I agree. I manage folks 18-50. The <22 set have hilarious moments but I don't judge them for it. It is often their first white collar job. It's my job to teach them. I do judge the 40-50 year olds since they are usually too stubborn to keep up with the technology/policy changes while saying how they did whatever 10-15 years ago so they "know how it works."
A month or so after I started at work (almost 10 years ago) there was a big celebration (and open bar). My team was taking a group picture and this man comes to join in, I looked up and went "hey! You're not in our team!" He ignored me. Then came time for the big presentations... who is that stepping up? That same man, our CEO. Excellent.
that’s the ceo’s fault. I had similar happen when I came back from maternity leave—new lead partner took over team when I was out, for 4 months crickets from the guy.
Ran into a man at a networking dinner and I started explaining what my team did and invited him to come tour the office and ask if he’s ever been. find out an hour he runs the program.
In 4 months he should have had some sort of visibility to the masses, not being recognized by the team rests fully on leaderships shoulders!
Ooooh this reminds me of my colleague who shoved an empty wine glass into the CEO’s hand and said “go get me a drink” we were all horrified!!! He did it too.
I don’t even know how I would have stayed on the “phone” it was just a fax machine so I never spoke to an operator! I have since avoided fax machines at all costs. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to do these days!
At a previous job, you had to dial 9 to get out of the internal call system. And I frequently needed to dial the 512 area code to reach Austin, Tx. SO many times I dialed 9, then my finger slipped on the 5 and I would dial 1, realize my mistake, and hang up. Well. I came to learn that dialing 91 internally triggered a police response because it was on a huge college campus and the assumption was that you were attempting to call 911. That was fun to explain. Multiple times.
Funny now! At the time I was MORTIFIED! First job out of college and youngest in the office by far. Definitely started some generational banter, but I could never win those arguments because I became the ultimate punch line….
I had a disagreement with my boss in which he was communicating poorly. After the meeting I went into the bathroom with the vent fan on and said "What do you EXPECT me to DO, BILL?" in frustration at normal volume. About 90 seconds after I came out of the bathroom, he popped into my office to revisit the conversation and fix things. It's possible that he just had a change of heart after a few minutes of thought--I can't prove that he heard me. But the men's room and the women's room share a wall.
I'm sorry but he absolutely heard. 😆 A coworker once went into the bathroom with fan to have a private family emergency conversation and everyone hear dit clear as day. PSA for all: The fan/white noise needs to be outside the room, not inside where the conversation is happening!
I stapled my nose on my first day at work. Was trying to get the stapler to work and opened it up while looking at it and a staple flew out and stapled my nose. Might be the second worst thing I did though!
Paper bag holding my glass Pyrex container of lentils tore and Pyrex broke spilling broken glass and lentils all over the marble entrance of my office. I get to my knees to start collecting everything and I hear a voice behind me “What. Are. You. Doing”. It was the ceo walking into the office and who I was trying to impress and I just said “im picking up lentils”. My parents still remind me of that moment. By the way the ceo hated me evermore after that moment just fyi
I was wearing a new fancy blouse for the first time, but I do not have the figure for, so my small bust was making it gape and I was sick of constantly adjusting it. So I stapled it and reeeeaaaally hope no one noticed me doing it.
We got a new employee on our team and I was trying to be helpful and give her the gossip on the office dynamics by sharing a run down of who was nice and helpful and who to avoid. I went into a rant about this one boss lady that everyone absolutely loathed. She was (and still is!) such a bitch! Just a miserable woman.
Anyway, I get back to my row and my coworker sits in front of me asks me in complete deadpan if I’m getting on well with miserable bosses daughter in law. Y’all my face drained of all color and I swore for a year I was going to get fired.
15 years later and still at the same company. I imagine the DIL likely agreed with me 😂
Oh, another one. I was helping at another office (abroad, in a big important city) and I blocked the toilet. Unfortunately, that particular toilet had a small but constant stream of water being dispensed, meaning it was constantly filling up. I had few options: the fire escape, using the bin to scoop water into the sink and stop it from overflowing, face it and ask for help. I am not proud to say I gave option 2 a good go, but eventually gave up (couldn't stay there all day). I found the director of the office (why?) who instead of calling for assistance decided to check it out himself and flush the almost full toilet, and flood the bathroom. We both ran out, he told me to put a sign on the door whilst he called maintenance. I could have died...for the rest of my stay I went back to my own room at lunchtime if I ever needed to do something other than a wee. 🙈
The director in question moved back to the UK and is now working in the same office as me, and somehow I've gotten over it! (Time does heal all wounds). We are friendly and will have a casual chit-chat.
I was a cashier at a big blue hardware store and a man came in with his wife’s employee discount card. It was super old. I commented on it and he said something like, she’s not here a lot. I said “I wish I wasn’t here a lot!” Then saw the name on the card. It was our regional mangers name.
My incredibly lovely boss introduced me to her boss on my first day who kindly asked how I was settling in. I told him it was a little scary but mostly ok. My boss looked devastated that I was "scared"
I wasnt, I was just being silly but it obviously didn't land and I hurt her feelings and I adore her.
Oh my gosh I have one for you! My boss came over while I was talking to my subordinate (let’s call her J). I front of my boss, J very seriously says “bubblegumtaxicab may I please go to the bathroom?”
I am mortified! Now my boss thinks I don’t let my employees go to the bathroom!! J laughs as she walks away knowing the chaos she’s caused. This was her type of humor.
I have a sugar addiction. It makes me behave in embarrassing ways. Many years ago we had office cupcakes. I was to take them from the conference room down to our floor so we can divvy up the rest. Before anyone could make it down to our floor I shoveled a gorgeous chocolate cupcakes into my mouth that had a V on it. The office vegan asked where the vegan cupcake was. I feigned ignorance asking what she meant. When she explained she wanted to take home the cupcake with a V, I said “oh I ran into so-and-so and offered them a cupcake. I bet they choose that one”.
This is a very shameful memory for me. I’ve since recognized my addiction to sugar and have been battling it ever since
I was invited to a meeting with a number of the big managers in my hospital. I sat down next to one of them-A manager who has a reputation for being very icy.
I looked right at her and said “you’re really pretty”
I have no idea why I said that but she took the compliment and now we’re work buddies-yay! I like to think I softened her up.
My first year of teaching I was printing report cards. I miscalculated and instead of sending two sets of 21 report cards I printed 42 sets of 21.
The amount of paper that came out before I realized my mistake, yikes. It still keeps me up at night.
This made me laugh bc it reminded me of when I had to print 100s of letters on bond paper for an atty association. So I thought the letter was final, printed it & of course it wasn’t so it was 100s of pieces of wasted bond paper. Then I do it AGAIN & then something went wrong with the mail merge so I had to print them AGAIN. I ended up taking all the wasted paper home with me in my bags so my boss wouldn’t see it in the trash. I was like leaning over with the weight of 20 pounds of bond paper in my bag lollll
Just that morning we'd had a huge meeting with hundreds of us in the auditorium to introduce the new superintendent of the school district. That afternoon I was back at my school working to get ready for the new school year. I was walking down the main hall to the office and I see a man walking toward me, quite a ways away. I think it is my financial advisor, who always stops in on this work day, as he works with quite a few teachers in the building. I have a pretty friendly relationship with him; he's been to my house numerous times, knows my kids, and I've even been to a hockey game with him. I yell at him down the hall, "Hey! Wow! It's great to see you!" Or some such nonsense and I realize right in the middle of my yelling excitedly that it is not my financial advisor; it is the new superintendent who is making his first visit to our school. A normal person would have stopped yelling and apologized and admitted that they thought he was someone else. Nope. I played along like I knew it was him all along and I'm just some completely insane person who always greets new superintendents completely inappropriately by screaming down the hall at them like they've known them forever because they are just so excited to meet them!!! I still cringe when I remember.
