What's the worst you have ever @!*$ed up at work?

[sandorski]

Killed a Patient. Then discovered I had no Malpractice Insurance coverage because I was a janitor. FML.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

There was a fax server at work that had one large RAID5 volume containing the OS and data partitions (a dumb config, but this company was super cheap). Anyway, one of the drives died and I went in to replace it. It was at the bottom of the rack and hard to see, and evidently, I pulled out a working drive instead of the dead one. I think you know the rest of the story.

 

[KeithTalent]

Wow, so many, it's hard to just pick one. About a month or so ago a new trader here (actually the son of one of the big wigs) duped a big trade which ended up costing us close to 300K. There have been far worse screw-ups too by others, which is kind of scary. D:

KT

 

[gorcorps]

Coffee, breakfast (sometimes 8 orders at once), lunch, snacks, energy drinks, you name it. Best part is you don't have to tip the intern who is working for you for free. Having interns perform menial labor is no joke. (Note: I did learn a bunch of stuff the other 93% of the time I wasn't running errands.)

That's shitty. I make $19/hr as an intern and I do actual work. Not getting coffee and all that bullshit, but actual work.

 

[Beev]

I don't have any major screw ups. Just minor stuff =/

Way back when I was a teenager I was babysitting some kids and accidentally dropped and broke a glass. Then later that same day I sat on the couch and stretched my arms and knocked a glass vase off of the table behind the couch. The owner was pretty cool about it, though.

The only other one I can think of is from when I was working in financial reporting. It was an outsourced position, and I basically kept a set of accounts reconciled, and there was one that was a pain in the ass that I just didn't do for about two months. It turned into a pretty big deal, but I didn't even get a write up for it. I definitely deserved to though.

 

[02ranger]

I work at a large grocery store warehouse. A few years ago at thanksgiving time we had a brain fart in the computer and had roughly 30-40 pallets of turkeys sitting on the floor at the end of the night. I went into the computer and moved them back up into a reserve position. After 2-3 pallets, i ran out of turkeys in the computer so i just started adding them back in the system. I found out the next day that the ENTIRE inventory department in the corporate offices were trying all day (i work nights) to find the extra $10,000 worth of turkeys i added back in. Luckily somebody from inventory screwed up too so i didn't get in any trouble. They just told me to stay out of their system. haha.

 

[bfdd]

When I was still fresh in the refineries/oil industry I had to dump a big container, think like the big green metal trash bins, full of coke( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_coke ) into the collection pit, the refinery had a conveyor belt break and it dumped all over their roads so we cleaned it up and were dumping it back in for them. Anyways I was on the forklift, already been certified etc, and I went to dump it in, but the person who rigged it on my forklift forgot to flip the latch that allowed it to slide and tilt. So I lefted it up over the pit and started to dump it over the wall into this 50ft deep pit. The container didn't unlatch slide and tilt in and started taking the whole fork lift with it. I was looking straight down into this pit strapped into my forklift like "HOLY FUCKING SHIT" finally the chain snapped the thing fell all the way down and the forklift i was in slammed back down. Pretty shitty, I'm just glad it wasn't completely my fault because I was a brand new apprentice.

 

[sandorski]

When I was still fresh in the refineries/oil industry I had to dump a big container, think like the big green metal trash bins, full of coke( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_coke ) into the collection pit, the refinery had a conveyor belt break and it dumped all over their roads so we cleaned it up and were dumping it back in for them. Anyways I was on the forklift, already been certified etc, and I went to dump it in, but the person who rigged it on my forklift forgot to flip the latch that allowed it to slide and tilt. So I lefted it up over the pit and started to dump it over the wall into this 50ft deep pit. The container didn't unlatch slide and tilt in and started taking the whole fork lift with it. I was looking straight down into this pit strapped into my forklift like "HOLY FUCKING SHIT" finally the chain snapped the thing fell all the way down and the forklift i was in slammed back down. Pretty shitty, I'm just glad it wasn't completely my fault because I was a brand new apprentice.

Damn. You stared Death in the face and lived.

 

[bfdd]

Damn. You stared Death in the face and lived.

actually i don't even consider that one of my 3 near death experiences working in that field lol. number 1 would have to be the 12 or 15 ton(i can't remember exactly) turbine casing that i was guiding that had the rigging snap and land about 3ft(I'm being generous) from me. that shit fell in slow mo, they would of needed a big ass spatula to get me off the ground if it had landed on me.

 

[Kanalua]

Left a message on some lady's answering machine when I used to do cold call sales for some video company when i was in college. I acted like was a Chinese businessman and had a huge opportunity for her to make million$$. Stupid company used its corp office phone number for its called ID. Got sent home after the lady called back and they traced her number to my work station; didn't get fired or written up because I sold videos like a boss.

 

[sandorski]

actually i don't even consider that one of my 3 near death experiences working in that field lol. number 1 would have to be the 12 or 15 ton(i can't remember exactly) turbine casing that i was guiding that had the rigging snap and land about 3ft(I'm being generous) from me. that shit fell in slow mo, they would of needed a big ass spatula to get me off the ground if it had landed on me.

eek

 

[aigomorla]

People actually make interns get them coffee? I thought that was just a joke people talked about.

actually we get 1 or 2 intern's per year.

and they get me coffee.

i dont ask, just always offer tho.

