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Mishaps at work can range from minor inconveniences to screw-ups of grand proportions. Major calamities often happen to the newbies, as they usually have less experience or training. Or plain luck, in some cases.

The r/AskReddit community discussed the misfortunes someone new at their job had to encounter. Part of the examples don’t even sound real but sadly (for some—more than for others), they are. Ranging from absolutely terrible to unbelievably funny and everything in between, they prove that la vie is not always en rose when it comes to work.

These examples are far from the only ones covering some unlucky people just trying to do their job. For more, make sure to browse Bored Panda’s previous edition of horrible mistakes people made at work that their coworkers never forgot.

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#1

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job Certainly not the biggest mistake I've ever seen, but this sticks out in my memory...

When I was an RN working in the ICU, every July we'd have a fresh crop of residents (doctors fresh out of med school). Many were very nice, one or two were (and often would stay) flaming a******s, and most felt nurses were just waitresses. This superiority complex usually died down substantially in the first 2-3 weeks when the nurses in my ICU would prove their knowledge and earn their respect, but it would often be a rough 2-3 weeks for us nurses.

One July on the first day they began on the unit, I assisted one resident in putting in a central line (internal jugular IIRC). He inserted it and then said to the patient, "All done!" but he very much was not.

I made some excuse to talk to him outside of the room; something like, "Doctor, could you help me choose the right supplies for the next phase of the procedure?" or whatever. Out of earshot of the patient, I whispered to him that he needed to suture the line in place. He had no idea what I was talking about (sheesh, men never read instructions) so I told him how to do it. Luckily for me he was nice and didn't go off on me for correcting him - we went back in the room together and I made some transitional statement so the patient would never know the doctor omitted a pretty important part of the procedure. The resident put in the sutures as I instructed and there was absolutely no harm to the patient.

After, he took me aside and said, "My wife is an RN. She told me nurses would save my a*s. I just never guessed it would be on my first day - thank you."

SnarkSnout , National Cancer Institute Report

Final score:
492points
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#2

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job I had a new guy ring me for some tech support. He didn't like the answer I gave him so he gave me a mouthful of abuse and then slammed the phone down. We worked for different departments in a global company. I don't know where he though I was located but the ten paces that took me straight to his desk must have been quite a shock.

Dawn_Of_The_Dave , Karolina Grabowska Report

Final score:
382points
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#3

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job My vet tech instructor worked at a zoo in the past, and there was a co-op vet tech student there who had just finished her program. She was very head strong and did things the way she wanted them done.. not the proper way. Well there was this rare possum (last breeding male in captivity of its species) who had a cold or something, so they had it in the icu so it would have the best care, as it was so rare, and it was very important he didnt die. It was time to give him his pain medication. For those not from the medical world, this drug is given sub cutaneously. In animals it is given anywhere under loose skin you can lift and inject underneath. This is commonly done at the base of the neck. Tent skin, inject, done. So my instructor is in charge of the co-op student, both in the icu. The student insists she can give the injection, so my instructor gives her the go ahead as it is a simple procedure, and she's been trained. You really cant mess up... easily. So this girl goes to inject at the base of the neck but isn't lifting the skin out of the way. Instructor says how to do it correctly and the students refuses and insists she was taught at school that she didnt have to tent the skin. After a mild dispute the instructor says whatever, he will be fine. And the student proceeds with the injection. Well doesnt the possum start siezing. She had given him the injection into his spine. You couldnt do that so easy if you tried. At worst she could theoretically given the injection into muscle... not the spine. Anyways.. he died soon after. The LAST BREEDING MALE IN CAPTIVITY DIED because of this students ignorance..
Im pretty sure my instructor wrote her name down so she would never accidentally hire her in the future.

ameliagillis , Robert Linder Report

Final score:
232points
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Uncanny
Uncanny
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The 'instructor' also hugely at fault here. Should have been way more insistent on proper procedure being followed. That poor possum.

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#4

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job A couple years back, a guy started at my work and on his first day was reading through all the SOP's and various other job specific stuff, when he fell asleep. Now granted this isn't good, but the new boss made him come in at 4:30am to match her insane schedule for some reason. His new boss walked in, and the following conversation took place:

* New Boss: "Hey, wake up!"
* Guy: "Sorry about that, this stuff is just so boring."
* New Boss: "Really? Because I wrote those SOP's..."
* Guy: "...."
* New Boss: "Well, I don't want this job to get in the way of your sleeping schedule, perhaps you should go find something more suitable"

So yeah, dude was fired within the first 30 minutes. But, PLOT TWIST, that new guy wasn't the one who made the mistake!