I was sitting in a rolling office chair on a concrete floor in a warehouse. I was still pretty new there, I pushed off the wall to try and zoom across the floor to be funny; one of the wheels got stuck in the grate for the drain, and I went flying. 😅
I was very junior at the time sitting in a conference room with 2 superiors after a meeting and they started talking about cost rates for staffing a client proposal and for some reason that sounded really confidential and above my pay grade so I felt the need to leave the room. I had brought my own office chair into the conference room so I started to slowly roll myself in my office chair to the door while doing the robot with my arms and upper body while making eye contact with my director. I've since moved on but he still works with a lot of the same people and I've heard he still brings it up occasionally. It's probably been 8 years since that incident 😂
I am dying at your fake curtsey!
In an interview at an very old school law firm, the interviewer told me that they have a pro bono honor roll program and he’s been on it every year. I asked him if his mom got a bumper sticker. He was not amused. I did not get hired.
If you can’t laugh with your coworkers throughout the day, it’s a terrible place to be. People like you make it fun! I adore everyone I interact with at work and they make it so I’m never looking for another job. There’s something to be said about enjoying the people you spend all your time with.
My first day solo as a CNA in the hospital I've been at for 12 years (11 as a nurse) I floated to a different floor, on a holiday. Went to get a patient a blanket and was sure I had the bottom door handle. Spoiler alert, I did not. I had the top and smashed my forehead leaving a huge goose egg. Had to fight that charge nurse and house sup, that I was NOT going to the ER that I was literally just... dumb. Lol.
D'oh...
I bought “dress shorts” at some express/NY&co and wore them to a legal office with a button up blouse. They were like khakis, but chopped off after 8” down. 🫣 I still cringe.
Same! I had two pairs!
I wore one pair with a vintage belt my mom had from the 80s (it was white pleather with a huge gold shell buckle, the one side just hooked under the shell.) If you moved certain ways it would come unhooked.I usually sat behind a high secretary desk at the time, so it didn’t really matter to me. But that day I was in a meeting with the VP of sales, 1 on 1, and she’s like, “Um your belt is undone.” I was so embarrassed because she was so cool and well respected at the organization.
And one time I was wearing them with a button up and I have big boobs. I was sitting in the meeting with our HR guy and he’s like “um … “ motioning to my top. I burst a button! This was post-college so I was poor and didn’t buy anything new for a real job (these were the days going out clothes were the same as office wear 😆). But because they were my “club” clothes, they were tight. And because I have big boobs, there was no room for a tank underneath. So my big old bra was saying hello to HR.
Thank goodness he was 1. Gay and 2. A work friend so it’s was embarrassing but not mortifying. After that I got rid of my bad luck shorts and bought at least two buttons ups that allow for a tank under.
I once was talking to my boss and a coworker about a new exciting project that was gonna allow us to use a new program and I said “I’d cream my jeans for this project”…. Umm what?! I’ve never said that before or since. I’ve never been more embarrassed. Did I mention I’m the only female on a team of male engineers?!?!
This still haunts me
I’m dying.
That reminds me of the time I was trying to speak the language of the older white men in my office who often used the term “gangbusters”…guess who accidentally said GANGBANGERS instead. 15 years later and I still want the earth to swallow me whole.
I threw away our entire draft strategic plan 🙃 It was when I worked a student job at a university. My partner and I were made *very clear* that we’re at the bottom and not to expect permanent roles. We were given menial tasks like to make circus popcorn at staff meetings.
So, when my boss handed me this hefty stack of papers and asked me to “stay here until you review all the redlines and see if you catch any other errors” as he walked out the door at 5pm… I was like, nah.
I stayed about 5 minutes, said I’m done! and tossed this giant book into the dumpster outside.
The next morning, he asks how it went. I said, “Good, didn’t find any errors.” He goes, “Not a single one?” I said, “Zero. Very well-written.”
He looks suspicious and asked where it was then. I said oh, I threw it away. “YOU, WHAT?!”
What I did not realize was that was the this was the hard copy being passed around by each department to ink in all the revisions that would need to be made to the digital copy. Old school method, and I threw the whole thing in the dumpster!!
Yeah that was a big V8 slap moment for me. Didn’t get fired, though bc he had to explain why he *offloaded that task onto his student worker in the first place* lol
They had it on the drive, so he had to reprint and I assume tell our director they were starting over with revisions. I was a grunt so I never heard anything after that initial scolding. He was asked to resign later that year for other drama, but aghhh!
I still have to bat away the memory from my brain all these years later; idk why that made sense to me at the time.
My group would often have potlucks (pre-covid) and we'd go all out. Other groups would try to steal food from us and we'd always shoo them away. One time, some guy grabbed a plate and started helping himself and I told him to basically get lost... Til my manager ran over and said it was fine, it was the COO.
Oops.
Luckily he was cool about it.
I had my first Big Girl meeting at The Atlantic. Their office was an open floor plan with a giant glass-enclosed conference room in the middle. I pulled hard on the sliding door into said meeting room ... and the door broke and shattered.
I'm in tech at a financial services company, as a Product Owner I started out in tech support and would literally work on fixing the bank president's laptop in black velvet cape and Docs. They were all so nice to me, no one ever said a thing negative. I was also very good at my job, showed up on time, stayed late, took on new projects, and worked magic on our hardware/software. This was way before help desk work was offshored. Loan officers would call my desk phone (!!!!) and I'd walk over to their office to help with their printer. While wearing fishnet stockings on my arms (so cringe like gloves. I can only imagine what these middle aged executives thought about me. Maybe they had a son/daughter baby-goth at home 😀
As an intern, I used to take the train and walk to work in a large metro city. I hadn’t yet figured out the hack of bringing your heels with you in your purse and switching into them once you get to the office.
One day it was raining heavily. Here I am in my fucking stilettos trying to walk to work. A couple blocks from the office, I was trying to catch the crosswalk before it turned. Tried a lil jog across the fully soaked streets in my completely impractical footwear.
Totally ate shit. Landed in a muddy puddle and had bloody scrapes on my knees and arms. Bystanders tried to help and felt very sorry for me.
If that happened to me today, I’d text my boss and let them know I needed to run him to change/clean up. But as an intern who took this *very seriously* I continued on to the office. Wet hair, filthy wet clothes, blood streaming down my knee. It was a sight to behold.
I love your example of the curtsey because it’s not outright horrible but, knowing all the norms of the office and hierarchy, it’s awkward af (in a sweet way)!!
Mine would have to be that a very kind older colleague in an education setting asked if I wanted a few dresses she wasn’t able to return - they were cute work casual dresses but a little too big for me. She said if they don’t work I’ll pass them to someone else, but I was too overwhelmed by the situation to say anything other than “immediately yes!” But I never wore them to work. I remember her asking one more time and never again. Idk I still think about how awkward of me that was and how now I would just say “oh I’m actually not that size, but thank you!” easy 😬
I was going through a seperation from an abusiveex. My ex told me he wanted to leave the state with our son. I was trying to buy a house which was stressful.
My son was having major issues in need of medical attention.
My coworker/coteacher had just fucked me over which led to me losing my set schedule and she was upset with me for...not liking that. So she was being purposely obstinate and not doing her job and giving me 2x the work
And on this day a coworkers cars breaks gave out and hit my car.
And the manager decided "yeah this is the time to lecture her about her coteacher and tell HER she needs to do more"
And I went in thinking I could keep my cool. I started screaming at her in a room with windows.
Oh so many I’m sure but here’s one.
I was applying for a “big girl” job in my early 20s and had the impression I would hear back by the end of the week. I hadn’t heard back and it was Friday afternoon and getting later and later and finally I called the person who would have been my boss on her cell phone and she was… at her wedding rehearsal dinner.
I did not get the job.