 

[Locut0s]

When I was new at my job at 7-11 I mistakenly gave out my bosses home phone number to a customer. It was my first job and I was nervous and not thinking at all, when she asked for his number my mind just stopped working and I gave it out. Damn he was not happy about that. Thankfully he was forgiving in the end and I went on to be his most trusted employee later on.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Scenario 1:

I came in on a Saturday because I was swamped Friday. It was my very first time mixing chemical plating baths. The chemist just taught me and he asked if I needed help. I said no. It's not like I did. I was just very cautious. I poured stuff very slowly. Crap wouldn't dissolve. I didn't know the trick of heating crap up and doing it bit by bit with multiple beakers before mixing it in the giant tank. Well, I took all Friday night. I left at like 9pm. I came back Sat to do it.

This was before we had hired enough operators too, so I also manage another tool. It's simple. It's a cleaning tool. A giant washing machine. It's easy enough they don't hire me an operator so while I'm managing electroplating chemistry I also try to run this tool. So I run it, and I left one part on, the spray rinse, all weekend. At 1gpm, it filled our acid tank to the brim on Monday morning. Well 90% full at least. Thank goodness it wasn't a long weekend.

Oh. I didn't say a word about it. We just slowed down production (this was when the company was still in R&D mode) for a week until the acid dump truck got here to clean it out.

I don't think safety and facilities guys paid too much attention to the daily level readings enough and the company wasn't in full production mode with its tools yet so no one really assumed one tool went faulty over 3 day sor anything. I think they just were surprised the acid tank filled up much quicker than last time. LOL

Second scenario: This similar thing happened again. I left work early at 4pm once and I left my laptop in the production room to make it look like I was still there. Yeah. I had to pick up my mom from the hospital. So I did and I came back later at 7 to take my laptop back. LOL. Well, the operator thought I was still here so he didn't shut down our cleaning tool (this was way later than the first incident... we clearly hired a guy by then). So I assumed he would turn it off too because he turns it off 99% of the time unless production runs past his shift in which case I turn it off since I'm the engineer who stays well past their typical 5pm shift end time.

Well, I left not thinking about it because there's a 2nd shift guy who works in the room anyway. While he doesn't run my tool, he knows enough to do stuff if I ask him to. I figured the first shift guy would shut it off but he was gone (I forgot). He assumed I would. If all else fails the second shift guy would turn it off (cuz why would we run into 11pm at night anyway when no one's around?) Turns out second shift guy doesn't care because its not his tool so he leaves it running.

This isn't that bad. 6pm - 8am, the spray rinse dumps water into the acid tank. That's not too bad considering we run the tool for 6-8 hours a day of production anyway. But anyhow the safety person yells at me first thinking its my other tool (electroplating). The other tool owner engineer backs me up and defends me to the death. He's right because our electroplating tool doesn't fvck up. The engineer is beyond pissed and starts CCing my boss with the angry emails he's sending out to the safety guy. Everyone ends up hating the safety guy for their terrible attitude and quick fingerpointing.

Then I think about it for a bit and I ask the operator who comes in at 6pm if our cleaning tool was still on. It was. WHoops. I send out an email to everyone apologizing and saying it was my tool that screwed up and we assumed the other guy would turn it off. Sigh.

But so much drama over 14 hrs of extra "on-time." Really, it was just 1.5 - 2 days worth of production and it was a Tuesday. If that means by Thursday we would've been in a near-overflow situation, that's terribly managed. I think someone on safety didn't check the acid levels on a regular basis enough and freaked out when we ran a little more than normal.

In the end I think all we did was establish a backup procedure to make sure the second shift guy does a double check on all my tools and he makes sure they're off. That and me and the first shift guy will have clear communication who shuts off the tool and if I'm needed. It wasn't a huge deal since I just threw out 2 extra days of acid waste only. It wasn't like I caused an overflow. But the funny thing is most people didn't care much about it, and my team was more pissed than anything at the safety person who sent like LONG e-mails filled with drama accusing the other engineer of screwing up. Heh.

Scenario 3: I ran some SQL statements once that someone sent me. I changed a few things here and tehre, but I'm no coder. It crashed our server in no time. LOL.

Scenario 4: My first internship I installed MySQL server onto one of the company's servers. It wasn't the main server but some secondary one with the company's intranet page. It failed and could not be reinstalled. I was in college first year then. I freaked out and the IT guy sighed and took a try at it. He wasn't even familiar with MySQL and it took him forever to figure it out. I thought I was doomed.

 

[Ben90]

I used to be a lifeguard.

It was late one night with only two girls at the facility, and they were basically just sitting in the jacuzzi, so my fellow guard and I decided to join them. Well after about 10 minutes their parents came in to get them, and we were in some deep shit.

 

[Locut0s]

I used to be a lifeguard.