A couple years later (pretty recently), that dude shows back up at our place as an auditor (I'm in the biotech industry, and we have audits from our customers on a regular basis). He was now going to spend a day auditing the New Boss who had fired him for something that we all (the rank and file scientists) saw as pretty petty. Anyway he performed the audit and got way up her a*s on even the most minute details, and the audit went so bad that his company eventually started buying product from a different company.

So, her callousness at something minor (at least in our eyes) a few years back ended up costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars a few years down the road.

LastLivingSouls , Scott Graham Report

Final score:
195points
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Fabian Bernard
Fabian Bernard
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I support that guy. Being honest toward an abusive boss then getting avenged. Good

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#5

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job I'm only in my second year of being a teacher, but last year I witnessed a big mistake by someone who has been teaching for a really long time.

This person had been teaching for nearly 30 years, but most of that time was spent as a music teacher. I don't know why they felt the need to make a jump into being an instructional teacher, but they did. One day we are taking our students out to P.E. and they were asking me how everything is going. I said that it's going fine, but I am just having a tough time trying to fit in all the subjects and all the standards.

The teacher says "Do you know how I've saved a lot of time? I've stopped teaching reading." I laughed initially because I thought they were joking, but they were not. At one point they decided that teaching reading wasn't "worth it" so they had replaced that time with music time.

I believe their students had the worst reading scores in our school and their class was temporarily taken over by our school's reading coach. They are still employed

expletiveinyourmilk , Adam Winger Report

Final score:
194points
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Fred L.
Fred L.
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That is not a mistake made at work - that simply is not doing the work.

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#6

A month into my new job, I gave the GM's personal number to a customer. His cell phone number. Right after I did it, I had a panic attack. The customer had bullied me for it, leaning over my desk and threatening me while his wife distracted other customers so they wouldn't see this 40-something man intimidating a 20-something receptionist. He did call the GM's phone; I got lucky because he bragged about how he had gotten the number from me. The GM flipped his s**t and told the guy never to come back. He sat down with me for my side of the story later that week and told me what to do if something similar occurred. I'm still here 4-5 years later, but that will always stick with me. Thank god for my coworkers. One of the financial planners actually found the customer's number and reamed him out for his behavior, she was amazing.

But yeah, don't give out the GM's cell phone number.

MissWonnykins Report

Final score:
190points
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#7

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job Didn't check the aircraft type before assigning a speed. Told an F-16 to "maintain best forward speed" which caused a sonic boom over a major metropolitan area.

mike-- , brewbooks Report

Final score:
188points
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#8

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job Little late for the party but whatever...

I work at a zoo and we have some pretty dangerous animals--lions, a tiger, grizzlies (oh my). So every single employee has to carry on them a can of super strength bear mace (like the kind you can't just go buy at a self-defense store). This stuff is made to stop a raging [insert any animal here] in its tracks, and can cause skin irritation and even nausea without even touching you.

Anyway this one seasonal girl saw a can sitting by her computer at the main lobby; it says across the front "COUNTER SPRAY", as in like "counter *attack* spray", but she thought it was counter as in "indoor counter-top/computer desk spray". So long story short we had to evacuate one of the largest buildings in the zoo (also the only building where we could sell tickets). It was so bad, people on the third floor of the building were having trouble breathing before they even got word of what happened.

Bonus story: one employee was out in the booth at the main gate with all the windows and doors closed, they were curious what color the spray was.. didn't end very well for them.

BassyClastard Report

Final score:
187points
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uncannyi avatar
Uncanny
Uncanny
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I must stay, 'counter spray' isn't a great name for grumpy animal mace. How about 'Bear Be Gone!' or 'Spray in The Eye of The Tiger'?

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#9

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job They dropped a radioactive source while drilling an oil well.

That area is now sealed for the next 100 years.

aygoman , Kilian Karger Report

Final score:
169points
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Sian Edwards
Sian Edwards
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think this guy may have been driving a truck in the Australian outback recently...

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#10

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job Broke the copier with his butt.