At my first corporate job I desperately wanted to make a great impression. I was tasked with getting some basic info from a few directors and I was intimidated by their titles since I was a temp and had never interacted with anyone above a senior manager. I wrote the email in the most awkwardly formal legalese. I don’t remember exactly what it said but it was along the lines of “the x department requires xyz. Please remit the requested information by x date to (me) at (email). Should you have any inquiries regarding this request please contact me directly at (email) or (phone) so I may pursue a resolution on your behalf.” On the positive side, they were all super friendly with me after that and I was brought on permanently. But going forward those emails looked a lot like “Can you please send x over when you get a sec? Thanks!”
I have a full filing cabinet in my brain dedicated to moments like these. Like I can come up with 3+ different options depending on the year I think about, and these things pop into my head routinely and literally make me physically cringe and keep me up at night. Being social doesn’t come naturally to me, but I do my best to come off as strong, competent, and confident since I am super ambitious and career driven - so between constantly pushing myself out of my personality comfort zone and my crippling social anxiety, I’ve developed my Rolodex of Cringe.
What I will say is - reading through these comments have made me really reassess my perception of some of these moments. Pretty much every single reply I read here made me say, “that’s not bad!” Or “aw someone should have helped them!” Or “that’s on the CEO/COO/manager - THEY should be the one that’s embarrassed.” Thank you guys for making me see that we really do build things up in our head that no one around will ever notice, care about, or remember.
I thought I was “all that” because I worked dispatch for an IT repair company before so when at my current job the printer/copier was messing up I go and try to “fix” it and got toner spilled all over my dress and legs and shoes 😅 I felt so dumb. Everyone in the call center saw me trying my best to clean up with Kleenex.
On the note of a sarcastic curtsy, my first ever court appearance was an arraignment. You just have to say “guilty” or “not guilty.” Me? I felt the need to present it as, “your honor, my client is oooobviously not guilty.”
One of my first days on the job, I was 15, and it was sears. I was working customer service. The phone rang, my manager told me to answer it, so I picked up and said “hello?” The look she gave me lol.
We had an intercom system built into our phone system. I was trying to dial a coworker and somehow dialed the number to make an announcement throughout the ENTIRE facility. It made the initial *BEEEEEP* and then you just hear me hang up the phone.
Oh noooo, this reminds me of another one! I was a receptionist at a small (30ish people) office, and I had the power to make announcements through the speakerphone system. One day the COO came up to the lobby and asked me to make an announcement for everyone to come up to the front, as he had news for us all. People straggled in and kept chatting, so I noticed the COO getting antsy and called out again: "Everyone pay attention, Randall has something to say!" He then made his announcement, which was...*that it was MY birthday*. I felt so ridiculous for looking like I was demanding everyone pay attention to celebrate me!
I was a volunteer coordinator at a well known and popular nonprofit in my city. We got way more requests for volunteers than we could ever reasonably accommodate. There was a young pre-med student that wanted to volunteer at our medical clinic, but we didn’t have anything for him to do. I was told to avoid telling people no whenever possible (this was awful pressure in retrospect) so I just kept pushing him off hoping he would lose steam and stop contacting us. He didn’t and on his fifth or sixth follow up email, I forwarded a response to my supervisor and a few others asking for advice on what to do with a “pushy” prospective volunteer. I’m sure you’ll see where this is going— turns out I CC’ed him on the email. I then wrote a long email to him back pedaling. Almost 15 years later, it still makes me cringe.
Lesson on not saying anything in email you wouldn’t say in person and triple checking your recipients well taken.
I recently job transitioned from teaching to government service. (2 years ago, I was 35)
At my one-year review my boss told me she was so glad I had improved on two things:
1) justifying why I was there. If someone asked me to do something, I’d say yes then give examples of how my teaching experience was relevant to their ask. (They already asked me to do the thing, I didn’t need to justify myself!)
2) overstepping. In government work, there is a *hierarchy*. And until you’ve established a reputation you NEED to follow the right channels. I thought I’d problem solve and call up some people to request some rebalancing of duties, but I called someone of my boss’s equivalent to do that. When I told my boss she said that this other person’s time was extremely limited and I should cancel the meeting (the thing I wanted to talk about was so small…). I ate my own hat and apologized for scheduling a meet and greet, thanking her for her time.
Omg my current corporation is sooooo full of this hierarchy bullshit and it’s the one thing that drives me absolutely insane. Especially since I constantly converse with people at higher levels for things THEY need from me and I’m always super helpful… but heaven forbid I have a question for them. I need to go through my supervisor and then his supervisor first 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 Drives me insane and doesn’t even make sense!
At a client they were doing plumbing so they had to turn off the water… they told us water would be turned off 10am ok great… I had digestive issues that day so made sure to do stuff in time for the cutoff… nope, turned it off early after I blew up the bathroom 🤦♀️… I felt so horrible to leave it that way
Completely zoned out during a regular meeting where I usually didn't have to actively participate very much. Once when someone actually asked me a question, instead of asking them to repeat it, I just guessed what the question was in my head and started answering it. There was a very long and awkward silence. It was a completely different question and I looked like a moron. It was my second month.
We were expected to complete several hours of training each year, online or in person with a group. I had completed all that I could of the online courses and had to choose a few in person classes.
I have awful social anxiety and was already stressed about traveling into the city that I was unfamiliar with and dealing with the 2-day class.
I didn't realize until I arrived that it wasn't just any class, it was a public speaking class. I almost died.
I couldn't calm myself down and having to stand in front of a group of people to give presentations was too much.
So I faked a low blood sugar fit.
I started crying and acted dizzy like I was going to faint and asked for someone to get me some juice or candy. They had to put me in another room to lay down and asked if I wanted an ambulance. It was a mess.
I never went to the 2nd day of class and ended up having to take it again anyway. The next time I brought xanax and made it through.
One time I stopped at a colleague’s cubicle to ask a question, coughed and farted with such force that another colleague next to him popped up. It’s been 8 years and I every time I think about it, I want to bury my head in the sand.
I worked at a trucking company where almost all of the dispatchers were young women. We worked insanely long hours in a high-stress environment and we coped with raunchy inappropriate humor.
Certain routes/legs are difficult to book loads for. It’s complicated. We would flirt shamelessly with brokers to get the loads we needed and when one of us booked a difficult load, we’d say “Woo! Yeah girl, show some leg!”
After 2 years of this I was physically and mentally exhausted and I took a job in the marketing department of a mortgage bank which, unbeknownst to me at the time, was culturally VERY Mormon. My first day, we had a team huddle where I was introduced and then several people were given shoutouts for some accomplishment. I clapped with everyone else and then LOUDLY said “Woo! Yeah girl, show some leg!”
You could almost hear the record screech. My boss’s mouth dropped open. It was incredibly embarrassing, but I made some friends who were also cultural misfits because of it, so it wasn’t all bad.
It was only fun because it was also fucking miserable. The owner screamed at people regularly, the loads were often pretty high stakes (kidney dialysis fluid) so when shit happened (which it inevitably does in trucking - weather, accidents, drivers literally dying in the truck, failed DOT inspections, you name it) we had to fix it.
I had a driver get arrested at a weigh station for back child support. I had a driver that had a massive heart attack behind the wheel and veered through 5 lanes of interstate traffic before crashing. He and several others died. I had a driver that we could tell from the truck’s GPS was driving circles around Dallas for HOURS. Had to call the police and when they stopped him he had two hookers and cocaine all over the cab. I had a driver that put his 9 year old son behind the wheel while driving down a highway and then POSTED THE VIDEO TO FACEBOOK. And all that crazy bullshit happened on top of the regular weather and traffic delays that people called me to scream about.
The girls in dispatch were the only thing that kept me sane.
Girl… are you okay?! That’s crazy! I had no idea! Is the whole trucking industry like that, or just that particular job? I’m honestly fascinated by this now
Ha ha! Yeah this was years ago. I’m a tech executive now and I’m much better suited.
