisted of a 9-hole golf course, four tennis courts and a pool. The pool equipment was pretty rickety and the club was planning a complete gutting of the pool over the following winter, but on this particular day, that didn't matter at all.

The chlorine tank had sprung a leak.

The pool manager ran (literally, ran) into the pro shop at about noon on that July day, almost hysterical. She had gone into the equipment shed that morning for her daily check of the tanks and pumps and filters, and discovered that the chlorine storage tank (about 600 gallons, though I can't remember the exact number) was slowly leaking.

My co-workers and I immediately paged our manager, and then locked up the pro shop and headed out to the pool to help out.

What followed was perhaps the most unsafe thing I've ever done in my entire life.

We formed a 'bucket brigade,' where one employee would take a bucket, scoop liquid chlorine from the tank, and then pass it down the line. I was at the end of the line, so my job was to dump the buckets of industrial-strength liquid chlorine into plastic trash cans for storage. I had no eye protection, and I was wearing shorts and a polo shirt.

I quickly learned that chlorine splashes. A lot. I was soon covered in chlorine up to my forearms, and my clothes became spotted with white very quickly. My arms also started to feel very warm, as a result of the chlorine. At the time I didn't think about it, but the chlorine was slowly eating away at my skin. I shudder when I think about it.

As time went on and the tank was evacuated a bit more, it became too deep to reach into with a bucket. So my co-worker borrowed a pair of waders from the golf course maintenance crew and proceeded to hop into the tank wearing rubber waders, and scoop chlorine out that way.

Again, this was probably the most unsafe occupational setting ever imaginable.

We eventually got the chlorine tank emptied and my boss gave me the rest of the day off so I could go home and shower. She also handed me a check on the spot for $50, so I could replace the clothes I was wearing that day.

It took about 4 days for the slimy feeling of chlorine to finally wash off my skin. Hopefully there's no long-term damage to my skin from that exposure, but I will forever remember that day as the biggest mess I've ever been in, while at work.

What's your story?

Losing the hair on your arm should have been the least of your concerns. Chlorine combines with water in your lungs to form hydrochloric acid, which then destroys your lung tissues. We had a leak at my school when I was in High School and they evacuated and had HazMat out there in full gear with respirators to clean up the mess.

 

[shortylickens]

I once to a bath in lead paint. Involutarily of course.
The cans were not secured very well.
20 minutes later I took a bath in paint thinner.
Those cans were also not secured well.

As a side effect, I am now much more susceptible to chemical burns.
And will be for the rest of my life.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Guy I was working next too hit himself in the face with a chainsaw. Made a mess out of his face for sure!

:shocked:

 

[imported_Mike]

Old guy came in with other people....who left him at the front of the store. He asked where the bathroom was and started over that way. Sad part was that he started to sh!t on the way there. It was coming out his pant legs. When he got to the hallway where the bathroom was, sill unaware of all the sh!t he left behind, he slipped and landed in a small pile of it. My coworkers that were over there I guess ran over to pick him and get him to the bathroom. Finally tracked down the other people he was with...they had to go buy some pants and come back.

 

[SnoPearL69]

I work at school with an electron microscope. One day I was trying to develop some film negatives in the dark room next door to the microscope, and didn't realize that the sink was plugged up. I turned on the water to let it run as usual, and left the room to get something from my desk. I come back minutes later and the whole microarray facility was flooded with water from my running tap. The scary thing was that the microscope room had lots of the important microscope wiring on the floor. Good thing I discovered the flood in time and shut off the scope. Cleaning that mess up was a bitch, though.

 

[maximus maximus]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Guy I was working next too hit himself in the face with a chainsaw. Made a mess out of his face for sure!

Yuck :thumbsdown:

 

[Ulfwald]

The biggest problem I had was when I was working as a termite tech for Terminex. I was filling a 200 gallon tank with water and several types of insecticide. These were legal and safe to be mixed together, because they were all for the elimination and prevention of termites. I followed proper procedure, filled the tank to the halfway mark, poured in the chemicals, and began to triple rinse the containers into the tank as well. After doing the triple rinse, I continued to fill the tank by leaving the hose in it while I disposed of the contaners by cutting each side in an x pattern and placing them into my disposal can. This is where it gets messy. As I opend the disposal can, and place the containers inside, the tank holding about 190 galons of mixed chemicals suddenly ruptures, all the liguid inside of it comes rushing off the truck, knocking over and spilling granulated chemicals into the mix. Please note, these chemicals were NOT supposed to be mixed. This new "mix" comes rushing at me off the back of the truck knocking me to the ground, covering me in the granulated chemicals as well as the liquid mix. My disposal can is knocked over spilling it's contents, and to top it all off, the two 5 gallon gas cans, 1 straigt gas the other fuel and 2 cycle oil mix, also was dumped all over me and the ground. Since this was the start of swarm season, it was still quite cold outside, so I had an insulated coverall on, that was completely soaked in all this mess, thus prolonging my exposure.