Mg42er , Centre for Ageing Better Report

Final score:
154points
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#11

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job At my old job. This was called the Perfect Storm. I worked in a call center for an oil field. The foreman would call in oil. We'd type in the order number, create an order for the oil to be picked up by our trucks, and send if off to dispatch. The poor call center girl got the number off by 1 digit. So instead of picking up oil in the eastern part of our state, they picked it up in the western part of our state. Now usually this wouldn't be a major issue, but this particular time, the oil that was supposed to be picked up was h2s. H2s oil is extremely poisonous. The foreman, knowing he'd done his job, left for the weekend. The h2s oil kept pumping, filled up to max, and spilled over the edge and onto the ground. This is where it gets expensive. The EPA has to come out and assess. We are fined for that of course. There also happens to be a farmer who lives right next to the pump. His soil is tainted for the next 7 years. Not only do we have to pay fines, we have to pay this farmer for his crops that won't happen now. $15 million+ mistake. Because one digit was off.

jenna810 , Tima Miroshnichenko Report

Final score:
148points
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Ben
Ben
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I would blame the foreman as well. He left for the weekend while the oil kept pumping? There has to be internal controls to make sure mistakes are caught.

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#12

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job A guy at work was told to go to the roof of a 4 story building, tie a rope grab to an anchor and come back down. He took this literally and used the rope to slide down the building. He had no gloves on and proceeded to burn through his skin on his hands down to his bone as he held on for dear life.

narc339 , Jasper Garratt Report

Final score:
143points
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fanscious-c_a_t
fanscious-c_a_t
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Omg if this were me I would also do this as I have difficulty understanding instructions. Poor guy. I can only imagine the pain. This happened to me too, back in grade 6.

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#13

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job They don't bother to train anyone they send to wash dishes at my work. They just throw them in the pit and tell them to do the job.

Sometimes that leads to catastrophic what-the-hell-do-I-do related failure.

One thing that is never explained is that you are supposed to change the dishwater in your machine to keep the dishes actually coming out clean, because the machine reuses the same water over and over.

One line cook got sent into the pit on my day off. Never changed the water once. By 8pm the white plates were coming out butter-colored and speckled with ash.

Rather than figure out something was amiss and ask how to fix it, he instead took to wiping down each individual plate with a rag so that the slime wasn't as obvious. Then sent them out to have people eat food off of them.

Health department would have had a conniption if they heard about that. I know I did.

FrosthawkSDK , Nathan Dumlao Report

Final score:
142points
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Fabian Bernard
Fabian Bernard
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No training and blaming the newby, that's not how it works. S.....y workplace

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#14

From the SO:

Guy started at 8am. Went to HR to complete some paperwork and spent most of his time trying to stare down the HR manager's blouse. Two hours later he told one of the executive secretaries that "they should have a wet tshirt contest at work, because they'd win". Needless to say he was out of there by noon.

OBXtoAVL Report

Final score:
132points
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#15

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job Accidentally shipped a box of iPods instead of "1" iPod, yeah the customer "lost" the rest somehow.

lovesickremix , Brett Jordan Report

Final score:
131points
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#16

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job Teacher here. She showed a movie of Othello without previewing it. It was basically soft-core p*rn. Because she had promised the kids a movie and didn't have other plans, she kept showing it through the rest of the day. Ended up being investigated by the ethics committee. They let her finish out the year since it was only a few weeks away and then did not renew her contract.

prolificsalo , Sam Balye Report

Final score:
129points
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Deborah B
Deborah B
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Was there no content advisory rating if it wasn't child-appropriate?

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#17

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job They stacked donuts on top of one another when heating them in this conveyer belt type machine. The donuts and machine caught on fire…

Edit:You guys crack me up! I work at a cinema, so burning things happens on the reg. Poor girl was not having a good day though – she ended up covered head to toe in mango frozen yoghurt later that night thanks to a faulty machine. Never laughed so hard in my life.

bbbest , Kobby Mendez Report

Final score:
124points
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October
October
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

'I work at a cinema so burning things happens on the reg." Wait, what!?