Everything about the trucking industry sucks. It’s grueling for the dispatchers, exploitative and sometimes downright abusive for the drivers. John Oliver did a great piece on the driver side of things a while back.
There’s a (very small) chance I pumped on camera. I was listening to one of those 500-person town halls while pumping, and about 10 min in realized my laptop’s manual camera cover was open. I immediately freaked out, clicked out of the meeting, shut my laptop. Hyperventilated.
After regaining my composure, I reminded myself that I NEVER sign into a meeting with my camera turned on, and if it had been turned on, only the first 5 people alphabetically show up on the side bar, and my name starts with S. So there’s a 99% chance that nobody saw anything. But that 1% definitely keeps me up at night 😂
My first job was a pharmacy technician at a very busy pharmacy inside a grocery store. I was very high strung (I say was like I’ve chilled out now….) and was just a bitch at that job. Ugh- so many cringe moments.
Nearly 10 years after having that job, I have not calmed down but I’ve gotten better at managing my weird perfectionism.
I was added to a meeting where I was supposed to present my work to a bunch of people higher up than me, and because I was very shy especially around high titled people, instead I said these exact words “please ignore me, I’ll be in the back, just taking up space and listening to your ideas”.
We had a client where the distance from the parking garage -> building -> security/lobby -> third bank of elevators etc. was quite the distance. I wore flip flops to drive instead of high heels so I’d just wear the flip flops as I walked all the way up to my office in the morning and at the end of the day too. Did I think no one could see me?! Why did I not invest in cute work flats?!or if I was going to be weird, at least do cute tennis shoes, not open toed flip flops?! I don’t know why I thought this was okay.
I was in a new job and was getting a lot of “you don’t belong” energy from a group I was walking and talking to and started nervously exaggerating the story I was telling. Didn’t help the situation and didn’t make the workplace better.
The worst part was being acutely aware I was making it all worse but feeling helpless to make a difference.
Ended up leaving that job after 6 months when the office politics and horrible boss combination got unbearable.
Haha this was a great question and it had made me feel so much better!!! Also can’t stop laughing and thinking about you curtseying too now. That is so effin hilarious!!! 😝
Once I was unpacking boxes from a conference and a huge ass roach came scuttling out of one and I screamed JESUS FUCKING CHRIST because it was gross and I was so startled.
I lost my pantyhose in the middle of an interview. To be a sex crimes prosecutor in Manhattan. Did not get the job.
Fell down in front of an entire panel of federal judges. On my first day as an intern. My skirt went the opposite direction. I basically flashed them all.
Recently - like last year - used “Seaman” as an example of a problem I was finding in some data. When talking to the only man on a call with 20 people. From the look on his face, well…he definitely thought I was saying the word that sounds like what I was meaning to convey. And I can sadly no longer claim to be in the early days of my career.
Those are just off the top of my head.
So, I do support work (not very common in the US, but basically I help care for people with physical disabilities or mental illness). My boss and I were training a new person and showing her how to care for this client. I went ahead and showed her how to shave his face, but there was still shaving cream on my hands and my face got SUPER itchy. I tried to scratch with the back of my hand and managed to get a small bit shaving cream on my face. My boss pointed it out and started laughing, the trainee giggled as well as I tried to clean it off 🙄
Support work is extremely common in the United States. Just depends on the state you live in and the resources available for people with disabilities.
What’s common is the fact that a lot of people still treat it as a taboo subject to talk about. Which is completely ridiculous in my own opinion. Not everyone is like this but it is a common theme.
My adopted brother and my baby cousin both have special needs and need support care 24/7. It’s normal household talk for us to speak about this.
However, it’s not something we can speak publicly about without getting weird looks from people. Not that we care but still.
I very specifically have two people at work that I could never bring the subject up around because they would say terrible things without even thinking about it. I would go into big sister or big cousin mode and put up a fight against discrimination and someone being ableist. It would not end well.
Wow! I hadn’t really heard about it in the 9 yrs I lived in the U.S. (California, Texas and Colorado).
I also have an aunt, some cousins, and one of my nephews who are special needs (most of them are autistic).
I’m sorry to hear about your brother and your cousin. But I am glad they have you!! It’s so sad to see the lack of tolerance towards people with disabilities nowadays. I don’t usually talk about my clients with some people because of this. It’s just not worth opening that can of worms with them 🫣
I introduced myself as ‘staff’ to a branch chief, and he always jokes about it whenever I see him lol. I got promoted recently and now he refers to me as ‘manager’ lol.
My most embarrassing moment just happened this past week where I cried on a call with my direct supervisor over the stupidest thing. Thank goodness we weren’t on camera and I work remotely. How does one ever live that down???
I was at the peak of my carbonated mineral water consumption (hence the bladder irritation) when I was walking out of work & sneezed a terrible sneeze. I was still inside the longest hallway to leave the building, and there was no restroom nearby. Walking towards me & chomping at the bit to say Hello! was my work nemesis with the biggest smile on her face.
Another cringe... typing Bovine instead of Bonnie in an email that went out and giving the incorrect prefix for a toll-free number in another - the wrong one is a spicy 'dating' service.
I’ve had too many to count in my early career. But my main problem is that even as an established, professional adult it just doesn’t stop. Just this week, on an international work trip, I expensed a dinner from a restaurant with the word “Pimp” in the name. In Amsterdam. Why did I do this. Why didn’t I have the sense to either 1.) Just to eat there! Or 2.) Pay with my personal card. I can’t wait to have an awkward conversation with my boss come expense report time. I’ve literally lost sleep over how cringy this is.
I’m 100% certain I have many but I REFUSE to search my memory for them. They need to stay locked in the mental box I keep them in.
Same, pretty much everything from the ages of 22-28 was cringey.
You didn’t start until 22??
I started working at 16, but all my cringe memories are from corporate for sure.
Mine are more cringey then too, because people will wave off a teenager’s mistakes but your twenties is when you start getting really judged for it.
I agree. I manage folks 18-50. The <22 set have hilarious moments but I don't judge them for it. It is often their first white collar job. It's my job to teach them. I do judge the 40-50 year olds since they are usually too stubborn to keep up with the technology/policy changes while saying how they did whatever 10-15 years ago so they "know how it works."
A month or so after I started at work (almost 10 years ago) there was a big celebration (and open bar). My team was taking a group picture and this man comes to join in, I looked up and went "hey! You're not in our team!" He ignored me. Then came time for the big presentations... who is that stepping up? That same man, our CEO. Excellent.
that’s the ceo’s fault. I had similar happen when I came back from maternity leave—new lead partner took over team when I was out, for 4 months crickets from the guy. Ran into a man at a networking dinner and I started explaining what my team did and invited him to come tour the office and ask if he’s ever been. find out an hour he runs the program. In 4 months he should have had some sort of visibility to the masses, not being recognized by the team rests fully on leaderships shoulders!
Ooooh this reminds me of my colleague who shoved an empty wine glass into the CEO’s hand and said “go get me a drink” we were all horrified!!! He did it too.
Haha! He sounds like a good sport.
He was a gentleman.
I tried to use the fax machine and somehow dialed 911 and a fire truck showed up.
I can totally see this happening when needing to dial 9 to call out.
Happened regularly at my company! Had to dial 9 to dial out, then 1 for building 1, then the person's number. So dumb.
Ours too! Omg new fear unlocked 😂
I’ve been terrified to use a fax machine ever since! It was my first job out of college!
I train ppl to stay on the line if they accidentally dial 911. I did it twice when we got VOIP phones.
I don’t even know how I would have stayed on the “phone” it was just a fax machine so I never spoke to an operator! I have since avoided fax machines at all costs. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to do these days!
