32 Wild Mistakes That Ended Someone’s Career

‘Sinking the company’s boat’
32 Wild Mistakes That Ended Someone’s Career

If you’re going to make a mistake, I can’t recommend enough not doing it at work. It would be ideal, of course, to never fuck up in your entire life, but good luck with that. You just have to hope that when you mess up, it’s hopefully private, and hopefully somewhere like a bathroom where it’s easy to clean up.

When you make a mistake at work, it’s impossible to forget. I mean that literally, because it’s probably now recorded for eternity in a series of scolding emails. If you beef up bad enough? That work might not be your work at all anymore. 

Below, Redditors share mistakes that cost them careers, spanning from deserved to deserving of sympathy.

Spaghettitrees . 2y ago Lifting wrong. 14 years of arboriculture coming to an end now. Not sure of the next job.
VIBIN LIKE IntenselySwedish 2y ago IT'S 1985 Led and recruited a sales team. One of the female sellers admitted that our CEO was sexually harassing her. Got her to confess to our Sales Manager. Found out that more of our female staff had similar experiences so i rallied them as i needed evidence before proceeding. CEO got an ear full from HR. Proceeds to pressure all his female victims until one of them drops my name. I get fired.
masontraining . 2y ago Built a castle out of Christmas chocolate biscuit boxes in the warehouse of a major retailer on a night shift and proceeded to fall asleep in it for a few hours.
michaudra2 . 2y ago Called the HR lady the angel of death to a coworker on chat. (HR was in a different state, so any time they came to town we all knew it was most likely to lay off people ). Angel of death came to get me shortly after
galaxycactus . 2y ago Browsing for another job while at the job
RatlnaMaze 2y ago Talked about comp to another employe. They told the manager about it. Got fired. The good part is it's illegal and the idiot created a paper trail around it. They settled out of court for way more than they would have saved by people not talking about comp.
 2y ago Not exactly a career but i worked in a fast food spot that didn't have any air conditioning, and theres a workers law where i i live that states once it gets to a certain temp in the building they legally can't stay open. I brought a thermometer to work
Happy1327 . 2 2y ago I sent a scathing email about my boss directly to my boss. It wasn't meant for him. To this day I still have no idea what possessed me to put his name in the address bar. | noticed his name the exact moment | hit send. You have never felt that much panic.
Kulee43 2y ago I was a part time intern making $9 an hour (USD) and my boss asked if I had any plans for the weekend. I had said I was going to buy a new car (very much old and used as that's what I could afford) and he asked if I was buying a brand new car. My response was that my budget isn't big enough for a new car and a couple weeks later during my 1 year review my manager said they didn't have the work for me and that I was disrespectful for telling the
Malromen . 2y ago Had a workplace accident - fall from height. Didn't get fired but broke enough bones that I'll never work in that industry again
Rude-Scholar-469 . 2y ago A guy | worked with was caught stealing 2 cigarettes from a colleagues bag. Was on a six- figure salary. Not any more!
FirstFlight 2y ago Went on a first date with a girl who turned out to be a horrible person 20mins in, I did what I could to get out of it because she was telling stories about crazy things she'd done and was proud of. I didn't pull anything to get out of it, just dodged land mines and asked a ton of questions about her so I could get out of it sooner. Then said I wasn't feeling the connection and I wanted to be honest so we didn't waste each others time. Found out a week later that
DeicideandDivide . 2y ago . Edited 2y ago Didn't happen to me. But I remember a coworker of mine getting fired because he put laxatives in his own lunch bag. Some dickhead kept stealing parts of our lunches. Turned out, it was our supervisor.
ChocTunnel2000 2y ago Not me but my best friend. Не found a stash of porn on a network computer that belonged to the boss, then showed it to everyone. Ended up working in a supermarket after that, and said half the people there had criminal records.
 . 2y ago I sided with the peeps under me as their manager.
audigex 2y ago A guy I knew got fired for sleeping with the boss's daughter Nothing dodgy, entirely above board - he didn't even know they were related and had never met her before They met on a night out, he went back to her (parents') place and they had sex. No problems, no drama etc. The next morning they got dressed and she was showing him to the door when her dad... his boss... walked out of the kitchen