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#18

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job I hooked up a nuclear instrument wrong when I was in the Navy. A hundred thousand dollars down the drain.

anon , Blervis Report

Final score:
121points
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#19

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job They told a boat the wrong height of the bridge. The top of the boat went away...

whatever-silly , Charles Jackson Report

Final score:
120points
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#20

On a Friday (Christmas eve) probably 15 years ago, all of us employees were off because it was a holiday. New accounting lady (first time entering direct deposit payroll) entered info incorrectly. Payday comes, and everyone in the whole company had their paycheck WITHDRAWN from their account instead of deposited. Late morning and people are out Christmas shopping, and cards are being declined, and peoples accounts are all jacked up. My auto insurance bounced. Luckily my shopping was already done. The owner of the company called each employee (20 or so people) and offered to give us cash to get us through until Monday if we needed it. They ended up paying each employees NSF or any other fees. Accounting lady cried nonstop from that Friday through that Monday when she could fix everyone's account. My bank said it was actually some sort of illegal activity by the Employer, and I could make a Police report, but we were all close and I didn't want to go there.

Runner40 Report

Final score:
120points
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Nicola Roberts
Nicola Roberts
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm curious to how the process works to withdraw money? It is possible via a credit/debit card machine or even merchant services but general bank accounts wouldn't have the facility. (UK banking), I appreciate internationally it sounds different (not necessarily better).

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#21

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job Drilled through a wall into a gas meter. House evacuated.

anon , charlesdeluvio Report

Final score:
116points
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Geoffrey Scott
Geoffrey Scott
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My nephew, with years of experience building, had a post hole digger in his truck. I commented, "what you using the posthole digger for"? His brother said, "that not a posthole digger, it's a gas line finder". Had to evacuate the surrounding neighbors, and yes, it was flagged.

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#22

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job A guy went to training to be a bank teller. They learned how to open up family trusts. The trainer had them out Michael Jordan as an example for the beneficiary.

It wasn't until 6 months later after a customer noticed that he had entered Michael Jordan as one of the beneficiaries for every trust he opened...

elmatador12 , bruce mars Report

Final score:
116points
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#23

I work in IT. We had a guy around September of last year who vehemently refused to look anything up. He was a stubborn older guy who thought he knew it all.

The CEO of one of our clients had an iMac in his office that wouldn't boot up at all. The new guy was sent in, and immediately declared it FUBAR. The guy trusted his judgement, and bought a whole new iMac. I don't remember the issue, but it was a 20 minute fix in safe mode when he brought the iMac back to our office. His excuse was "I didn't think Macs could do that." We lost that client, and Dave got fired.

anon Report

Final score:
109points
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Yettichild
Yettichild
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For those who don't know FUBAR is an acronym for F*cked Up Beyond All Recognition.

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#24

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job I used to work for Geek Squad. A new guy got confused and reformatted the wrong computer. Customer was understandably pissed. The store ended up having to pay a couple thousand dollars to have his data retrieved by a professional data recovery service.

anon , Christina @ wocintechchat.com Report

Final score:
105points
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#25

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job A nurse at my work had just graduated from nursing school less than a month before, and started brand new career. She got rooms 247 and 245 confused. One lady got a really small dose of her usual pain medication-fine, whatever. The guy in the next room for a dose 10 TIMES what he was supposed to.

Petaline , Ani Kolleshi Report

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#26

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job Well, firstly they were late on the first day.

Following that, after about an hour, then they asked how to **open** the program they said they were proficient in operating, which was required for their job...

Dick_spasm , Annie Spratt Report

Final score:
97points
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#27

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job On my first day, I backed my boss's customized pickup truck into a fencepost.

dairydog91 , Dusty Barnes Report

Final score:
95points
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Marilyn Russell
Marilyn Russell
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, if it just hit the bumper, there shouldn’t have been any damage.

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#28

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job He couldn't find the opening of a garbage bag so he used some scissors to make his own.

What a surprise that was when I pulled out the bag and the contents stayed in the container while the bag was in my hands.

Tostificer , Pete Willis Report

Final score:
94points
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#29

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job Fell asleep at her desk... Opposite our boss

biffleboff , Andrea Piacquadio Report

Final score:
90points
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#30

“That Area Is Now Sealed For The Next 100 Years”: 30 Of The Worst Mistakes Someone Has Made At A New Job New guy left a freezer door propped open overnight and ruined thousands of dollars worth of food. The boss shrugged it off and gave the guy a lecture, told him not to do it again. Sadly, most of the rest of the staff bullied him about it until he quit a week later.

mrdiamond17 , Mick Haupt Report

Final score:
83points
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