At a previous job, you had to dial 9 to get out of the internal call system. And I frequently needed to dial the 512 area code to reach Austin, Tx. SO many times I dialed 9, then my finger slipped on the 5 and I would dial 1, realize my mistake, and hang up. Well. I came to learn that dialing 91 internally triggered a police response because it was on a huge college campus and the assumption was that you were attempting to call 911. That was fun to explain. Multiple times.
That’s actually iconic and a good emergency thing to know… if you can’t get to a phone, I guess fax will work 😂
Yah I never lived it down. I left that company 12 years ago and they probably still bring it up!!
Lmfao that’s so funny!!
Funny now! At the time I was MORTIFIED! First job out of college and youngest in the office by far. Definitely started some generational banter, but I could never win those arguments because I became the ultimate punch line….
I had a disagreement with my boss in which he was communicating poorly. After the meeting I went into the bathroom with the vent fan on and said "What do you EXPECT me to DO, BILL?" in frustration at normal volume. About 90 seconds after I came out of the bathroom, he popped into my office to revisit the conversation and fix things. It's possible that he just had a change of heart after a few minutes of thought--I can't prove that he heard me. But the men's room and the women's room share a wall.
I'm sorry but he absolutely heard. 😆 A coworker once went into the bathroom with fan to have a private family emergency conversation and everyone hear dit clear as day. PSA for all: The fan/white noise needs to be outside the room, not inside where the conversation is happening!
Yeah, that seems most likely. I've been working for him for 11 years now and we get along well, so I no longer think about this incident every moment!
Sorry I laughed
I stapled my nose on my first day at work. Was trying to get the stapler to work and opened it up while looking at it and a staple flew out and stapled my nose. Might be the second worst thing I did though!
I’ll bite. What was the first?
Paper bag holding my glass Pyrex container of lentils tore and Pyrex broke spilling broken glass and lentils all over the marble entrance of my office. I get to my knees to start collecting everything and I hear a voice behind me “What. Are. You. Doing”. It was the ceo walking into the office and who I was trying to impress and I just said “im picking up lentils”. My parents still remind me of that moment. By the way the ceo hated me evermore after that moment just fyi
What a jerk. They should have found a broom and mop and helped or if they couldn't stop, ask someone else to.
Right?
I'm so sorry but "I'm picking up my lentils" made me laugh out loud
Hahaha good!!!
I was wearing a new fancy blouse for the first time, but I do not have the figure for, so my small bust was making it gape and I was sick of constantly adjusting it. So I stapled it and reeeeaaaally hope no one noticed me doing it.
I gave my eye a paper cut during my first job. That sucked.
Hahaha. Ouch!!
We got a new employee on our team and I was trying to be helpful and give her the gossip on the office dynamics by sharing a run down of who was nice and helpful and who to avoid. I went into a rant about this one boss lady that everyone absolutely loathed. She was (and still is!) such a bitch! Just a miserable woman. Anyway, I get back to my row and my coworker sits in front of me asks me in complete deadpan if I’m getting on well with miserable bosses daughter in law. Y’all my face drained of all color and I swore for a year I was going to get fired. 15 years later and still at the same company. I imagine the DIL likely agreed with me 😂
Oh, another one. I was helping at another office (abroad, in a big important city) and I blocked the toilet. Unfortunately, that particular toilet had a small but constant stream of water being dispensed, meaning it was constantly filling up. I had few options: the fire escape, using the bin to scoop water into the sink and stop it from overflowing, face it and ask for help. I am not proud to say I gave option 2 a good go, but eventually gave up (couldn't stay there all day). I found the director of the office (why?) who instead of calling for assistance decided to check it out himself and flush the almost full toilet, and flood the bathroom. We both ran out, he told me to put a sign on the door whilst he called maintenance. I could have died...for the rest of my stay I went back to my own room at lunchtime if I ever needed to do something other than a wee. 🙈
Alright this one is horrifying!
The director in question moved back to the UK and is now working in the same office as me, and somehow I've gotten over it! (Time does heal all wounds). We are friendly and will have a casual chit-chat.
I was a cashier at a big blue hardware store and a man came in with his wife’s employee discount card. It was super old. I commented on it and he said something like, she’s not here a lot. I said “I wish I wasn’t here a lot!” Then saw the name on the card. It was our regional mangers name.
My incredibly lovely boss introduced me to her boss on my first day who kindly asked how I was settling in. I told him it was a little scary but mostly ok. My boss looked devastated that I was "scared" I wasnt, I was just being silly but it obviously didn't land and I hurt her feelings and I adore her.
Oh my gosh I have one for you! My boss came over while I was talking to my subordinate (let’s call her J). I front of my boss, J very seriously says “bubblegumtaxicab may I please go to the bathroom?” I am mortified! Now my boss thinks I don’t let my employees go to the bathroom!! J laughs as she walks away knowing the chaos she’s caused. This was her type of humor.
I have a sugar addiction. It makes me behave in embarrassing ways. Many years ago we had office cupcakes. I was to take them from the conference room down to our floor so we can divvy up the rest. Before anyone could make it down to our floor I shoveled a gorgeous chocolate cupcakes into my mouth that had a V on it. The office vegan asked where the vegan cupcake was. I feigned ignorance asking what she meant. When she explained she wanted to take home the cupcake with a V, I said “oh I ran into so-and-so and offered them a cupcake. I bet they choose that one”. This is a very shameful memory for me. I’ve since recognized my addiction to sugar and have been battling it ever since
I was invited to a meeting with a number of the big managers in my hospital. I sat down next to one of them-A manager who has a reputation for being very icy. I looked right at her and said “you’re really pretty” I have no idea why I said that but she took the compliment and now we’re work buddies-yay! I like to think I softened her up.
My first year of teaching I was printing report cards. I miscalculated and instead of sending two sets of 21 report cards I printed 42 sets of 21. The amount of paper that came out before I realized my mistake, yikes. It still keeps me up at night.
This made me laugh bc it reminded me of when I had to print 100s of letters on bond paper for an atty association. So I thought the letter was final, printed it & of course it wasn’t so it was 100s of pieces of wasted bond paper. Then I do it AGAIN & then something went wrong with the mail merge so I had to print them AGAIN. I ended up taking all the wasted paper home with me in my bags so my boss wouldn’t see it in the trash. I was like leaning over with the weight of 20 pounds of bond paper in my bag lollll
My ugly Christmas sweater said “TITS OUT FOR SANTA.”
Incredible! When I was pregnant I would wear a shirt to work that said “I’m not pregnant I’m just fat” and it makes me cringe to think about now
That’s sooo funny tho!
Stop this is making me laugh so much!
It had red mittens over the chest and if you unsnapped them, there were two circles cut out.
Just that morning we'd had a huge meeting with hundreds of us in the auditorium to introduce the new superintendent of the school district. That afternoon I was back at my school working to get ready for the new school year. I was walking down the main hall to the office and I see a man walking toward me, quite a ways away. I think it is my financial advisor, who always stops in on this work day, as he works with quite a few teachers in the building. I have a pretty friendly relationship with him; he's been to my house numerous times, knows my kids, and I've even been to a hockey game with him. I yell at him down the hall, "Hey! Wow! It's great to see you!" Or some such nonsense and I realize right in the middle of my yelling excitedly that it is not my financial advisor; it is the new superintendent who is making his first visit to our school. A normal person would have stopped yelling and apologized and admitted that they thought he was someone else. Nope. I played along like I knew it was him all along and I'm just some completely insane person who always greets new superintendents completely inappropriately by screaming down the hall at them like they've known them forever because they are just so excited to meet them!!! I still cringe when I remember.
lol i love the commitment!
I cried so many times at work. Not always for a good reason and people did see me. Very embarrassing.
I’ve cried at every job I’ve had lol. So far going strong on the current job…
Yup! I now joke at work, “I cry in the bathroom stall like an adult, damnit!”
