Everyone has made goofs at work . . . some are just awkward, like repeatedly calling a coworker the wrong name, while others are more humiliating, like noticeably nodding off in the middle of a Zoom call.
People on TikTok are talking about the "biggest, most embarrassing mistakes" they've made at work. And here are some good ones . . .
1. Someone said, "I killed the wrong person. I work in death benefits, and received a claim that 'XYZ' had died. Well, turns out there were two people with the same name, who had the same date of birth, in the same city."
2. "I sent a company-wide email about my dog's vet appointment instead of the sales numbers. The subject line was 'Lulu has worms.'"
3. "I accidentally used a free image that said 'Merry ChristmASS' for our newsletter that I sent to hundreds of donors of our Christian nonprofit."
4. "I thought I put my lunch in the microwave for four minutes . . . turns out I actually set it for 40. I got distracted talking to someone, and the kitchen burned down. All 14 levels had to be evacuated."
5. "I wrote a profile for a teacher candidate that said she 'enjoyed torturing students,' when I meant to type 'tutoring.' It went out to hundreds of schools."
6. "I work for a renewable energy company, and I printed multiple large banners for a conference that said 'fossil fuels are our only chance' instead of 'fossil-free is our only chance.'"
7. "Our company had a remote, all-hands meeting. I thought I was on 'mute' while the CMO was talking, so when my dog came up to me with a toy, I said, 'Good girl! Such a good girl,' not realizing everyone could hear me . . .
"To my absolute horror, the CMO said, 'Well, thank you.'"
8. "I work in retail, and it was my turn to train our new employee. She walked in, and I took her in the back to clock in, and I started showing her around . . . only for her to tell me, after 15 minutes of the tour, that she was just a customer shopping with her mom."
9. "I was in a meeting discussing someone's job performance while sharing my screen. When my boss started talking, I switched from Notes to Teams chat, and in all caps, wrote, 'GIRL THE TEA ON '[BLANK]' IS PIPING.'
"I was still sharing my screen . . . also, I'm in HR.
10. "When I was just starting out, my boss asked me to call and order dinner for someone in the office who had surgery.
"She gave me a sticky note with items listed like this: '1 Caesar salad, 2 chicken parmesan, 3 lasagna, 4 chocolate cake, and 5 strawberry lemonade.'
"I ordered the number of items listed next to each item . . . not realizing she was just listing them in numerical order. The coworker got a ton of food, so it wasn't terrible. But my boss was NOT happy."
(Phone Starter: What is YOUR most embarrassing mistake?)
(It can be anything from walking into a glass door or wall that you thought was open . . . to ending a client call by accidentally saying "Love you!")