narvuntien . 2y ago I did a PhD, now I can't get hired anywhere.
spacemandown 2y ago I . took a half day off for a doctor's appointment. it ran longer than i thought. i texted my boss that i'd be a bit later than expected. i got home 1 hour past the allotted time for a half day and missed a meeting. i was fired the next day. an hour isn't 'a bit.' i'd been at the company for 6 years. it took me 6 months to find a new job in a different field. but i'm much happier with the work i'm doing now.
drake3011 2y ago Kind of the opposite. I worked at a second hand electronics store, a dude came in with a PS2 to sell. I noticed the serial number was scratched off and thought that was a concern, but processed it anyway. It went through testing, came back greenlit and I assumed that meant that it was ok. Assumed wrong, management sacked my ass an hour later. Went home, re-evaluated my life choices, and that year went back to college. Got my A- levels, then my degree, and now Ive been a software engineer for almost 10 years.
tinkk56 2y ago Call centre taking a manager call, put the chap on hold and comforted the teammember he is a bit of an arsehole isn't he... Forgot to also put the call on mute and he requested a call recording... Whoops! Then while on suspension, I broke my leg, and went to my hearing after far too little sleep and too much tramadol. When they asked me what the impact of my actions was, I said it was crippling. Far too pleased with that pun to give a fuck about the outcome. Spent the next few months coasting through
FunkyPubes . 2y ago i started . I framing the longest receipt of the day, and that was apparently unproductive
Alert-Appearance-362 - 2y ago I told the truth about a work place accident. They told me if I lied I would still have a job. Basically they wanted to be lied to and not hear the truth or have it brought up. So you would rather employ some one who lies then someone who is honest?
User1239876 2y ago Didn't get any sleep the night before (answering calls from a store in need) and did not take the next day off when I needed it. Ended up speaking my mind in front of a corporate liason...
Ye_Olde_Pugselot 2y ago I asked why we are paying people massive salaries who aren't working at us anymore, while most of us haven't seen any increases or bonuses for 5+ years.
WyleCoyote73 . 2y ago I testified truthfully at a federal grand jury to my knowledge about a professor in my dept who was funneling federal grant money into their personal bank account. I was invited by the dean of the college to leave the Ph.D program I was in and find another program. Unsurprisingly | found it difficult to get into another program.
eatandgreetme a 2y ago Edited 2y ago i saw a video once of a nurse explaining why she lost her job and nursing license - she took a photo of her entire emergency department track board with all the patients names, birthdays, and complaints and accidentally posted it on her public snapchat story. It was meant for her friend but everyone saw it and someone notified the hospital. edit: forgot to add that this whole fiasco was because she wanted to show her friend how the doctor misspelled something
 2y ago | needed to hand in a form. I found an old form in my folder. It was already filled out properly but it had the wrong date on it. So I put white out on it and changed the date. When I handed it in my boss saw the white out and asked about it. I told her. She said I couldn't do that and she would have to inform corporate. About 3 weeks later they fired me for it
friday99 2y ago Showing up to work noticeably drunk (I broke my typical vodka-for-breakfast routine) and it ended everything in my life as I knew it... But in the best way possible. I worked a corporate insurance job and was already on notice for poor performance/attendance. I went to work, and was in a black out, which wasn't unusual, but because I drank more and added a different liquor than usual I wasn't really functioning. My boss had a coworker Take me home. HR called and told me basically that I could take some time off and take care of
fate_D_destiny . 2y ago focusing just on scores/marks and not skills during University.
Hansove-Draenor . 2y ago ODed while driving a forklift, woke up with puke all over me and a panicked coworker who thought I had died. I lost my license to drive these machines.
MrCarter8375 . 2y ago DUI. Don't do it kids, fucking seriously. The amount of shame I still feel is impossible to put into words.
picksandchooses s.2y ago Sinking the company's boat

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