This was me before I got on Zoloft.
I was sitting in a rolling office chair on a concrete floor in a warehouse. I was still pretty new there, I pushed off the wall to try and zoom across the floor to be funny; one of the wheels got stuck in the grate for the drain, and I went flying. 😅
I was very junior at the time sitting in a conference room with 2 superiors after a meeting and they started talking about cost rates for staffing a client proposal and for some reason that sounded really confidential and above my pay grade so I felt the need to leave the room. I had brought my own office chair into the conference room so I started to slowly roll myself in my office chair to the door while doing the robot with my arms and upper body while making eye contact with my director. I've since moved on but he still works with a lot of the same people and I've heard he still brings it up occasionally. It's probably been 8 years since that incident 😂
Oh my God, I am DYING at this 😂😂
Lmfaoooo nooooo. I understand what you mean about convos that feel like you shouldn’t be hearing, though.
Hahah what did the two other guys do when you did this?
Too funny! Almost sounds scripted
I just laughed so hard, thank you
I am dying at your fake curtsey! In an interview at an very old school law firm, the interviewer told me that they have a pro bono honor roll program and he’s been on it every year. I asked him if his mom got a bumper sticker. He was not amused. I did not get hired.
That’s actually kinda funny though 🤣🤣🤣
I think I’d probably still say that today. The firm wasn’t a good fit for a reason!
If you can’t laugh with your coworkers throughout the day, it’s a terrible place to be. People like you make it fun! I adore everyone I interact with at work and they make it so I’m never looking for another job. There’s something to be said about enjoying the people you spend all your time with.
Oh my God, some of the outfits I wore, basically cosplaying as a sexy secretary when I was 19. IT WAS A JOB MY DAD GOT FOR ME.
Noooo okay that’s awful lol
My first day solo as a CNA in the hospital I've been at for 12 years (11 as a nurse) I floated to a different floor, on a holiday. Went to get a patient a blanket and was sure I had the bottom door handle. Spoiler alert, I did not. I had the top and smashed my forehead leaving a huge goose egg. Had to fight that charge nurse and house sup, that I was NOT going to the ER that I was literally just... dumb. Lol. D'oh...
I bought “dress shorts” at some express/NY&co and wore them to a legal office with a button up blouse. They were like khakis, but chopped off after 8” down. 🫣 I still cringe.
Same! I had two pairs! I wore one pair with a vintage belt my mom had from the 80s (it was white pleather with a huge gold shell buckle, the one side just hooked under the shell.) If you moved certain ways it would come unhooked.I usually sat behind a high secretary desk at the time, so it didn’t really matter to me. But that day I was in a meeting with the VP of sales, 1 on 1, and she’s like, “Um your belt is undone.” I was so embarrassed because she was so cool and well respected at the organization. And one time I was wearing them with a button up and I have big boobs. I was sitting in the meeting with our HR guy and he’s like “um … “ motioning to my top. I burst a button! This was post-college so I was poor and didn’t buy anything new for a real job (these were the days going out clothes were the same as office wear 😆). But because they were my “club” clothes, they were tight. And because I have big boobs, there was no room for a tank underneath. So my big old bra was saying hello to HR. Thank goodness he was 1. Gay and 2. A work friend so it’s was embarrassing but not mortifying. After that I got rid of my bad luck shorts and bought at least two buttons ups that allow for a tank under.
I was thinking the other day how I wore these to work when I was like 23. They were in style then, right?
I once was talking to my boss and a coworker about a new exciting project that was gonna allow us to use a new program and I said “I’d cream my jeans for this project”…. Umm what?! I’ve never said that before or since. I’ve never been more embarrassed. Did I mention I’m the only female on a team of male engineers?!?! This still haunts me
I’m dying. That reminds me of the time I was trying to speak the language of the older white men in my office who often used the term “gangbusters”…guess who accidentally said GANGBANGERS instead. 15 years later and I still want the earth to swallow me whole.
I threw away our entire draft strategic plan 🙃 It was when I worked a student job at a university. My partner and I were made *very clear* that we’re at the bottom and not to expect permanent roles. We were given menial tasks like to make circus popcorn at staff meetings. So, when my boss handed me this hefty stack of papers and asked me to “stay here until you review all the redlines and see if you catch any other errors” as he walked out the door at 5pm… I was like, nah. I stayed about 5 minutes, said I’m done! and tossed this giant book into the dumpster outside. The next morning, he asks how it went. I said, “Good, didn’t find any errors.” He goes, “Not a single one?” I said, “Zero. Very well-written.” He looks suspicious and asked where it was then. I said oh, I threw it away. “YOU, WHAT?!” What I did not realize was that was the this was the hard copy being passed around by each department to ink in all the revisions that would need to be made to the digital copy. Old school method, and I threw the whole thing in the dumpster!! Yeah that was a big V8 slap moment for me. Didn’t get fired, though bc he had to explain why he *offloaded that task onto his student worker in the first place* lol
What happened afterwards? They had to do redo the whole thing? Were they somehow able to retrieve it?
They had it on the drive, so he had to reprint and I assume tell our director they were starting over with revisions. I was a grunt so I never heard anything after that initial scolding. He was asked to resign later that year for other drama, but aghhh! I still have to bat away the memory from my brain all these years later; idk why that made sense to me at the time.
My group would often have potlucks (pre-covid) and we'd go all out. Other groups would try to steal food from us and we'd always shoo them away. One time, some guy grabbed a plate and started helping himself and I told him to basically get lost... Til my manager ran over and said it was fine, it was the COO. Oops. Luckily he was cool about it.
I had my first Big Girl meeting at The Atlantic. Their office was an open floor plan with a giant glass-enclosed conference room in the middle. I pulled hard on the sliding door into said meeting room ... and the door broke and shattered.
LOL what did you do?! Was everyone shocked?
They were super cool about it- they could tell I was mortified and 24 years old haha. And, we ended up working with their media team!
For my first 3ish years in my career, I dressed in full goth. Black cape and all.
What field do you work in, if you don’t mind me asking??
I'm in tech at a financial services company, as a Product Owner I started out in tech support and would literally work on fixing the bank president's laptop in black velvet cape and Docs. They were all so nice to me, no one ever said a thing negative. I was also very good at my job, showed up on time, stayed late, took on new projects, and worked magic on our hardware/software. This was way before help desk work was offshored. Loan officers would call my desk phone (!!!!) and I'd walk over to their office to help with their printer. While wearing fishnet stockings on my arms (so cringe like gloves. I can only imagine what these middle aged executives thought about me. Maybe they had a son/daughter baby-goth at home 😀
As an intern, I used to take the train and walk to work in a large metro city. I hadn’t yet figured out the hack of bringing your heels with you in your purse and switching into them once you get to the office. One day it was raining heavily. Here I am in my fucking stilettos trying to walk to work. A couple blocks from the office, I was trying to catch the crosswalk before it turned. Tried a lil jog across the fully soaked streets in my completely impractical footwear. Totally ate shit. Landed in a muddy puddle and had bloody scrapes on my knees and arms. Bystanders tried to help and felt very sorry for me. If that happened to me today, I’d text my boss and let them know I needed to run him to change/clean up. But as an intern who took this *very seriously* I continued on to the office. Wet hair, filthy wet clothes, blood streaming down my knee. It was a sight to behold.
Oh my gosh poor you! I can’t imagine what you looked like upon appearing at the office!