I got on the radio as soon as I recovered my wits and requested the spill team asap. I began to try and control the spill, but I began having adverse reactions to the toxic mix. The home owner saw me on the ground starting to convulse, so she called 911, reported everything to the operator, and came out and began to cut my coveralls off with a pair of scissors. The fire department showed up and began to strip off what remaing clothes I had on. They then began hosing me down and washing me with a neutralizer while administering some drugs to counteract the chemicals. The spill team worked with the fire dept haz mat team to clean it all up, and I got 4 days in the hospital courtesy of my company.

They found out why the tank ruptured: One of the stock room guys had hit the tank with a forklift the night before, it pushed the tank in, and creased the side of the tank. He figured he could just bang it back out with a rubber mallet, which weakened the tank even more. then with about 190 gallons of liquid in it, the "crease" became very weak, and then just gave way.

Workmans comp took care of everything, lost time, hospital bills, meds, follow up visits, etc. The guy playing on the forklift was fired, and I quit shortly after that.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: maximus maximus

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Guy I was working next too hit himself in the face with a chainsaw. Made a mess out of his face for sure!

Yuck :thumbsdown:

I've also a couple of guys cut their fingers off with a skill saw and another shoot himself in the kneecap with a nailgun. The worst though was when a heavy duty forklift (a Pettibone) tipped over and crushed the Foreman of the Job to death.

 

[Furyline]

Working in a restaurant, changing the milk. I didn't thread the dispensor correctly, and when I cut off the closed end of the tube, milk went everywhere. I hated being a dishwasher.

 

Originally posted by: Ulfwald
I got on the radio as soon as I recovered my wits and requested the spill team asap. I began to try and control the spill, but I began having adverse reactions to the toxic mix. The home owner saw me on the ground starting to convulse, so she called 911, reported everything to the operator, and came out and began to cut my coveralls off with a pair of scissors.

OMG! :Q

 

[imported_Mike]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: maximus maximus

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Guy I was working next too hit himself in the face with a chainsaw. Made a mess out of his face for sure!

Yuck :thumbsdown:

I've also a couple of guys cut their fingers off with a skill saw and another shoot himself in the kneecap with a nailgun. The worst though was when a heavy duty forklift (a Pettibone) tipped over and crushed the Foreman of the Job to death.

I hope you make bank

 

[Trygve]

Nothing that exciting at work. The biggest mess I can think of was one time when I was outgassing a large niobium sphere which was going to be maintained at a hard vacuum at liquid helium temperatures and the support equipment, waveguides, etc., therefor. I had all the various vacuum pumps going and some sensors and a chart recorder tracking the process...and at this facility, there was a huge metal lathe used for custom-making vacuum parts next to all this equipment. (Don't ask me why; I didn't plan the layout.)

So, naturally, I wander off for a while and somebody comes in and uses the metal lathe...and sprays absolutely everything with metal shavings, which is oh-so-great for the electronics. I picked up the chart recorder and metal shavings dumped out of it, and I never was able to get a sign of life out of it.


I did much worse things at home when I was a kid. Arguably the worst was building a pulsejet and a test stand in the basement storeroom and after firing it up for a while, the fuel line caught fire and then the fuel tank (which was plastic and open at the top) caught fire and started to melt. I panicked and tried to blow it out...and sprayed gasoline all over the entire setup. Ooops. I did get the fire put out safely in the end.

I did have a few unfortunate incidents with home-made rocket fuel and one bad experience with a fair bit of current at 12,000 volts going from one arm to the other (burned both hands), but those were all over pretty quick.

 

[Gurck]

None, thank god. I did get the world's worst customers one day when my g/f and I were going at it in the bathroom (it wasn't a busy store, we expected no one to come in). Anyway, we heard the bell, got dressed & rushed out. This couple took literally almost an hour to decide between two almost identical $30 products, you'd think they were buying a car :roll: By the time they left it was closing time and my blueballs had to wait... 15 minutes

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Guy I was working next too hit himself in the face with a chainsaw. Made a mess out of his face for sure!

:shocked:

 

[MetalMat]

Thought I got a co-worker pregnant after a crazy x-mas party cause she missed her period. WHEW, glad I was wrong.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: CheapArse

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: maximus maximus

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Guy I was working next too hit himself in the face with a chainsaw. Made a mess out of his face for sure!

Yuck :thumbsdown:

I've also a couple of guys cut their fingers off with a skill saw and another shoot himself in the kneecap with a nailgun. The worst though was when a heavy duty forklift (a Pettibone) tipped over and crushed the Foreman of the Job to death.

I hope you make bank

I'm not in construction anymore. Another mess I witnessed was when I was a Property Manager. We had a complaint about an infestation of Cockroachesin ojne of the untos of a 6plex I managed. I sent in an Exterminator and when he started to spray the ceiling around the cabinets of the kitchen thousands of Cockroaches poured out of the seems, many dropping dead right on top of him. I still have nightmares about tat.