It was late one night with only two girls at the facility, and they were basically just sitting in the jacuzzi, so my fellow guard and I decided to join them. Well after about 10 minutes their parents came in to get them, and we were in some deep shit.

How old were they? How old were you?

 

[ric0chet06]

I went to the bars at 9 am on my 21st, went and worked wasted, then went to more bars after that. That kind of $@%*@ up?

 

[Juked07]

Wow, so many, it's hard to just pick one. About a month or so ago a new trader here (actually the son of one of the big wigs) duped a big trade which ended up costing us close to 300K. There have been far worse screw-ups too by others, which is kind of scary. D:

KT

Where do you work/what do you do?

 

[Locut0s]

I went to the bars at 9 am on my 21st, went and worked wasted, then went to more bars after that. That kind of $@%*@ up?

Depends on the type of job. If it was anything where you were putting others in danger by being drunk then yeah. Also if it was a job you REALLY wanted or needed to keep like a life long career type of job. Otherwise no that's just being young and stupid/silly.

 

[Locut0s]

Where do you work/what do you do?

Runs the financial department of a medium sized company I believe. Actually Keith is it a medium or large company?

 

[x-alki]

I almost burnt our shop down. Got a 3 day unpaid vacation.

 

[Jeffg010]

I just got hired at a bank to test Y2K and do software upgrades on all the computers in the building. I get to floor 25 and I see this computer in a cube not hooked up. I connect it and it starts to boot up. The next thing I know all these people start yelling to each asking if their computer is still getting a connection. One dude comes over to me and ask me what I did I said I just hooked this computer up and nothing more. He walks away kind of pissed. I called my boss and told him I think when I hooked this computer the whole floor lost the token ring connection. He tells me that no way could that happen. I feel better because I was still new and did not want to screw up.

Well 10 mins later 5 guys come from networking and start asking questions. I told them I hooked that computer over there and the network seemed to go out. They start testing the port and the next thing I notice they were ripping out the port and all the wires in the cube. It looked like someone wired the port wrong. The whole floor was down about an hour.

 

[sonicdrummer20]

Ask me when I come back from Afghanistan.

Well now I know you're a Marine.

Semper Fi

 

[jemcam]

I was about 14 and it was one of my first jobs at a self-serve car wash. This was back in about 1977 or so. I also used to detail cars occasionally. This guy dropped off his Buick Electra to be detailed and the first thing I needed to do was power wash it. The wand was on the floor and I went in the room to turn the pump on and when I walked around the corner to where the car was, I see the wand flying around in the air above the car being pushed around by the water pressure. By the time I was about 3 feet from it, it comes down right in the center of the windshield and totally smashes it. Boss was super pissed but he paid for a windshield and I didn't get fired.

Several years later, working at my Dad's shop, I was doing an engine swap in an old Econoline box van. I had been working on this thing for like 3 days straight and my Dad was bothering the hell out of me to hurry up because the customer needed his van badly. Those old box vans were a bitch to get access to the engine because they had such a short nose, you had to remove a lot of the front sheetmetal just to get access to the engine. Well, I had everything bolted up but could not get the motor mount bolts to line up. I put a jack under the oil pan (I was really in a rush and not thinking) to lift up the engine an inch or so to move it around. Unfortunately, I very slightly crushed the oil pan where the drain plug is and broke the tab inside the oil pan with the threads on it for the drain plug. The end result is that the drain plug would NEVER come out. I didn't say anything and let it go and never heard anything about it again. I always expected that thing to come back needing an oil pan because of my screw up but I never heard about it again. If the guy ever changed the oil, he would have found out when they tried to drain it. In order to change the oil pan, I would have to remove the engine again and I REALLY didn't want to do that. I felt bad about it for years and I never volunteered to do a job like that again. I did a couple other engine swaps but nothing like that. Now I know why no one else in the shop offered to do it. My Dad offered me $300 to do it and I thought it was easy money. This was back in the late 70's when $300 was a lot more money than it is now. Back then, I made about $150 per week.

 

[Possessed Freak]

When I worked in a computer lab as a student, I was called over to help out a grad student in word. The lab was running NT4 and had 64 megs of RAM. Evidently the grad student had been running word and a another program that had a memory leak. By the time I got there the virtual memory was running out and the machine was allocating more from the hard drive. I decided to kill the task which caused NT4 to lock right up. Well, no problem, reboot the machine right?

I forgot that the student had her 3.5" floppy in and wouldn't you know the damn disk was accessing when I did a hard shutdown. The girl's entire thesis was destroyed. Luckily? she had a hard copy printed out from a few days ago for proofreading (which is what she was doing that day) so she just had to retype the WHOLE darn thing. Oops.

...
Here is one from my father when he was a first year engineer at GE: One of the first jobs he had as a field engineer was to look over a failed 480V generator. My dad walked up to the cover and was preparing to remove it when the foreman (who didn't have a degree and thus my dad felt superior) told him to be careful... it is hot. My dad with a smirk on his face licked his finger and touched the cover. He came to about 15 feet away with his multimeter and pride vaporized. The foreman said: Electrically hot.