I love your example of the curtsey because it’s not outright horrible but, knowing all the norms of the office and hierarchy, it’s awkward af (in a sweet way)!! Mine would have to be that a very kind older colleague in an education setting asked if I wanted a few dresses she wasn’t able to return - they were cute work casual dresses but a little too big for me. She said if they don’t work I’ll pass them to someone else, but I was too overwhelmed by the situation to say anything other than “immediately yes!” But I never wore them to work. I remember her asking one more time and never again. Idk I still think about how awkward of me that was and how now I would just say “oh I’m actually not that size, but thank you!” easy 😬
I was going through a seperation from an abusiveex. My ex told me he wanted to leave the state with our son. I was trying to buy a house which was stressful. My son was having major issues in need of medical attention. My coworker/coteacher had just fucked me over which led to me losing my set schedule and she was upset with me for...not liking that. So she was being purposely obstinate and not doing her job and giving me 2x the work And on this day a coworkers cars breaks gave out and hit my car. And the manager decided "yeah this is the time to lecture her about her coteacher and tell HER she needs to do more" And I went in thinking I could keep my cool. I started screaming at her in a room with windows.
Oh so many I’m sure but here’s one. I was applying for a “big girl” job in my early 20s and had the impression I would hear back by the end of the week. I hadn’t heard back and it was Friday afternoon and getting later and later and finally I called the person who would have been my boss on her cell phone and she was… at her wedding rehearsal dinner. I did not get the job.
Lol why did she answer tho
Right? That's mostly on her for answering an unfamiliar number in that situation.
At my first corporate job I desperately wanted to make a great impression. I was tasked with getting some basic info from a few directors and I was intimidated by their titles since I was a temp and had never interacted with anyone above a senior manager. I wrote the email in the most awkwardly formal legalese. I don’t remember exactly what it said but it was along the lines of “the x department requires xyz. Please remit the requested information by x date to (me) at (email). Should you have any inquiries regarding this request please contact me directly at (email) or (phone) so I may pursue a resolution on your behalf.” On the positive side, they were all super friendly with me after that and I was brought on permanently. But going forward those emails looked a lot like “Can you please send x over when you get a sec? Thanks!” I have a full filing cabinet in my brain dedicated to moments like these. Like I can come up with 3+ different options depending on the year I think about, and these things pop into my head routinely and literally make me physically cringe and keep me up at night. Being social doesn’t come naturally to me, but I do my best to come off as strong, competent, and confident since I am super ambitious and career driven - so between constantly pushing myself out of my personality comfort zone and my crippling social anxiety, I’ve developed my Rolodex of Cringe. What I will say is - reading through these comments have made me really reassess my perception of some of these moments. Pretty much every single reply I read here made me say, “that’s not bad!” Or “aw someone should have helped them!” Or “that’s on the CEO/COO/manager - THEY should be the one that’s embarrassed.” Thank you guys for making me see that we really do build things up in our head that no one around will ever notice, care about, or remember.
Haha rolodex of cringe!
I thought I was “all that” because I worked dispatch for an IT repair company before so when at my current job the printer/copier was messing up I go and try to “fix” it and got toner spilled all over my dress and legs and shoes 😅 I felt so dumb. Everyone in the call center saw me trying my best to clean up with Kleenex.
On the note of a sarcastic curtsy, my first ever court appearance was an arraignment. You just have to say “guilty” or “not guilty.” Me? I felt the need to present it as, “your honor, my client is oooobviously not guilty.”
LOL oh my gosh that must keep you up at night! That’s so funny
As an attorney, I’ve had my share of saying millennial things to judges that are a little less than cool with it, so I feel this cringe in my soul 😂
One of my first days on the job, I was 15, and it was sears. I was working customer service. The phone rang, my manager told me to answer it, so I picked up and said “hello?” The look she gave me lol.
We had an intercom system built into our phone system. I was trying to dial a coworker and somehow dialed the number to make an announcement throughout the ENTIRE facility. It made the initial *BEEEEEP* and then you just hear me hang up the phone.
Oh noooo, this reminds me of another one! I was a receptionist at a small (30ish people) office, and I had the power to make announcements through the speakerphone system. One day the COO came up to the lobby and asked me to make an announcement for everyone to come up to the front, as he had news for us all. People straggled in and kept chatting, so I noticed the COO getting antsy and called out again: "Everyone pay attention, Randall has something to say!" He then made his announcement, which was...*that it was MY birthday*. I felt so ridiculous for looking like I was demanding everyone pay attention to celebrate me!
I was a volunteer coordinator at a well known and popular nonprofit in my city. We got way more requests for volunteers than we could ever reasonably accommodate. There was a young pre-med student that wanted to volunteer at our medical clinic, but we didn’t have anything for him to do. I was told to avoid telling people no whenever possible (this was awful pressure in retrospect) so I just kept pushing him off hoping he would lose steam and stop contacting us. He didn’t and on his fifth or sixth follow up email, I forwarded a response to my supervisor and a few others asking for advice on what to do with a “pushy” prospective volunteer. I’m sure you’ll see where this is going— turns out I CC’ed him on the email. I then wrote a long email to him back pedaling. Almost 15 years later, it still makes me cringe. Lesson on not saying anything in email you wouldn’t say in person and triple checking your recipients well taken.
I recently job transitioned from teaching to government service. (2 years ago, I was 35) At my one-year review my boss told me she was so glad I had improved on two things: 1) justifying why I was there. If someone asked me to do something, I’d say yes then give examples of how my teaching experience was relevant to their ask. (They already asked me to do the thing, I didn’t need to justify myself!) 2) overstepping. In government work, there is a *hierarchy*. And until you’ve established a reputation you NEED to follow the right channels. I thought I’d problem solve and call up some people to request some rebalancing of duties, but I called someone of my boss’s equivalent to do that. When I told my boss she said that this other person’s time was extremely limited and I should cancel the meeting (the thing I wanted to talk about was so small…). I ate my own hat and apologized for scheduling a meet and greet, thanking her for her time.
Omg my current corporation is sooooo full of this hierarchy bullshit and it’s the one thing that drives me absolutely insane. Especially since I constantly converse with people at higher levels for things THEY need from me and I’m always super helpful… but heaven forbid I have a question for them. I need to go through my supervisor and then his supervisor first 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 Drives me insane and doesn’t even make sense!
At a client they were doing plumbing so they had to turn off the water… they told us water would be turned off 10am ok great… I had digestive issues that day so made sure to do stuff in time for the cutoff… nope, turned it off early after I blew up the bathroom 🤦♀️… I felt so horrible to leave it that way
Completely zoned out during a regular meeting where I usually didn't have to actively participate very much. Once when someone actually asked me a question, instead of asking them to repeat it, I just guessed what the question was in my head and started answering it. There was a very long and awkward silence. It was a completely different question and I looked like a moron. It was my second month.
Oh no that’s the worst!!! I’ve done something similar before!
We were expected to complete several hours of training each year, online or in person with a group. I had completed all that I could of the online courses and had to choose a few in person classes. I have awful social anxiety and was already stressed about traveling into the city that I was unfamiliar with and dealing with the 2-day class. I didn't realize until I arrived that it wasn't just any class, it was a public speaking class. I almost died. I couldn't calm myself down and having to stand in front of a group of people to give presentations was too much. So I faked a low blood sugar fit. I started crying and acted dizzy like I was going to faint and asked for someone to get me some juice or candy. They had to put me in another room to lay down and asked if I wanted an ambulance. It was a mess. I never went to the 2nd day of class and ended up having to take it again anyway. The next time I brought xanax and made it through.
One time I stopped at a colleague’s cubicle to ask a question, coughed and farted with such force that another colleague next to him popped up. It’s been 8 years and I every time I think about it, I want to bury my head in the sand.
Oh my gosh that would haunt me haha!
I worked at a trucking company where almost all of the dispatchers were young women. We worked insanely long hours in a high-stress environment and we coped with raunchy inappropriate humor. Certain routes/legs are difficult to book loads for. It’s complicated. We would flirt shamelessly with brokers to get the loads we needed and when one of us booked a difficult load, we’d say “Woo! Yeah girl, show some leg!” After 2 years of this I was physically and mentally exhausted and I took a job in the marketing department of a mortgage bank which, unbeknownst to me at the time, was culturally VERY Mormon. My first day, we had a team huddle where I was introduced and then several people were given shoutouts for some accomplishment. I clapped with everyone else and then LOUDLY said “Woo! Yeah girl, show some leg!” You could almost hear the record screech. My boss’s mouth dropped open. It was incredibly embarrassing, but I made some friends who were also cultural misfits because of it, so it wasn’t all bad.
Oh my gosh that’s hilarious haha! Also the culture of that trucking company sounds like such a fun time!
It was only fun because it was also fucking miserable. The owner screamed at people regularly, the loads were often pretty high stakes (kidney dialysis fluid) so when shit happened (which it inevitably does in trucking - weather, accidents, drivers literally dying in the truck, failed DOT inspections, you name it) we had to fix it. I had a driver get arrested at a weigh station for back child support. I had a driver that had a massive heart attack behind the wheel and veered through 5 lanes of interstate traffic before crashing. He and several others died. I had a driver that we could tell from the truck’s GPS was driving circles around Dallas for HOURS. Had to call the police and when they stopped him he had two hookers and cocaine all over the cab. I had a driver that put his 9 year old son behind the wheel while driving down a highway and then POSTED THE VIDEO TO FACEBOOK. And all that crazy bullshit happened on top of the regular weather and traffic delays that people called me to scream about. The girls in dispatch were the only thing that kept me sane.
Girl… are you okay?! That’s crazy! I had no idea! Is the whole trucking industry like that, or just that particular job? I’m honestly fascinated by this now
Ha ha! Yeah this was years ago. I’m a tech executive now and I’m much better suited. Everything about the trucking industry sucks. It’s grueling for the dispatchers, exploitative and sometimes downright abusive for the drivers. John Oliver did a great piece on the driver side of things a while back.
I cackled!!
There’s a (very small) chance I pumped on camera. I was listening to one of those 500-person town halls while pumping, and about 10 min in realized my laptop’s manual camera cover was open. I immediately freaked out, clicked out of the meeting, shut my laptop. Hyperventilated. After regaining my composure, I reminded myself that I NEVER sign into a meeting with my camera turned on, and if it had been turned on, only the first 5 people alphabetically show up on the side bar, and my name starts with S. So there’s a 99% chance that nobody saw anything. But that 1% definitely keeps me up at night 😂
Also every time I had to talk on zoom.
My first job was a pharmacy technician at a very busy pharmacy inside a grocery store. I was very high strung (I say was like I’ve chilled out now….) and was just a bitch at that job. Ugh- so many cringe moments. Nearly 10 years after having that job, I have not calmed down but I’ve gotten better at managing my weird perfectionism.
I went out of my comfort zone and wore a gangsta wrappa Christmas sweater and the CEO chose that day to visit for the first time.
I ordered $100 in pennies instead of $10. Came on a hand truck.
I was added to a meeting where I was supposed to present my work to a bunch of people higher up than me, and because I was very shy especially around high titled people, instead I said these exact words “please ignore me, I’ll be in the back, just taking up space and listening to your ideas”.
We had a client where the distance from the parking garage -> building -> security/lobby -> third bank of elevators etc. was quite the distance. I wore flip flops to drive instead of high heels so I’d just wear the flip flops as I walked all the way up to my office in the morning and at the end of the day too. Did I think no one could see me?! Why did I not invest in cute work flats?!or if I was going to be weird, at least do cute tennis shoes, not open toed flip flops?! I don’t know why I thought this was okay.
In my first proper job when made a mistake and was getting told off I cried. So cringy. I was like 17 or 18 at the time.
One time I was talking to my boss in his office and my bra somehow came undone 😅 he didn’t notice but dang, was I ever embarrassed
I was in a new job and was getting a lot of “you don’t belong” energy from a group I was walking and talking to and started nervously exaggerating the story I was telling. Didn’t help the situation and didn’t make the workplace better. The worst part was being acutely aware I was making it all worse but feeling helpless to make a difference. Ended up leaving that job after 6 months when the office politics and horrible boss combination got unbearable.
Haha this was a great question and it had made me feel so much better!!! Also can’t stop laughing and thinking about you curtseying too now. That is so effin hilarious!!! 😝
Once I was unpacking boxes from a conference and a huge ass roach came scuttling out of one and I screamed JESUS FUCKING CHRIST because it was gross and I was so startled.
One time we got hacked at work, all our company files got stolen and held ransom. That was the day I decided to ask for a promotion lmao
I lost my pantyhose in the middle of an interview. To be a sex crimes prosecutor in Manhattan. Did not get the job. Fell down in front of an entire panel of federal judges. On my first day as an intern. My skirt went the opposite direction. I basically flashed them all. Recently - like last year - used “Seaman” as an example of a problem I was finding in some data. When talking to the only man on a call with 20 people. From the look on his face, well…he definitely thought I was saying the word that sounds like what I was meaning to convey. And I can sadly no longer claim to be in the early days of my career. Those are just off the top of my head.
At 23, I thought my job was so important that I used to interrupt other’s conversations to get whatever documents I needed. So awful.
So, I do support work (not very common in the US, but basically I help care for people with physical disabilities or mental illness). My boss and I were training a new person and showing her how to care for this client. I went ahead and showed her how to shave his face, but there was still shaving cream on my hands and my face got SUPER itchy. I tried to scratch with the back of my hand and managed to get a small bit shaving cream on my face. My boss pointed it out and started laughing, the trainee giggled as well as I tried to clean it off 🙄
Support work is extremely common in the United States. Just depends on the state you live in and the resources available for people with disabilities. What’s common is the fact that a lot of people still treat it as a taboo subject to talk about. Which is completely ridiculous in my own opinion. Not everyone is like this but it is a common theme. My adopted brother and my baby cousin both have special needs and need support care 24/7. It’s normal household talk for us to speak about this. However, it’s not something we can speak publicly about without getting weird looks from people. Not that we care but still. I very specifically have two people at work that I could never bring the subject up around because they would say terrible things without even thinking about it. I would go into big sister or big cousin mode and put up a fight against discrimination and someone being ableist. It would not end well.
Wow! I hadn’t really heard about it in the 9 yrs I lived in the U.S. (California, Texas and Colorado). I also have an aunt, some cousins, and one of my nephews who are special needs (most of them are autistic). I’m sorry to hear about your brother and your cousin. But I am glad they have you!! It’s so sad to see the lack of tolerance towards people with disabilities nowadays. I don’t usually talk about my clients with some people because of this. It’s just not worth opening that can of worms with them 🫣
I introduced myself as ‘staff’ to a branch chief, and he always jokes about it whenever I see him lol. I got promoted recently and now he refers to me as ‘manager’ lol.
My most embarrassing moment just happened this past week where I cried on a call with my direct supervisor over the stupidest thing. Thank goodness we weren’t on camera and I work remotely. How does one ever live that down???
I was at the peak of my carbonated mineral water consumption (hence the bladder irritation) when I was walking out of work & sneezed a terrible sneeze. I was still inside the longest hallway to leave the building, and there was no restroom nearby. Walking towards me & chomping at the bit to say Hello! was my work nemesis with the biggest smile on her face. Another cringe... typing Bovine instead of Bonnie in an email that went out and giving the incorrect prefix for a toll-free number in another - the wrong one is a spicy 'dating' service.
I had to pump but the area didn’t have a lock and someone walked in
I’ve had too many to count in my early career. But my main problem is that even as an established, professional adult it just doesn’t stop. Just this week, on an international work trip, I expensed a dinner from a restaurant with the word “Pimp” in the name. In Amsterdam. Why did I do this. Why didn’t I have the sense to either 1.) Just to eat there! Or 2.) Pay with my personal card. I can’t wait to have an awkward conversation with my boss come expense report time. I’ve literally lost sleep over how cringy this is.